Ofcom complaint statistics January 2024

Mobile phone on red background. Time 8.30 Green background on phone @complaining cow message Worst telecom and pay-TV providers revealed

Latest Ofcom complaint figures show similar levels to previous quarter

Today (25 January 2024) Ofcom released its latest figures regarding complaints about broadband, mobile, landline and pay-TV services.

During the last reported quarter, from July 2023 to September 2023, the number of complaints about landline, broadband and pay-TV services all increased whilst mobile complaints remained at similar levels.

Ofcom is the UK telecoms regulator and although it cannot deal with complaints directly, it does collate statistics on complaints. Every quarter it collates and reports the number of complaints per 100,000 customers for each UK telecoms provider.

Virgin Media – the most complained about provider

As a Virgin Media customer it comes as no surprise to me whatsoever that it was the most complained-about provider across the broadband, landline and pay-TV categories, seeing significant rises in all those areas.

In July 2023 Ofcom announced that it was launching an investigation into customers’ difficulties cancelling contracts and how it had handled complaints on this subject. Ofcom believes that this may have been a factor in more people coming forward to complain.

I am not so sure. Wouldn’t raising awareness of this type of issue have encouraged consumers to complain to other providers about the same problems? And, of course, Virgin Media has always performed poorly in Ofcom’s complaint reporting. Fergal Farragher, Ofcom’s Consumer Protection Director, said:

We acknowledge the impact of our investigation on Virgin Media’s complaints figures for this quarter, but are also aware that our investigation was in part based on complaints that customers had already made about Virgin Media’s services. We may publish updates on the investigation on our Enforcement Bulletin as the investigation progresses.”

Other providers with high complaint numbers

Two providers, NOW Broadband and TalkTalk, received higher-than-average numbers of complaints in landline services. NOW Broadband also received higher-than-average complaints in broadband services.

But TalkTalk (along with Sky) was the least complained about pay-TV provider. Perhaps that department needs to share some good practice with their colleagues?

The most complained about mobile operators were O2 and BT Mobile. The largest number of complaints about O2 was driven by how customers’ complaints were being handled whilst BT’s complaints were topped by customers’ experiences of changing provider.

Providers doing well

Sky Mobile, EE and Vodafone received the fewest complaints in the mobile sector.

Sky continues to be the provider that attracts the fewest (or joint fewest complaints) per 100,000 subscribers across all four services Ofcom measures.

For full details on the report see Latest telecoms and pay-TV complaints revealed – Ofcom

Choosing a telecom provider

Ofcom’s Farragher said: “The slight increase in complaints on the previous quarter shows that providers must continue to focus on improving customer service.”

But we see the same providers continually providing poor service and not enough action from Ofcom.

If you are not happy with your provider, you should look to switch. Take some time to compare prices but always consider the quality of customer service offered by the company.

You can read more on this page All you need to know about comparison websites

Further help with complaining effectively

Top 20 Tips on how to complain effectively

How to save money on and complain about, telecom providers

And for everything else to complain about effectively GET THE BOOK! How To Complain: The ESSENTIAL Consumer Guide to Getting REFUNDS, Redress and RESULTS!

Want to get better at complaining? See 101 Habits of an Effective Complainer

Save yourself time and effort finding the laws and wording a letter of complaint and download a template, fill in your details and get that redress

Purchase downloadable templates to gain redress

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