Ofcom has today published its latest consumer report, revealing that TalkTalk and 3UK generated the highest rates of customer complaints in the latest reporting period.
TalkTalk led two categories for landline and broadband services, recording 0.8 and 0.58 complaints per 1,000 customers respectively between April and June this year. By contrast, Virgin Media posted the fewest landline complaints, with 0.15 per 1,000 customers.
The 2011 Ofcom study covered a larger number of providers than in previous years, and other strong performances came from BSkyB, Orange and BT, which all registered relatively low complaint levels.
Although TalkTalk’s complaint numbers have fallen compared with Ofcom’s data from October 2010 to February 2011 — dropping from 1.78 to 0.8 for landline and from 1.27 to 0.58 for broadband — it remains the provider with the highest complaint rates in the latest quarter.
TalkTalk described the latest figures as encouraging, saying they reflect improvements in customer service and operations. A company spokesperson highlighted a number of changes: “We’re simplifying our business for the benefit of our customers and calls to our customer services teams are down 40 percent from this time last year. We’re also connecting new customers much more quickly and efficiently.”
“Last year it took an average of 23 days; today a customer will be connected in 14 days — which is the minimum allowed due to the cooling-off period,” the spokesperson added.
In the mobile market, O2 recorded the fewest complaints at 0.02 per 1,000 customers. 3UK generated the most mobile complaints, followed by Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile.
Overall, the report highlights a mixed picture across the telecoms industry: some providers have made measurable progress in reducing complaints and improving connection times, while others continue to attract proportionally more customer dissatisfaction. Ofcom’s wider dataset for 2011, which includes the largest set of providers examined to date, provides a clearer benchmark for comparing performance across landline, broadband and mobile services and for tracking improvements over time.