The number of complaints to the Ombudsman about Belgian telecom increased by 65 percent

The Belgian Telecommunications Ombudsman Service received 17,413 complaints last year. that is an increase of 65 percent compared to 2022. This is the highest number of complaints since 2015, the Ombudsman's Office says in its annual report.

More complaints were received about all providers, but the Telenet Group in particular fell. on. The number of complaints for that company tripled last year. “Not only the strong increase in the number, but also the nature, severity, structural, persistent and, in some cases, unique character of the problems, justify the attention that the Ombudsman's Office pays to Telenet in this annual report,” the Ombudsman's Office says. in its annual report.

Telenet indicated to HLN that this had to do with the switch to a new IT platform. The Ombudsman Service confirms this reading in its annual report. A Telenet spokesperson indicates that 'every effort has been made to solve the problems structurally'. According to the company, this is now also the case. The waiting time at customer service is now even shorter than before.

The Ombudsman Service also received more complaints about other providers last year. The number of complaints about the Proximus Group increased by 30.07 percent last year compared to 2022. At Orange Belgium there was an increase of 23.96 percent, at VOO 20.27 percent and at Proximus subsidiary Unleashed 31.40 percent .

The Ombudsman Service saw many more complaints coming in about the customer service of providers and about various defects and malfunctions. Just over 2,500 complaints were received about customer service last year, compared to 1,182 in 2022. Customers complained, among other things, about the quality of customer service and the long waiting times. Since 2022, waiting times may not be longer than 2.5 minutes, but according to the Ombudsman Service, many customers still have to wait longer to get through to someone from customer service.

Almost 4,000 complaints related to disruptions, defects and unavailability of services. That is more than double compared to 2022. Last year, more requests were also received related to malicious use of communications networks. This concerns, for example, telephone harassment. Such applications increased from 1969 in 2022 to 2245 in 2023.