ISPs should shut up and deliver

Broadband providers should stop talking and start delivering on their promises, according to uSwitch.com.

The price-comparison service has released the results of its broadband customer satisfaction survey and found that a quarter of people in the UK are not satisfied with their ISP.

uSwitch.com found that interruptions to the connection were the major cause of disgruntlement, as opposed to the problem of actually getting connected which was a key issue in its last survey.

Chris Frost, communications expert at uSwitch.com, said: "Unlike last year's survey when providers were in many cases simply overwhelmed by demand, this year the problems are more technical.

"New advances in broadband technology appear to be having an adverse effect, with connection problems and service interruptions occurring all too frequently," said Frost.

PlusNet, which experienced a massive drop in satisfaction levels in uSwitch's last survey, turned in a much stronger performance, coming out top with 78 per cent of its customers saying they were happy with the service.

"It's great to see PlusNet back on form and its performance puts its larger competitors to shame. The fact that a quarter of customers are not satisfied with their broadband provider should be a distinct warning siren for companies to up their game," said Frost.

PlusNet's Neil Armstrong was pleased by the results.

"PlusNet has always aimed to offer innovative products, excellent customer service and low-priced broadband services. We know customers don't like being tied into long and unforgiving contracts. It’s time the market wakes up and gives customers value and flexibility," Armstrong told Web User.

At the opposite end of the scale Orange was bottom with 65 per cent satisfaction levels. The company came bottom in the last survey too.

Orange was closely followed by TalkTalk, another company to offer 'free' broadband, with 69 per cent of customers satisfied.

Mark Schmid of Carphone Warehouse, TalkTalk's parent company, said: "We have recognised that we need to make improvements to elements of the TalkTalk broadband customer experience."

Schmid also pointed out that TalkTalk did rate highly in the value-for-money stakes.

Customers of Sky were also pleased by the value they received, but were less happy about customer support.

"Customers have complained of registering for Sky broadband, informing their existing provider of their plans to leave, and then being forced to wait a number of weeks without any broadband at all before being connected to their new service," said uSwitch's Frost.

Frost told ISPs to stop concentrating on marketing spin and focus on actually providing the service customers wanted.

"Our message to broadband companies is to stop telling us what you're doing and actually start doing it. Customers are entitled to the best of both worlds and should not have to choose between price and service," he said.

Some 11,000 broadband customers were interviewed for the survey.

www.uswitch.com
www.plus.net
www.orange.co.uk
www.talktalk.co.uk

More news via RSS Post item to Del.icio.us Post item to Digg.com