Shell Energy tops list of broadband complaints

ISP Shell Energy has generated the most amount of complaints to UK comms regulator Ofcom of all the major broadband providers, mainly due by faults and service issues.

UK comms regulator Ofcom’s quarterly league tables reveal which home phone, broadband, mobile and pay-TV firms it received the most complaints about.  Overall complaints decreased slightly over this period and remain, continuing the downward  trend from the last quarter.

Shell Energy attracted the most complaints of the broadband firms due to faults and service issues. It emerged as a broadband provider in 2018 once it bought First Utility and rebranded it the following year. In February last year it bought the Post Offices’ broadband business and became a much larger ISP in the process, taking on an additional 450,000 customers. A year on from that, it apparently still has some wrinkles to iron out within the business.

Shell Energy also topped the list of most complained about landline providers, alongside TalkTalk, while Sky and EE performed best, attracting the fewest complaints in these categories. Meanwhile of the mobile operators, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone were the most complained-about, which is similar to their performance last quarter.

“Shell Energy continues to be the worst performer on customer service, with complaints for its broadband offering well above the national average,” said Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at Uswitch.com. “Among the largest providers on the market, TalkTalk and Vodafone in particular have their work cut out to reduce their share of dissatisfied customers. With budgets being squeezed more than ever before, providers need to not only offer products which are good value for money, but prove that they are genuinely focussed on delivering customer satisfaction.”

“It’s encouraging that overall complaints remain at record lows, but that doesn’t mean customer service is where it should be across the board,” said Fergal Farragher, Ofcom’s Consumer Protection Director. “There are still big differences in performance between some providers. So it’s definitely worth shopping around and voting with your feet, if you’re not happy with the service you’re getting.”

This latest Ofcom report represents the number of complains between October and December last year – since then we have seen the cost of living crisis effect numerous household outgoings, which might mean the current downward trend in terms of number of complaints about providers could be about to end.

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