Rogers brands doubled their telecom complaints in a year

Complaints about Rogers-owned brands doubled in a year at Canada’s telecom ombudsman, accounting for most of a sharp rise in complaints about phone, internet and TV service, the ombudsman’s published data show.

The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) accepted 19,157 complaints from Aug. 1, 2025 to Jan. 31, 2026, up 62 per cent from 11,794 in the same six months a year earlier. Complaints involving Rogers, Fido, Chatr and Shaw Direct reached 8,889, from 4,420. That is 61 per cent of the increase, and it lifted the group’s share of all complaints from 37.5 per cent to 46.4 per cent. Rogers Communications did not respond to our questions, sent Nov. 6 and due Nov. 10 at 5 p.m. ET.

For the full year the CCTS says it received 53,195 complaints in 2025-26, 79 per cent more than the year before, and accepted 41,235, up 74 per cent. It has called the volume unprecedented in an Oct. 15 update, and its full annual report with a provider breakdown is due Jan. 13, 2027. It resolved 87.2 per cent of the complaints it concluded.

What customers complain about

Of 20,914 issues in the ombudsman’s latest top-ten list, the leading ones were incorrect charges (4,807), credits or refunds not received (2,656), no consent or a contract that conflicts with the agreement (2,475) and regular price increases to monthly plans (1,903). Rogers-owned brands were attached to 979 of the price-increase issues. By province, price-increase issues numbered 828 in Ontario, 473 in British Columbia, 273 in Quebec and 186 in Alberta.

Counts are not adjusted for the number of customers, and Rogers is one of the country’s largest providers. A complaint accepted by the ombudsman is not a finding against the company, and the data do not say why complaints rose or whether the Shaw integration played a part.

What it means for you

If you dispute a bill, start with your provider and give it a reasonable chance to fix the problem. If it is not resolved, you can file a free complaint with the CCTS at ccts-cprst.ca. Keep copies of bills, contracts, chat transcripts and emails, and write down dates, reference numbers and the names of representatives. Processing is slower than usual because of the volume.

How we did this

We downloaded the CCTS open-data spreadsheets on Nov. 2, 2026: Operational Statistics 2024-2025, Accepted and Concluded Complaints 2025-2026 and Top 10 Issues 2025-2026. Counting complaints accepted from Aug. 1, 2024 to Jul. 31, 2025 reproduces the CCTS’s own 23,647 figure. We then compared the same Aug. 1 to Jan. 31 window in each year and grouped brands by owner: Rogers (Rogers/Shaw, Fido, Chatr, Shaw Direct, Seaside), TELUS (TELUS, Koodo, Public Mobile), Bell (Bell, Virgin Plus, Lucky Mobile) and Quebecor (Videotron, Fizz, Freedom Mobile). Over the same window the TELUS group rose 33 per cent, Bell 25 per cent and Quebecor 19 per cent.

Edited by Harry Miller. File photo of the Rogers Building in Toronto by Sikander Iqbal, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.