TalkTalk has emerged as the most complained-about broadband and phone services provider in the UK, according to the latest data from industry regulator Ofcom.
The dubious honour was bestowed on them after the company attracted the most complaints over the period from April to June, 2011, while Virgin Media kept their customers the happiest, attracting the fewest complaints.
Mobile moans
When it comes to mobile networks, 3 attracted the most grizzles, whines and whinges with customers busy arguing the toss over disputed charges and customer service issues. By comparison, o2 were the least complained about – by a sizeable margin.
Another year, same crap companies
Ofcom’s first report on customer satisfaction was published in October last year, and the same two faces – TalkTalk and 3 – topped the ‘most complaints’ list back then.
TalkTalk ended up getting fined £3m by Ofcom after they received over 1,000 complaints about incorrectly billing thousands of customers for services they had not received, and the company has also paid out more than £2.5m in ‘goodwill payments’ since 2009.
Keen to spin the woeful news into something positive, TalkTalk got spinning:
It’s encouraging that Ofcom’s data demonstrates that, following the Tiscali integration, the service we offer our customers has significantly improved in the last quarter with the number of complaints as a percentage of customers dropping by over 50%.
We’re committed to providing good service alongside our best value and, while we clearly still have lots to do, we’re confident that our customers are beginning to see the benefits of the changes we continue to make.
The bad boy listings:
LANDLINE COMPLAINTS
TalkTalk – 0.8 complaints per 1,000 customers
BT Retail – 0.25
BSkyB – 0.25
Virgin Media – 0.15
BROADBAND COMPLAINTS
TalkTalk – 0.58 complaints per 1,000 customers
BT Retail – 0.43
Orange – 0.37
BSkyB – 0.20
Virgin Media – 0.15
MOBILE COMPLAINTS
3UK – 0.14 per 1,000 customers
Orange – 0.07
T-Mobile – 0.06
Vodafone – 0.06
Virgin Mobile – 0.05
O2 – 0.02
[Via BBC]
NTL used to have a *terrible* reputation in Derby for shoddy customer service. Has the bearded one turned things around for them?
I am still amazed by the incompetence displayed by BT when moving my business broadband and ISDN to a new home/office. Just this morning I got yet another letter forwarded from the old place…