EE among the villains as Ofcom shares complaints data

The BT subsidiary is not the worst across the board – Now Broadband's performance leaves a lot to be desired in the fixed Internet space – but it is noteworthy that the UK's biggest mobile operator engendered a fair few complaints to the regulator in the landline, fixed broadband and pay TV markets.

To be more specific, EE came bottom of Ofcom's complaints tables – ranked from best to worst – in the landline and pay TV sectors. Its landline service generated 15 complaints to the regulator per 100,000 customers in the April-June quarter, well ahead of the industry average of five, and significantly worse than the second-to-last provider, Now Broadband, which had 10. In pay TV Ofcom received nine complaints per 100,000 from EE customers; the industry average was just four.

EE ranked third bottom in fixed broadband with 14 complaints per 100,000. The weakest performer here was Sky's Now Broadband with 18, followed by Virgin Media at 15, while the industry average was 10. Other providers from the BT stable were well ahead of EE; itself was right on the industry average, while Plusnet came out better with just six, pipped only by Sky at five.

Ofcom did not provide a huge amount of detail on the nature of the complaints it received in its report, but it noted that complaints about EE in the landline space – which increased on the previous January-March quarter – were mainly linked to faults, services and provisioning.

That's somewhat different from the issues faced by Now Broadband customers, whose complaints to the regulator on fixed broadband mainly centred on how it had handled customer complaints it received. Essentially, while Now Broadband clearly needs to look at its customer care, for EE it's arguably more about the technology.

O2 is another player that would do well to do some soul-searching on how it deals with its customers. It came bottom of the league in the mobile space with eight complaints per 100,000, mostly driven by the way it handled customer complaints, Ofcom said. While that 'eight' might not seem like a bad score, it's worth noting that complaints volumes are in general lower in the mobile sector and O2 was actually some way behind its rivals; all other mobile providers scored the industry average of three or better.

"While complaints numbers remained broadly the same during this quarter, we're pleased to see slight falls in complaints across some of the services covered by these figures," said Fergal Farragher, Ofcom's Policy Director, in a statement accompanying the data.

The regulator said complaints about telecoms services – broadband, landline and mobile – all fell slightly, while pay TV complaints stayed the same, compared with the previous quarter.

"Communications services are now essential to our daily lives and customers deserve a high level of service. We call on providers to improve their performance in areas in which they are currently falling short," Farragher said.

EE, Now Broadband and O2 – he's looking at you.