Ofcom poll sees TalkTalk retain the wooden spoon for customer service, while BSkyB and Orange fared well
Almost a quarter of TalkTalk customers are dissatisfied with its landline and broadband services, according to research by telecommunications regulator Ofcom. In a poll of 11,000 people, Ofcom found that 24% of customers were dissatisfied with TalkTalk's landline service and 23% unhappy with its broadband.
Respondents were asked to rate their most recent customer service experience, giving scores for how easy it was to contact customer services and the speeds with which they were dealt with, as well as satisfaction with the advice they were given and the person who dealt with them.
BSkyB had the most satisfied customers among the landline providers (66% were satisfied and 17% dissatisfied), while Orange rated highly among broadband providers (76% satisfied with only 11% dissatisfied). Ofcom said Orange had the lowest satisfaction levels for customer service in 2009 (42%) so had vastly improved in the last two years, while both BT and Sky customers also reported improved scores.
T-Mobile scored the highest among mobile phone providers (72% satisfied, 9% dissatisfied), with 3 and Vodafone bottom of the table with a respective 11% and 14% of customers dissatisfied. Satisfaction with Pay TV customer services was higher than average (66%), with BSkyB just edging it over Virgin Media.
The main reason consumers contact their landline provider is to change their package or service or because of poor line quality, while connection speeds remain the biggest issue for broadband customers, followed by changing package and, increasingly, higher-than-expected bills. Consumers tend to contact their mobile provider to discuss changes to package or service, billing issues and to a lesser extent fault/repair issues.
In April Ofcom said TalkTalk, the UK's third-biggest internet service provider after BT and Virgin Media, was the most complained about provider of landline and broadband services between October 2010 and February 2011. The firm's landline service had 1.78 complaints for every 1,000 customers, while its broadband offering had 1.27 complaints per 1,000 customers.
TalkTalk, has experienced increasing customer service problems since its takeover of Tiscali in 2009. Ofcom said it saw a peak in complaints about TalkTalk in November 2010, following its investigation into the company for incorrectly billing consumers for cancelled services. As a result, TalkTalk and its Tiscali subsidiary have since paid £2.5m in compensation to 62,500 people.
Ofcom spokesman Claudio Pollack said: "The research shows that there can be considerable differences in consumers' experiences of customer service. By publishing this research we want to give consumers an insight into the standard of customer service being offered across the communications sector. The more information of this kind consumers have, the more effectively they can exercise their choice."
New rules come into force on 22 July which will require communications providers to do more to help consumers resolve complaints. If a complaint remains unresolved after eight weeks, customers will now have the right to take their complaint to a free, independent, Ofcom-approved resolution service – Ombudsman Services: Communications or CISAS. Decisions made by the resolution services are legally binding on the provider.
Ofcom's survey only covered companies holding a market share of 4% or more. Michael Phillips of Broadbandchoices.co.uk said this means the research is flawed: "It's a shame that the research excludes the smaller service providers. Our own research earlier this year of over 11,000 respondents has shown that smaller, niche [broadband] providers, such as O2, BE and Plusnet, are streets ahead of some of their larger counterparts.
"This report highlights how important it is to regularly compare services and providers and take into account more than just the headline price. The cheapest deal is not necessarily the best value, so look at things like customer ratings and additional benefits to the overall package when weighing up your choices.
"The new rules on resolving customer complaints should have a positive knock-on effect in improving service levels. Our research has shown that consumer awareness of the complaints process is very low and many don't use it. Voting with your feet is the best way to improve your service and get value for money."
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jul/21/talktalk-worst-landline-broadband-ofcom
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