Customers pay extortionate amounts for technical support calls
October 16, 2007 at 10:41 am
Millions of UK residents are frustrated by the high call charges for helplines, some of the worst offenders being technical support lines for help with your broadband. It is almost cheeky that, on top of the customer having complaints with a particular service, they must pay unreasonable amounts to have them heard. The situation becomes crazier when you realise that, according to recent studies, some customers are paying up to £14.50 for a single call. Yet it is no surprise that when you initially make a call to get your broadband set up in the first place, the call will cost much less, and often even be free.
The new results come from a survey of 11,000 broadband users by comparison site Uswitch, which has found that most broadband providers charge customers a considerable amount for technical help. For example, Orange, which offers a tempting “free” broadband package actually charges callers up to 50p a minute for talking to support staff, this earning the company an average of £5.56 per phone call it receives.
Now, considering the fact that the company receives over a million calls a year, you don’t need to do the maths to work out that that makes a hefty profit. You would even be forgiven for the cynical thinking that maybe services cause problems in the first place to get profit from phone calls!
Other companies seem to fare no better. For example, Virgin Media, the country’s second-biggest broadband provider after BT, recently raised its technical support charges in July from local rate all the way up to 25p a minute. Similarly, the provider Toucan now charges its customers 30p per minute. BT is still modest in comparison, charging 2p a minute, yet this is still above local rate for many.
What makes the whole matter worse is that the surveys have found that very few people are actually even satisfied with the help they’ve received when making the premium call. The results have shown less than half of Orange broadband customers have been happy with the service provided. This corresponds to the figures from another comparison site Moneysupermarket.com, which has ranked Orange as one of the worst providers of the lot for its quality of technical support – getting an average rating of 2.6 out of 10 from customers.
Finally, to make matters even worse, the survey from Uswitch found that only 4 out of every 10 people surveyed actually had their problem resolved in the first phone call – many had to try again up to 2 more times before a solution was found, with most providers even charging whilst the phone was on hold!
Because most of the providers seem to be as bad as each other in terms of customer service, the problem seems inescapable. Before signing up with a new provider it is worthwhile comparing the costs of all features and services, including support calls.
Consumers can save hundreds using bundle deals
October 12, 2007 at 10:10 am
Now that more and more companies are offering competitive “bundled” packages including broadband, TV and phone, experts believe that those who are still buying all these things separately could be losing out. Although there are some customers who only want broadband, the majority do want to have other things as well. Yet so many are sticking with separate suppliers either to avoid the hassle or because they don’t believe a big changeover will make much difference. Well, new studies have shown that a bundled package can make a huge difference, with consumers paying up to £500 less.
Though bundled packages were uncommon a few years ago, now more broadband firms are introducing their own deals. The latest one to join the group is broadband firm Tiscali which offers the three services mentioned above for only £19.99 a month, the cheapest on the market. Other providers which already offered this bundle include Sky, Virgin Media and BT which all claim to save the consumer hundreds of pounds. Though consumers may be put off by the fact that they cannot pick and choose each bit separately, by shopping around for a good package, experts believe they will not be losing out on any quality on either of the components.
Furthermore, for anyone who is thinking about switching to a bundle, now is apparently the best time as the providers are in serious competition with the new deals from Tiscali. As Aamir Baloch of the comparison firm Firsthelpline.com says, “If you haven’t got a bundled deal yet, it is worth calling your providers to see if they can offer something better, especially if you’ve been with one provider for over a year. And if they don’t offer you anything, consider moving.”
Though Tiscali is currently only supplying services to customers in London and its surrounding areas, the firm claims to be expanding its service to cover half the UK population by the end of the year. Their best package, which costs £24.99 a month, boasts the attractive services of broadband up to 8Mb as well as a landline telephone which can be used to make free calls in the UK. Furthermore, their freeview TV package is also included offering 350 on-demand programmes and 1,000 movies. For those who don’t want the movies, you can get a basic package for £19.99 a month.
Because of this new rate from Tiscali, many eager customers are snapping up the opportunity by changing over immediately. But advisors still suggest that the best thing to do is always to shop around and make sure you know what you are getting, both in terms of the quality and features of the service and the customer service.
It could be that some providers give you channels that you will never watch or give you a broadband speed which you do not require, in which case a certain package may not be for you. Also, other providers may soon have to change their rates in order to compete with Tiscali, so it is not yet clear whether Tiscali really will stay the best available for long.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that whatever package you end up going for, a little haggling can go a long way. If you approach customer service with all the details of what other companies offer, they will be more willing to give you a discount in order that you go with them instead.
Talk Talk is still broadband villain to many
October 9, 2007 at 10:34 am
The broadband provider Talk Talk has been marked as a complete failure in the broadband industry. It has been voted as The Times money section villain of the year for 2006 for the anger it has caused for thousands of unhappy customers. Statistics indeed show that hundreds of thousands of Talk Talk customers have been upset with the service over the last year-and-a-half, with many finally breathing a sigh of relief as their contracts end this month and they can finally quit.
The internet and telephone service provider Talk Talk, operated by Carphone Warehouse, was once marketed as a new gem of a service, as it was the first to provide “free” broadband access and only charged users for the calls they made in Talk Talk’s combined call and surf package. Initially in April 2006, the company launched a huge publicity campaign and managed to sign up an incredible 340,000 customers in only 8 weeks.
Though the gimmick was attractive, the now-maligned service has ended up a complete headache to its unfortunate users. Even though Talk Talk made many promises, it could not cope with the initial demand and the service ran dry. It is said that at one stage “up to 200,000 people were waiting for their broadband connection” with thousands of them having to wait months before they were connected even though they were still paying for the service.
Not only that but even those who managed to get connected suffered poor and intermittent service to which there was no solution. The customer service was absolutely terrible with calls being put in huge queues and even outsourced to those who did not understand many of the complaints made. As Steve Weller at comparison firm Uswitch says, “Talk Talk’s customer services are still nowhere near as good as some of its rivals. Many frustrated customers will be looking to leave as soon as their contracts end.” Even though Talk Talk has now put £15m more into improving the customer service, there has not been a great improvement. To compound matters, no compensation has been provided for lost broadband time.
871,000 Talk Talk contracts will be ending this month, with USwitch estimating that thousands will take up the chance to switch. Their latest customer satisfaction survey has found that 270,000 customers have been unsatisfied by the service.
Now, it is up to Talk Talk to take strong measures in order to try and redeem the trust of its customers. As spokesman says for Talk Talk says: “Although I can’t say everything is perfect, I am confident that we have made huge improvements to our service.” Though Talk Talk does provide competitive deals, consumers are advised to approach the firm with caution.
MP wants more honest ISPs
October 5, 2007 at 2:34 am
We all get wound up with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the fibs they tell us in order to get us to choose their service over rivals’. If it’s not the connection reliability or the speed, then it’s the so-called help they offer customers. Their time might soon be up though, as a campaign to get the ISPs to be honest with prospective customers has recently gathered speed and now has backing from MPs, as they take their case to the regulator Ofcom.
Launched only in September this year, Computeractive’s Crystal Clear Broadband Campaign is intent on forcing the ISPs to stop us having to read through reams and reams of small print in order to find out exactly what service we will receive. Their main gripe comes with the advertised and promised speeds of the broadband service, which, as they have highlighted, vastly differs when one actually uses the service.
According to their campaign aims, they feel “Ofcom should oblige ISPs to provide clear information about the actual speed they are likely to receive in the form of a ‘typical rate’, much like that published by credit card and loan providers.” Where a number of customers sign up to deals promising maximum speeds of 8Mbps for example, often in reality it ends up being less that half that, due to a variety of factors.
The campaign gained much stronger legs recently too, when Conservative MP, Sir George Young, pledged his support for the issue. Sir George has been an active supporter of this cause for some time now and in September 2004, he was spear-heading support for more equal sharing in the ISP industry in order to boost the UK’s coverage.
Young has given full support to this campaign. “There’s insufficient consumer understanding of what’s realistic to expect in terms of day-to-day performance, as opposed to the maximum speed of a broadband line; and suppliers have a key role to play in setting realistic expectations rather than hyping the maximum as if it were the norm. And yes, I do believe Ofcom has a role to play.”
The campaign already has 3500 signatures in the first week since its launch, and it’s pretty clear that with the growing support in parliament, Ofcom will not be able to shut its ears to the noise. Already the regulators have recognised the campaign’s concerns. A spokesperson for Ofcom said, “We are aware of the issues of speed and have been asking the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to step in when there was unfair advertising.”
The campaign looks set to gain speed and muscle very quickly, which will come as a relief to many dissatisfied internet customers.
Britain lagging behind on broadband speeds
October 2, 2007 at 9:33 am
Stephen Timms, the Government’s Minister for Competitiveness, this week stressed that the UK is continuing to fall behind global competitors on the issue of next generation broadband. While Virgin Media is just beginning to trial 50MB broadband in some parts of the South East of the country, for example, other EU nations are offering speeds of up to 100MB. Ministers want to bring together key broadband industry stakeholders to discuss how the gap can be bridged, and to limit the impact on the UK economy.
The minister is keen to work together with The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), which advises the Government on broadband issues, to make next generation broadband a reality in Britain. The BSG believes clear broadband infrastructure targets must be set to ensure the UK doesn’t fall behind its economic competitors. Earlier in the year, the organisation warned that, without investment, the digital divide between Britain and the rest of the world would deepen.
So why are we falling behind Europe? The UK is simply not matching the level of investment which other governments are making. As Stephen Timms pointed out, “Other countries are starting to invest in new, fibre based infrastructure, delivering considerably higher bandwidth than is available in the UK today.”
The sums involved are certainly substantial. “Fibre To The Home” (FTTH) uses a Fibre Optic rather than traditional copper wire to bring broadband, digital TV and telephone to the home. FTTH offers faster speeds (up to 100MB) and greater bandwidth. Across the channel it’s catching on rapidly – in Paris it costs just 45 Euro (£30) a month for the FTTH internet connection, 51-channel TV and unlimited phone calls. And the Mayor of Paris believes the capital will soon reap the financial rewards of infrastructure investment. Widespread super-fast broadband could make Paris Europe’s leading digital city, and therefore an attractive place for businesses to locate.
UK-wide installation of FTTH would cost an estimated £10-£15 billion. The crux of the issue is how to resolve this funding shortfall. The Government is keen to find out what role the private sector could play, and whether regulatory changes might be necessary to create a better environment for business, and to encourage investment by telecoms companies in next generation broadband infrastructure.
The BSG’s Chairman, Kip Meek, emphasised the importance of finding the money: “If we want to see the UK stay ahead amongst the international leaders in broadband, we must find a way to encourage timely and efficient investment.”
