Broadband companies’ customer service: Who is failing consumers?

• Satisfaction in broadband providers’ customer service has remained low between November 2023 and November 2024, sitting at +50. This is similar to six months prior and makes broadband the second worst sector for customer service performance. 
• Over four in ten (44%) adults making contact with their broadband provider reported experiencing at least one problem with the customer service provided. 
• Broadband customers are most dissatisfied with their ability to get a timely response. Net satisfaction is lowest for how long it takes to get in touch with a person that can help (+36), with 59% of those making contact being satisfied and one in four (24%) dissatisfied.
• Virgin Media remained the worst performer for customer service. Their customers were particularly dissatisfied with the time involved trying in rectifying their issue or query.

Effective customer service is crucial for both businesses and consumers. Consumers must be able to efficiently and effectively contact a business with any issue they may be experiencing without facing any unnecessary barriers or experiencing any harm as a result. Businesses should also care about delivering good customer service as it can foster trust in the brand and make customers more likely to use their services in the future. 

Over the last couple of years Which? has been highlighting problems in customer service and calling out the worst companies to urgently improve and make it easier for customers to get timely and effective solutions. Our research in May 2024 found that the broadband sector was the joint third worst sector for overall customer service and that Virgin Media was the poorest-performing broadband provider. Six months on, we repeated this research to see if broadband providers had improved their customer service or not. 

Customer service remains poor in the broadband sector

In our most recent research into customer service, an online survey of 5,246 UK adults, we found that a third (33%) of adults have contacted their broadband provider in the last 12 months with an issue or query (November 2023 to November 2024). Two in three of these UK adults were satisfied with their overall customer service experience (67%), while 17% were dissatisfied. This gives the sector a net satisfaction score of +50, similar to six months prior (+52). With improvements in the airline and energy sectors, the broadband sector is now the second worst sector for customer service. 

Consumer satisfaction with overall customer service by sector

Not only is there relatively low satisfaction with broadband companies’ customer service, many customers are running into problems in their journey. Over four in ten (44%) adults making contact with their broadband provider reported experiencing at least one problem with the customer service. This is slightly higher than our May 2024 survey (41%) and makes broadband providers the worst sector for problems experienced. The most common problems experienced by consumers making contact were related to the time involved and quality of response. One in five (19%) reported waiting a long time on the phone before speaking to an advisor and 13% were passed between departments without receiving a helpful response. More concerningly, one in ten reported speaking to unhelpful or dismissive advisors (10%). 

Consumers experiencing at least one problem with customer service by sector

Customers continue to be most dissatisfied with the time taken to reach an advisor who can help to resolve their issue

Which?'s previous research and campaigning on customer service over the last year has highlighted that one of consumers’ biggest issues with customer service is often being unable to get a timely response. This continues to be the case for the broadband sector, as shown by the most common problems consumers experience and the fact that net satisfaction is lowest for how long it takes to get in touch with a person that can help. The sector score of +36 for this reflects 59% of those making contact being satisfied and one in four (24%) dissatisfied. This is a seven point decrease in net satisfaction from six months prior. 

Net satisfaction is also low for how long it took to get an answer to your issue /query (+43) which has decreased eight points from six months prior. This further demonstrates the length of time involved in their customer service journey is a significant bug bear for broadband consumers. 

Consumer satisfaction with aspects of broadband provider’s customer service

Virgin Media remains the worst culprit, followed by TalkTalk

Our May 2024 Customer Service survey found that Virgin Media customers were the most dissatisfied with the customer service they were receiving. This continued to be the case six months on. Whilst 57% of Virgin Media customers making contact were satisfied with the service they received, one in five were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied (21%) and 22% were dissatisfied. This gives Virgin Media a net satisfaction score of +36, fourteen points below the sector average. 

Consumer satisfaction with overall customer service by providers

Virgin Media received poor satisfaction scores across other metrics too, particularly for the time involved for their customers. Customers of Virgin Media were most dissatisfied with how long it took to get in touch with a person that could help, scoring a very low +16 (49% satisfied, 33% dissatisfied). This can also be seen when looking at the problems Virgin Media customers reported; over one in four (26%) of those making contact said they waited a long time on the phone before speaking to an advisor. Even once customers got through to someone, time remained a significant obstacle to them, with many customers (30%) being dissatisfied with how long it took to get an answer to their issue / query.

Through our story-capture tool we recently heard from one Virgin Media customer who has multiple bad experiences…

“I had a very stressful, frustrating and annoying time with Virgin. It always took ages, 20 to 45 minutes to get through to customer service and very often they would cut me off when I was explaining my problems. I would always be passed from one department to another which meant waiting again for them to answer the phone… I stopped complaining every time I had poor service because it was stressful and time consuming.”

TalkTalk is also a poor performer for customer service in the broadband industry. Whilst not being quite as bad as Virgin Media, they are consistently ranked second worst for most metrics of customer service and are significantly below the sector average across most aspects of customer service. Their overall customer satisfaction score of +40 is ten points below the sector average and thirteen points behind the next closest major provider. Similar to Virgin Media, their customers are most dissatisfied with the amount of time it takes to get in touch with a person that can help them (+25, 55% satisfied, 30% dissatisfied). 

Summary

These latest findings show a clear picture that there are issues with customer service within the broadband sector, with little sign of improvement. Our research highlights that customer service in the sector is now significantly worse than comparable sectors (e.g. the energy sector) and that broadband customers are particularly irritated by the time it takes to reach the right customer service advisor and then the time it takes to resolve their issues.

These problems are particularly pronounced amongst Virgin Media customers, with Virgin Media having the highest proportion of customers experiencing problems and the lowest satisfaction across most metrics. TalkTalk performs slightly better than Virgin Media but remains the second worst provider and is significantly below the rest of the sector.

Broadband providers must focus on improving their customer service delivery and ensuring that calls and emails are answered promptly and that customers are directed to the right person who can handle their queries in a timely manner.

Methodology

Yonder, on behalf of Which?, conducted an online survey of 4,184 nationally representative adults aged 18+ between 6th and 10th November 2024. Respondents were asked if they had contacted companies in the following sectors in the last 12 months; their energy provider, their broadband provider, an airline, a booking site, a financial service, a home improvement company, a delivery company or a retailer. Across the nationally representative survey of 4,184 UK adults and our boost sample, we captured 1,353 respondents who had contacted their broadband provider in the last year.

Customer service satisfaction metrics

We asked respondents who contacted their broadband provider in the last year to rate how satisfied or dissatisfied they were with their experience when contacting their customer service. They rated the following nine statements against a 5-point satisfaction scale where “1” was very dissatisfied and “5” was very satisfied. 

1. How easy it was to find contact information
2. The variety of contact options provided
3. How long it took to get in touch with a person that could help
4. How seriously the customer service representative took your issue/ query
5. How well the customer service representative kept you informed about the progress of your issue /query
6. How long it took to get an answer to your issue /query
7. How well your issue/ query was dealt with
8. How well my issue/query was resolved
9. Overall customer service

We also ask people to tell us what problems they encountered when they contacted their provider. The list of problems they selected from was developed by analysing thousands of stories of poor customer service submitted to the Which?’s case study tool, as part of our Customer Service Counts campaign. 

The customer story comes from our customer service story-capture tool. This was launched in December 2023 to give consumers a platform to share their struggles with poor customer service. Over the past year, the tool has collected approximately 4,600 consumer storie