Kunden beschweren sich über lange Wartezeiten und mehrere Anrufe zur Lösung von Problemen mit Rogers, Telus und Bell | Das Gesetz in Spanien begrenzt die Wartezeit auf 3 Minuten und zwingt Unternehmen, Probleme innerhalb von 15 Tagen zu lösen. Wird Kanada folgen?

I wish this was true – I’m from Spain and we have dreadful waiting times too to offshores calling centres in South America 

Will Canada follow? 

No, Canada won’t. 

Some of the key issues from this investigative piece:

>“It’s impossible to get a single right answer that is consistent throughout each support agent,” said Sloot, who lives in Toronto.
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>Sloot is one of more than a dozen customers with whom Marketplace has spoken who say they are frustrated with the poor customer service they received from Canada’s big three telecoms: Rogers, Bell and Telus. Complaints include long hold times, multiple transfers and escalations, dropped calls and overall poor communication, which can make seemingly simple issues take days or weeks to get sorted.
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>Employees at two of the largest telecom companies, Rogers and Telus, told Marketplace that frontline customer service representatives have less incentive to help issue credits or lower bills, and said they’re measured on their abilities to increase customers’ bills.
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>It comes as complaints against telecoms reached an all-time high last year, with more than 23,000 complaints filed with the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), the majority of them relating to billing issues like incorrect monthly charges and missing credits. Meanwhile, in Spain, a new law is looking to cap how long customers have to wait when addressing similar issues — and some say Canada should take note.
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>…
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>Tenumah believes Bell is following a pattern he has seen many times before. “The system is designed to frustrate as many people as possible,” he said. “Part of the design is that people will give up so that [companies] don’t have to incur that expense.”
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>Sloot’s issue remained unresolved, and she eventually gave up and paid more to get the specialty channels back. After Marketplace reached out to Bell about Sloot’s case, the company gave her a $90 credit and a $30 discount on her monthly bills moving forward.
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>In a statement, Bell acknowledged she had to take more steps than necessary to rectify the issue.
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>…
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>It’s not just consumers who are frustrated — some telecom employees are, too. Marketplace has spoken confidentially to several current employees of Telus and Rogers, whose identities we are concealing because they fear professional repercussions.
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>Marketplace spoke to a Rogers worker who takes escalation calls and supports frontline agents. He said those employees‘ ability to help customers, including by issuing credits, is „decreasing constantly.“
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>…
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>A longtime customer service representative with Telus said similarly.
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>“When I first started, we listened to customers, we appreciated them. I never had any hesitation reducing someone’s bill.”
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>Now, she says she’s monitored on the number of credits she issues. She says credits of a certain level have to be approved by a manager, and her scorecard is affected negatively if she lowers a customer’s bill.
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>…
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>In late December 2025, Spain passed a law introducing mandatory customer service standards for telecoms and other large companies with more than 250 employees. It stipulates that customer calls must be answered within three minutes, 95 per cent of the time.
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>“This will be a revolution, in that it’s a small thing, but will change the everyday life of millions of consumers,” said Pablo Bustinduy, the Spanish consumer affairs minister.
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>Under the new law, which goes into effect within the next year, customer complaints must also be resolved within 15 days, or five if it involves “improper charges.” Non-compliant companies could be fined up to 100,000 euros.
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>A lack of competition can contribute to customers feeling helpless, Minister Bustinduy said: “Everybody does the same, so there’s no point in looking for an alternative.”
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>…
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>Here in Canada, there is no set standard of customer service for telecoms. The CCTS investigates complaints, but the quality of customer service — all those long wait times and dropped calls — doesn’t fall under its mandate, despite hearing about it from consumers.
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>“It’s clear that customer frustration exists,” said Josée Bidal Thibault, commissioner and CEO of the CCTS. “There is an opportunity to do better.”
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>…
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>The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) controls the CCTS’s mandate.
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>A CRTC spokesperson said they’re monitoring Spain’s recent customer service legislation “to see how they may inform the CRTC’s future regulatory activities.”
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>Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, who oversees telecom policies, didn’t answer questions about whether her department would consider setting a standard of customer service, similar to Spain.
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>…
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>Although CCTS can’t do anything to get those wait times down, Bidal Thibault encourages Canadians to turn to the ombudsman regardless.
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>“Customer service issues generally aren’t happening in a vacuum. Customers tend to be calling their providers when they have a problem,” she said.

Anyone who has had to deal with one of the big three understands the frustration presented here. And it’s not surprising to hear that some of these systems are by design. What Spain is doing looks to be pretty promising, and it might be worth contacting our MPs and perhaps the industry minister as well to let them know that there needs to be change in the system itself. Being able to switch from one provider to another isn’t much good if they are all working in lockstep with each other.

Thanks for answering the phone it’s only been 45 minutes of waiting on hold.

No, Canada will not follow. Canada is just three companies in a trench coat.

They let too many of these companies merge. If there was more competition they’d offer better service.

Carney is too busy flying abroad to care about corp overreach!