Ofcom: TalkTalk most complained about ISP
January 22, 2018
Ofcom has published its quarterly data on the volume of consumer complaints it has received against major providers of telecoms and pay-TV services.
The latest report covers the three-month period from July to September 2017 (Q3), and includes complaints made about providers of home broadband, landline telephone, pay-monthly mobile and pay-TV services.
There was a slight increase in the total number of complaints for landline and pay-TV services between Q2 and Q3 in 2017, while overall broadband and pay-monthly mobile complaints figures remained the same. Broadband and landline services continued to generate the highest volume of complaints.
Jane Rumble, Ofcom’s Director of Consumer Policy, said: “We’re shining a light on how different providers perform, and it’s clear many need to up their game on service quality and complaints handling. People expect high standards from their providers, and companies must put their customers first.”
TalkTalk was the ISP with the highest rate of complaints for the period, with 30 per 100,000 subscribers. It was followed by Plusnet and BT, with 27 and 25 complaints per 100,000 customers, respectively. Sky led the back with just 7 complaints per 100,000.
Explaining the figures, a TalkTalk spokesperson said: “We are obviously disappointed by these figures. Ofcom’s historical data covers a period last year when we closed our customer service operations in India which caused some temporary disruption. That move, and a radical shift to self-serve, has already delivered a material improvement in customer satisfaction and we expect complaint data for 2018 to reduce significantly.”
In the pay-TV sector, Sky also topped the charts with just two complaints for every 100,000 subscribers. BT TV drew the most complaints with 14 per 100,000. Ofcom noted: “BT’s main complaint driver was complaints handling followed by billing, pricing and charging, and faults, service and provision issues.”