UK ISP Primus Saver Blames Customer Support Woes on the Weather

Budget broadband and phone provider Primus Saver (New Call Telecom) has reportedly experienced a surge in complaints about the quality of its customer support and service over the past month, which has made it difficult for users to contact the provider. But apparently it’s all the fault of bad weather.

According to MSE, many customers are finding it increasingly difficult to contact the ISP by either email or phone. In fact some people have been left on hold for several hours before being shamelessly disconnected.

In addition an apparently smaller number of users are suffering from connectivity problems with their broadband and phone service, although Primus claims that there is nothing abnormally wrong with their platform.

A Primus Spokesman said:

“We are doing everything possible to reduce the queue times, but the weather situation has been testing and unfortunately means a lot of people need assistance.”

In fairness Primus aren’t the only provider to be suffering such woes and the recent bad weather can cause support centres to experience a higher volume of calls due to general service disruption (e.g. repair work and new service provision delays from BTOpenreach).

On the other hand you get what you pay for and a cheap ISP (Primus offers broadband from just £1.20 per month when taken with its phone service) will often struggle to make enough money to fund a suitably large customer support department and or a higher quality of service; quality is sacrificed for the sake of price.

Customers whom find themselves unable to contact Primus should check out our ISP Complaints Advice section and consider Posting a Review of Primus. New Call Telecom (Primus) is also a member of the ISPA UK and thus they might also be able to assist with some issues.

We also recommend Contacting Ofcom as they can often take action when a problem becomes serious (assuming enough reports are received), though they will not be able to assist with individual complaints. If the issue persists for over 8 weeks then an ADR process may be required (see our ISP complaints advice section).