Telco complaints fall 9.6% in FY16

Complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) fell 9.6% in the 2015–16 financial year to 112,518, despite a significant rise in internet- and NBN-related grievances.

The Ombudsman’s latest annual report found that complaints related to the NBN nearly doubled during the financial year as a result of regular reports about delays connecting to the network, as well as faults including dropout of services and downtime.

NBN complaints now represent 11.9% of all new complaints to the TIO. Overall new complaints about internet services grew 22% to a five-year high.

John Stanton, CEO of Communications Alliance, noted that the growth in complaints related to NBN services is increasing more slowly than the rate of growth of active services on the NBN, so complaint volumes are falling overall.

But the TIO’s report shows that complaints about existing NBN connections grew 63.2% during the financial year.

Complaints about mobile services meanwhile fell 28.8% to the lowest level since the 2006–07 financial year, reflecting the investments made by the industry to improve infrastructure and the customer experience.

Complaints about typical problem areas including coverage, excess data and roaming all decreased.

The TIO’s report also noted that the decline appears to have levelled out. From July to September, new complaints across fixed and mobile networks grew 25.7% year-on-year.

Stanton acknowledged this more recent increase in complaints as an indication that the industry needs to redouble its efforts to improve customer services and complaint handling.

“Industry members within Communications Alliance have already produced a comprehensive guidance note that documents for all stakeholders the processes needed to authorise, validate and complete the migration of legacy services over to the NBN,” he said.

“This guidance — now being turned into an industry guideline — is making it easier to ensure that coordination among multiple players can occur, to provide a relatively seamless migration experience in almost all cases.”

Image courtesy of borosjuli under CC