Consumer complaints made to Oftel, 12 June 2002

Consumer complaints made to Oftel - the telecoms industry regulator - 12 June 2002

June 2002 – Issue 5
(covers period 1 October 2001 to 31 March 2002)

Fixed line market: complaints per 1,000 customers

Key:

Notes:
- British Gas: excludes 34 Complaints about mis-selling of service
- Powergen: excludes 15 Complaints about mis-selling of service
- Complaints per 1,000 customers for Telco Global is less than 0.1
- Telewest comprises of Telewest Broadband and Telewest Broadband Eurobell
- Average for fixed line market in previous publication was 0.7

Mobile market: complaints per 1,000 customers

Key:

Notes:
- O2 is the new name for BT Cellnet
- O2 includes the former companies BT Cellnet, Lumina, and Genie
- T-Mobile is the new name for One 2 One
- Average for mobile market in previous publication was 0.3

Introduction

This publication provides a broad picture of the level of complaints received by Oftel between 1 October 2001 and 31 March 2002. The two graphs highlight the relative performance of the telephone companies named.

Oftel believes that publishing this information provides an important incentive to telephone companies to improve the quality of service they offer to their customers.

Whilst individual consumers may also find the publication of interest, our aim is to put data in the public domain in an accessible way. Oftel believes that other sources of information offer more relevant information to help consumer choice. Examples of such sources are:

Oftel’s leaflet Choosing a telephone company (www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/consumer/consguides/conscatc.htm);
quality of service Comparable Performance Indicators (CPIs) (www.cpi.org.uk);
telephone bill comparisons at www.phonebills.org.uk, and
individual company literature which will detail services and tariff packages.

The complaints data is presented in the form of two graphs:

Fixed line market: company complaints per 1,000 customers (business and residential combined) per sixmonths; and
Mobile market: company complaints per 1,000 customers (business and residential combined) per sixmonths.

Accompanying the company specific data, to give an overall context, is information on the issues most complained about for the period in question.

We believe no useful purpose is served by including data for companies that no longer offer service. Therefore no data on the following companies has been included:

Atlantic Telecom; and
Tiscali (World Online) (no longer offers Calls & Access service)

Fixed line market

This relates to complaints about all services accessed from a fixed telephone line, including BT service, cable service, indirect access, carrier pre-selection. Internet service provision is not included.

Oftel received 116 complaints about Breathe, but we were unable to obtain customer base information.

The total consumers who complained about the fixed line market included in this publication are:

20,400 (previous publication = 18,380)

The Top 3 issues during the period were:

	Issue	Example
1 (1)	Failure or time taken to repair (6% of total complaints)	"Customer has been without service for 14 days. His telephone company keeps advising him the fault will be repaired on a certain day, but nothing happens."
2 (3)	Difficulty contacting telephone company (5% of total complaints)	"Customer is complaining that when calling telephone there is a long wait of around 30 minutes before being able to speak to an advisor"
3 (2)	Complaint ignored by telephone company (5% of total complaints)	"Customer has approached telephone company on numerous occasions about the problem, but it remains unresolved."

Position in previous publication shown in brackets.

Mobile market

This relates to complaints about all services accessed from a mobile telephone line.

The total consumers who complained about the mobile market included in this publication are:

8,032 (previous publication = 7,132)

The Top 3 issues during the period were:

	Issue	Example
1 (1)	Charged for service that has been cancelled (6% of total complaints)	"Customer purchased a mobile phone from mobile service provider, decided he did not like it and returned it 3 days later (within the 14 day cooling off period). However, he has subsequently received monthly bills."
2 (3)	Complaint ignored by telephone company (5% of total complaints)	"Customer has complained on several occasions to mobile service provider, but they have not dealt with the issues raised and have ignored the complaint."
3 (-)	Telephone company does not keep customer informed (5% of total complaints)	"Customer complained that mobile service provider did not inform him of tariff changes."

Position in previous publication shown in brackets.

Criteria used for inclusion in the graphs

Only companies with a customer base of 100,000 and above are included. The customer base figures used have been supplied to Oftel by the named companies. Where Oftel does not have data for the time period in question it has used the most recent available data supplied to it. Oftel has also requested and relied upon confirmation from all named companies, in advance of publication that the figures used are accurate.

Analysis is based on the number of consumers who make a complaint with Oftel about a company, and not on the number of issues each consumer raises.

No complaint is included in the analysis where a consumer does not provide either:

a full postal address; and/or
an email address; and/or
a contact telephone number.

The analysis will not differentiate between business and residential customers.

The published data will cover complaints received from the whole UK population and will not seek to distinguish between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland or between regions.

Oftel will rely on the latest customer base information supplied to it by companies. The onus is therefore on companies to continue to supply regular customer base information. Oftel will contact companies close to the publication date to confirm base numbers. Where no confirmation is received Oftel will use the last available information.

A complaint is defined as consumer expression of dissatisfaction relating to their company or service.

Calculation for graphs:

1000 * A / B

where

A = Total number of Consumer complaints to Oftel about a company in the 6 month period,
B = Average population of customer base for company during the 6 month period.

Graph Scale: Results are to 2 decimal points, in multiples of 0.1

Further details can be found here in Oftel’s October 2001 Statement on Publication of Consumer Complaints made to Oftel.