Figures from telecoms regulator Ofcom show that 23% of customers found a reason to complain about their broadband and 14% about their phone provider, up from 20% and 12% last year.
The customers of larger providers were most likely to be dissatisfied with their service, with 02 and Vodafone customers the most likely to be dissatisfied with service as a whole, while Sky, Three and Vodafone customers were the most likely to have found a reason to complain.
Tesco Mobile and Giffgaff customers had higher-than-average overall satisfaction scores (both at 94%).
Improvements in handling
Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s director of market intelligence, said the survey had found that call waiting times had dropped for customers, while it seemed they were also handling complaints better.
The average time it takes to get through to a customer service agent for mobile customers fell to one minute and 52 seconds, down from two minutes and 24 seconds in 2023.
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Customer satisfaction with complaints handling for mobile (61%), broadband (58%) and landline (60%) were all significantly higher in 2024 compared to 2022, when satisfaction levels were just above 50% for all three services.
He said: “It’s encouraging to see industry rally to our call to improve things for their customers.
“Call waiting times have come down for many providers and satisfaction with complaint handling is on the up. And we’re seeing competition in action, with smaller players challenging some of the bigger, well-established providers.
“But there’s further to go. Not all companies have made the same progress and it’s still taking the industry too long to fix things when they go wrong. Our rules have made it easier than ever to switch provider, so if companies don’t act, they may find customers voting with their feet.”
Complaints reduced
Across all providers, the average number of complaints made to the regulator reduced in 2024. O2 generated the most complaints per 100,000 mobile customers, while Tesco Mobile generated the fewest.
Longer installation times
But while complaints are being resolved more quickly, installing new services is taking longer. Broadband and landline installations took an average of 11 days to complete, an increase of one day from 2023, while a quarter of all orders were not delivered on the data agreed, up from a fifth the year before.
Vodafone completed the lowest proportion of orders by the date agreed, at 60%, while BT and EE each completed 69% of orders by the date agreed in 2024. In comparison, Sky, TalkTalk and NOW Broadband all completed more than 90% of orders on time.
