How the FCC Handles Your Complaint

Filing a complaint

We encourage you to contact your provider before filing a complaint.

If your complaint is about a telecom billing or service issue with your provider, we will review your complaint and, in many instances, serve your complaint on your provider. Your provider has up to 30 days to send you and the FCC a response to your complaint.

We do not resolve individual complaints on certain issues, including loud commercials, indecency, unwanted calls or texts, including robocalls, unsolicited faxes and similar issues covered by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.  These complaints help inform FCC enforcement and policy work and may be shared with other Bureaus and Offices internally.

In some instances, we will provide you with a referral to another federal, state or local agency that can better address your complaint.

Tracking Your Complaint
You will receive an email with a confirmation that your complaint is received. You will also receive periodic updates for complaints that are served on a provider. You can respond directly to one of those emails to update your complaint.

Gathering Information
You may be contacted by an FCC consumer representative, if more information is necessary to complete the complaint.

Reviewing your complaint
Not all complaints are actionable or constitute a rule violation.  Not all complaints are served on a provider.  Certain complaints are shared internally or referred to other agencies. 

Serving the Complaint
When all required information has been gathered for billing or service complaints, the FCC sends your complaint to the service provider.

Service Provider Response
The provider is required to respond in writing to the complaint within 30 days of receipt of the complaint.  The Provider must copy you on the response.

Finding Solutions

The FCC cannot resolve all individual complaints, but we can provide information about your possible next steps.  The collective data we receive from complaints helps us keep a pulse on what consumers are experiencing, may lead to investigations and serves as a deterrent to the companies we regulate.

Thank you for your help in informing our efforts.