Vodafone UK Top Naughty List for Q2 2019 Broadband Gripes

The latest Q2 2019 consumer complaints report from Ofcom has confirmed that UK ISP Vodafone attracted the most moans for fixed line broadband, while Plusnet were the worst for landline phone and Virgin Media did the same for both Mobile and Pay TV. On the flip side Sky Broadband generated the fewest gripes.

The latest quarterly report, which arrives about a month late after being delayed due to “data quality issues,” only covers complaints that the regulator itself has received and not those sent directly to either an ISP, ISPA, ADR complaint handlers (i.e. Ombudsman Services or CISAS) or other agencies. Ofcom does not itself deal with individual complaints but they do monitor them and can take action if enough people raise a problem.

Otherwise the results below reflect a proportion of residential subscribers (i.e. the total number of quarterly complaints per 100,000 customers per provider), which makes it easier to compare providers in a market where the largest ISPs can vary significantly in size. The regulator’s study only covers feedback from the largest ISPs (i.e. those with a market share of at least 1.5%) due to limited data.

Overall the total volume of complaints across all service sectors has decreased slightly since the Q1 report and the overall level of consumer satisfaction with communications services is listed as 86% for landline phone, 83% for broadband and 93% for mobile.

We recommend that readers check out our ISP Complaints and Advice section for more information on how, where and when to make a complaint.

Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints

Vodafone generated the highest volume of fixed broadband complaints, with 38% of their complaints being about faults, service and provisioning issues. The other main drivers of Vodafone’s complaints were gripes about complaints handling (26%) and issues relating to changing provider (16%). Meanwhile Sky Broadband is once again back to being the ISP with the lowest level of consumer gripes.

Fixed Line Phone Complaints

Sadly Plusnet continued to generate the highest volume of landline complaints, although they have improved a fair bit since last time. Nevertheless over a third of Plusnet landline complaints were about billing, pricing and charges (37%). The other main drivers of consumer gripes concerned complaints handling (27%) and faults, service and provisioning issues (16%). At the other end of the scale both EE and Sky Broadband generated the fewest overall complaints.

Mobile Complaints

Virgin Mobile (Virgin Media) generated the highest volume of pay-monthly mobile complaints, with 35% being related complaints handling. The other main drivers of Virgin Mobile complaints were issues relating to billing, pricing and charges (26%), and faults, service and provisioning issues (16%). By comparison Tesco Mobile continued to hold its position as the mobile operator with the fewest gripes.

Pay TV Complaints

Unfortunately Virgin Media overtook TalkTalk and BT to also generate the highest volume of pay TV complaints, with 40% being related to complaints handling (40%). The other main drivers of VM complaints included issues relating to billing, pricing and charges (22%) and faults, service and provisioning issues (22%). By comparison Sky TV generated the fewest moans.

Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q2 2019
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-pay-tv-complaints-q2-2019.pdf

UPDATE 3:24pm

A Tesco Mobile Spokesperson said:

“We’re delighted to be named by Ofcom as the UK mobile network to receive the least complaints in its latest report. We’ve consistently been the network with the lowest number of complaints for five years, and will continue to provide our customers with market leading customer service.”