Calgary-based Vois Inc. has been booted out of participation with the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) and could now face further penalties for falling out of compliance with regulators, according to an announcement from the CCTS on Thursday.
CCTS, which is the industry ombud and hears complaints that customers can’t resolve with their telecommunications service providers, says Vois failed to honour its process. CCTS investigated six separate customer complaints regarding Vois and made binding decisions requiring Vois to compensate the customer in each of those cases. So far, Vois hasn’t delivered on the required actions and its customers are without remedy, the CCTS says.
“We have made numerous efforts to communicate with Vois and work with it to resolve these issues,” a statement from commissioner Howard Maker reads. “Vois has chosen to ignore all of our communications, leaving CCTS with no choice but to take this drastic step – a step we do not take lightly.”
It’s an industry requirement that telecom services commit to participate in the CCTS in good faith. With Vois seeing its termination here, the matter has been referred to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for further action.
Vois offers residential and busines services, including PBX, networking support, data centre and hosting solutions, and a call center and answering service. It’s been in operation since 2006 and is no stranger to seeing criticism of its customer support reach the media. An October 2013 story published by the CBC details one customer who fought for eight months to receive a refund of almost $1,400 after he mistakenly overpaid his phone bill. After first insisting the customer had been repaid, but not providing any proof, Vois only agreed to repay the customer after being contacted by CBC’s “Go Public” team.
Vois isn’t a registered member of the Better Business Bureau, but several complaints about its service have been filed with the BBB serving Southern Alberta and Eastern Kootenay. Two are categorized as “unanswered.” One complainant wants a $35 refund after being unhappy with the installation. Another reports dropped calls and repeated problems.
Booting Vois and making a public announcement about it follows the CCTS’ recent action against Axsit, which it declared as being in breach of its service obligations in July. This week, CCTS said Axsit was being acquired by a new owner and that the complaint which led to the breach had been resolved.
ITBusiness.ca reached out to Vois for comment on this story, but did not hear back by time of publication.
