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Brit broadband giants slammed as folk whinge about crap connections, underwhelming speeds

TalkTalk and Sky are the worst, but Vodafone is falling fast

TalkTalk and Sky are still dismally disappointing their customers – but Vodafone saw the biggest drop in ratings, according to a broadband survey from consumer group Which?.

The organisation carries out regular assessments of Brits' opinions on their broadband provider; the latest was carried out in January on a sample of 8,603 Which? members. It assigns each firm a score based on customer satisfaction and whether they would recommend it.

Which? said that customers with the biggest companies are the most likely to be getting a bad deal, with TalkTalk and Sky "rooted to the bottom of the latest rankings" scoring less than 50 per cent.

TalkTalk failed to score well in any category, and was panned for the quality of its customer service, tech support and value for money. Its customers were also most likely to have suffered from very slow speeds (27 per cent) and frequent connection dropouts (21 per cent) in the past 12 months.

Some 22 per cent of Sky customers said they had experienced issues with very slow connection speeds, while 20 per cent of BT customers reported problems with very slow speeds or connection dropouts.

Despite the connectivity issues for these customers, Virgin Media users were the most likely to have long-term problems, with 17 per cent having been left without a connection for hours or days at a time.

Not to be outdone by its mainstream competitors, Vodafone came crashing down the rankings this time, falling into the bottom half of the survey with an overall customer score of 58 per cent, from a position of joint fourth place in Spring 2018.

Voda also recently earned Ofcom's moniker of most complained-about broadband provider between July and September 2018, prising the dubious annual award from TalkTalk.

Which? reckoned 71 per cent of people said they had been with their provider for more than three years, and pointed out that those who had been with the same firm for a long time without haggling for a better deal were most likely to overpay.

Ofcom last year launched a review of broadband prices, and is consulting on proposals to force firms to tell customers when their contract is up and letting them know about better tariffs.

"It's outrageous that the biggest providers are still letting their customers down with shoddy broadband, especially when we know that longstanding customers are the most likely to be overpaying," said Natalie Hitchins, Which? Head of Home Products and Services.

"Anyone who is unhappy with their current provider should take back control and switch to a better deal – you could get better service and save hundreds of pounds a year." ®

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