Vodafone Attract the Most Broadband ISP Complaints – Q4 2019
Ofcom has published their latest Q4 2019 consumer complaints data, which reveals that UK ISP Vodafone attracted the most gripes for broadband, while Plusnet were the worst for landline phone and Virgin Media sat on the naughty step for Pay TV. On the flip side Sky (Sky Broadband, Sky TV) attracted the fewest moans from consumers.
The following report only covers complaints that the regulator itself has received and not those sent directly to either an ISP, ISPA, ADR complaints handler (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 concern.
Otherwise the results 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 in size. However the regulator’s study only covers feedback from the largest ISPs – those with a market share of at least 1.5% – due to limited data.
Sadly the regulator hasn’t produced their usual report for Q4 2019, which means that we only get a basic statistical summary (i.e. no context for the complaints themselves). In addition, they’ve excluded mobile operators because of a need to conduct further “quality assurance” work before they can be confident of the results. No doubt COVID-19 has made all of this more difficult than usual.
Despite this we do still get an idea of which providers generated the most gripes at the end of 2019, even though we don’t know exactly why. We recommend readers check out our ISP Complaints and Advice section for more information on how, where and when to submit a complaint.
Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints
Vodafone’s broadband service generated the most complaints this quarter, while Sky Broadband and EE both jointly generated the fewest.
Fixed Line Phone Complaints
Plusnet’s phone service generated the most complaints this quarter, while Sky Broadband once again generated the fewest.
Pay TV Complaints
Virgin Media’s TV service generated the most complaints this quarter, while Sky TV generated the fewest. The format of this chart is a bit different from the ones above as there are fewer providers, so it worked better to order the bars by quarter instead of provider.
Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q4 2019
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-pay-tv-complaints-q4-2019.csv
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 X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Pay for what you get !
Vodafone with their broadband is a perfect example how to turn good service to sh*t. The biggest issue in Vodafone is their (non-existing) customer support.
I always find it interesting that VM’s broadband which is delivered over the superior coaxial cables compared to phone lines nevertheless attracts more complaints than DSL providers such as Sky.
In fairness Virgin Media has had much better years prior to 2019, where they kept below the industry average level for complaints, but over the past year they seem to have suffered more than usual. A lot of those gripes have related to billing and support problems, rather than connectivity.
Virgin media as a broadband service is excellent for the most part, it’s when you have to deal with their joke of offshore call centres in India and the Philippines things start going wrong. They should do what BT did move all the call centres back to the U.K. & Ireland.
VM’s recuiting 500 contact centre staff.
https://www.virginmedia.com/corporate/media-centre/press-releases/virgin-media-creates-more-than-500-customer-contact-centre-jobs-to-keep-the-country-connected
I would be interested in how Vodafone compares in regard to reliability between their xDSL offering via openreach and FTTP via cityfibre.
They are terrible. Struggled for months to get my contract cancelled because I regularly got 8mbps down during peak times. They just kept saying ‘Sir your line syns at 72mbps’.
If your router is syncing at that speed then test via Ethernet with WiFi disabled and a laptop booted in network safe mode, if it’s no where near using different speed tests then it’s likely it’s throughout or the cable link that’s the issue. Everyone using the openreach lines can only provide what that copper cable is capable of, the FTTH/gigafast service they have is the dogs danglies though!
I am so looking forward to FTTP 1Gbps with Vodafone
Left Vodafone a couple of months back because of their awful customer service and false promises. Latency was on average 10ms higher and speeds would wildly fluctuate during the day, sometimes slowing to a crawl. Trying to diagnose a disconnect issue with their Indian call centres was a nightmare, always returning to the “are you on wifi?” question.
Switched to Zen and the line is back to normal.
Could you please advise.
I am having very bad stressful experiences with Vodafone. I am victim of fraud and I will need help. Vodafone are not willing to help me at the moment.
I update my Vodafone contract on 29.06.20 for £39 per month. After that I received text with confirmation and I was quite good with that.
After 7 days I received suspicious text with another number and some collection from DPD. In 17th of August I received bill for £260 for new contract and new hand set. I call Vodafone straight away and ask why the bill is very height. They told me that someone somehow enter some chat and update my contract. I told them that it wasn’t me and also I told them to arrange the hand set to be returned back from the DPD store to Vodafone because I didn’t collection the item. Vodafone and DPD confirmed that the item was collected with two proofs of identity. I was at work at the time and I have proof from security team. So I strongly believe that this is Vodafone internal fraud and someone use my details to upgrade the contract and collect the phone from DPD. The item was requested to be delivered to DPD store not to my address. This redirection of the parcel was also done by Vodafone because I did not receive the e mail with DPD authorization text. I received only text from Vodafon with the parcel details.
Vodafone didn’t want to help with the investigation at the moment.
Could you please help me to find out what to do next.
Thank you