It's not good to TalkTalk as firm tops phone complaints league

TELECOMS firm TalkTalk has been forced to apologise to customers after being the subject of the largest number of complaints of any company in the sector for its poor service.

The provider ranked worst of its peers for both its landline phone and broadband service between October 2010 and February this year, according to industry regulator Ofcom.

Almost two in every thousand customers - 1.78 - lodged a complaint to Ofcom about the service they had received relating to their landline phone, compared to Virgin Media, which attracted just 0.21 complaints per 1,000 customers in the period.

TalkTalk also topped the list for broadband complaints, attracting 1.27 complaints per 1,000 customers. Virgin Media again had the fewest complaints, with 0.2 per 1,000.

"We recognise that not all customers received the service they deserved as we completed the complex task of moving them to our network and a new billing platform," a spokeswoman for TalkTalk admitted yesterday.

"We're sorry for the disruption this caused and, while it's encouraging to see complaints decreasing towards the end of this period, we continue to work tirelessly to improve."

Complaints about the firm peaked in November following Ofcom's investigation into the company for incorrectly billing consumers for cancelled services. 3UK was the most complained-about mobile provider, with 0.15 complaints per 1,000 customers; O2 was best, with 0.04.

"Consumers should have access to as much information as possible to allow them to choose between providers and to take full advantage of the competition in the sector," said Ed Richards, chief executive for Ofcom, which receives 450 telecoms complaints per day about a range of issues including mis-selling, billing errors, lack of service and customer service problems.

Citizens Advice Scotland, which recently published a report into mis-selling and poor service in the telecoms industry, said it had arranged a meeting with Ofcom to discuss how to better protect consumers.

"These findings echo the evidence report that we published earlier this month, which showed the extent of unfair trading practice in the telecommunications industry," said CAS chief executive Lucy McTiernan.

"These figures just underline that the industry needs to be regulated much more strictly - and that includes the option of punitive action against those companies who are deliberately flouting the guidelines. Businesses are entitled to trade, but customers are entitled to a fair deal.

"For those who have already bought a service and are unhappy with it, we would encourage you to complain. We won't achieve real change unless we shout loud and clear."Ernest Doku, communications expert at uSwitch.com, added: "This report sheds more light on the bad service home telephone and broadband customers are receiving across the country. For far too long consumers have suffered in silence, putting up with poor service and poor value for money, so it is only right that the offending providers are brought to task."