Which? names and shames Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas for poor customer service
The consumer champion surveyed 4,101 people in May 2024 to find out which are the worst firms for customer service and where they are falling short.
Which?’s research reveals that, across nine sectors, consumers are most satisfied with financial services for overall customer service, which leads with a net satisfaction score of +72.
Energy and broadband remained two of the worst performing sectors for customer service - with net satisfaction in customer service interactions in energy and broadband at +51 and +52 respectively.
Virgin Media was crowned the worst performing broadband firm - receiving +29 for overall customer service. This is significantly lower than the sector average of +52.
Which?’s survey looked at several aspects of customer service, including how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help, variety of contact options, how seriously the customer service representative took your issue and how well the issue was resolved.
Virgin Media received dismal scores across the board - scoring just +18 for how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help and +38 for both how well customers' issues were dealt with and how well queries were resolved.
Half (50%) of Virgin Media customers experienced at least one customer service issue - most commonly waiting a long time on the phone to speak to an advisor (51%), being passed between departments without a helpful response (36%) and speaking to unhelpful or dismissive advisors (34%). One Virgin Media customer told Which? that over several months, they spent 10 hours trying to get their problem resolved.
Scottish Power and British Gas remained the worst performing energy firms - receiving +34 and +43 respectively for overall customer service. Both firms’ scores have improved since Which? last looked into this area. Both firms are also investing in their customer service but the consumer champion’s latest research shows there is still plenty of room for improvement.
Scottish Power came bottom across the board - scoring just +23 for how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help and +33 for how long it took to get an answer to your issue.
British Gas fared better than Scottish Power but still received scores well below the sector average of +51 for overall customer service. It fared particularly poorly for how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help (+30), how long it took to get an answer to customer queries (+39) and how well customer service kept the consumer informed about the progress of their issue (+43).
More than half (55%) of Scottish Power and half (50%) of British Gas customers had experienced at least one customer service issue in the last year. Of those who had experienced a problem, the most common issue was waiting a long time on the phone before speaking to an advisor - nearly half of Scottish Power (45%) and British Gas (46%) customers who had issues with customer service reported this problem. One in five (18%) Scottish Power and British Gas customers said they could not even reach customer services despite continuous attempts.
Other common customer service issues with Scottish Power included being given false promises by the customer service team (30%) and not being given good advice or support (26%). One Scottish Power customer told Which? that they had an unexpected debit of over £1,000 debit on their energy account. Their questions were not answered by customer service and after eight weeks of frustration, they then had to go to the Ombudsman to resolve the issue.
The consumer champion’s research shows just how dramatically the quality of customer service can vary between individual firms. Which? has written to the CEOs of Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas calling for all three firms to make further improvements and clearly communicate with consumers the steps they are taking to ensure their customer service is up to scratch.
Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said:
“Our research lays bare the dire state of customer service - with some companies simply not up to scratch.
“Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas remained the worst performing broadband and energy firms for customer service. It is never OK for firms to provide sub-standard customer service, but in essential sectors providing vital services millions rely on every day such as energy and broadband, it is completely unacceptable.
“We have written to all three firms about their consistently poor performance in our research. Which? is calling on them to give consumers the customer service they deserve and clearly communicate the steps they are taking to improve.”
ENDS
Which? Customer Service Counts campaign
Customer service is in a dire state in vital areas and some companies are routinely failing their customers – leaving them frustrated and stuck in endless loops trying to get help. Over the past six months, thousands of people have got in touch with us to share their experiences of shoddy customer service. Which? is calling for any companies falling short to urgently improve and make it easier for customers to get timely and effective solutions to their problems when they need help.
Broadband customers who are not happy with their provider can use Which? Compare to see how much they could save by switching.
Since December 2023, Which? has received 4,135 reports of customer service horror stories to its customer service tool describing people’s worst experiences over the last three years. Around 863 of complaints have been about energy suppliers and 1002 have been about broadband suppliers.
Research
Yonder, on behalf of Which?, conducted an online survey of 4,101 nationally representative adults aged 18+. A boost sample including an additional 916 adults was conducted to achieve at least 50+ per provider reported on. The survey was conducted between 3rd and 15th May 2024. 1,724 had contacted their energy provider in the last 12 months and 1,837 had contacted their broadband provider in the last 12 months.
NET satisfaction scores: Which? applied a NET Satisfaction score measure to indicate the overall satisfaction level by subtracting the percentage of dissatisfied respondents (NET very dissatisfied and fairly dissatisfied) from the percentage of satisfied respondents (NET very satisfied and fairly satisfied). The scale ranges from -100 to +100.
Figure 1: Consumers’ rating of overall customer service by best and worst broadband only providers
Source: Which? Customer Service Survey May 2024. Question: Thinking about all the times that you have contacted your broadband provider in the last 12 months… To what extent were you satisfied or dissatisfied with each of the following? Sample: All those who have contacted their broadband provider in the last 12 months, excluding Don’t know/Not applicable. Base sizes: Sector (1,821), Plusnet (210), Virgin Media (506).
Figure 2: Consumers’ rating of different aspects of customer service for different broadband only providers
Source: Which? Customer Service Survey May 2024. Question: Thinking about all the times that you have contacted your broadband provider in the last 12 months… To what extent were you satisfied or dissatisfied with each of the following? Sample: All those who have contacted their broadband provider in the last 12 months, excluding Don’t know/Not applicable. Base sizes: How long it took to get in touch with a person that could help - Sector (1,811), Plusnet (207), Virgin Media (503). How long it took to get an answer to your issue /query - Sector (1,806), Plusnet (206), Virgin Media (501).
Figure 3: Consumers’ rating of overall customer service by best and worst energy providers
Source: Which? Customer Service Survey May 2024. Question: Thinking about all the times that you have contacted your energy provider in the last 12 months… To what extent were you satisfied or dissatisfied with each of the following? Sample: All those who have contacted their energy provider in the last 12 months, excluding Don’t know/Not applicable. Base sizes: Sector (1,709), Octopus Energy (630), British Gas (489), Scottish Power (215).
Figure 4: Consumers’ rating of different aspects of customer service by best and worst energy providers
Source: Which? Customer Service Survey May 2024. Question: Thinking about all the times that you have contacted your energy provider in the last 12 months… To what extent were you satisfied or dissatisfied with each of the following? Sample: All those who have contacted their energy provider in the last 12 months, excluding Don’t know/Not applicable. Base sizes: How long it took to get in touch with a person that could help - Sector (1,683), Octopus Energy (621), British Gas (487), Scottish Power (213). How long it took to get an answer to your issue /query - Sector (1,693), Octopus Energy (626), British Gas (490), Scottish Power (211).
Read more about Which?’s previous customer service research at the below links:
Case studies
British Gas - Kenneth Alsop, aged 78 from near Ashbourne in Derbyshire, was transferred to British Gas in March 2022 when Together Energy ceased trading. He had a smart meter installed in April 2022 but had found the readings on his smart monitor and the readings on his British Gas account were different from those on his meter.
A British Gas engineer installed a new monitor but the readings on his British Gas account still didn’t match those on his meter at home.
Kenneth started a formal complaint with British Gas in October 2023 and has since been contacted by several different advisors trying to resolve the issue. Following agreement with British Gas on how he will be billed in future, Kenneth has agreed to his complaint being closed after seven months. However the underlying issue of meter readings being different remains.
Kenneth said: “Each time a new advisor took up my case they would try and take me through the same process of providing photographs of my meter readings and sending me their leaflet on how to read a meter. They would end up informing me that the meter readings British Gas are using to bill me are correct but not explaining why the readings I was obtaining were different. It seemed like an endless process of going round in circles.
“What I would like to see is one advisor dealing with a complaint. It would also help if you could talk to the advisor rather than just relying on exchange of emails.”
Scottish Power - Dorota, a Scottish Power customer from Thornhill, filed a complaint with Scottish Power earlier this year after receiving numerous phone calls, text messages, and emails, urging her to install a smart meter.
Dorota told Which?:
“I am not keen on getting a smart meter. In April, I logged into my account and opened a live chat. I told the customer service agent that I wanted these unwanted messages to stop. The customer service agent was rude and insisted that the meters will become mandatory (though they are not currently), and that I had to provide a reason for denying the installation. He claimed to have checked the system and said that I have an old and faulty meter. This was untrue, as I had a meter replaced recently, at the beginning of 2023. I felt immediately intimidated by his pushy approach.
When I complained, another customer service agent contacted me. He promised that the unwanted messages would stop. Despite his promise, they did not stop, and I had to email him twice more before they finally ceased.”
Virgin Media - Stephen Smith, aged 69 from Warrington, experienced an area-wide outage with his Virgin Media broadband and TV in April 2024. After the outage, his broadband started dropping out.
He tried contacting Virgin Media by chat and phone call but both were very slow to be answered. He spoke to an advisor over the phone who suggested that the hub needed resetting - even though this had already been done three times.
She arranged for a technician to visit but Stephen had to chase to confirm the date. The technician fixed the problem but just hours later the issue re-occured and Stephen had to go through the same customer service process all over again.
He said:
"Virgin Media customer service is obstructive, they don't listen to the customer and seem to want to just go through the same procedure to try to resolve the issue.
"They should make it as easy to complain or cancel as it is to place an order. The phone is answered almost instantly by sales but when waiting to speak to customer service, you are forced to wait far too long. It is highly unlikely that I will continue with Virgin Internet and TV after my experience."
Rights of reply
A British Gas spokesperson said: ‘
‘The survey is not representative, out of 4101 respondents it included less than 500 of our customers and is based on data that is up to a year old. We’ve invested £50m in our customer operations since the start of the energy crisis - this includes hiring 700 more UK based contact centre staff at the end of last year, introducing longer call centre opening times and providing additional training to our dedicated colleagues on supporting customers in financial difficulty. This investment is working, customers are seeing a difference, that’s why as part of the trusted Uswitch Energy Awards last month we received recognition for Best Overall Improvement. We’ll continue to look at how we can further improve customer service.
‘‘We believe the customer [Kenneth Alsop] is bringing up the wrong screen on the meter, but we need to talk to him to explain how to get the correct one. This should be able to be resolved in a phone call but as goodwill we’re happy to send around an engineer as he’s requested, to give him peace of mind.’’
A spokesperson for Scottish Power said:
“We service 2.9 million customers a year across a range of channels, including phone, chat, email and online. 97% of customer emails were responded to within 2 days and our average speed of answering phone enquiries is under 107 seconds. These figures, published as part of a much larger and more robust study by Citizens Advice are more representative than the 217 customers (0.007% of our customer base) surveyed by Which? and puts us top of the large suppliers when it comes to Customer Service call waiting times and email turnaround. We’ve worked tirelessly to improve and enhance our services for all of our customers and will continue to do everything we can to help them.”
A Virgin Media spokesperson said:
“We are making real changes across our business to deliver customer service improvements and we’re already seeing tangible results that wouldn’t be reflected in this old survey from Which? that, incidentally, represents less than 0.01% of our customer base.
“We have boosted the number of agents, including in specialist teams that handle the most complex issues, and are investing more money in customer-facing areas of the business. We’re also multi-skilling our teams, transforming our IT systems and improving our digital tools, including through new technology that will solve customers’ issues even before they report a fault.
“While change can take time, this programme of targeted investment has already seen us reduce average call waiting times to just two minutes, and last year 95% of customer complaints were resolved first time. We’re continuing to focus on removing pain points and delivering the best possible service to our customers.”
About Which?
Which? is the UK’s consumer champion, here to make life simpler, fairer and safer for everyone. Our research gets to the heart of consumer issues, our advice is impartial, and our rigorous product tests lead to expert recommendations. We’re the independent consumer voice that influences politicians and lawmakers, investigates, holds businesses to account and makes change happen. As an organisation, we’re not for profit and all for making consumers more powerful.
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