Ofcom complaints league table reveals worst phone and broadband providers
Virgin Media and Vodafone have topped the league table for the most telecoms and broadband complaints in the third quarter last year, according to regulator Ofcom.
Virgin received the most complaints for both pay-monthly mobile and pay-TV services, while Vodafone was the most bemoaned provider for broadband and landline.
Read more: Which mobile operators offer London's fastest download speeds?
The majority of grievances levelled at Virgin related to contract issues and the company’s handling of complaints.
The third quarter figures coincide with a fee dispute between Virgin and UKTV that led to the provider's customers losing 10 channels for three weeks.
The result is a baptism of fire for Vodafone, which was entered into the charts for the first time this year after breaching a market share level of 1.5 per cent.
Here's how mobile providers ranked against the industry average of four complaints per 100,000 customers:
| Mobile provider | No of complaints per 100,000 customers |
| Virgin Mobile | 11 |
| BT Mobile | 8 |
| Vodafone | 8 |
| ID Mobile | 5 |
| Three | 4 |
| O2 | 3 |
| EE | 3 |
| Tesco Mobile | 1 |
The Post Office was also entered into the league table for broadband for the first time, and scored above the industry average.
Sky, Tesco Mobile, EE and O2 all recorded low levels of complaints.
Jane Rumble, director of consumer policy at Ofcom, said: “With so much competition in telecoms and TV services, companies that are falling short need to make service quality and complaints handling their priority.
“Customers who aren’t happy with their provider can shop around and vote with their feet.”
Overall, customer satisfaction remained high, with 80 per cent happy with their broadband service and 91 per cent satisfied with all mobile services.
Read more: Broadband speeds fall below minimum requirement in quarter of UK homes, report finds
A spokesperson for Vodafone UK said: “We are the UK’s fastest growing broadband provider, with the highest levels of customer satisfaction in the industry.
“With these high levels of growth, we have however unfortunately seen some issues with the signing on process and this is reflected in the complaints data.”
Virgin Media has been contacted for comment.
Alex Neill, managing director of home services at consumer magazine Which, said: “Customers continue to suffer with problems ranging from slow speeds to unexpected price hikes and connection dropouts – and to make matters worse, our research has shown that long-standing customers are most likely to be overpaying for shoddy broadband service.
“No one should accept getting a bad deal – there are big savings to be made for those who haggle or make the switch to a new provider.”
Here's how the broadband providers ranked against the industry average of 15 complaints per 100,000 customers:
| Broadband provider | No of complaints per 100,000 customers |
| Vodafone | 27 |
| Talk Talk | 23 |
| BT | 22 |
| Plusnet | 21 |
| Virgin Media | 13 |
| Post Office | 9 |
| EE | 8 |
| Sky | 5 |