Broadband clients left hanging for twice as long during crisis

CALL centres have used the pandemic as an excuse to leave customers waiting on the phone for double the amount of time that they did in 2019, figures from Ofcom suggest.

The telecoms regulator said the average wait for broadband customers looking to contact their providers had risen from just over two minutes in 2019 to just over four last year, and that companies needed to do better.

Many providers found their customer service operations disrupted at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak as they had to adapt to having call centre staff working from home.

But Martyn James, of consumer complaints service Resolver, said customers are still being left on hold with companies continuing to use the pandemic as an excuse.

“While everyone will have given them a certain amount of leeway at first, if there is any industry you would expect to get its act together quickly it would be telecoms,” he added.

“Even now people are telling us about long waits and even difficulties finding a phone number for companies in the first place.”

Waiting times for mobile companies had grown by around a minute, according

to the figures.

Ofcom said that, while many firms had been able to bring waiting times back down, “more than a year since the pandemic began, we expect performance to return to at least 2019 levels”.

Lindsey Fussell, a director at the regulator, said: “Telecoms companies adapted quickly to meet soaring demand for their services last year – helping to keep the country connected.

“But some have struggled with customer service problems. We’re challenging them to act now, so the telecoms industry becomes the gold standard for customer service.”

Andrew Glover, chairman of Ispa, the broadband providers’ trade body, said firms have worked “tirelessly” to support customers, but pointed out that the industry had experienced record demand in the past year. Some 80 per cent of customers were satisfied with their provider, he said.

Virgin Media had the longest waiting times of any broadband provider with an average of seven minutes and 40 seconds.

A spokesman said it had to completely change how it worked last year, but that providing customers with a great service was its top priority.