UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has released its most recent complaints rankings for broadband TV companies.
The report looks at January-March 2024, when inflation-based price rises were announced by the majority of providers. However, this wasn’t enough to drive complaints higher as overall complaints fell for this quarter compared to the previous period between October-December 2023.
The most common cause for complaint from UK customers was faults, service and provisioning, which made up 35% of the total share of topics. This has come at the same time as a new study by Uswitch which shows that around 38 million Brits have experienced a broadband outage of more than 3 hours in the last 12 months.
Here’s the latest broadband complaints list from Ofcom.
NOW Broadband is the new most complained-about provider
For the period of January-March 2024, NOW Broadband were clearly the most complained-about broadband provider with 22 complaints per 100,000 customers. This was mainly driven by grievances customers had with its complaints handling. It’s NOW’s first time at the top of the rankings in recent memory, after rising in the ranks during the previous quarter as well, when it received 18 complaints per 100,000.
Virgin Media has seen a drop in its average complaints, at 18. This means it is still high in the rankings but no longer the most complained-about provider. Vodafone was the third most complained-about broadband provider, but it saw an increase in complaints from 14 to 16 per 100,000 customers.
EE saw the biggest rise in its broadband complaints, from 9 to 14 per 100,000. This takes EE above the industry average number of complaints of 11.
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Sky remains the least complained-about
While it saw a slight increase in complaints to 6 per 100,000, Sky remained joint-least complained-about with provider Shell Energy Broadband, which is soon to be a retired brand.
Sky has continued its excellent performance in this ranking, where it has consistently received the fewest (or joint-fewest) complaints among the major UK broadband providers.
Virgin Media still far ahead of others for TV complaints
Broadband and TV provider Virgin Media continues its streak as the most complained-about pay-TV provider, although it has seen a significant drop in its number of complaints compared to October-December 2023.
It is still the only TV provider to see higher than the industry average number of complaints, getting 11 per 100,000 compared to TalkTalk’s 3, and EE (previously BT) and Sky’s 2. However, it has seen a drop in 9 complaints per 100,000 from its previous score of 20.
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Ernest Doku, broadband expert at Uswitch, said:
“It’s good to see that complaints to Ofcom about landline, fixed broadband and pay-TV have fallen in the first quarter of this year compared to Q4 of 2023.
“This is a positive sign that providers are supporting their customers effectively, and listening to feedback. However with mobile pay-monthly complaints rising, there is still work to be done.
“It’s disappointing that NOW Broadband is the most complained-about broadband provider, driven by how customer complaints are handled. NOW Broadband received almost four times as many complaints as least complained-about broadband providers Sky and Shell Energy Broadband."
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