Communication Ombudsman reports increase in broadband complaints

The Communication Ombudsman, one of the two Ofcom approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers in the UK, has reported an increase in broadband complaints.

Complaints have risen up to 129% across five categories between Jan-June 2023 and Jan-June 2024, with customer service seeing the most complaints.

A total rise of 54% in complaints over the periods was highlighted, with customer service, billing, and service quality being the main causes of grievance.

Credit: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock.com

Broadband complaints

The Communication Ombudsman, used by the majority of broadband providers to meet the requirement of providing an ADR scheme, has released their H1 2024 complaints data.

Between H1 2023 and H1 2024, the report shows an increase in complaints of 54% overall, with complaints rising from 11,466 to 17,695 accepted cases between January and June 2023 to 2024 respectively.

While the data is split into five different complaint categories, there is no specific provider data, however, we know major providers including BT, Virgin Media, Plusnet, and EE, are included within the results.

Andy Eadle, Business Unit Director at the Communications Ombudsman, explained, "We've seen an increase in complaints across all dispute categories, but primarily in service quality (speed and reliability of service), and billing - continuing into the first half of 2024.

"In 2023 we onboarded an additional major provider, which means more consumers than ever are now able to access our free and impartial dispute resolution services in 2024. As Communications Ombudsman, we're here to ensure any dispute between consumer and provider can be resolved independently and fairly."

Culprits

It's difficult to determine which broadband provider may have been responsible for the rise in complaints, or whether it's an increase seen more generally across the market.

In addition to the major providers mentioned above, notably BT and Virgin Media, many smaller retail providers and independent fibre networks use the Communication Ombudsman as their ADR scheme of choice.

This includes Community Fibre, Direct Save Telecom, Rebel Internet, Utility Warehouse, YouFibre, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, Fibrus, G Network, Brsk, Toob, Trooli, Quickline, Wightfibre, Wildanet, and even B4RN.

So, it's possible the increase in customers moving to full fibre has also played a part in the number of complaints coming to the Communications Ombudsman.

While Virgin Media switched from using CISAS to the Communication Ombudsman in 2023, new complaint cases were taken from 1st January 2023, so they would have appeared in both H1 2023 and H1 2024 result sets.

We do know however, that complaints for Virgin Media to Ofcom peaked in Q3 2023 and Q4 2023, with 32 complaints per 100,000 customers, more than twice the industry average of 15 for the quarter.

The reason was put down to the regulator's investigation into Virgin Media's complaints handling, and further explained by Ofcom's Consumer Protection Director, who said, "The launch of our investigation into Virgin Media in July, looking at difficulty cancelling and complaints handling, has led to more customers coming forward to share their experiences with us."

Yet, more recent data from Q1 2024 shows a decline in complaints about Virgin Media over this issue.

Other complaint spikes so far known about for 2024 include NOW Broadband, but they use CISAS as an ADR scheme, along with Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, and Zen Internet.