UK: Widespread dissatisfaction with broadband and phone providers

Results of latest UK home phone and broadband customer satisfaction report

3 July 2007 0:10 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

The results of the latest home phone and broadband Customer Satisfaction Report by uSwitch.com, the independent online comparison and switching service have been announced.

The report is the UK’s most comprehensive on customer satisfaction, based on responses from nearly 9000 home phone and nearly 11,000 broadband customers shows that, despite promises from companies that things are on the up, customers have yet to see any signs of improvement.

While home phone customer satisfaction is up by 4%, broadband satisfaction has continued to plummet and for the first time, a quarter of customers (25%) are not satisfied with their broadband provider.

Standards have dropped by 3% since October 2006 and 10%since March 2006, the last survey before "free" broadband service were launched.

Highlights (or should that be low-lights?) of the survey are as follow:

• Empty promises - a quarter (25%) of customers are not satisfied with their broadband provider, a 3% decline in satisfaction since October

• Small is beautiful – Plusnet leapfrogs the big boys to win the crown of Best Overall Provider with 78% of customers satisfied

• Biggest loser – consumers place Orange at the bottom for the second time running with 400,000 customers (35%) not satisfied

• All TalkTalk – massive investment has yet to pay dividends as TalkTalk satisfaction drops a further 1% - just 69% of customers are satisfied placing it second to bottom in the poll

• Tie-break – round one of the Murdoch versus Branson battle for happy customers ends in a tie-break as Sky and Virgin Media come joint second with AOL

• Home phone happiness – almost 8 out of 10 (78%) customers are satisfied, a 4% rise since October with Tiscali at the top (87%) and Virgin Media at the bottom (76%)

• Deal or no deal – consumers vote BT best for customer support (62%) but worst for value for money – over 4 million BT customers do not believe they are getting a good deal