VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Nov 4, 2014) - (TSX:T)(NYSE:TU) - The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) issued its 2013-2014 annual report today, confirming that for the third consecutive year TELUS had significantly fewer complaints than other national carriers.

According to the report:

  • Based on TELUS' approximately 11 million applicable customer connections(1) across Canada, TELUS drew 653 consumer complaints. This represents only 5.8 per cent of the 11,340 total complaints received by the CCTS for all providers;
  • TELUS' affiliated brand Koodo drew only 172 complaints. Both TELUS and Koodo individually received dramatically fewer complaints than the two largest national competitors and those competitors' affiliated brands;
  • TELUS' total complaints are down 53 per cent since 2011, despite a 42 per cent increase in the total number of complaints filed with the CCTS during this period;
  • Over the last year, TELUS had 26 per cent fewer complaints and Koodo had 13.6 per cent fewer complaints despite the fact that these brands together attracted hundreds of thousands of new wireless, Internet, and home phone customers since last year's report was issued;
  • This is the third consecutive year that TELUS' Customers First approach has resulted in a substantial decline in the number of complaints submitted by TELUS customers to the CCTS.

"TELUS is deeply committed to listening to our customers and working hard to ensure they are the happiest in the industry. Our team strives every day to put customers first, and the CCTS results confirm once again that TELUS is providing a truly differentiated experience and making the telecom industry a friendlier place for Canadians," said David Fuller, TELUS President of Consumer and Small Business Solutions.

"By embracing customer feedback and making real changes to meet their needs, TELUS has created customer loyalty that is amongst the highest for any telecommunications company around the globe. This is demonstrated by our industry leading postpaid wireless churn rate, which has been below one per cent for four consecutive quarters."

As part of its commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience, TELUS has drawn on past CCTS reports and direct customer feedback to implement numerous customer experience improvements. TELUS' Customers First approach began in 2009 with the launch of Clear and Simple pricing, a straightforward set of all-in wireless plans with no system access fee. Since then, the company has led the industry in introducing customer friendly changes, including:

  • eliminating contract cancellation charges in favour of a simple and fair device balance;
  • introducing easy and inexpensive device unlocking;
  • launching plans with unlimited nationwide talk and text and shared data;
  • introducing a suite of industry leading notifications for roaming and Canadian data usage to ensure customers always know how much data they have used;
  • re-writing its contracts in plain language;
  • reducing international roaming rates by 60 to 80 per cent;
  • eliminating activation and renewal fees;
  • launching education initiatives such as TELUS Learning Centres and TELUS WISE;
  • introducing a simple smartphone trade-in program;
  • introducing two-hour windows for arrival of technicians at people's homes for installation and service calls; and
  • launching TELUS Neighbourhood, an online forum where customers can ask and answer questions about their wireless or home services.

The CCTS is responsible for assisting customers and telecommunications carriers resolve a wide range of complaints about products and services including home phone, long distance services, wireless services, wired and wireless Internet access, white page directories, directory assistance, and operator services.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX:T)(NYSE:TU) is Canada's fastest-growing national telecommunications company, with $11.7 billion of annual revenue and 13.4 million customer connections, including 7.9 million wireless subscribers, 3.2 million wireline network access lines, 1.4 million Internet subscribers and 865,000 TELUS TV customers. TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video, and is Canada's largest healthcare IT provider.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed more than $350 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 5.4 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Created in 2005 by Executive Chairman Darren Entwistle, TELUS' 11 community boards across Canada have lead the company's support of grassroots charities and will have contributed $47 million in support of 3,700 local charities organizations by the end of 2014, enriching the lives of more than two million Canadian children and youth. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

(1) Note: Total TELUS wireless, Internet and residential network access line customers for the period ending June 30, 2014.TELUS' figure excludes TV and business network access line customer connections, as they are not within the CCTS' mandate.