O2 and Sky Mobile generate most complaints in latest Ofcom figures

O2 and Sky Mobile generated the highest rates of pay-monthly mobile complaints to Ofcom in the second quarter.

The regulator’s latest figures, covering April to June, show O2 complaints were mainly driven by faults, service problems and difficulties getting services connected. Sky Mobile customers’ biggest source of dissatisfaction was their experience of changing provider.

Service problems and switching difficulties drive complaints as mobile sector shows no overall improvement

EE, giffgaff, Tesco Mobile, Three, Vodafone and iD Mobile generated the lowest complaint rates.

Across the pay-monthly mobile market, complaints remained unchanged compared with both the previous quarter and the same period last year.

A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said: “Two years ago, with Ofcom’s complaints data showing Virgin Media and O2 at or near the bottom of every category, we drew a line in the sand and committed to fixing our customer service for good.

 “While we still want to go further, today’s data shows that Virgin Media recorded the fewest proportion of complaints of any broadband provider, while also achieving further significant reductions across TV and landline. Meanwhile, just two per 100,000 O2 customers made a complaint to the regulator – a 75% reduction from two years ago.

 “These statistics are further evidence that our strategy has been the right one, and moving forward we’ll continue to invest in our people and in new technologies to make it easier for our customers to get the support they need

Ofcom measures complaints per 100,000 customers, allowing comparisons between providers with different subscriber bases. The figures cover complaints received by the regulator rather than all complaints made directly to operators.

The differences between some providers were small. Ofcom treats results separated by fewer than one complaint per 100,000 customers as comparable. O2 and Sky Mobile fell within that threshold, while O2 was also comparable with Three, iD Mobile and the industry average.