A rain of complaints about Telenet, which is tormented by technical problems: “It sounds very unfortunate”

The number of complaints about problems with Telenet has been accumulating since the telecom provider switched to a new IT system. And that’s while customers just had to swallow a price increase. How much damage to the company’s reputation?

The telecommunications service Ombuds Service received at least 1,785 complaints from Telenet customers in the first four months of the year, that’s fifteen complaints a day. Ombudsman Luke Tourlinks withdrew standard On the alarm. “Since the early years of Telenet, I haven’t seen this many complaints. And then we only see the tip of the iceberg. All the lights are turned red, and we don’t see any improvement yet.”

in the morning Telenet confirms that there are abnormally many problems. The telecom provider has been rolling out a new IT system since December, in which all services and customer data are recorded. But the gradual migration of all that data from the 20-year-old system to the new one still has problems growing.

The complaints are very diverse. For example, there are customers who have to wait a long time for a new modem to be activated, and there are existing contracts that are not terminated in a timely manner or transfer requests that are not executed. Not great for subscribers, especially since the company just announced a 6 percent rate increase.

“There is always a risk if you have to move your entire company’s backbone to a new system,” says communications expert Tom Ivins (UGent). New digital system. Recently, the network operator Fluvius had problems installing the digital meter system. But the fact that such a telecom company as Telenet has IT problems, of course, looks very unfortunate.

Rivals are on edge

In addition to image damage, the question is whether Telenet will now lose many customers. Traditionally, there is little turnover in the telecom market. Switching service providers requires a lot of planning and management. “Plus, it’s hard to compare different providers with each other because the speed of the internet or what’s included varies,” Evens says. “As a result, people like to stay with the elderly.”

That can change quickly if problems with your connection arise. “Just like electricity or water, we cannot do without the Internet for a long time. If customers have to wait too long before reactivating the Internet when they move home, they may quickly look for another provider.”

According to Evens, competitors like Proximus and Orange will now be on edge. Although it is not without a headache either. “Proximus is having problems deploying its fiber optic network. Orange recently acquired Walloon VOO cable operator, which means they also have to integrate systems. It’s a ubiquitous thing.”

Meanwhile, Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs Alexia Bertrand (Open Vld) calls Telenet to hold them accountable. She wants to see a clear plan for solving problems in the short term. Then N-VA Representatives Anneleen Van Bossuyt and Michael Freilich (N-VA) introduced a bill requiring operators to compensate customers when their services fail.

Telenet says that from the start of the problems it has prioritized people without services. “We guarantee that these people will be reconnected within 48 hours,” says Telenet spokeswoman Isabelle Gerets. As a result, there is unfortunately a delay in other problems, like people not being able to access their emails, but we are also gradually catching up with that backlog. We work every day to solve these problems. Unfortunately, we cannot make any statements at this time as to how long this will take.”