Glossary of terms

An accepted complaint is one that falls within our mandate.

A closed complaint is one we have accepted but closed without resolving or investigating the issues. The following are the two most common situations where we close complaints: 

• The customer withdrew their complaint. 

• The customer failed to communicate with us or cooperate with our process.  

We use four mandatory CRTC Codes of Conduct to assess the conduct of service providers:

• Internet Code
• Wireless Code
• Television Service Provider
• Deposit and Disconnection Code

A complaint moves to Conciliation under these two conditions: 

• It remains unresolved after Initial Referral. 

• The service provider has supplied the required information and documentation about its response to the complaint.  

Conciliation is informal. We work with the customer and the service provider to explore ways to resolve the complaint without going through the time and expense of a full investigation.  

A complaint is concluded when it is resolved, we close it, or when we have issued Investigation Findings. 

When we accept a complaint, it goes to the Initial Referral stage. At this point, we refer the complaint back to the service provider to give it another opportunity to resolve the complaint with the customer.

The customer and the service provider have 20 days to resolve the issue at Initial Referral. 

During the Investigation, we analyze the information the service provider and the customer supplied. We want to know if the service provider acted appropriately, and reasonably met its obligations to the customer as set out in its terms of service, contracts, invoices, call notes, recordings, etc. 

We issue written Investigation Findings whenever we cannot resolve a complaint. An Investigation Findings Report covers our analysis of the facts based on the information and evidence both the customer and the service provider have supplied. The Investigation Findings Report explains our assessment of whether the service provider met its obligations towards the customer and, if not, what remedies are required to fix the issue. We have the authority to require the service provider to fix the problem by doing one or more of the following: 

• explain or apologize for the problem 

• correct the problem, such as correct a billing error 

• reconnect a service 

• stop collections activity 

• reimburse the customer for proven financial losses to a maximum of $5,000 

An issue is a specific concern a customer raises in a complaint. A complaint can contain more than one issue. For example, a customer complains that their bill contains an error and that the unpaid balance resulted in a service disconnection. This is one complaint with two separate issues.

A complaint is resolved when both the customer and the service provider agree to the solution.