PlusNet, Virgin Media and Post Office Rated Best for Customer Service
Broadband and phone providers PlusNet, Virgin Media and the Post Office have come top of a new survey of customer service quality, which questioned some 14,000 respondents about their experiences. Sadly TalkTalk / AOL and EE could all be found at the lowest rated end of the scale.
The survey by MoneySavingExpert split the respondents into two groups, one for home phone providers and another for home broadband. Despite this the results for both categories were very similar, with roughly the same providers occupying both the top (highest / best rated) and bottom (lowest / poorest rated) of each list.
NOTE: The results in brackets are from the last study in January 2015.
Broadband Provider Ratings
| RANK | PROVIDER | GREAT | OK | POOR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plusnet | 68% (71%) | 23% (21%) | 9% (8%) |
| 2 | Virgin Media | 56% (54%) | 30% (30%) | 14% (16%) |
| 3 | Post Office | 41% (48%) | 37% (36%) | 22% (17%) |
| 4 | Sky Broadband | 38% (45%) | 35% (34%) | 27% (22%) |
| 5 | BT | 33% (33%) | 32% (34%) | 35% (33%) |
| 6= | EE | 28% (34%) | 32% (29%) | 40% (37%) |
| 6= | TalkTalk | 25% (32%) | 38% (37%) | 38% (31%) |
| 7 | AOL (TalkTalk) | 20% (26%) | 39% (32%) | 42% (42%) |
Home Phone Provider Ratings
| RANK | PROVIDER | GREAT | OK | POOR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plusnet | 70% (74%) | 24% (21%) | 6% (5%) |
| 2 | Post Office | 54% (62%) | 36% (28%) | 9% (10%) |
| 3 | Virgin Media | 49% (47%) | 40% (41%) | 11% (11%) |
| 4 | Sky Broadband | 42% (49%) | 48% (41%) | 10% (9%) |
| 5 | Fuel Broadband (Primus) | 42% (40%) | 37% (31%) | 22% (29%) |
| 6 | BT | 34% (35%) | 46% (46%) | 20% (19%) |
| 7 | AOL | 33% (42%) | 45% (45%) | 22% (13%) |
| 8 | TalkTalk | 33% (40%) | 44% (42%) | 23% (19%) |
| 9 | EE | 30% (38%) | 45% (37%) | 25% (25%) |
In response a spokesperson for TalkTalk has complained that the “poll does not reflect the reduction in complaints we are seeing internally or in Ofcom’s data, and is based on responses from a very small sample.” On the other hand Ofcom’s data, especially their complaints report, is also based on a fairly small dataset (here); although they appear to get EE’s position about right.
Meanwhile there’s the usual frustration with such studies only depicting the largest providers and ignoring almost all of the smaller ones, which are often able to deliver a higher quality. One other point to make is that AOL hasn’t been selling its own fixed line services for a while, instead they’ve been redirecting customers to TalkTalk’s (parent) website.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Clearly these figures are just a smoke and mirrors job.I wonder where they would be if the smaller providers were including.I know who I consider to be top of the tree as far as isp’s go.
You might as well say who you would recommend, rather than act coy.
FWIW, I completely understand a number of niche ISPs may be giving great service but in general, many choices are going to be made based on cost.
Sure, you can get organic eggs or milk costing 50% more (guess) if you want, just as you may get great service and support from the ISPs like AAISP, Gradwell, Zen, but like it or not, the public using the “big name ISPs” probably amount to 90% or more and the other 10% are spread acros another 80-120 ISPs, vecause the “big names” charge 75% or less compared with the niche ISPs, and for most situations, give perfectly adequate service and support.
Virgin Media have still yet to fix a confirmed firmware issue with the latest netgear modem and DHCP causing disconnections every few days which the customer service team no nothing about. Great customer service!
Perhaps it’s time for a survey that measures the capabilities of the customers?
This survey doesn’t seem to tally with ISPReview’s own users’ ratings in respect of the ratings given for of Post Office.
I’ve just been told that Plusnet’s 24hour customer service is ending and from 13th July they will only be open from 7.30am to 10pm. I had been waiting on the line for over an hour before it was answered but part of the reason I signed up with them was the 24hour service from a UK call centre.