TalkTalk is shamed in broadband league table
‘Customers need faster speeds’
TALKTALK customers are the least satisfied with their broadband, watchdogs revealed yesterday.
Researchers found households with TalkTalk were the least likely to recommend their internet provider to friends.
The firm scored poorly on most measures of customer service, including reliability, in a series of polls carried out by communications regulator Ofcom.
Its consumer chief Lindsey Fussell said: ‘In this really competitive market companies just can’t afford to let their services slip because if they don’t up their game customers will vote with their feet. It is about people having greater expectations and wanting their broadband to do more and obviously getting frustrated when it doesn’t deliver.’
Vodafone and Virgin Mobile were also shamed after being ranked lower than their rivals for client satisfaction with mobile phone contracts.
Ofcom found 88 per cent of Vodafone customers and 86 per cent of Virgin Mobile clients were less satisfied than average with their phone deals. Budget options gifgaff and Tesco Mobile came out top.
Fast and reliable broadband assumed more importance than ever, the report found, with the amount of data customers used rising 44 per cent in a year.
Miss Fussell said: ‘If people want to do more, they need faster speeds to deliver that. We’ve got now quite high proportions of the population who either work from home full time or on a part-time basis.
‘Again that means they are facing a greater reliance on their broadband and increased expectation if it goes wrong.’
Most home and broadband orders were installed within 13 days but 6 per cent had to wait more than four weeks for a new connection.
A Vodafone spokesman said: ‘Delivering great customer service is a top priority for us. Our own, independently verified, consumer satisfaction score increased 12 points in the last year.’
A TalkTalk spokesman said: ‘While these results are disappointing, we are already seeing more customers staying with us than ever before as we roll out major service improvements.’
A Virgin Media spokesman said the firm was working hard to improve customer satisfaction.
He added: ‘Our continued investment in our network and our customers is clearly being noticed. We know there’s still work to be done.’