EE And Vodafone Top Ofcom Complaints Table Again

The number of complaints made to Ofcom increased quarter-on-quarter during the three months between July and September, with EE the most ranted about landline and broadband provider, and Vodafone earning the honour in the mobile category.

Both companies retain their dubious honours from the previous quarter, with EE receiving 34 complaints per 100,000 customers for its home phone service – double the industry average.

This was slightly worse than Plusnet’s score of 33. The main issues for EE were faults, service and provisioning, changing provider and complaints handling.

Ofcom complaints

BT, the Post Office and TalkTalk all scored above industry average, while Sky received just 7 complaints per 100,000 and Virgin Media performed best with just six.

EE, which is in the process of being bought by BT for £12.5 billion, was once again being the most complained about broadband service with 45 per 100,000 customers. Plusnet was second again with 37 percent – up from 20 percent – followed BT, where the figure rose from 22 percent to 35 percent quarter-on-quarter.

TalkTalk’s 33 was above the industry average of 22, while Sky’s score of 7 and Virgin Media’s 6 were the best on the board.

“We are working hard to address issues with landline and broadband,” an EE spokesperson told TechWeekEurope. “We’ve already introduced a broadband service improvement programme and, together with the creation of 500 new UK roles, we are already seeing positive results. While it’s too soon for these improvements to be reflected in today’s Ofcom’s figures, we hope to see a positive decline in future reports.”

In the mobile sector, Vodafone was comfortably the worst performing with 22 complaints per 100,000 customers, up from 14, with EE the only other operator above average. Tesco Mobile was the best performing for the sixth consecutive quarter with 1 per 100,000 while TalkTalk Mobile complaints halved from 12 to 6.

Ofcom said it receives just above 300 complaints each day and hopes its report will help consumers make purchasing decisions and encourage communications providers to improve their service.

“We expect providers to make customer service and complaints handling top priorities, so it’s disappointing to see a rise in the number of complaints,” said Claudio Pollack, Director of Ofcom’s Content and Consumer Group. “Consumers have a right to expect good service and will rightfully complain when that standard isn’t met. Ofcom is continuing work to make switching easier and our complaints data allows consumers to make meaningful comparisons that can be useful when looking for a new provider.”