Consumer broadband issues revealed

A new survey of over 2,500 broadband customers carried out by Broadbandchoices.co.uk has revealed what their priorities are when it comes to the service they receive and the complaints they make.

When asked to identify the most important aspect when choosing a broadband service, over one third (35%) chose connection reliability. This was closely followed by connection speed (32%) whilst value for money came in third (22%), mirroring results from the previous year’s survey. Surprisingly, customer service was completely overlooked by respondents with only 6% saying they valued this aspect the most.

When asked if they felt their broadband provider had lived up to its claims, a disappointing 39% said no. Whilst this is an improvement on last year’s results (47% said they were disappointed with their broadband provider in 2009) it still indicates that despite progress being made, there is still much to be done when it comes to improving customers’ experience of their broadband service.

Disappointment with connection speed was the top gripe at 77% – a worrying increase of over last year’s survey (70%) where it also topped the list of broadband bugbears. Customer service came 2nd with over a third (35%) experiencing frustrations in this area. 32% of respondents said they were unhappy with the reliability of their broadband connection.

Michael Phillips, Product Director, commented:

“The main reason for dissatisfaction amongst broadband customers is still overwhelmingly due to broadband speeds not living up to the hype, demonstrating that there continues to be a huge disparity between speeds advertised and the speeds delivered. These results are even more troubling given Ofcom’s – and the ISPs – supposed attempts to make this more transparent to consumers. Dissatisfaction with connection speed has actually risen since last year’s survey.

“It was particularly interesting to see that well over a third (35%) found their broadband provider lacking in customer service skills – the second most common complaint. Whilst few people seem to make purchasing decisions based on customer service (a mere 6%) it clearly matters when consumers are forced to contact their ISP to get other problems resolved.”