TalkTalk customers 'most dissatisfied'

Nearly a quarter of TalkTalk's broadband and landline customers are dissatisfied with the service they are receiving, Ofcom has revealed.

According to new research by the media regulator into levels of satisfaction with the UK's ten biggest communications providers, 24% of TalkTalk/Tiscali customers surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with their landline service, while 23% were not happy with their broadband experience.

Ofcom found that TalkTalk's customer service received below average marks mainly due to customers being unable to get through to the right person, along with the slow speed of answering the phone and general dissatisfaction with customer service advisors.

The research comes as new rules come into force tomorrow which will require all communications providers to help consumers resolve complaints more quickly and efficiently.

Ofcom interviewed 3,000 consumers as part of its research in February 2011 and asked them to rate their customer service experience with providers in the previous three months. The watchdog found that poor customer service remains the most distressing issue for consumers.

Among the other landline providers, Sky and BT had a 17% dissatisfaction rate, while Virgin Media rated at 18%. On the broadband front, Orange had the lowest dissatisfaction rate at 11%, followed by Sky with 16% and BT and Virgin Media both with 20%.

The pay-TV services of Sky and Virgin Media were found to have higher than average levels of satisfaction at 66%, with just 12% of Sky customers being unhappy with their service and 16% of Virgin Media subscribers.

Ofcom found that unhappiness among Virgin Media customers had increased from 10% in 2009, which it said was down to consumers "reporting lower than average satisfaction with customer service advisors". In contrast, Sky has managed to improve most aspects of its customer service operation.

The regulator hopes that publication of this research will push communications providers into improving their customer service satisfaction levels.

Ofcom's consumer group director Claudio Pollack said: "The research shows that there can be considerable differences in consumers' experiences of customer service.

"By publishing this research we want to give consumers an insight into the standard of customer service being offered across the communications sector. The more information of this kind consumers have, the more effectively they can exercise their choice."

From tomorrow, new rules come into force stipulating that any communications service complaint that remains unresolved after eight weeks can be escalated to a free and independent Ofcom-approved resolution service - Ombudsman Services, Communications or CISAS.

Over the past year, Ofcom has been on the offensive against poor customer service standards in the communications industry, often taking a hard line with offending providers.

In November last year, the regulator published a damning investigation into TalkTalk's incorrect billing of consumers for cancelled services. The watchdog also 'named and shamed' TalkTalk as the most complained about broadband provider, attracting 1.27 complaints per 1,000 customers.

In February, it was announced that TalkTalk and its Tiscali UK division had spent almost £2.5 million compensating their customers following Ofcom's investigations.