BT sucks and Virgin Media rocks as Ofcom outs broadband baddies
Latest broadband, landline, mobile phone and pay TV complaints data reveals the best and worst companies
BT has topped the table of broadband complaints for the first time while Orange is the most complained about mobile phone company, according to the latest industry figures.
The data comes from regulator Ofcom’s twelfth quarterly telecoms report for the end of 2013.
In good news the number of complaints about landline telephone, broadband, pay-monthly mobile and TV services continues to fall. Complaints about mobile pay-as-you-go remained unchanged. Ofcom said the report should act as an “incentive” to companies to “deliver an improved quality of service to their customers”.
BT was the most complained about broadband company for the first time, with 0.32 complaints per 1,000 customers during the fourth quarter of 2013. Complaints were mostly about service faults and the handling of complaints. EE was the second worst broadband provider, with 0.29 complaints per 1,000 customers. TalkTalk was also above the industry average number of complaints with 0.21 for every 1,000 customers. Virgin Media and Sky both received good results, with 0.07 and 0.08 complaints per 1,000 respectively.
TalkTalk was the most complained about landline telephone company, with 0.27 complaints per 1,000 customers. Ofcom noted that although TalkTalk is still bottom of the league, complaints were now at their lowest level since it started recording data. BT was the second worst landline phone company with 0.20 complaints per 1,000 customers with Virgin Media receiving the fewest number of complaints for its landline service at just 0.06 complaints per 1,000 customers.
Orange and T-Mobile were the two worst pay-monthly mobile phone companies. Orange received above average complaints of 0.12 per 1,000 customers with T-Mobile on 0.11 per 1,000. Virgin Mobile also saw complaints above the industry average at 0.07 per 1,000 customers. Complaints against Three and O2 were low at 0.033 per 1,000 and 0.029 per 1,000.
Complaints about pay TV services revealed that BT once again performed poorly. BT TV received 0.31 complaints per 1,000 customers, well above the average. Complaints mainly related to service faults and billing. TalkTalk pay TV complaints were also quite high at 0.19 per 1,000. Sky and Virgin Media once again received the fewest number of complaints with both companies at 0.02 per 1,000 customers.
Ofcom said that as it had not received more than 30 complaints per month about any pay-as –you-go mobile provider it hadn’t included this data.