The TIO received 36,122 complaints in the December 2006 quarter, a 3.2 per cent increase on the 34,996 complaints logged in the September 2006 quarter.

Of these complaints, 12,818 (36 per cent) related to mobile services, 12,089 (33 per cent) related to landline services, and 10,464 (29 per cent) related to internet services. The remaining 2 per cent (751 complaints) related to matters logged under the new Mobile Premiums Services Industry Scheme.

Complaint Handling

Complaint Handling complaints accounted for 15.2 per cent of all complaints against 14.6 per cent in the September 2006 quarter. This represents a total of 5,506 complaints, of which 39 per cent relate to mobile services, 33 per cent to landline services, and the remaining 28 per cent to internet services. 

Complaints related to the alleged failure of suppliers to advise dissatisfied customers of the existence of the TIO accounted for 69 per cent of all Complaint Handling complaints. While mobile providers recorded 30 per cent of all Failure to refer to TIO Complaints, down from 41 per cent in the September 2006 quarter, this category accounted for 76 per cent of all mobile Complaint Handling complaints.

The second worst performing Complaint Handling category remained Failure to Action Undertakings, which accounted for 17 per cent of complaints. Internet providers again recorded the greatest number of these complaints with 37 per cent.

Mobile Premium Services Industry Scheme Complaints

On 1 December 2006 the TIO began to record complaints relating to Premium SMS complaints under a new complaint category, Mobile and Premium Services Industry. This change removes complaints relating to Premium SMS services from the Billing and Payments category. As a result, a direct comparison of these complaints with complaint numbers from previous quarters may not be possible. 

From 1 December 2006 to 31 December 2006, 751 complaints were recorded against the Mobile and Premium Services Industry category. Of these 751 complaints, 72.3 per cent related to Disputed Usage Charges. Disputed Usage Charges – Service Not Requested accounted for 58.6 per cent of all Mobile and Premium Services Industry Complaints, with general complaints related to Opt Out (13.3 per cent) being the second largest category.

Billing and Payments

Billing and Payments complaints were responsible for 23.7 per cent of all TIO complaints for the December 2006 quarter, down from 27.6 per cent in the September 2006 quarter. Landline Billing and Payments complaints decreased by 16.5 per cent, with mobile complaints decreasing by 12.6 per cent. Internet complaints recorded a 1 per cent decrease.

With the introduction of the new Mobile Premium Services Industry (MPSI) complaint category on 1 December 2006, premium SMS complaints that would previously have been recorded under Mobile Billing and Payments are now recording as MPSI complaints. The reduction in Mobile Billing and Payment complaints is therefore due to certain complaints being recorded in a different way, rather than due to any improvement within the industry.

Complaints relating to the Total of Bill accounted for 20.9 per cent of all landline billing complaints. The second largest category of complaints was Timed Calls which accounted for 13.4 per cent of all landline Billing and Payments complaints.

The primary source of complaint for internet users was Internet Usage Charges, which accounted for 16.7 per cent of all internet Billing and Payments complaints. General complaints related to Service Charges accounted for 14.8 per cent, the second highest area of internet complaints.

Faults

Faults accounted for 12.7 per cent of all complaints to the TIO in the December 2006 quarter, with internet and mobile Faults recording respective increases of 12.9 per cent, and 11.1 per cent. Landline Faults recorded a substantial 37 per cent increase.
Mobile Equipment Faults were the largest source of fault complaints, responsible for 27 per cent of all Faults complaints, 68 per cent of all mobile faults complaints, and 3.4 per cent of all complaints to the TIO for the quarter. Service Coverage complaints were next highest with 15.1 per cent of the category, increasing from 11.3 per cent in the September 2006 quarter.

The largest source of landline Fault complaint was in the CSG: Fully Unworkable category with 637 complaints, or 55.5 per cent of all landline faults complaints. This represents a 37 per cent increase on the September 2006 quarter. Recurring / Intermittent and CSG: Partly Unworkable faults was the next highest source of landline faults complaint, with 14 per cent and 13.9 per cent of the category respectively.

ACIF Codes

The TIO recorded 13,044 code breaches, including 70 Confirmed breaches, in the December 2006 quarter. Whilst the December 2006 quarter saw no significant change in code breach numbers to the September 2006 quarter (12,955 code breaches), the number of Confirmed breaches decreased by 54.2 per cent. 

Billing Code breaches decreased by 12.5 per cent in the December 2006 quarter. This is in part due to the introduction of the Mobile Premiums Services Industry Scheme as a significant number of complaints previously logged under the Billing Code now fall under the new Scheme, which recorded 630 breaches. The new Scheme makes it difficult to directly compare Billing Code breaches between the current and previous quarters. Confirmed Billing Code breaches account for 38.6 per cent of all confirmed code breaches.

Complaint Handling Code breaches remain in second place and are responsible for 28.4 per cent of all breaches, and 21.4 per cent of confirmed code breaches. The major cause of complaint with this code remains the alleged failure of suppliers to advise dissatisfied customers of their external avenues of recourse. The TIO is also concerned over the rise in the number of complainants alleging they were not permitted to speak with a higher level of complaint within the company, or that their written complaint was not acknowledged or responded to.

The Prices, Terms and Conditions Code was the third highest source of code breaches, with 12.8 per cent of all recorded breaches.

Complainst Statistics against TIO members:

Complaints by Issue
Complaints by Level