Small businesses experiencing financial loss, signing up to unsuitable plans, breakdowns in communication when fixing faults, and lack of a suitable backup plan when phone and internet services are disrupted are issues highlighted in the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s latest report: “Addressing the causes of small business complaints” published today (Wednesday 3 June, 2020).
Since July 2016, the proportion of complaints from small businesses to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has steadily increased. At the end of the last financial year that proportion was 14.7 per cent with more than 19,000 complaints from small businesses about their phone and internet services. Many of these were complex, difficult to resolve and had a significant impact on small businesses.
The investigation into the causes of these complaints found:
- small businesses may commit to products unsuitable for their needs
- connecting new services can take longer than expected
- providers and small businesses don’t always work well together when faults occur
- small businesses can suffer financial loss if they don’t have a back-up plan.