Most complained-about telecoms and pay-TV providers revealed

Today we’ve published the latest figures for complaints we’ve received about the UK’s major landline, mobile, broadband and pay-TV providers, covering the period between October and December 2022.

Here’s a summary of what this latest complaints data shows:

• Shell Energy continued to be the most complained-about landline and broadband provider, attracting more complaints about its service than in the previous quarter (July to September 2022). Customer complaints were mainly about faults, service and getting services installed.
• Sky continued to generate the fewest broadband complaints, with EE and Sky continuing to be jointly the least complained-about landline providers.
• BT Mobile, Virgin Mobile and O2 were the most complained-about mobile operators, with customers primarily complaining about how their complaints had been handled (BT Mobile, Virgin Mobile), their experience with faults, service and getting services connected (O2), as well as issues changing provider (BT Mobile). Sky Mobile, EE, Tesco Mobile and Three attracted the fewest complaints in the mobile sector.
• Virgin Media and BT were the pay-TV service providers that attracted the most complaints. Virgin Media customers were most likely to be unhappy with how it handled their complaints, while BT customers complained about their experiences of faults, service and getting services installed. Sky received the fewest pay-TV complaints.

We remain concerned about Shell Energy’s persistently high complaint volumes. We have been engaging closely with the provider on its plans to improve its customer service, and expect to see results of this in the coming months.

The numbers of complaints we received during this period were similar to the previous quarter. Complaints about landline and pay-TV services decreased slightly, while complaints about broadband and pay-monthly mobile services stayed the same.

Year on year, the numbers of complaints we received about broadband services increased slightly, while complaints for landline, pay-monthly mobile and pay-TV services stayed the same.

Why we publish this data

As the UK’s communications regulator, we receive complaints from customers about their landline, broadband, pay-monthly mobile and pay-TV services.

We compile this data to better understand the reasons for customers’ dissatisfaction. This helps people to compare providers when they’re shopping around for a new service – and it also helps to encourage companies to improve their performance.

Although we cannot resolve individual complaints, we offer advice to people about the telecoms and pay-TV services they use, and the information we receive can lead to us launching investigations.

If you’re experiencing problems with your landline, broadband, mobile or pay-TV service you should complain to your provider first. If you are unhappy with the outcome, you can take the complaint to an independent ombudsman, who will look at the case and make a judgment on it.