UPD Ofcom UK Names TalkTalk the Most Complained about Broadband ISP

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has today published its latest quarterly customer complaints data (Q1-2012) for big fixed line broadband and mobile providers (i.e. those with a market share of 4%+). Sadly TalkTalk remains the ISP with most complaints but crucially they have continued to improve.

Ofcom notes that TalkTalk received an average of 0.56 complaints per 1000 customers from their fixed line broadband subscribers during Q1-2012, which is down from 0.61 in Q4-2011 and 0.58 in Q3-2011. Prior to that the ISP had peaked at 0.81 in Q1-2011 when the regulator forced them to improve following a spate of dire billing, miss-selling and support mishaps (here and here).

A TalkTalk Spokesperson added:

“We are pleased that Ofcom’s data shows that complaints are 36 per cent down for telephone and 31 per cent down for broadband compared with the same period last year

We have been working hard to deliver improvements that give our customers a better experience and as a result we’re receiving 31 per cent fewer calls to our customer contact centres. For those that call, more than three quarters of issues are resolved the first time.

We do recognise there is still work to do and we are continually pushing through improvements. Technical faults are fixed 20 per cent more quickly, more support is being offered when customers move house, and our online customer support systems, which now account for 70 per cent of customer contacts, are being further enhanced. We’ll continue to work hard to continue to offer great value to our 5 million customers.”

By comparison Sky Broadband (BSkyB) and Virgin Media both won praise for receiving the fewest complaints. Sky experienced just 0.15 complaints per 1,000 customers (down from 0.17 in Q4-2011) and Virgin sat on just 0.17 (down from 0.18 in Q4-2011).

TalkTalk also came out as the worst for landline phone services by receiving 0.72 complaints per 1,000 customers, although this was down from 0.78 in Q4-2011. Once again Virgin Media (0.16) and Sky Broadband (0.19) did the best.

Generally speaking most of the fixed line phone and broadband providers reflected a pleasant decline in consumer complaint volumes, while mobile operators were a bit more mixed.

Landline Phone Providers with the Most Complaints (Previous Q4-2011 Figure)
1. TalkTalk – 0.72 (0.78)
2. BT – 0.24 (0.23)
3. Sky Broadband – 0.19 (0.24)
4. Virgin Media – 0.16 (0.18)

Mobile Operators with the Most Complaints
1. Three UK – 0.14 (0.15)
2. T-Mobile – 0.08 (0.07)
3. Vodafone – 0.08 (0.07)
4. Virgin Mobile – 0.07 (unchanged)
5. Orange UK – 0.07 (0.17)
6. O2 – 0.02 (unchanged)

The least complained about mobile provider over this period was O2 with 0.02 complaints per 1,000 customers. Separately Ofcom has also introduced a new measure for Pay TV operators, which saw BTVision being named the worst (0.27). By contrast both Sky (0.03) and Virgin Media (0.07) did quite well.

UPDATE 11:42am

Added a comment from TalkTalk above.