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CCTS received more than 1600 complaints over Public Mobile $40/4GB price hike

torontokris
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

As pointed out by @canucks4life  from Mobile Syrup

CCTS received more than 1600 complaints over Public Mobile $40/4GB price hike

 

https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/02/20/ccts-received-more-than-1600-complaints-over-public-mobile-40-4gb...

23 REPLIES 23

@PhoneSeeker

I actually think the most relevant quote from that page is:

Maker [CCTS CEO] says he’s doesn’t know if Public Mobile would have reversed its decision if the CCTS didn’t get involved, but he points out one thing is for certain – it’s not good business to annoy your customers.

PhoneSeeker
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@torontokriswrote:

As pointed out by @canucks4life  from Mobile Syrup

CCTS received more than 1600 complaints over Public Mobile $40/4GB price hike

 

https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/02/20/ccts-received-more-than-1600-complaints-over-public-mobile-40-4gb...


The CCTS commissioner has more to say in a new article: https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/telecoms-should-take-note-customers-do-have-some-power-says-cc...

 

 

“If I’m a telecom, I’m learning that consumers do have some power and that their collective action can make a difference,” Howard Maker told ITBusiness.ca one week after CCTS received more than 1,600 customer complaints about Public Mobile’s sudden price hike on data. On average, the CCTS receives a little more than 9,000 complaints per year.

“The other thing I’m learning is, if I promise my customers something, I should live up to that and if I don’t, I’m going to have to be accountable for that decision,” he says.

 

While Public Mobile has since reversed its decision to raise the price of its popular $40/4GB plan, Maker says two things made this price-hike different from the ones other Telecoms sometimes introduce, which almost always upsets customers.

First, he says Public Mobile had seemingly promised its customers that they wouldn’t change the plan while they were still subscribed to it, and then did so anyway. 

Secondly, the way customers shared their concerns and organized on social media to resist the change and identify the problem was fierce. “It was unprecedented,” Maker says, pointing to the sheer number of complaints the CCTS received. “We’ve never had a situation where we had this many attempts to file complaints in such a short amount of time.”

 

The CCTS is still trying to respond to them all now, although Maker says he anticipates most of them have already been resolved.

 

torontokris
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@fireapplewrote:


 

"The CCTS staff might have accepted all of these complaints – at least at first.  Next, we would have sent them to an escalated complaint-handling unit at the service provider.  The service provider would have then objected to the CCTS accepting most of these complaints, because it had not had an opportunity to resolve them first with the customer. We would have then been required to notify all of these customers that we could not accept their complaint until they first gave the provider an opportunity to resolve it." 


The funny thing about this message is in our case, how would we even reach an escalated handling unit? We don't have a call centre to access, so would that mean that a complain is only considered legitimate if a mod answered each and every one of us messaging them? And in that case, would that even count as escalation? Such arbitrary rules...


Agreed I thought of this myself. Others were posting threads on the forums. However they have to give a reasonable time for PM to reply. What if PM didnt reply etc etc. Its different since there is no phone number to call

Korth
Mayor / Maire

I would prefer numbers from the CCTS statement over numbers from the CCTS speculation.

MVP
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

 

And I've read on RFD a figure of ~2500

(complaints to CCTS fro  PM users over  those two "infamous fiasco" days),

which is also pretty compatible with subj 😉

MVP
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@Ludditewrote:

OMG. Given that a majority never take any action, could there be 20,000 of these plans? Telus really wants to change the customer mix at PM!!! Not exactly a growth strategy.  🌘


That was my estimate too -  10 to 20 Kilousers 🙂

 

(Fall2016 promo only!)

@fireapple wrote:

The funny thing about this message is in our case, how would we even reach an escalated handling unit? We don't have a call centre to access, so would that mean that a complain is only considered legitimate if a mod answered each and every one of us messaging them? And in that case, would that even count as escalation? Such arbitrary rules...


Yes we would have to interact with the PM mods through public posts, private messages, or emails.  (Except for special-case stuff like calling their toll-free number to address privacy complaints, etc.)

 

Yes, this isn't ideal and it isn't a realtime conversation, a two-way dialogue could take a few hours, even many hours.  And the PM mods are only available when working their business hours - the same as any other service center (most of the so-called "24-hour" ones just have a computer voice telling you to call back during "normal" hours) - but these limited hours of access can span longer two-way dialogues across a few days.

 

But CCTS policy still requires that the customer makes such effort.  Explains the problem to the carrier, explains what must be fixed/changed, allows the carrier to respond, perhaps over a repeated exchanges if negotiating a compromise.  Then informs the carrier that a complaint will be filed with CCTS.  Then files the complaint.

 

Skipping over these steps by just copy-pasting "Yes, I did" into the appropriate internet form skips important steps, no matter how many people click the form links.  CCTS made it plain that they would normally dismiss such complaints, they wouldn't even need to make the effort to pass these complaints to the carrier because they'd know the carrier would object to them.  They always demand documented proof that procedures were followed (or that both parties are willing to waive this requirement) for valid cases, and proof is harder to find for things that didn't actually happen.

 

But more to the point - it could take hours or even days, lets say a week at the worst extreme, to follow this procedure (assuming both parties remained in conflict, which it turns out was not the case with PM backstepping the next day).  Okay, it takes days or a week.  Then another day or three for CCTS to contact you with the results.  Well, if followed proper procedure and you're (justifiably) confident that you're right and the carrier is wrong then the CCTS works in your favour and orders the carrier to fix things, you don't lose anything (in fact you might even get a little "good faith" bribe credited to your account), your next bill is certainly not going to be affected, especially not on a 90-day promo plan that's only a few weeks in.

 

So why the big crazy rush to leverage the power of social media and churn the engines into mass-produced deluge of complaints?  Regulatory agencies are not kickstarters or Youtube subscriptions, lol, they are monolithic glacial entities with a lot of inertia - if you do shove them hard enough to get things moving then don't be surprised that things keep moving until they're just out of reach the next time you want to push them.

 

I'm not defending PM here.  I'm happy that PM isn't screwing the affected promo customers.  But even though it's a moot point, I think if the CCTS did indeed need to become involved then it would not be as forgiving as people assume on this matter.

fireapple
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

@PhoneSeekerwrote:

@torontokriswrote:

As pointed out by @canucks4life  from Mobile Syrup

CCTS received more than 1600 complaints over Public Mobile $40/4GB price hike

 

https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/02/20/ccts-received-more-than-1600-complaints-over-public-mobile-40-4gb...


 

"The CCTS staff might have accepted all of these complaints – at least at first.  Next, we would have sent them to an escalated complaint-handling unit at the service provider.  The service provider would have then objected to the CCTS accepting most of these complaints, because it had not had an opportunity to resolve them first with the customer. We would have then been required to notify all of these customers that we could not accept their complaint until they first gave the provider an opportunity to resolve it." 


The funny thing about this message is in our case, how would we even reach an escalated handling unit? We don't have a call centre to access, so would that mean that a complain is only considered legitimate if a mod answered each and every one of us messaging them? And in that case, would that even count as escalation? Such arbitrary rules...


@ute1978wrote:

@PhoneSeekerwrote:

@Ludditewrote:

Given that a majority never take any action, could there be 20,000 of these plans? 


PM has fewer customers than I previously thought.


My guess: PM has around 26,000-30,000 members. Not more.

Why I think so?

 

Moderator_Team joined on January 30, 2017 as member 22437.

The latest moderators to join on June 16, 2017 were around the 25,300 mark.


Not everyone joins the community Smiley Tongue

______________________________________________________________________
I am not a mod. Do not send me private message with your personal info.
If you need to contact PM Customer Support Agent, send a Private Message.

I'm pretty sure the majority of PM subscribers do not bother to join the PM community.

 

And you can't tell me that @Luddite is only a couple thousand users ahead of me, lol.  (He's been here forever, I mean, he's like ancient ... but don't tell him I said that.)

ute1978
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@PhoneSeekerwrote:

@Ludditewrote:

Given that a majority never take any action, could there be 20,000 of these plans? 


PM has fewer customers than I previously thought.


My guess: PM has around 26,000-30,000 members. Not more.

Why I think so?

 

Moderator_Team joined on January 30, 2017 as member 22437.

The latest moderators to join on June 16, 2017 were around the 25,300 mark.


@mimmowrote:

And who knows how many people have left.

 


@

@Civic_Ewrote:

When I first joined PM my account number was given as 10000000xxxyyy (Fall 2016)

I got another account yesterday and number given was   10000001xxxyyy

 

so if the account numbers increases sequentially as active subscribers then there is at least 700,000 if not a million. Which is almost one eighth of Telus total subscriber https://www.cwta.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Sub-Stats-2017-Quarter-3-EN_2017.12.04.pdf


Plus the affected people are only a percentage of the total subscribers. (to bring it back to the guesstimated number of 12GB/$120 plans...)

@NDesai is correct; no correlation confirmed long time ago.


>>> ALERT: I am not a CSA. Je ne suis pas un Agent du soutien à la clientèle.

mimmo
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

And who knows how many people have left.

 


@

@Civic_Ewrote:

When I first joined PM my account number was given as 10000000xxxyyy (Fall 2016)

I got another account yesterday and number given was   10000001xxxyyy

 

so if the account numbers increases sequentially as active subscribers then there is at least 700,000 if not a million. Which is almost one eighth of Telus total subscriber https://www.cwta.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Sub-Stats-2017-Quarter-3-EN_2017.12.04.pdf


@Civic_Ewrote:

When I first joined PM my account number was given as 10000000xxxyyy (Fall 2016)

I got another account yesterday and number given was   10000001xxxyyy

 

so if the account numbers increases sequentially as active subscribers then there is at least 700,000 if not a million. Which is almost one eighth of Telus total subscriber https://www.cwta.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Sub-Stats-2017-Quarter-3-EN_2017.12.04.pdf


Account numbers are not sequential and they might be shared with koodo pre-paid. 

______________________________________________________________________
I am not a mod. Do not send me private message with your personal info.
If you need to contact PM Customer Support Agent, send a Private Message.

Civic_E
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

When I first joined PM my account number was given as 10000000xxxyyy (Fall 2016)

I got another account yesterday and number given was   10000001xxxyyy

 

so if the account numbers increases sequentially as active subscribers then there is at least 700,000 if not a million. Which is almost one eighth of Telus total subscriber https://www.cwta.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Sub-Stats-2017-Quarter-3-EN_2017.12.04.pdf

 

 


@will13amwrote:

 

If due process is followed, each complaint needs to be read to fully understand the exact nature of the complaint and the suggested resolution.  Then it needs to be compared to the withdrawal of the threat to see if that is adequate to address the customer complaint.  The customer would need to be contacted.  I just don't see a shortcut here, unless the CRTC is willing to give Telus a break.

Due process was not followed, could not have been followed, simply because insufficient time elapsed for two-way resolution to be communicated or negotiated.  I'm guessing that >99% of these complaints would normally be dismissed outright, only a handful would be deemed legitimate because they actually followed proper procedure or involved some other customer-vs-PM problem not directly related to this botched promo.

 

The CCTS doesn't even need to audit or arbitrate anything.  There's no dispute to examine.  PM already backed down in response to customer feedback, not in response to CCTS involvement.

PhoneSeeker
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@Ludditewrote:

Given that a majority never take any action, could there be 20,000 of these plans? 


PM has fewer customers than I previously thought.

This estimate/calculation from @Luddite allows me to pretend I'm a math scholar and estimate/calculate a total of ~242,500 PM subscribers.  Only ~7500 have ever been active on the community boards, though, according to the All Time Bravos.  Seems to violate the normal 80/20 rule of things.


@PhoneSeekerwrote:

@torontokriswrote:

As pointed out by @canucks4life  from Mobile Syrup

CCTS received more than 1600 complaints over Public Mobile $40/4GB price hike

 

https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/02/20/ccts-received-more-than-1600-complaints-over-public-mobile-40-4gb...


 

"The CCTS staff might have accepted all of these complaints – at least at first.  Next, we would have sent them to an escalated complaint-handling unit at the service provider.  The service provider would have then objected to the CCTS accepting most of these complaints, because it had not had an opportunity to resolve them first with the customer. We would have then been required to notify all of these customers that we could not accept their complaint until they first gave the provider an opportunity to resolve it." 


If due process is followed, each complaint needs to be read to fully understand the exact nature of the complaint and the suggested resolution.  Then it needs to be compared to the withdrawal of the threat to see if that is adequate to address the customer complaint.  The customer would need to be contacted.  I just don't see a shortcut here, unless the CCTS is willing to give Telus a break. 

 

Edit:  It does look like Telus will be given a break upon an initial screening of the complaints.  It is easy for the CCTS to say social media is a useful tool.  I think if the CCTS site was not hammered with complaints, the effects will be significantly muted. 


@Ludditewrote:

OMG. Given that a majority never take any action, could there be 20,000 of these plans? Telus really wants to change the customer mix at PM!!! Not exactly a growth strategy.  🌘


You sir are a math scholar!  Assuming that the account numbers are issued sequentially, your round number estimate is pretty darn accurate.  My first account was activated in late October 2016.  My last account was activated around the final days of the promo.  The difference between the two account numbers was 18420.  I think the promo started a month prior to when I first joined.  I don't recall the uptake was that fast in the early days.  The system was crashing occurred after I signed up.  What the heck, blame it on me for bringing the masses over. 

 

There was a targeted promo in the summer to attract Freedom Mobile customers.  It was short lived.  The system buckled for a few of those days but did not break and so the uptake may be nominal. 

PhoneSeeker
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@torontokriswrote:

As pointed out by @canucks4life  from Mobile Syrup

CCTS received more than 1600 complaints over Public Mobile $40/4GB price hike

 

https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/02/20/ccts-received-more-than-1600-complaints-over-public-mobile-40-4gb...


 

"The CCTS staff might have accepted all of these complaints – at least at first.  Next, we would have sent them to an escalated complaint-handling unit at the service provider.  The service provider would have then objected to the CCTS accepting most of these complaints, because it had not had an opportunity to resolve them first with the customer. We would have then been required to notify all of these customers that we could not accept their complaint until they first gave the provider an opportunity to resolve it." 

Luddite
Oracle
Oracle

OMG. Given that a majority never take any action, could there be 20,000 of these plans? Telus really wants to change the customer mix at PM!!! Not exactly a growth strategy.  🌘


>>> ALERT: I am not a CSA. Je ne suis pas un Agent du soutien à la clientèle.
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