Ofcom Put NOW, EE and O2 on Naughty Step for UK Telecoms Complaints – Q2 2024
Ofcom has published their latest Q2 2024 study of UK consumer complaints, which names and shames NOW Broadband (NOW TV) for being the worst provider by attracting the most complaints about broadband, while EE did the same for landline phone and O2 took most flak mobile. Finally, both EE and Virgin Media were jointly on the naughty step for Pay TV.
Take note that 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. Communications Ombudsman 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.
Advertisement
Take note that the proportion of people who were satisfied with their communications services in 2023 was 77% (unchanged from last year) for landline services, 82% (down from 83%) for broadband and 87% (down from 91%) for all mobile services. We don’t yet have any figures for 2024.
Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints
NOW Broadband (NOW TV) attracted the most broadband moans in Q2 2024, with customers’ complaints, perhaps ironically, mainly being driven by how their complaints were handled. On the flip side, Sky Broadband once again attracted the fewest complaints of all the listed providers.
| Q3 2023 | Q4 2023 | Q1 2024 | Q2 2024 | |
| BT | 11 | 11 | 9 | 10 |
| EE | 9 | 9 | 14 | 14 |
| NOW Broadband | 18 | 18 | 22 | 18 |
| Plusnet | 11 | 9 | 8 | 6 |
| Sky Broadband | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| TalkTalk | 15 | 13 | 11 | 10 |
| Virgin Media | 32 | 20 | 18 | 15 |
| Vodafone | 15 | 14 | 16 | 12 |
| Industry Average | 15 | 12 | 12 | 10 |
Fixed Line Phone Complaints
EE attracted the most complaints for fixed line phone services, with their customer complaints being mainly due to issues with faults, services and provisioning. By comparison, Utility Warehouse attracted the fewest complaints after only recently entering the table (they appear to have had zero gripes this quarter).
| Q3 2023 | Q4 2023 | Q1 2024 | Q2 2024 | |
| BT | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 |
| EE | 5 | 3 | 11 | 15 |
| NOW Broadband | 11 | 10 | 12 | 10 |
| Plusnet | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Sky Talk | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| TalkTalk Group | 10 | 9 | 8 | 5 |
| Utility Warehouse | 1 | 0 | ||
| Virgin Media | 19 | 13 | 11 | 8 |
| Vodafone | 7 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Industry Average | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
Mobile Complaints
Mobile operators generally enjoy lower complaint levels than fixed line providers, but O2 continued to attract the most gripes during the quarter, with issues around complaints handling driving most of it. By comparison, Tesco Mobile attracted the fewest gripes.
Advertisement
| Q3 2023 | Q4 2023 | Q1 2024 | Q2 2024 | |
| EE | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| O2 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Sky Mobile | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Tesco Mobile | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Three UK | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Vodafone | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| iD Mobile | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Industry Average | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
Pay TV Complaints
Finally, both EE and Virgin Media jointly attracted the most complaints for Pay TV, while Sky received the fewest complaints.
| Q3 2023 | Q4 2023 | Q1 2024 | Q2 2024 | |
| EE (prev. BT) | 7 | 7 | 2 | 9 |
| Sky TV | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| TalkTalk Group | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Virgin Media | 20 | 13 | 11 | 9 |
| Industry Average | 7 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q2 2024
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.
« Virgin Media O2 UK Creates AI Granny to Waste Scammers Time UPDATE
Those forced migrations to Digital Voice are going well then.
We swapped to BT digital voice few years back, not noticed any difference tbf
I think a good number of customers are just dropping their landline number when they next upgrade their package. I saw a figure quoted somewhere earlier this year that suggested that the number of line service terminations was in double percentage figures for each quarter.
@Mark,
Good to hear, although of course theres the lack of judicail protection you got from from your analogue calls.
Meaningless numbers.
It’s about time ofcom stopped being a puppet and took proper action when companies are failing customers otherwise what is the point of them just a waste of funds to look good on paper.
Virgin plus Voda are awful one they allowed to do a merger and the other looks like its on its way to it as well how is that good for consumers.
OFCOM being staffed by ex-ISP corporate shills probably doesn’t help. But yes, they are self serving at this point and an utterly useless Quango to the consumer.
There should be statistics for complaints about 0fCon themselves, some of their outputs are delinquent, and they avoid eforcing what they they put inplace haerdly a bastion of responsibility let alone accountability 🙁
I’m truly sirprised. I have my phone with O2 because of the number of bare faced lies Three told me previously. In my experience O2 have got better in the last couple of months.
Previously Three tried to blame my 5g router for being faulty as the reason for the attached RJ-11 phone suddenly not being able to make and receive calls, rather than be truthfull and admit that they do not believe in net neutrality
Ofcom should put itself on the naughty step too.