Which mobile phone provider is the most complained-about?
Vodafone’s new billing system sends customer grievances soaring while Tesco Mobile had fewest complaints
Vodafone has become the most complained-about mobile phone provider after the introduction of a new billing system sent customer grievances soaring.
The telecoms regulator Ofcom said complaints made to Vodafone surged to 32 per 100,000 pay-monthly customers in the final three months of 2015. The figure was up from 20 in the previous quarter, and is now three times higher than rival phone providers.
Ofcom said complaints received about Vodafone related to billing, pricing and charges, as well as complaints handling and fault, service or provision issues. It reflects the Guardian’s own complaints postbag, which has seen a big surge in complaints about Vodafone in recent months.
Ofcom said Vodafone was the only provider to have more complaints than the industry average of 10 per 100,000 customers. Tesco Mobile had by far the fewest complaints according to the data.
Vodafone’s problems stem from its decision to introduce a new billing system at the end of last year. Ofcom is separately investigating Vodafone over its complaints handling procedures, while conducting another inquiry into the supplier’s sales of pay-as-you-go mobile services.
Overall, Ofcom said total complaints across the telecoms and paid-for TV sectors fell in the three months to the end of December 2015. The regulator said it receives just under 300 telecoms complaints a day from consumers who are unhappy with their service.
TalkTalk received the most landline complaints, at 30 per 100,000 customers, while EE, Plusnet, Post Office and BT also continued to generate landline complaints significantly above the industry average.
EE again attracted the most complaints for fixed-line broadband, while grievances about Plusnet, TalkTalk and BT remained higher than the rest of the industry. Sky and Virgin recorded the fewest phone/broadband complaints.
Vodafone apologised to affected customers following the company’s “highly complex” switchover of customers on to its new billing system.
“We would like to apologise to any customer who has had an issue with our service. We are working hard to improve our customers’ experience and more recent data is showing an improvement,” it said.
The company said it had improved its customer call centre teams to help deal with complaints and resolve billing issues.
Elsewhere, BT held on to its spot as the most complained-about pay-TV provider over the fourth quarter, although the numbers dropped to 15 per 100,000 from 25 over the previous three months. Low-cost rival TalkTalk also received above-average complaints about paid-for TV, at 14 per 100,000 customers.
Source: TheGuardian
