Communications Ombudsman Reports Q3 2024 Rise in UK Telecoms Complaints UPDATE

The Communications Ombudsman, which is one of Ofcom’s two approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers for UK consumers of broadband ISPs, mobile and landline phone providers, has released its complaints data Q3 2024 and reported a 29% increase compared to the same period in 2023.

The regulator requires that all telecoms providers – those offering services to consumers and small businesses – must be members of an approved ADR scheme. The schemes are free for consumers to access and designed to supplement (not replace) your provider’s own internal complaint procedure(s), although ISPs often have to pay sizeable costs regardless of whether they win or lose a case.

The ADR process is usually seen as a last line of defence for consumers and thus such schemes are generally only used after a dispute has gone unresolved for 8 weeks, or earlier with the agreement of their provider (i.e. the “Deadlock Letter” stage). See our ISP Complaints and Advice section for more information.

The new data reveals that, between July and September 2024 (Q3), a total of 7,969 cases were accepted by the Communications Ombudsman across several categories of complaint for billing, service quality, customer service, contract issues and equipment (e.g. routers, smartphones etc.). Customer service saw the largest climb in complaints, with a 77% rise compared to the same period in 2023. The main driver for the overall increase stemmed from “issues with the mobile phone sector“.

The five most common complaint types

Andy Eadle, Business Unit Director at the Communications Ombudsman, said:

“The Q3 complaints figures for 2024 have seen an increase across all dispute areas apart from equipment, matching the trends from the first half of 2024 against 2023. Broadband and mobile services are clearly crucial for millions of consumers who are highly conscious of the service they are getting from their providers.

The biggest change in figures for Q3 being customer service complaints shows the need to build greater trust between consumers and providers, and we are here to ensure disputes are resolved independently and impartially.”

Sadly, the Communications Ombudsman still doesn’t include a breakdown of the data by provider, which would have been useful to know as it can help to reflect issues that an ISP may be commonly struggling to resolve with their customers.

UPDATE 12:50pm

The ADR provider has been in contact with ISPreview to confirm that they do now provide a more detailed breakdown of the results (here), which includes operator specific stats. We’ve summarised some of the most interesting results for the largest broadband and mobile operators below.

Curiously, TalkTalk, BT and PlusNet are still listed on the table for mobile operators, which probably reflects legacy customers (the services have been withdrawn for new customers).