The UK's worst home phone provider

by ReenaSewraz on 02 April 2013  |  4 comments
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The latest Ofcom figures reveal the landline provider with the most complaints.

I think it’s fair to say that the humble home phone has had its day, as many of us now opt for the convenience of mobile handsets to keep in touch instead.

That said we still need a landline to receive broadband in our homes (unless you live in a Virgin Media fibre optic area) so most internet bundles come with one as standard.

But which providers should you go for and which should you avoid? Well new complaints data from telecoms regulator Ofcom could help to steer you in the right direction.

Ofcom complaint figures

Ofcom has released new data revealing the operators it received the most complaints about for landline telephone services between October and December last year.

The quarterly report only publishes data on complaints for companies with a 4% plus market share and those that generate at least 30 complaints a month. So you won’t see smaller names like Orange and the Post Office show up in the results.

This is how the figures stack up for each of the main providers across the last four quarters:

As you can see, throughout 2012 Talk Talk has topped Ofcom’s complaints data for landline telephone services. Ofcom says the complaints received about Talk Talk were centred on service faults and customer service issues.

That said the operator has seen the biggest improvement in the volume of complaints received, halving the proportion in a year from 0.72 to 0.36. But the complaints received about Talk Talk are still far too high at almost double the industry average.

Virgin Media and Sky both received the fewest complaints this quarter and in general have performed at or below industry average on complaints for a while now.

The relative calm Sky and Virgin have experienced is interesting as they both announced price rises last year. Read Virgin Media hikes line rental by 3.4% and Sky phone line rental soars 18% for further details.

Which? research

Ofcom publishes complaints data for transparency but also to arm us with more information when choosing a provider.

But unfortunately the data only deals with the 'Big Four', leaving very little information about what else is out there and how well they perform.

However, there are other ways to find out more.

Which? Technology conducted a survey in April last year to find the most popular home phone providers among its readers.

The survey used a rating system based on customer service, value for money and billing accuracy to deliver an overall customer score.

Smaller providers Utility Warehouse, Zen Internet and the Post Office scored highly whereas big names Sky, Talk Talk and BT came lower down in terms of customer satisfaction.

Here are the results of the Which? report:

Utility Warehouse and Zen Internet scored high enough to secure the accolade of Which? Recommended Providers.

The Post Office also did well with a customer score of 68%. This score is even more understandable when you consider the Post Office recently froze home phone prices until October 2013.

18185.co.uk also made the list of Which? Recommended Providers for home phone operators on a call override service, which is slightly different to a full phone service. With this type of service you don’t have to pay line rental or sign up to a contract. Instead you make calls by dialling a prefix code before the main number to pay reduced rates per call.

More on home phones:

Landline vs. mobile: time to ditch the home phone?

BT6500: new phone that automatically blocks unwanted calls

Sky buys O2 and Be Broadband's broadband and landline businesses

How to find the best deal on your broadband, TV and phone package