Q3 2016 Study – BT and Plusnet Attract Most Broadband Complaints

The UK telecoms regulator has today published their Q3 2016 consumer complaints study, which reports that the total volume of fixed line Broadband, Phone and Pay TV complaints in the UK has increased, while Mobile gripes declined. Sadly BT came out as the biggest magnet for broadband gripes.

Overall Ofcom claims to receive nearly 300 complaints per day, although their report only reflects the market’s biggest providers in each sector (i.e. those with an overall market share of at least 1.5%) and does not include complaints that are dealt with directly by an ISP (i.e. the data only reflects complaints made specifically to the regulator).

Lindsey Fussell, Director of Ofcom’s Consumer Group, said:

“We won’t stand for complacency when it comes to customer service. We expect providers to make it a top priority and work hard to better serve their customers. If companies let their customers down, we will step in and investigate, which can lead to significant fines.”

It’s important to note that the regulator does not itself deal with individual complaints, but they do keep a log of gripes and can take action against specific ISPs if enough people moan about the same issue. Customers who fail to resolve a complaint with their provider can usually raise a case with one of the two ombudsman providers (Alternative Dispute Resolution), which will take up the case on your behalf for no charge.

Otherwise the results in Ofcom’s report are reflected as a proportion of residential subscribers (i.e. the total number of quarterly complaints per 100,000 customers), which makes it easier to compare providers in a market where the big ISPs can vary significantly in size.

Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints

Interestingly almost every one of the listed ISPs saw an increase in complaints during the July to September 2016 period. BT generated the highest relative complaint volumes due to a mix of issues, predominantly focused upon faults, service and provision issues.

However TalkTalk deserves some praise for finally falling below the industry average level of complaints, which is a striking improvement given the tricky year they’ve had since last October’s cyber-attack all but kicked their reputation into the sewer.

Meanwhile Virgin Media and Sky Broadband continued to attract the fewest complaints, although we note that Virgin appears to have had a noticeable spike and hopefully that’s only temporary.

Fixed Line Phone Complaints

The upward movement of complaints in terms of fixed broadband connectivity appears to have carried over to the fixed line (phone) market too, which is hardly surprising given that most ISPs use the same line to deliver broadband.

Otherwise Plusnet generated the highest volume of complaints and once again most of these related to fault, service and provision issues. Only Virgin Media and Sky Broadband held below the industry average level of complaints, although Virgin’s spike shows up again here too.

Mobile Complaints

Happily Mobile operators appear to have had a better quarter, with most complaint volumes either dropping or holding fairly steady. Vodafone may have attracted the most Pay Monthly complaints again for the eighth quarter running (mainly related to issues about billing, pricing and charges), but they also delivered another good improvement and saw significantly fewer complaints.

The only other development worth noting came from Virgin Mobile, which has suddenly started attracting more than the industry average level of complaints. This is somewhat unusual and follows a general trend of steady improvement, so hopefully it’s only a blip and not something that will get worse.

Pay TV Complaints

Finally we come to Pay TV providers and it’s interesting to note that Virgin Media saw a spike in complaints here too and they remain above the industry average level for a second consecutive quarter. Meanwhile BT saw a rise in gripes and continues to remain the most complained about provider (mostly related to fault, service and provision issues).

Ofcom’s Complaints Report Q3 2016
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/../Q3-2016/