Talk's not cheap as phone firms ring the changes

TELEPHONE companies are getting their wires badly crossed as their service receives a big thumbs-down from customers.

An independent survey of nearly 8,000 phone customers, conducted by the polling company YouGov on behalf of uSwitch, shows phone firms are satisfying just six out of ten customers.

Notably, the home phone oldies such as BT and Virgin Media are continuing to lose ground to their younger rivals. Customers have voted Sky as Best Overall Provider – its third time at the top, with 86 per cent of its customers satisfied. Sky may be the youngest phone company in the rankings, forming less than four years ago, but it wins seven out of 11 categories including best customer service.

For the third time running, customers gave BT the lowest score for overall customer satisfaction in the poll. The UK's incumbent phone company has come last in every category and has the lowest score for value for money for the seventh time running. BT's position will not be helped by the latest round of price increases. Daytime call rates have risen 9 per cent from 5.4p to 5.9p per minute and the set-up cost for calls made outside of calling plans has risen 6 per cent, from 9.3p to 9.9p per call.

BT's calling times have also changed, with evening calls starting at 7pm instead of 6pm. The move will hit homes hard. Any customer not on the Unlimited Anytime package who makes a call between 6pm and 7pm will be charged at the new daytime rate.

Hot on the heels of BT, TalkTalk also plans to raise its prices – despite winning best value for money for the sixth time running. From 1 June, customers will see a 26 per cent rise in the daytime peak call rate from 4.6p to 5.8p per minute, a 7 per cent rise in the evening call rate from 1.4p to 1.5p per minute and a 7 per cent rise in the call connection charge from 9.25p to 9.9p per minute. Again, the rates apply to calls made outside customers' calling plans.

Disappointingly, TalkTalk has also announced plans to shift evening call times from 6pm to 7pm. The fear is that this could lead to a domino effect within the industry as other providers follow in their footsteps – with dire consequences for consumers.

Nearly a third of home phone customers believe that having to wait until 7pm to make calls is less convenient, and a quarter would consider changing to a provider whose off-peak hours start at 6pm. Businesses could also be affected: 2 per cent of customers say they would use their work phone for personal calls if they had to pay before 7pm.

The news does not get much better for Virgin Media's four million phone customers that have seen a 99p increase to their monthly line rental and a 10 per cent hike in the connection charge from 10p to 11p for all chargeable calls. The rate for any calls to landlines made outside of a calling plan has also risen by 1p to 7.5p per minute, and calls to mobiles are also up 1p per minute, except for calls to Virgin Mobile customers.

Overall, customers are disillusioned with the value for money offered by their home phone service, with satisfaction plummeting 8 per cent since last year. The impact that the latest round of price changes will have on bills is deeply concerning. If customers don't change either their calling habits or calling plans they could see their annual bills rocket.

But it really isn't all doom and gloom. The good news is that there are some lesser known phone companies out there looking to grow – and they are offering some very enticing deals. Primus, for example, is offering line rental for just 8.99 a month including free evening and weekend calls. Better still, evening calls start at 6pm and finish at 8am, so that's a whole 14 hours of free talk. Not everyone may have heard of the brand, but its parent company is 16 years old and has more than two million customers.

With players such as these ready to nip in and offer a better deal it's now up to the seven million phone customers who have never switched to vote with their feet. Switching home phone provider is a very simple process – you don't lose your phone number and could shave hundreds of pounds off your annual bill. So there's nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Steve Weller is general manager at uSwitch.com