Customer Service Counts

Our latest research has found energy and broadband customers lost an estimated £298m and 27.3 million hours to poor customer service in a year.

Which? surveyed more than 4,000 people to uncover how many people had a customer service issue in the year to May 2024 and how poor customer service impacted their finances, time and emotional wellbeing. We estimate that UK energy customers lost over £200m to substandard service last year - that’s over £20,000 an hour. Broadband customers fared similarly poorly, losing an estimated 13.4 million hours dealing with customer service issues.

It’s nowhere near good enough.

Separate Which? research named British Gas, Scottish Power and Virgin Media as the worst providers for customer service in the energy and broadband sectors. These businesses must prioritise the improvements to customer service they’ve promised to roll out. 

Our research identifies significant failings in customer service across broadband and energy companies. A survey of over 4,000 people revealed broadband and energy were two of the worst performing sectors for customer service. In broadband, Virgin Media was the worst provider; within energy companies, Scottish Power and British Gas received the lowest scores. 

It is never OK for firms to provide sub-standard customer service, but in essential sectors providing vital services millions rely on every day such as energy and broadband, it is completely unacceptable.

We wrote to the CEOs of all three firms about their consistently poor performance in our research. We’re calling on these businesses to give consumers the customer service they deserve and clearly communicate the steps they are taking to improve.

When it comes to airlines, customer service is in a dire state and some companies are routinely failing customers – leaving them frustrated and stuck in endless loops trying to get help when things go wrong.

Which? research finds Wizz Air and Ryanair are the poorest-performing airlines for customer service. Customers are most dissatisfied with the variety of contact options provided and time taken to reach someone who can help resolve their query.

We don't think it's good enough. We're calling on the worst performers to take urgent action to improve customer service and make it easier for consumers to get the timely and effective solutions they deserve. 

Over the past six months, thousands of people have got in touch with us to share their experiences of shoddy customer service.

All too often, customers are being left on hold, stuck in never-ending chatbot loops or passed between departments with no resolution or helpful answer to their query. It’s not good enough.

If you’ve had to deal with bad customer service we want to hear about it. Tell us all about your experience. 

Need to complain about your broadband speed or dispute an energy bill but don’t know where to start? 

Our template letters can help simplify getting in touch with your broadband company or energy provider.