Ofcom UK Name Shell Energy as UK ISP with Most Complaints in Q4 2022
The latest Ofcom study of UK consumer complaints for Q4 2022 has, once again, named and shamed Shell Energy for attracting the most consumer moans about both home broadband and landline phone services, while BT 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.
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Take note that the proportion of people who were satisfied with their communications services in 2022 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 in the final quarter of 2022. Related complaints against the ISP were mainly driven by faults, service and provisioning issues (31%), as well as complaints handling (26%) and billing/pricing (25%). On the flip side, Sky Broadband once again attracted the fewest moans of all the listed providers.
| Q1 2022 | Q2 2022 | Q3 2022 | Q4 2022 | |
| BT | 7 | 8 | 10 | 10 |
| EE | 3 | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| NOW Broadband (NOW TV) | 8 | 9 | 7 | 10 |
| Plusnet | 11 | 12 | 13 | 10 |
| Shell Energy | 22 | 31 | 27 | 27 |
| Sky Broadband | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| TalkTalk | 14 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
| Virgin Media | 18 | 16 | 18 | 14 |
| Vodafone | 13 | 18 | 12 | 19 |
| Industry Average | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
Fixed Line Phone Complaints
Shell Energy also attracted the most complaints for fixed line phone services, which was mostly driven by gripes against their faults, service and provisioning issues (33%) and issues with complaints handling (25%). By comparison, Sky Broadband once again attracted the fewest complaints.
| Q1 2022 | Q2 2022 | Q3 2022 | Q4 2022 | |
| BT | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| EE | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| NOW Broadband (NOW TV) | 5 | 8 | 5 | 5 |
| Plusnet | 6 | 8 | 8 | 7 |
| Shell Energy | 20 | 23 | 20 | 25 |
| Sky Broadband | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| TalkTalk | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
| Virgin Media | 11 | 10 | 11 | 7 |
| Vodafone | 8 | 10 | 7 | 8 |
| Industry Average | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 |
Mobile Complaints
Mobile operators generally enjoyed lower complaint levels than fixed line providers, but BT still ended up attracting the most gripes, with issues around their complaints handling (38%) and switching operators (38%) driving most of it. But it should be said that BT has since stopped selling mobile plans and now directs new customers over to EE. By comparison, Sky Mobile attracted the fewest gripes.
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| Q1 2022 | Q2 2022 | Q3 2022 | Q4 2022 | |
| BTMobile | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| O2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| iD Mobile | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Sky Mobile | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Tesco Mobile | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Three UK | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Virgin Mobile | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Vodafone | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| EE (aggregrate of T-Mobile, Orange & 4GEE) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Industry Average | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Pay TV Complaints
Finally, Virgin Media’s service was the one that attracted the most complaints for Pay TV, with gripes about complaints handling (33%) being the main driver. On the flip side, Sky TV attracted the fewest gripes, and that’s impressive given all the bugs that hit their new Sky Glass product last year.
Stephen van Rooyen, Sky’s CEO for UK & Europe, said:
“For 11 years in a row, we have received the fewest complaints to Ofcom out of every pay-TV provider. We’ve seen over 11,000 Premier League goals in that time. Our customer service team has offered consistent and reliable support for customers whenever they’ve needed us”.
| Q1 2022 | Q2 2022 | Q3 2022 | Q4 2022 | |
| BT | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 |
| Sky | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| TalkTalk Group | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Virgin Media | 10 | 10 | 9 | 8 |
| Industry Average | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q4 2022
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-and-pay-tv-complaints
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 Linkedin.
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I have no evidence to back this up other than experience from all other low cost ISPs over the years. But I bet 90% of those complains resulted from a naff router being supplied by them and if the customer used their own router there would be no issues whatsoever. Ofcom really should try and find a way to see if these complaints are due to rubbish routers being bundled.
Since a high proportion related to complaints about billing, prices and complaints handling (i.e. not direct connectivity issues), then I think we can put that 90% figure to bed.
The router that shell supplies is ok, it is a bit bulky but it seems to work fine. My brother is with shell and have had no problem.
On the plus side, Shell Energy has ranked #1 for customer support according to a recent article:
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/04/shell-energy-uk-tops-help-desk-ranking-of-10-utility-providers.html
You beat me to it. I wonder if the award givers have the decency to be embarrassed? Possibly even strip the award. I’d say there are two chances of that happening, fat and slim.
The ironically named SaaSGenius.
Shell customer support was already terrible even before they bought nearly half a million disgruntled Post Office Broadband customers. They have been allocating the majority of funding to expansion and sales then treating customer support as an afterthought.
Just like Virgin Media have been doing over the past 5 years. Although VM certainly can’t claim to be a budget provider.
Virgin Media certainly is a budget operation, it’s just that their customer proposition isn’t a budget one.
The problem for VM (referring to the broadband and content business, not O2) is that they don’t make any money, so every penny (other than sales, marketing and retentions) is ruthlessly pared, leading to poor service, aggressive sales, cheap customer hubs, massive price hikes. They’ve just done what looks like a massively expensive overhaul of their customer forums, and it’s a typical VM mess – all “on-brand”, bright and glitzy, exciting and modern, but completely wiped out the useability. The best analogy for VM is that they;re the telco equivalent of of a clapped out 240,000 miles 1985 Vauxhall Astra with a completely worn out interior, wholly unimproved yet that’s been given a complete respray by a top class bodyshop. And the planned XGS-PON rollout will be adding a bigger turbocharger to this wheeled transport of delights, whilst the suspension remains shagged, the tyres bald, the light clusters cracked, and the inside has that unique smell of a cheap car that’s been abused for most of it’s thirty years. Now put that on the forecourt with a premium price tag, and that’s Virgin Media for you.
Even allowing that the Virgin brand is simply rented from Ole Beardo, it’s incredible that Virgin Group allow Liberty Global to crap all over the Virgin brand year after year. You’d have thought there’s a “LG not to soil Virgin Group’s underpants” clause in the brand agreement. If I were managing Virgin Group’s brand assets, I’d have Lutz Schuler in my office, and on notice to (a) get a decent haircut, and (b) sort out the shockingly poor service and reputation that Virgin Media have, with a timescale of measured improvements, failing which the brand agreement would be terminated.
It’s a penny pincher ISP so it’s expected…
What do you mean it is a penny pincher ISP, the ISP itself or the people that use it?
Some people just need basic connection to the internet and don’t want to a spend a fortune, my brother contacted shell as he was out of contract, and now he is going to pay £21 a month for 36Mb/s. Fine for what he needs it for.
It’s also the case that operating at the “value” end of the market is no excuse for poor customer service.
Poor customer service isn’t an inevitability when you’re a low cost provider, it’s simply a reflection that management are not competent. Anybody who can do basic maths and basic common sense will work out that poor customer service (even done cheaply offshore) costs more than good customer service. Doesn’t have to be gold plated, or have all the bells and whistles, it simply needs to minimise errors and queries in the first place (reducing the need for customer interaction), and then deal with queries and complaints quickly and sympathetically, thus avoiding multiple customer interactions for the same problem, and avoiding complaints to Ofcom, adjudication costs, and dismal results on review sites and the like.
When it comes to Pay TV complaints you have to wonder how on earth Sky avoided a ramp up in complaints.
Aware of some people cancelling it with no questions/problems in doing so. Almost as if they just wanted to avoid the fall out of complaints from Sky Glass after they realised it was a bit ropey.
Sky’s customer service isn’t much different to the other large players, but what Sky do differently to most of the others is (generally) to resolve complaints promptly and effectively. That way they minimise the number of people complaining to Ofcom which would result in an embarrassing but otherwise consequence free residency in the Ofcom Complaints Hall of Shame, and they similarly minimise the shame-free but very expensive consequences of customers going to CISAS or Ombudsman Services. Because most telecoms complaints that go to an ADR service are found in the customer’s favour, and the ADR service charge case fees of several hundred pounds per case there’s a big incentive to ensure complaints are handled well. Unfortunately many of the big companies have such blinkered management thinking that they refuse to see this. I’ve worked in the energy sector, and seen one of the worst performing companies for complaints remain one of the worst for well over a decade, and that’s because the senior management are ****holes. The problem of complaints is clearly visible, the obvious fix of handling them well is visible, but nobody cares enough to hold senior managers to account to reduce the need to complain, or to handle complaints really quickly and effectively. It’s partly a mindset that it’s better to **** everybody off, than see a tiny handful of individuals get something they’re not entitled to through vexatious complaining.