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AGL Energy subsidiary Southern Phone has been ranked as the September quarter’s most complained-about telco per 10,000 services, according to new data.
Over the three months to the end of September, Southern Phone recorded 27.6 new complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman per 10,000 services in operation (SIO).
This is according to telecommunication industry body's Communication Alliance’s Telecommunications Complaints in Context report for the quarter, which recorded an overall complaint increase to 7.8 per 10,000 SIO, up from the previous quarter’s 7.4.
Following Southern Phone was MyRepublic with 17.2 complaints per 10,000 SIO, followed by Commander with 15.7 complaints.
According to the Communication Alliance, the Complaints in Context report is designed to show comparisons of the customer service and complaint handling performance of telcos, regardless of their size.
“While the increase in complaints is disappointing, Industry continues to work on improving customer experience and is looking at how we can learn from the results of this last quarter,” said Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton.
However, the proportionally high complaint level for Southern Phone comes off a low complaint base, with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s (TIO) Quarter 1 (Q1) 2020-21 Complaints Report, which was released in October, stating that Southern Phone received 467 complaints during the quarter, coming in at roughly 1.4 per cent of the quarter’s total of 34,467.
Meanwhile, the TIO’s report put Telstra in the number one spot for the quarter with 22,154 complaints, followed by Optus with 5,179 and then Vodafone with 1,118.
The TIO also highlighted complaints from small businesses hit a five-quarter high, rising 28 per cent quarter-on-quarter, with Judi Jones, Australia's Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, labelling the increase as "concerning".
“I have said before the relationship between small businesses and their providers is vital to the businesses’ ongoing success. Any issues between a small business and their provider in the delivery of a service can have significant consequences and I urge the parties to work together on solutions," she said at the time.
“For the third quarter in a row we are seeing incremental growth in overall complaints. We are continuing to share the insights learned from our data our with the telcos to improve the consumer experience.”
