BT scrapes bottom of Ofcom rankings (again)

It’s that time again. Ofcom has released data on who are the best and worst for customer service in the UK. And BT has struggled for another quarter.

Three months ago, the watchdog released the figures for Q1, and while there has been a slight improvement across the board, BT is still struggling. When you compare the figures for this quarter against those from 2011, there certainly is a notable improvement, but perhaps we as consumers are just getting more demanding; it doesn’t really seem things are getting better.

In terms of the top-line figures, fixed broadband got 18 complaints per 100,000 customers (compared to 35 in Q2 2011), while landline complaints stood at 12 per 100,000 (38 in 2011). Postpaid contracts has also been in decline only registering 5 complaints per 100,000 customers (13 in 2011), while pay-TV has remained steady at 4 complaints per 100,000 customers across the quarter (5 in 2011).

“Complaints about telecoms and pay-TV may be falling this year, but some providers are falling a long way short on customer service,” said Jane Rumble, Ofcom’s Director of Consumer Policy.

“There can be no room for complacency. We expect providers, particularly those who have been consistently under-performing, to make service quality and complaints handling their number one priority.”

The problem seems to be the general attitude towards customer service in the industry, it just simply isn’t prioritised. And part of the reason might be the reliance on the digital economy; telcos know that you aren’t going to give up on the digital economy, therefore your choice is to maintain the status quo, or move to another provider which equally doesn’t take it seriously either.

In all fairness, there are a few bright spots on the horizon. Sky, for instance, has proven to be one of the few examples of positivity. In the pay TV game, it registered one complaint per 100,000 customers and only seven in broadband per 100,000 across the quarter. In both examples, Sky was the best performer. Data isn’t available for its MVNO proposition yet, but the signs are looking promising for an attractive multi-play proposition.

Now onto BT. In Landline, broadband, postpaid mobile and pay TV, it registered 15, 28, 11 and 13 complaints per 100,000 customers respectively. In every area the telco was above the industry average. Not great reading.