Q4 2017 Ofcom UK ISP Complaints Study Shames TalkTalk and BT

Ofcom has today published their latest Q4 2017 UK consumer complaints study, which notes that TalkTalk attracted the most gripes for both fixed line home broadband and landline phone services. Meanwhile BT were the naughtiest child for both Mobile and Pay TV.

The report notes that the overall level of consumer satisfaction with communications services is 88% for landline phone, 84% for broadband and 92% for mobile. However, Ofcom said that they continued to receive “nearly” 300 complaints per day during Q4 (up from c.250 in Q3 2017), although their study only includes feedback from the largest providers (i.e. those with a market share of at least 1.5%).

The data itself is 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 largest ISPs can vary significantly in size. Overall the total volume of complaints across all service sectors has remained proportionally steady since Q3 2017.

Jane Rumble, Ofcom’s Director of Consumer Policy, said:

“These figures give people the information they need to shop around and compare providers’ performance.

The scorecards also motivate companies to improve their performance, and we want to see them follow through on their promises to give customers better service.”

Take note, today’s report only covers complaints that the regulator itself has received and not those sent directly to an ISP or ombudsman. Ofcom does not itself deal with individual complaints but they do monitor them and can take action if enough people inform them about a problem.

Consumers who are unable to resolve a complaint with their communications provider can (after 8 weeks) raise a case with one of the two ombudsman providers – Ombudsman Services: Communications or CISAS – under the Alternative Dispute Resolution process. The ADR handler will then investigate the issue at no cost to yourself.

Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints

Sadly TalkTalk continued to generate the highest volume of broadband complaints, which mostly centred around issues related to faults, service and provision issues. Meanwhile Sky Broadband, EE and Virgin Media all deserve praise for only attracting a fairly low volume of consumer gripes.

Fixed Line Phone Complaints

Once again TalkTalk attracted the highest volume of landline phone complaints, which as above mostly centred around issues related to faults, service and provision issues. Meanwhile Sky Broadband, EE and Virgin Media continued to do well by only attracting a fairly low volume of consumer gripes.

Mobile Complaints

BT and Vodafone appear to be in a battle to become top of the worst for Pay Monthly Mobile complaints and the main complaint drivers for both reflected issues related to complaints handling and billing, prices and charges. Meanwhile EE, Three UK, O2 and Tesco all sat below the industry average and thus attracted fewer gripes.

Pay TV Complaints

Out of all the Pay TV providers only Sky appeared to attract a small number of complaints (below the industry average level), while sadly BT attracted the most complaints and interestingly their main complaint driver reflected issues related to complaints handling.

Ofcom’s Complaints Report Q4 2017
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-pay-tv-complaints-q4-2017.pdf