ISP TalkTalk Tops Ofcom Broadband Complaints Table for Q2 2020

Ofcom’s new Q2 2020 consumer complaints report is out today, which names UK ISP TalkTalk as attracting the most gripes for both home broadband and landline phone, while Three UK did the same for Pay Monthly Mobile services and Virgin Media came bottom for Pay TV.

The following report only covers complaints that the regulator itself has received and not those sent directly to either an ISP, ISPA or ADR complaints handler (i.e. Ombudsman Services or CISAS). Ofcom does not itself deal with individual complaints, but they do monitor them and can take action if enough people raise a concern.

Overall, we’re happy to report that the total volume of complaints across all service sectors has decreased again since the Q1 2020 report. Meanwhile the overall level of consumer satisfaction with communications services is listed as 85% for landline phone, 85% for broadband and 93% for mobile.

As these results reflect the spring of 2020 then they will have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result should perhaps be considered as somewhat of an exception. We recommend readers check out our ISP Complaints and Advice section for more information on how, where and when to submit a complaint.

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 in size. 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.

A TalkTalk Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“As Ofcom notes in its report, the sudden lockdown restrictions introduced in the UK and overseas at the start of the pandemic meant that our customer services were significantly impacted, as they were across the industry. Our priority was the safety of our colleagues and partners. These were exceptional figures in exceptional circumstances. We’re pleased that service levels are now back up to normal and that we’ve seen some of our highest ever customer satisfaction levels during the past few months.”

We should add that Ofcom also tracked 53 complaints about BT’s provision of the broadband USO during the quarter, although the regulator has not included this figure into BT’s overall total below as it’s still in early deployment and is a separate solution that they’re legally required to offer. In addition, Ofcom received 7 complaints about BT’s USO provision between 20th March 2020 (launch) and the beginning of April.

Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints

Overall TalkTalk attracted the most complaints for fixed broadband connectivity and most of those were about complaints handling (41%). The other main drivers of TalkTalk’s complaints were faults, service and provisioning issues (33%) and billing, pricing and charges (16%).

On the flip side both EE and Sky Broadband attracted the fewest complaints from consumers.

Fixed Line Phone Complaints

Once again TalkTalk were top of the naughty boys’ club for home phone services, attracting the most gripes for poor complaints handling (38%), faults, service and provisioning issues (28%), and issues relating to billing, pricing and charges (19%). On the flip side EE and Sky Broadband continued to return the fewest complaints of any listed ISP.

Mobile Complaints

For the first time in a long while Three UK has made it to the top of this quarter’s naughty pile – their main complaints drivers were complaints handling (30%), issues relating to changing provider (22%) and issues relating to billing, pricing and charges (21%). Meanwhile Tesco mobile continued its historic trend of generating hardly any complaints at all.

Pay TV Complaints

Sadly, Virgin Media has returned to being the most complained about pay TV provider in the UK, with most of the gripes against them being related to complaints handling (49%). The other main drivers were issues relating to billing, pricing and charges (24%) and faults, service and provisioning issues (13%). Meanwhile Sky TV maintained their favourable position with the least complaints, well below anybody else.

Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q2 2020
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-pay-tv-complaints-q2-2020.pdf

UPDATE 4:02pm

Added a comment from TalkTalk above.