UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has published its latest numbers on which providers have been moaned about most and EE put in a solid performance.
The data is subdivided into mobile, broadband and landline. It’s not clear how many people still use landlines, let alone care about the service enough to complain when it falls short of their expectations, but it’s strangely comforting to know that some do. Somehow Virgin managed to do the most to alienate its landline customers and making them wait for nearly five minutes before answering their calls can’t have helped.
To be fair to Virgin, it makes its broadband customers wait just as long, so at least it’s consistent, but they seem a bit more resigned to their telecoms purgatory. Amazingly BT-owned Plusnet, which makes its punters wait almost as long, topped the overall satisfaction chart, with stablemates BT and EE also doing well. So it looks like BT Group has its customer service operations performing well at least.
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Mobile operators seem to try harder, with overall satisfaction significantly higher than fixed-line services. MVNOs, however, are showing their landlords how to do it, with Tesco Mobile leaving nearly all of its customers satisfied. Three, Vodafone and, once more, Virgin are the once propping up the table in mobile.
“Checking the quality of a phone or broadband provider’s customer service can be the difference between you signing up to a company that keeps you connected, or one that falls short,” said Lindsey Fussell, Consumer Group Director at Ofcom. “Our research helps people to easily compare how providers perform on customer service, so they can choose the one that’s best for them.”
Those Ofcom canned quotes are great, aren’t they? One the whole, if you were looking for a triple-play offering, EE would appear to be the most solid choice. Meanwhile, on this data at least, Virgin is one to avoid if you want to keep your blood pressure under control.