Vodafone and EE are not coming up to scratch when it comes to the quality of their customer services, with the latest in a regular poll by Which? placing them in joint 10th position for overall customer satisfaction and ranking them just ahead of international calls provider Lebara.
The Which? annual mobile satisfaction survey for the UK mobile market gave both mobile network operators an overall score of 49 per cent. It noted that one in 10 EE users rated customer service and the ease of getting in touch with the company as poor or very poor.
Vodafone -- which Ofcom recently said was the most complained about pay-monthly mobile provider in the fourth quarter of 2015 -- "was also given the thumbs down across the board by their customers," the consumer champion added.
Giffgaff -- which is a community-based MVNO on the O2 UK network (and also owned by O2) -- was again ranked in first place with a score of 79 per cent, highlighting that good customer service involves far more than just providing network connectivity and a set of tariffs.
"Its flexible approach selling pay-as-you-go (PAYG) SIM cards and unlocked handsets that can be used with any network, coupled with low prices, is proving very popular," commented Which?
Indeed, the second and third places were also occupied by MVNOs -- supermarket brands Asda Mobile (72 per cent) and Tesco Mobile (70 per cent). The survey results noted that Asda Mobile's PAYG service "was rated highly for value for money by customers and it increased its overall score by 10 per cent since last year."
In fourth place was relative newcomer iD from Carphone Warehouse. The MVNO was launched just under a year ago and placed its bets on inclusive roaming, 4G at no extra cost and unlimited data.
The other two MNOs, Three and O2, were ranked sixth and seventh respectively.
Alex Neill, Which? director of campaigns and communications, noted that the latest survey "once again shows that the major mobile providers are still failing on the basics of customer service. Telecoms are an essential part of modern life and so providers need to start delivering for their customers."
The results were taken from a survey of 4,101 members of the British public in February 2016 with participants giving a star rating on a variety of factors including customer service, ease of contacting, value for money and incentives.
For more:
- see this Which? release
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