Nearly three-quarters of customer care calls to telecommunications providers are answered within five minutes, a new report has found.  

The Malta Communications Authority conducted a mystery shopper exercise to measure how long it takes the island’s main communications services providers to pick up a customer call.  

It made 685 fake customer calls between January and June 2021 and found that 72 per cent of the calls made were answered by a telecoms operator within five minutes. 

The calls were made to GO, Melita, and Epic. 

The authority did not say how long the longest wait for a customer care representative had been, but a chart mapping the average calls shows that GO was consistently the worst performer. However, the other companies were close behind. 

“Undoubtedly, telephony support remains one of the most common support channels amongst end-users,” the MCA said. 

A graph published by the MCA tracking how long the average customer complaint took to be responded.

Postal service performs better

The MCA also conducted 273 test calls to the island’s postal service. 

It found that 83 per cent of MaltaPost’s customer care calls were answered within five minutes. 

As part of MCA’s role to educate consumers when choosing an electronic communications service, the MCA has launched a price comparison tool (Telecosts.com) to assist consumers in selecting the most suitable tariff plan for their needs. 

Telecosts.com compares the different tariff plans offered by all the different local telecoms service providers. 

During the first six months of its launch, more than 10,000 users visited this portal. 

Complaints on quality of service

The MCA said that during the first six months of 2021 it had received 110 complaints, of which 81 per cent related to internet, TV, mobile and fixed telephony.  

Some 19 per cent related to postal services. 

The MCA said it had recorded an increase of four per cent in the total number of complaints when compared to the last six months of 2020. 

Nearly all complaints, 97%, were closed within 20 working days. 

The authority also received 450 enquiries.  

The statistics of complaints received by the MCA reveal that quality of service remains the most common type of complaint, with 41 complaints on this received. 

Faults (10) and customer care (10) issues topped the list of service complaints. 

Other quality complaints received related to indoor mobile reception (7), internet speed (5), installation (5), mobile data (2), WiFi connection (1) and email service (1). 

The MCA also recorded other complaints which related to termination and switching (24), billing and tariffs (21), and contractual matters (3). 

The MCA brought these cases to the attention of the service providers so that it could further investigate the matters raised and address any ensuing issues accordingly. 

The full report is available online.