The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) has told us complaints about phone and internet have once again declined, marking the fourth period in a row. But there’s still a lot of complaints that are being made against telcos not actually doing anything to fix our problems. (Our telco problems that is, sheesh).
According to the Ombudsman’s latest report, residential consumers and small businesses made 21,489 complaints about phone and internet services. This was an 11 per cent drop when you compare the number to the previous quarter.
18,489 of the total complaints were made by consumers, not businesses.
Mobile was the most complained about service type, mostly about service coverage and quality. Complaints about internet services followed closely behind.
The biggest issues we’re having with our telco providers? That they’re either not bothering to fix our problems or they’re taking a really, really long time to sort them out. (Over 8,000 complaints were made to the TIO about this). An additional 1,543 complaints were made to the TIO after telcos agreed to a resolution but didn’t carry through with their promise.
This was similar to what the ACMA told us last month, so we’re really not overly shocked.
The next biggest complaint was over the cost of equipment and service fees (rightfully so, imo). Intermittent service or dropouts are also making us mad, over 2,000 times actually, and on 1,457 occasions, we complained about data speeds.
‘Delay establishing a service’ was complained about to the TIO on 1,874 occasions, too.
Surprising no one that’s ever dealt with a telco, Telstra was the most complained about, with 12,074 complaints dropping their name. Optus was second with 3,860 complaints against them, Vodafone had 1,140 and TPG had 753.
Ombudsman Judi Jones said:
“This quarter’s results continue the positive trend for telcos and consumers. I encourage the telcos to stay this course, keep listening to consumers and actively work with their customers to fix problems as they arise. If the conversation breaks down, consumers should contact us, we’re free and here to help.”
Yes, complaints are going down, but there’s still too many of them.