Telco Complaints 2020 (Part Two)

Each day, the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution (TDR) team help Kiwis to resolve issues with their broadband, mobile or home phone providers. TDR compiles a report every six months to provide consumers and the industry with a snapshot of what we’re seeing. In this report, we share insights from the second half of 2020.

From 1 July to 31 December 2020, our team assisted 1008 New Zealanders to resolve their enquiries or complaints. The vast majority (993 cases or 98.5%) were resolved or closed directly with the provider after initial assistance and referral by TDR. For the remaining cases, 9 were resolved through facilitation and mediation (0.9%), and only 6 (0.6%) required TDR to make a decision. In this period, customer service has been the number one complaint theme, featuring in 452 matters. Closely followed by billing, with 273 matters.

Comparing apples with apples is no easy feat in the telco world. To provide consumers with context for the volume of complaints and enquiries received, TDR apportions the data per 10,000 connections. In previous reports the providers’ connection data was calculated using information from the Commerce Commission Annual Telecommunications Monitoring Report. While this data is accurate, it relates to a fixed point in time and does not align with TDR’s reporting period. In this report, we are using new methodology to calculate connections and complaints apportioned per 10k connections. TDR has engaged IDC New Zealand to provide us with connection data from IDC’s Telecommunications Market Tracker related to the specific reporting period. Using the latest available information enables TDR to portray a more up to date snapshot at that point in time.

We also decided to update and reissue the report for the previous reporting period of 1 Jan – 30 June 2020 so consumers can compare like for like data with our latest report (available here). However, all other aspects of the report remain the same.

We hope this report provides you with a useful snapshot of trends within the sector and how TDR is here to help. We welcome your suggestions on how to improve our service and reports, so please feel free to get in touch with us by email at contact@tdr.org.nz.

TDR Biannual Report - 2020 Part Two

The following resources are available to download as PDF documents:

TDR Biannual Report - July to December 2020

Infographic - July to December 2020

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