EE gets most broadband and mobile complaints, TalkTalk worst for landlines

Ofcom shines a light on sub-par telecoms services

Telecoms regulator Ofcom has published its latest summary of complaints raised about providers and found EE and TalkTalk to be the most often criticised.

Ofcom said it produces the information so users can make better, more informed decisions about which service providers to choose. It added that this report, which is its 13th, includes more complaints than the previous one.

Complaints stayed the same in two areas, mobile pay monthly and pay TV, but increased for landline, broadband and mobile pay-as-you-go services. This suggests that providers are not improving their services, or that consumers are selecting the wrong provider for their needs.

EE, which is one of the most frequently complained about providers, may suffer as its figures also include complaints about Orange and T-Mobile. The firm had the most complaints for mobile service.

EE also took the bulk of customer complaints about broadband, 0.42 per 1,000 customers, and Ofcom said that most were about service faults and billing issues. EE also topped the pay monthly complaint tables.

The firm told V3 that it is working to improve customer service. "We are committed to improving service levels and have plans to return over 1,000 customer service roles to the UK from overseas call centres, the first phase of which will see two new UK call centres open in the next few weeks," said EE.

"We are of course disappointed, but will take on board the findings of this latest Ofcom report as we strive to offer our customers the best-possible service."

TalkTalk was the most complained about landline provider, and generated 0.28 grumbles for every thousand customers. BT was also rated poorly here and picked up 0.23 complaints per 1,000 users.

TalkTalk said that the complaints levelled at it are falling, adding that it too has improvements on the way.

"Complaints about broadband are down by two thirds compared with three years ago, and we are seeing far fewer complaints about landlines. We've continued to make significant improvements while building a TV business of over one million customers in just under 18 months," the firm said.

"We set out to do this in a careful and managed way, which is reflected both in high levels of customer satisfaction and the low numbers of complaints for such a fast-growing business."

Virgin, which scored lower-than-average complaint levels, welcomed that news, but too promised improvement.

Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media chief executive, said: "Whilst it is great to see customers have told Ofcom we are better than BT, Sky and TalkTalk, there is always room for improvement. We believe we can do even more and are working hard to deliver the best customer experience every time."