Phone customers stuck on hold for longer

The average time mobilephone customers have to wait to speak to their network when phoning them has nearly doubled since 2019, Ofcom says.

Its annual report (www. snipca.com/42013) on customer service in the broadband and mobile industry showed that wait times in 2021 rose to two minutes, 15 seconds – up by eight seconds from 2020, and an increase from one minute, 18 seconds in 2019.

Ofcom said that the increase is due to the “impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”. O2 customers had to wait the longest (three minutes, 59 seconds), followed by Vodafone (two minutes, 30 seconds). Three answered the phone fastest, in just 16 seconds.

However, the time broadband and landline customers had to wait fell in 2021, though it was still slightly longer than before the pandemic. On average, customers waited two minutes, 16 seconds, a big drop from four minutes, nine seconds in 2020. In 2019, the average time was two minutes, 10 seconds.

Customers of KCOM, which serves Hull and the surrounding area, waited the longest in 2021, at nearly nine minutes, followed by Virgin Media (three minutes, 45 seconds). Now Broadband answered the phone fastest, taking 31 seconds on average.

Resolving complaints is also an area of concern, Ofcom said. Only half of mobile, broadband and landline customers who complained to their provider in 2021 were satisfied by how their problem was dealt with. No company scored higher than 57 per cent on this

Despite these problems, Ofcom reported an overall “high” level of customer satisfaction across mobile (91 per cent), broadband (83 per cent) and landline (71 per cent). BT received the highest broadband rating at 88 per cent, ahead of EE and Sky (see box below).