UPD Ofcom UK Report Fall in Broadband ISP Complaints – TalkTalk Still the Worst

The communications regulator, Ofcom, has today revealed its latest customer complaints data for the UK’s largest fixed line broadband and mobile providers (those with a market share of +4%), which covers the second quarter (Q2-2012). Happily ISP complaints saw a sharp fall but TalkTalk remains the provider with most complaints.

The data shows that TalkTalk received an average of 0.42 complaints per 1000 customers for their fixed line broadband service in Q2, which is down from 0.56 in Q1-2012 and 0.61 during Q4-2011. This represents a very firm improvement after the 2010/11 nightmare of dire billing, miss-selling and support mishaps (here and here).

TalkTalks Spokesman told ISPreview.co.uk:

“TalkTalk received its lowest ever number of complaints about landline and broadband services. There were 35% fewer landline complaints compared with the same quarter last year, while broadband complaints fell 28%.

We recognise that there is still work to do and we are continually pushing through improvements. Technical faults are fixed faster, more support is being offered when customers move house, and our online support system, which now accounts for 70% of customer contacts, is being further enhanced. We’ll strive to continually offer great value to our five million customers.”

At the other end of the spectrum sits Sky Broadband and Virgin Media, which both won praise for receiving the fewest complaints. Sky saw its complaint volume fall from 0.15 to 0.10 between Q1 and Q2-2012, while Virgin also fell from 0.17 to 0.15 over the same period. Both were well below the market average of 0.24.

Fixed broadband complaints per 1,000 customers

Sadly TalkTalk also remained the worst for landline phone services after it received a score of 0.53 complaints per 1,000 customers, although this was sharply down on the 0.72 recorded during Q1-2012. Meanwhile both Sky Broadband (0.15) and Virgin Media (0.14) had, yet again, the fewest complaints.

Landline telephony complaints per 1,000 customers

The good news remains that complaint levels have fallen right across the board and this was also reflected by many, but not all, of the scores for mobile phone providers. The least complained about mobile provider over this period was O2 with 0.05 complaints per 1,000 customers (only ever so slightly up from 0.04 in Q1-2012).

Pay Monthly Mobile Operators with Most Complaints (Previous Q1 Score)
1. Three UK – 0.19 (0.19)
2. T-Mobile – 0.17 (0.18)
3. Vodafone – 0.15 (0.18)
4. Orange UK – 0.14 (0.16)
5. Virgin Mobile – 0.10 (0.13)
6. O2 – 0.05 (0.04)

Finally Ofcom revealed the next set of complaint data for Pay TV operators, which saw BTVision being named the worst (0.25, down from 0.27 in Q1). By contrast both Sky (0.02, down from 0.03) and Virgin Media (0.07, unchanged) did well. Unfortunately Ofcom’s data is only useful for checking against the largest operators, which leaves consumers uncertain about the performance of several hundred other providers. Sadly the sample sizes just aren’t big enough for those.

UPDATE 12:26pm

Added a comment from TalkTalk.