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Shell Energy Still Attracting Most UK Broadband Gripes in Q3 2022

Thursday, Jan 26th, 2023 (10:55 am) - Score 2,040
complaints ofcom report isp broadband tv phone mobile

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.

NOTE: Ofcom received 76,135 calls, web forms, emails and letters directly from consumers in 2021/22 (down from 96,051 in 2020/21).

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.

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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.

  Q3 2021 Q4 2021 Q1 2022 Q2 2022 Q3 2022
BT 9 7 7 8 10
EE 4 5 3 6 6
NOW Broadband (NOW TV)     8 9 7
Plusnet 13 8 11 12 13
Shell Energy 17 15 22 31 27
Sky Broadband 5 4 4 3 4
TalkTalk 17 14 14 18 18
Virgin Media 15 13 18 16 18
Vodafone 12 13 13 18 12
Industry Average 10 9 10 11 11

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.

  Q3 2021 Q4 2021 Q1 2022 Q2 2022 Q3 2022
BT 6 5 5 5 6
EE 3 3 1 3 3
NOW Broadband (NOW TV)     5 8 5
Plusnet 8 6 6 8 8
Shell Energy 9 9 20 23 20
Sky Broadband 3 2 2 2 3
TalkTalk 11 10 10 11 11
Virgin Media 8 8 11 10 11
Vodafone 4 6 8 10 7
Industry Average  6 6 6 6 7

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.

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  Q3 2021 Q4 2021 Q1 2022 Q2 2022 Q3 2022
BT Mobile 2 2 3 4 4
O2 2 2 3 2 3
iD Mobile 4 2 3 1 3
Sky Mobile 2 1 1 1 1
Tesco Mobile 1 1 1 1 1
Three UK 3 3 2 2 3
Virgin Mobile 3 4 4 3 4
Vodafone 3 3 2 2 2
EE 1 1 1 1 1
Industry Average  2 2 2 2 2

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.

  Q3 2021 Q4 2021 Q1 2022 Q2 2022 Q3 2022
BT 6 4 5 6 7
Sky TV 1 1 1 1 1
TalkTalk 2 3 3 3 3
Virgin Media 8 7 10 10 9
Industry Average  3 3 4 4 4

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

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and .
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Comments
3 Responses

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  1. Avatar photo Mr M TAYLOR says:

    Ive had shell broadband for a year?6 months to go.never had much broad band all this time.i complained many times,It was a long to get a reply.Said it was not there problem,contact BT.Then received another phone ,just to rub it in my face,we dont reimburse for loss of broadband.
    Dreadful,comes to mind.Worst £350 ?,ive ever spending

  2. Avatar photo Anthony says:

    I am still not sure why people go with them. Their rivals are often cheaper than them. NowBroadband for example was always cheaper than them when they had their regular sales on.

  3. Avatar photo In The Know says:

    Shell Energy is a reseller of TalkTalk broadband, just like Utility Warehouse.

Comments are closed

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