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Average call waiting times

Ofcom Call waiting time and abandonment rate summary

• All broadband and landline providers’ average call waiting times increased in 2020. The
  industry average call waiting time increased from 2 minutes 10 seconds in 2019 to 4 minutes
  9 seconds.
• Virgin Media customers endured the longest call waiting times. Virgin Media’s average call
  waiting times increased from 1 minute 35 seconds in 2019 to 7 minutes 40 seconds in 2020.
• EE had the shortest average call waiting time (1 minute 15 seconds).
• Almost double the proportion of calls to landline and broadband providers were ended
  while the customer was waiting in a queue. In 2020 10.7% of calls were abandoned before
  the customer spoke to a customer service agent, up from 5.4% in 2019.

Broadband complaints per 100,000 subscribers: 2020

EE generated the fewest broadband complaints to Ofcom per 100,000 subscribers, while Vodafone generated the most for the second year in a row.

Among the major broadband providers, the average number of broadband complaints per 100,000 subscribers fell from 52 in 2019 to 50 in 2020.

Source: Ofcom, 2020. All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number; the industry average relates only to the providers included in the analysis. The actual measurable difference between Plusnet and Virgin Media, and the industry average and BT broadband complaints per 100,000 subscribers is less than one, so their results should be considered comparable

Figure 7: Handling of broadband complaints

Source: Ofcom Complaints Handling Tracker 2020 (see Note F in Annex 1 for more information)

Ofcom Broadband Complaints Handling Summary

• A quarter (26%) of broadband customers had a reason to complain about their service in
  2020. BT broadband customers were significantly less likely than the market average to have
  a reason to complain, while Virgin Media and Vodafone customers where significantly more
  likely than average to have a reason to complain.¹²
• As in 2019, the most common reason for customers to complain about their fixed
  broadband was a service issue (76%), such as slow broadband speeds or an intermittent or
  total loss of service. This was followed by a billing, pricing or payment issue (18%) and
  dissatisfaction with customer service (12%).
• About half (52%) of broadband customers who made a complaint to their provider in 2020
  were satisfied with the way their complaint was handled. This is in line with our 2019
  findings. Sky performed better than the sector average, while TalkTalk and Virgin Media
  were below the average.
• Nearly two in five (37%) broadband complaints were completely resolved on first contact,
  unchanged since 2019. Sky was more likely than the broadband sector average to have
  resolved a complaint completely on first contact, while Plusnet and TalkTalk were less likely
  than the market average to have done so.

¹²Ofcom Reason to Complain Tracker 2020.

¹⁰ In March 2021 Post Office completed the sale of its broadband and landline services to Shell Energy and exited the telecoms market.

Ofcom Summary

• EE customers were more likely than average to recommend their broadband provider to a friend, while the scores of all the other broadband providers were in line with the sector average.
• Eight in ten broadband customers reported that they were satisfied with their service overall. Overall satisfaction levels were broadly similar across all providers.
• Nearly four in five broadband customers were satisfied with the reliability of their service and there were no differences by provider on this measure.
• TalkTalk customers were less satisfied with the speed of their service compared to the market average. Satisfaction with speed of broadband service was in line with the average across all other providers.

Source: Ofcom Customer Satisfaction Tracker November/December 2020