Best and worst broadband, phone and TV firms based on complaints revealed – where does your provider rank?
THE BEST and worst broadband, phone and TV firms have been revealed – find out where your provider ranks.
Ofcom publishes the latest stats based on the number of complaints it receives about the UK’s biggest providers.
The data is published on a quarterly basis in the hope that it will push providers into improving their services, as well as helping consumers to compare providers.
Yet again, Virgin Media was the most complained about broadband, landline and TV providers – although it had fewer complaints than in the last quarter.
Fergal Farragher, Ofcom’s policy director, said: “We can see from these latest figures that customer dissatisfaction remains at a similar level to the previous quarter.
“While there has been an improvement in Virgin Media’s performance, its position at the bottom of our tables shows there is further room for improvement.”
Broadband
Once again, Virgin Media has topped the rankings of the most complained-about broadband provider.
Ofcom revealed that Virgin Media received 20 complaints for every 100,000 broadband customers between October and December 2023.
Although this was an improvement of the 32 complaints for every 100,000 customers recorded in the last quarter, Virgin Media continues to soar over its competitors.
It has also emerged that how Virgin Media handles complaints amounted to a whopping 43 per cent of customer complaints against the provider – compared to the average of 32 per cent within the industry.
Second worst on the list was Now Broadband, which received 18 complaints per 100,000 customers.
The industry average was 12 complaints per 100,000, with Plusnet and EE both receiving nine complaints out of 100,000.
Topping the list as the best broadband provider was Sky, who only received five complaints per 100,000 customers.
Phone
Virgin Media also topped the list as the worst landline provider, with recorded complaints coming in at 13 for every 100,000 customer.
Again, although Virgin Media has seen a reduction in the complaints against them in the last quarter, which saw 19 complaints per 100,000, it continues to rank worse than its competitors.
The latest data placed the company just ahead of Shell Energy, with 12 complaints for every 100,000, and Now Broadband, which had 10 complaints per 100,000.
Across the industry, complaints handling was main reason for complaints to Ofcom with 43 per cent compared to an average of 31 per cent for other issues.
This quarter, O2 topped the list for complaints related to mobiles, having received seven complaints per 100,000 customers.
Three was the second worst mobile provider, according to Ofcom, which received four complaints per 100,000.
The industry average for mobile complaints was three.
TV
Virgin Media was also found to be the worst provider for pay-TV this quarter, with a whopping 13 complaints for every 100,000 customer.
This was almost double the number of complaints against the second worst provider, BT, who received seven complaints per 100,000.
Meanwhile, Sky and TalkTalk both received two complaints per 100,000, placing them well above their competitors.
Ofcom also found that the biggest concern amongst pay-TV customers was complaints handling.
A spokesperson for Virgin Media said: “We’re committed to providing an excellent service to our customers, and while overall these complaints represent a very small proportion of our customer base, we acknowledge there is a need for improvement, which is under way, and we’re focused on getting this right.
“We are investing heavily and making changes across our business to deliver tangible improvements, for example through multi-skilling our teams and rolling out new IT platforms that will make it easier for customers to get support when they need it, and empowering our people to resolve any issues quickly and effectively first time.”
Price hikes
Rocio Concha, the director of policy and advocacy at Which?, said: “At a time when many telecoms firms have implemented mid-contract price hikes of almost nine per cent, it’s unacceptable that poor customer service from some of the biggest telecoms firms has led thousands of their customers to complain to the regulator.
“Virgin Media is the most complained-about broadband firm and also performed particularly poorly for customer service in Which?’s most recent broadband customer satisfaction survey.
“While many consumers will rightly consider switching, firms that are falling short must urgently make improvements so all customers are getting the standard of service and support they need and deserve.”
Providers usually increase their prices annually based on the rate of inflation plus an extra 3.9 per cent.
The consumer price index (CPI) stood at 4 per cent in December, so broadband bills could increase by as much as 7.9 per cent this month.
Uswitch calculated that the increase could cost the individual consumer around £27.19 more a year for broadband.
BT, EE and Three are among the firms which have confirmed to The Sun they will put up bills by up to 7.9 per cent.
Ofcom is currently reviewing inflation-linked, mid-contract price rises but is yet to publish its final decision on its proposals to ban the practice.
A survey by Which? found that 78 per cent of consumers believe that mid-contract price hikes are always unfair.
Alex Tofts, broadband spokesman at Broadband Genie, said: “Each provider determines their price increase based on their chosen metric.
“In recent years, the unpredictable and volatile nature of inflation means broadband customers are in the dark about future price rises before signing up to a contract.”