The Belgian Telecommunications Ombudsman Service received 17,413 complaints last year. This represents a 65 percent increase compared to 2022. This is the highest number of complaints since 2015, the Office of the Ombudsman said in its annual report.
More complaints were received about all the providers, but Telenet Group definitely stood out. The number of complaints to this company has tripled in the past year. “Not only the sharp increase in number, but also the nature, severity, structure, persistence and, in some cases, unique character of the problems, justify the attention given by the Telenet Ombudsman Service in this annual report.” The Board of Grievances in its annual report.
Reverse HLN Telenet suggests that this had to do with the shift to a new ICT platform. The Ombudsman Service confirms this reading in its annual report. A Telenet spokesperson notes that “every effort has been made to resolve the issues structurally.” According to the company, this is also the case now. The waiting time in customer service is now shorter than before.
The Ombudsman Service has also received more complaints about other providers in the past year. The number of complaints against the Proximus Group increased by 30.07 percent last year compared to 2022. In Orange Belgium there was an increase of 23.96 percent, in VOO 20.27 percent and in Proximus subsidiary Unleashed 31.40 percent.
The Ombudsman's Office has witnessed many complaints received about the customer service of service providers and about various defects and malfunctions. Just over 2,500 complaints about customer service were received last year, compared to 1,182 complaints in 2022. Customers complained about, among other things, the quality of customer service and long wait times. Since 2022, wait times may be no longer than 2.5 minutes, but according to the Office of the Ombudsman, many customers still have to wait longer to reach a customer service agent.
Nearly 4,000 complaints related to malfunctions, defects and unavailability of services. This is more than double compared to 2022. Last year, more requests related to malicious use of telecommunications networks were also received. This concerns, for example, telephone harassment. The number of these requests increased from 1,969 in 2022 to 2,245 in 2023.
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