Ofcom has released its list of the worst and best companies for broadband and mobile phone customer services The terrible April bill hikes included increases for mobile phone and broadband costs, but are you getting the most for your money?
Household bills increased last month in a variety of ways, including broadband and mobile, council tax, water and energy prices, and more.
Additionally, the increases caused inflation to rise to 3.5 percent, the highest level in more than a year.
However, do you get the best customer service if you pay more for your landline, broadband, or mobile phone? Ofcom, the UK's communication regulator, recently published its most recent list of the best and worst customer service providers.
Ofcom discovered indications that businesses have improved their problem-solving techniques: in 2024, customer satisfaction with complaints handling for landlines (60 percent), broadband (58 percent), and mobile (61 percent) was all noticeably higher. For all three services, satisfaction rates in 2022 were slightly higher than 50%.
Customers who use mobile and broadband services reported having more reasons to complain last year than in 2022, with 14 percent saying they had a reason to do so (compared to 12 percent) and 23 percent saying they had a reason to complain (compared to 20 percent).
"It is encouraging to see industry come together in support of our call to improve things for their customers," stated Ian Macrae, director of market intelligence at Ofcom. Many providers have reduced call waiting times, and consumers are becoming more satisfied with how complaints are handled. But there's still more to do.
"The industry continues to take too long to correct issues when they arise, and not all businesses have made the same strides. Customers can now switch providers more easily than ever thanks to our regulations, so if businesses do nothing, they risk losing clients.
If your contracts are up, you could save hundreds of dollars by switching to a new provider. How does your current provider rank? Is now a good time to switch?
Customer service is ranked for mobile businesses.
In 2024, the average number of complaints to Ofcom decreased across all mobile phone service providers.
Tesco Mobile received fewer complaints than O2, which had the highest number of complaints per 100,000 mobile customers (23).
Smaller providers, including those not affiliated with the four major network operatorsEE, O2, Three, and Vodafonetended to receive higher ratings overall.
From Ofcom.
Customers gave Plusnet's landline a higher-than-average overall satisfaction rating (83 percent), demonstrating the company's continued strong performance. Customers of Virgin Media, on the other hand, scored lower than usual (67 percent).
Both Vodafone (67%) and Sky (65%) expressed greater than average satisfaction with the way landline complaints were handled.
What is the duration required to contact customer service?
According to an Ofcom study, while broadband and landline customers take longer to contact a customer service agent when they have a problem, mobile customers take less time.
Mobile customers now have an average wait time of 1 minute 52 seconds to reach a customer service agent, compared to 2 minutes 24 seconds in 2023.
Call waiting times for landline and broadband providers increased by 13 seconds from the industry average of 1 minute 48 seconds in 2023 to 2 minutes 1 second in 2024.
Additionally, the installation of new services for landline and broadband customers is taking longer, and the top and bottom performers differ significantly.
In 2024, it took an average of 11 days to complete orders, which was one day longer than in 2023.
While BT and EE each completed 69 percent of orders by the agreed-upon date, Vodafone completed the fewest orders60 percentby that date.
In contrast, over 90% of orders were fulfilled on time by Sky, TalkTalk, and NOW Broadband.
Compared to eight out of ten (80%) in 2023, only three quarters (73%) of all landline and broadband orders were delivered by the scheduled date in 2024.
What to do in the event that something goes wrong.
Landline and broadband customers of businesses that have enrolled in Ofcom's automatic compensation plan are eligible to receive reimbursement for extended outages, missed engineer appointments, and postponed start dates for new services without having to file a formal complaint.
The fact that providers paid out more than 63 million to customers under the scheme in 2024 compared to 67 million in 2023 indicates that fewer customer problems are occurring.
The providers listed below have joined the program.
BT EE Hyperoptic Plusnet Sky (including NOW Broadband); TalkTalk (restrictions apply for customers not on the Openreach network); Utility Warehouse Virgin Media Vodafone (restrictions apply for customers on the CityFibre network); Zen Internet Outside of the automatic scheme, Ofcom is not authorized by Parliament to handle complaints from consumers regarding their broadband or phone service. Alternatively, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services can handle these.
The Communications Ombudsman and the Communication & Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS) are the two ADR programs that Ofcom currently approves.
The use of ADR schemes is free and independent. If you would like to file a complaint with an ADR scheme,.
You have already brought this up with your communications provider, and it has not been resolved. Either you have been unable to come to an agreement with your provider and have received a deadlock letter, or it has been at least eight weeks since you first complained to them. Despite not looking into individual complaints, Ofcom may look into a business if monitoring points to a specific issue.
For instance, providers currently use the term "fiber broadband" as a catch-all. However, Ofcom wants changes to make it clearer to customers whether they will receive a full-fibre or partial connection.
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