Shell Energy Still Attracting Most UK Broadband Gripes in Q3 2022

The latest Q3 2022 Ofcom survey of UK consumer complaints has, once again, named ISP Shell Energy as attracting the most consumer gripes for both fixed line broadband and landline phone services, while BT and Virgin Mobile did the same for Pay Monthly Mobile services and Virgin Media for Pay TV.

The regulator’s report only covers complaints that Ofcom itself has received and not those sent directly to an ISP, the ISPA or an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) complaints handler (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.

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.

Take note that the proportion of people who were satisfied with their communications services in 2021 was 77% for landline services, 83% for broadband services and 91% for all mobile services.

Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints

Sadly, Shell Energy continued to attract the most broadband complaints, albeit with a small decrease from last quarter. Related complaints against the ISP were mainly driven by faults and service issues (37%), as well as complaints handling (27%) and billing / pricing issues (26%). On the flip side, Sky Broadband attracted the fewest moans of all the listed providers.

Fixed Line Phone Complaints

As well as leading dominance of the naughty chair for broadband, Shell Energy also attracted the most complaints for fixed line phone services, which was mostly driven by gripes against their complaints handling (31%), as well as issues with faults and service provisions (27%) and billing / pricing practices (28%). By comparison, both EE and Sky attracted the fewest complaints.

Mobile Complaints

The differences between Pay Monthly mobile operators are much smaller, but BT Mobile and Virgin Mobile jointly tied by attracting the most complaints. In both cases, the biggest gripes came from issues with their complaints handling – 42% and 34% respectively. By comparison, Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile and EE all attracted the fewest gripes.

Pay TV Complaints

Finally, Virgin Media’s service was the one that attracted most complaints for Pay TV products, with gripes about complaints handling (44%) being the main driver. On the flip side, Sky Mobile attracted the fewest gripes.

Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q3 2022
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-and-pay-tv-complaints