Ofcom has revealed the phone and broadband companies that have been really getting your goat. The communications regulator has compared the number of complaints it's received from customers of the main mobile-phone networks and Internet service providers, giving a picture of who's providing the best -- and worst -- service.
Ofcom has added up the complaints you made between October 2010 and February 2011, and compared each company on a level playing field by working out the number of complaints per 1,000 customers. Below are some graphs of your grumbles.
O2 tops the mobile networks' graph (above) for satisfaction, with 0.04 complaints per 1,000 customers. Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone each had more than double that number of complaints. Three's been giving its customers the right old hump, with 0.15 complaints per 1,000 customers.
Virgin Media leads both the landline comparison -- pictured above -- and broadband -- pictured below -- beating BSkyB, BT Retail, and TalkTalk. BT managed to keep its landline customers significantly happier than its broadband users.
TalkTalk really got up its users' noses, with 1.78 complaints per 1,000 landline customers. Complaints spiked in November 2010, when Ofcom investigated TalkTalk for billing people who'd cancelled their service.
Ofcom receives 450 telecoms complaints per day on a range of issues. Grievances range from misselling and billing errors to outages and customer-service problems. Here's the full report abut complaints.
What's your biggest gripe with your network? If you've complained to your network, were you happy with the way they dealt with you, or are you ejecting yourself from your contract as soon as you can? Have a grumble in the comments section below or on our Facebook wall.
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Comments 16
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Anonymous 21 April, 2011 16:09
Not sure of this, I've never had any complaints with Three. Still the fastest and cheapest network for me.
Grier78 21 April, 2011 16:14
To Anonymous - 3Uk only get 0.15 per thousand customers, so even though they are one of the worst this is still quite a low number and is lower than the best performer for Landline and Broadband (Virgin Media at 0.21 and 0.20 respectively)
anonymous 21 April, 2011 17:53
I m using an androd touch phone samsung galaxy 5801. I want to use snaptu on this but till now it has not been possible. Kindly make it possible!
anonymous 21 April, 2011 20:01
I'm a serial switcher and value good customer services and reliability more than most other considerations. After trying all the main mobile networks and numerous TV/broadband companies (inc Sky, BT Vision, Tiscali and Homechoice), I have to say the Virgin Media are now streets ahead on this (and a million times better than their predecessor NTL) and O2 do a good job of getting me a signal, upgrades and dealing with my queries helpfully. Hopefully more and more customers will vote with their feet and force the poor-performing companies to drive up service quality and drive down prices. This information on complaints is useful, but customers must accept their responsibilities in a free society - if they put up with shoddy services passively, moan and don't switch, things won't get better.
JK1999 22 April, 2011 15:27
I completely agree with those graphs o2 is definitely the best mobile network (best coverage, customer service, value for money ect.) and TalkTalk is the worst broadband provider! They once cut us off for no reason so we phoned them up and they said there had been a mistake and that we would be reconnected straight away alas it took more in the area around 2 days!
Andrew Sloan 22 April, 2011 19:05
cant beat three's pricing "all you can eat data " i have been told means all you can eat data .
Anonymous 23 April, 2011 17:47
thank god i went from 3 to O2 last year. never looked back since.
Anonymous 23 April, 2011 18:44
I've been on 3 mobile for 3 of the last 5 years and I've never had cause to complain. I was on 02 for the other two years, and they were fine too!
Neither showed themselves to be better than the other in terms of customer service, coverage, etc.
3 just worked out to be cheaper, so they win my custom!
Anonymous 24 April, 2011 11:50
I have been with 3 since 2005, main reasons for staying with 3 : Skype ( free ) as standard as I have relatives abroad , good signal, and price. I have never had problem with 3 phones but I was told by friends that customer service is not good since it is based in India. I have however been cheated by the manager of one of its shops.
When I upgraded/renewed my contract recently I was told that my monthly pay would be reduced if I took a £25
sim only all in one contract and cancelled the contract on the 15th day .
I was lucky somebody told me that if I did as told I could not cancelled the contract as cooling period is 14 days. Obviously it was a trap ! I went back to the shop and cancelled the contract before the 14th day.
Anonymous 25 April, 2011 00:58
Eugh, we had Talk Talk broadband for a few years and it was a very bad experience, the connection gets steadily worse to a point where you cannot get through a day without it cutting out at least once for about an hour or so. We changed to BT and the connection is much more stable
Anonymous 25 April, 2011 11:07
the main problem with three is not really the service the provide but the customer service. its sooo terrible iv'e been meaning to leave three for over 3 years now because of this, but every time my upgrade comes. there is no comparison in value for money.
in conclusion as long as you don't have to talk to them about something there great.
Jono70 27 April, 2011 11:12
I've been with 3 since 2007 and their network is fast, cheap and reliable. That's all fine as long as you never need to contact their customer services which is shockingly bad - not the fact that it's based in India (which I have no problem with) - more that the operators are poorly trained, just read from a script, make mistakes and are more interested in flogging you new "services" rather than sorting out your existing problem. My wife cancelled a dongle contract with them over the phone - only to find out that they didn't - and got charged another couple of months for it which they point-blank refused to refund...
Anonymous 4 May, 2011 14:20
TalkTalk really are dreadful. I twitch a little just hearing the name. Must be all the hours/days I spent explaining and re-explaining, and being put on hold, and being transferred, and explaining again, and being transferred, then finding I've been transferred to a dead line, then dialling again, then explaining, and explaining again, then being transferred..... [men in white overcoats turn up, take gibbering wreck to their special van]
Anonymous 19 May, 2011 12:29
Broadband quality is a lot to do with where you live not always who you're with. TalkTalk customer services are free to call and most friendly, even if they're not terribly efficient, and as far as I'm concerned the speed and quality of the signal is good. Unfortunately the router / modems they send are very poor indeed, that's why when with TalkTalk it's best to use a different one. Virgin customer services on the other hand are not free to call don't know their arse from their elbow and are very arrogant to the point of being rude, and extremely unhelpful. It costs a small fortune to phone them (unless you have cable) as it's a premium rate number and they will not reimburse you the cost even if they are at fault. Their broadband itself is good but their customer services will often leave you seething to the point of explosion, and I am not alone in feeling this way as several people I know who were with them can vouch. I could go into very very long rants about how bad Virgin are but the nervous ticks have just stopped and I don't want them coming back again...
anonymous 22 August, 2011 23:07
I bought my Three prepay Samsung Galaxy Europa phone online a few weeks ago and in a couple of days of my starting to use it it began to shut itself off, despite being fully charged. The on button was non responsive and the only remedy was to take the battery out, re-insert it and turn the phone back on.
I visited my local three store today and was told that if I had purchased the phone instore (they were running the exact same offer) they could perform a straight exchange there and then (as they had a large supply of the phones of the same make and model available), however as I had purchased my phone online I would have to contact Three's customer services in order to arrange the exchange. I did this and was told by three's (awful, awful) customer service that while their first course of action was to exchange the phone THEY HAD RUN OUT, so I would have to send it for 'repair' instead. So although the high street stores have lots of Samsung Galaxy Europa's in stock, the 3 online store apparently had none. It's of course nonsense, but because I bought the phone online I'm stuck with dealing with them.
People should be made aware that if they purchase from 3's online store and if anything goes wrong you'll receive a lower quality of customer service than if you'd purchased from a high street store doing the EXACT SAME OFFER. Essentially you'll be penalised for shopping online.
Suddenly Giff Gaff is looking very attractive indeed.
anonymous 18 August, 2012 09:39
3 has got to be the worst network out there. I have been with them for 5 years, the first couple were OK as they are cheap. But they missold me an i-phone on the basis of a 14 day trial period - and although I cancelled within the period, they said because I had used the phone, they would not take it back. I escalated the complaint as I was not told this by the sales person on the phone, but just had a point blank refusal saying I had to stick out the 2 year contract. It expires in November 2012 but now I get no network coverage at home or in my office! Their coverage has seriously deteriorated over the past year. The watchdog should really shut them down as they fail to do the basic thing we buy them for - the ability to make and receive telephone calls! Shocking company all round.