17 August 2007
Britons are paying a combined £31 million per year to sort out problems with their broadband service over the telephone, new research suggests.
According to a survey carried out by uSwitch many broadband providers in the UK are failing to provide adequate and efficient support for their customers.
Despite the huge uptake in broadband services across the nation, uSwitch found significant levels of dissatisfaction among customers of some of the top broadband providers in the UK.
Indeed, less than half of broadband customers said they were satisfied with the overall technical support their broadband company provides.Despite Talk Talk coming out high in the broadband customer service stakes for its free technical support helpline, it has been criticised for its overall technical support.
Meanwhile, PlusNet, voted uSwitch's Best Overall Provider, charges just a 4.5p off-peak flat rate for the first 60 minutes of any technical support call.
The company found that UK broadband customers make 19 million calls to their broadband providers per year, which equates to a staggering 2,000 calls per hour.
What is more, customers are now having to ring up their broadband providers an average of three times in order to get their problem resolved.
And when it comes to being put on hold, uSwitch found that customers spend an average of six minutes of their time waiting at the end of the line to talk to somebody.
Steve Weller, Head of Communications Services at uSwitch.com, said: "New advances in broadband technology appear to be having an adverse effect, with connection problems and service interruptions occurring all too frequently. Customers have found themselves having to make numerous calls to get their problems fixed so it's no wonder satisfaction is at an all time low.
"Broadband has become part of our lives and we now spend 34 days a year online, so when things go wrong we need assurance that our service will be back up and running again as quickly as possible and at minimum expense."
He added: "We call on the industry to stamp out the extortionate and inconsistent charging structures currently in operation and to focus instead on getting the service right first time. We look forward to the day that broadband works straight out of the box and we will just pay for the service we sign up to.".
So much choice, but don't panic - it's easy to get yourself a great deal on broadband using uSwitch.com. If you're confused about technicalities, the help pages throughout our calculator are on hand at each step of the sign up process to answer all your questions. Find providers in your area and compare packages using our free and impartial service. Sign up to broadband today.
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