Ofcom Name UK Broadband ISPs with Most Complaints in Q1 2022 UPDATE
Ofcom’s latest Q1 2022 study of UK consumer complaints has revealed that ISP Shell Energy attracted the most moans for both fixed line broadband and landline phone services, while Virgin Mobile did the same for Pay Monthly mobile services and Virgin Media were also on the naughty step for Pay TV.
As usual, this report only covers complaints that the regulator itself has received and not those sent directly to an ISP, the ISPA or one of the two Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) complaints handlers (i.e. Ombudsman Services or CISAS). Ofcom does not deal with individual complaints, but they do monitor them and can take action if enough people raise a concern.
Overall, the total volume of complaints to Ofcom stayed broadly at the same levels as during the previous quarter. Complaints about fixed broadband and pay TV increased slightly, and complaints about landline and mobile pay-monthly stayed the same.
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 ISPs can vary significantly in size. But sadly, the study only covers feedback from the largest ISPs (i.e. those with a market share of at least 1.5%) due to limited data.
Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints
Shell Energy attracted the most broadband complaints per 100,000 customers, primarily due to gripes about faults, service and provisioning. Meanwhile, EE and Sky Broadband attracted the fewest broadband complaints.
| Q2 2021 | Q3 2021 | Q4 2021 | Q1 2022 | |
| BT | 10 | 9 | 7 | 7 |
| EE | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| NOW TV (NOW Broadband) | 8 | |||
| Plusnet | 15 | 13 | 8 | 11 |
| Shell Energy | 13 | 17 | 15 | 22 |
| Sky Broadband | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| TalkTalk | 19 | 17 | 14 | 14 |
| Virgin Media | 17 | 15 | 13 | 18 |
| Vodafone | 13 | 12 | 13 | 13 |
| Industry Average | 12 | 10 | 9 | 10 |
Fixed Line Phone Complaints
Shell Energy was the most complained-about landline provider, with complaints mainly driven by gripes about faults, service and provisioning. Meanwhile, EE attracted the fewest landline complaints.
| Q2 2021 | Q3 2021 | Q4 2021 | Q1 2022 | |
| BT | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| EE | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| NOW TV (NOW Broadband) | 5 | |||
| Plusnet | 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 |
| Shell Energy | 10 | 9 | 9 | 20 |
| Sky Broadband | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| TalkTalk | 13 | 11 | 10 | 10 |
| Virgin Media | 10 | 8 | 8 | 11 |
| Vodafone | 7 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| Industry Average | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
Mobile Complaints
Virgin Mobile – closely followed by BTMobile, iD Mobile and O2 – were the most complained-about mobile providers. Customers were mainly unhappy with how their complaints had been handled. By comparison, Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile and EE attracted the fewest complaints in the mobile sector.
| Q2 2021 | Q3 2021 | Q4 2021 | Q1 2022 | |
| BT Mobile | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| O2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| iD Mobile | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Sky Mobile | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Tesco Mobile | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Three UK | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Virgin Mobile | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Vodafone | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| EE (T-Mobile, Orange & 4GEE) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Industry Average | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Pay TV Complaints
Virgin Media generated the highest volume of pay-TV complaints; the main reason customers griped to Ofcom about them was due to poor complaints handling. Sky was the least complained-about pay-TV provider.
| Q2 2021 | Q3 2021 | Q4 2021 | Q1 2022 | |
| BT | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 |
| Sky | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| TalkTalk | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Virgin Media | 9 | 8 | 7 | 10 |
| Industry Average | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q1 2022
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-and-pay-tv-complaints
UPDATE 11:14am
We’ve had a comment from EE.
An EE spokesperson said:
“Our customers already know we provide the best customer service across the industry, and our teams in UK and Ireland provide the best personal and local service in our contact centres and retail stores. EE mobile and broadband customers enjoy being part of the UK’s biggest and fastest network with more 5G coverage than any other provider and ultrafast full fibre broadband.”
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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Not sure why comments are closed on the previous story? (“BT Set to Create 2,800 New Jobs in Digital, But Mostly in India”)
Wanted to say, it’s actually quite a racist headline (BUT?)…
I’ve dealt with BT chat operatives, who happened to be from India, and they coincidentally seemed to be geared up purely to filter out people and redirect them to FAQs on BTs website. I wasn’t pleased with my experience, but the escalation was to have an actual phone call with a couple of guys from Tyneside in the UK. They also seemed to be running as blockers to deny access to real technicians. Since passing the tests that my account problem is real (which has taken 16 days so far) I still don’t have a resolution.
So I’m not against BT investing in technicians or call handlers in India, but I do want BT to invest in competent people, not more of the maitre’d types they have now.
Pointing out, factually, that a UK company announcing a major jobs hire and then highlighting that most of those jobs actually come from India isn’t racist. It could be any country (replace India with the USA, Canada etc.), it’s the economic relevance to the UK jobs market that matters. Not to mention the perception of a company, on the eve of a major national strike of its UK workforce.
As a society, we have become overly sensitive and opinionated, which makes it harder for the factual aspects to break through the noise.
The comments were closed precisely because I feared there would be a backlash from the more extreme elements of public opinion. I’m currently looking at how we balance liability under the Online Safety Law, while still allowing as much freedom of expression as possible. Part of that approach will inevitably involve restricting speech on certain topics. I don’t have the resources of Facebook etc.
But please keep this on-topic from now on, thanks.
Indians best technicians British lack of knowledge
This may well be the case, but unless BT give the impression they have control of their own systems (they currently can’t fix my permissions on my account) it doesn’t matter where the operatives come from they all appear useless to me as the customer. I will leave BT as soon as the local FTTP network completes the build in my village, they have enjoyed too many years of monopoly. If India has the best support then BT need it in droves.
I thought post office home phone and broadband were slow but since they sold service to ShellEnergy they are useless. Send an email andyku are lucky if they reply under a week. Try phoning and no better. You hang on and on and give up. They don’t have problems sending emails with updates to increased cost of services.!!!!!
I am with Virgin (not much longer, I can tell you) and a couple of years ago one of their Indian advisors told me to remove my modem lead, reverse it, and plug it back in again. Of course, that didn’t cure anything. A complete joke.