Broadband News

New Ofcom code of practice for consumer complaints

Thursday, 22 July 2010

By Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

Broadband and home phone providers will have to work harder to resolve customer complaints under a new code of practice that will be introduced in January 2011.

Last year, some three million consumers failed to solve their broadband and home phone problems within 12 weeks, Ofcom has revealed, forcing the telecoms regulator to introduce new rules.

Two free, Ofcom-approved dispute resolution services already exist, but a massive 77% of consumers did not know that CISAS and Otelo were on hand to help with unresolved issues.

Ed Richards, Ofcom chief executive, said: “We want to make sure that when something goes wrong, consumers are able to find out easily how to make a complaint and can be assured that their provider will be able to handle their complaint effectively.”

From next year, communications providers will have to include information of dispute resolutions service on all paper bills. They will also have to write to consumers whose complaints have not been resolved within eight weeks to inform them of their right to take their complaint further.

Ofcom will also be able to take “enforcement action” against providers that do not deal with consumers fairly.

The regulator’s research has shown that dispute resolution services can greatly improve the outcome for consumer complaints. “For example, of those complaints about mobile providers that were not resolved within 12 weeks, 91% of complaints were subsequently resolved when taken to a dispute resolution service, compared with 51% where the consumer did not go to a dispute resolution service,” said Ofcom.

While Anna Bradley, Communications Consumer Panel chair, welcomed the move, she added that “the Panel would now like Ofcom to press on and publish robust complaints data to increase transparency, and to give providers an incentive to improve their performance.”