Sky shines in Ofcom complaints data

As controversies around Rupert Murdoch’s bid to take complete control over Sky continue to swirl, the subscription broadcaster and telecoms operator came out shining in fresh complaint statistics from Ofcom on Wednesday.

The regulator set out the volume of recent consumer complaints it received against major providers of telecoms and pay television services.

It covered the three month period from April to June, and includes complaints made about providers of landline telephone, home broadband, pay-monthly mobile and pay television services.

For landlines, the Post Office was the most complained-about provider with 17 complaints per 100,000 customers, followed by TalkTalk at 16, BT at 15 and BT’s low-cost subsidiary Plusnet at 14.

The least complained-about landline provider was Sky at six complaints per 100,000, followed by BT subsidiary EE at 10 complaints, and Liberty Global’s UK brand Virgin Media at 11.

For fixed broadband, Brits laid the most complaints over services from BT, TalkTalk and Plusnet, at 28, 24 and 20 complaints per 100,000 respectively.

Sky was once again the overachiever, at seven complaints per 100,000, followed by Virgin Media and EE at 13 and 15 respectively.

Vodafone and BT were the joint losers in the pay-monthly mobile market, with 11 complaints per 100,000 each, followed by Talktalk on nine and Virgin Mobile on seven, while Tesco Mobile received the fewest complaints at one per 100,000, with EE, O2 and Three following closely behind at three per 100,000.

In the pay television space, BT had 13 complaints laid to Ofcom per 100,000 customers during the quarter, and the best performer Sky had just one.

TalkTalk and Virgin Media lay between the two at six and eight complaints per 100,000 respectively.

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

“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.”