What people complain about
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) released their 2010/2011 annual report recently, revealing that telecoms consumers have many problems with billing and quality of service.
The complaints section of the ICASA annual report reveals that the regulator received 3,266 complaints in the last financial year.
A total of 1,289 complaints were further carried over from 2009/2010 financial year, which brings the total number of complaints handled to 4,555.
3,128 (69%) of these complaints were resolved.
Most of the complaints came from residents in the Gauteng province (58%) followed by Western Cape (14%), Kwa-Zulu Natal (10%) and Mpumalanga (4%).
The majority of the complaints focused on billing and quality of service issues.
The table below shows which aspects of their telecoms services irritated consumers enough to lodge complaints with ICASA.
| QUALITY of SERVICE | |
| Description | Number of Complaints received |
| Unsolicited Merchandise | 33 |
| Network coverage | 140 |
| Misleading Information | 56 |
| General Customer Treatment | 106 |
| Faulty Handset | 225 |
| Fault Report | 161 |
| Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) | 44 |
| Line Installation & transfer | 33 |
| Line Suspension | 50 |
| Data Services | 55 |
| Community Service Telephones | 5 |
| Total | 908 |
| CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS | |
| Description | Number of Complaints received |
| Mobile Number Portability | 53 |
| Number Retention | 11 |
| Contract Terms and Conditions | 595 |
| Call Line Facility | 24 |
| Loss of Airtime | 25 |
| Total | 708 |
| BILLING | |
| Description | Number of Complaints received |
| billing | 1100 |
| Total | 1100 |
| OTHER | |
| Description | Number of Complaints received |
| blacklisting | 91 |
| beyond jurisdiction | 362 |
| broadcasting | 10 |
| Postal | 23 |
| Licensing | 5 |
| Cable Theft | 11 |
| Fraud | 48 |
| Total | 550 |
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