Far too many people are ‘getting a poor deal’ from their broadband provider say Which?

THE majority of households have experienced problems with their broadband over the last year, with slow speeds the most common complaint, a survey reveals.

Which? found that among the 53% of households who had difficulties with their broadband, customers of Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Sky and BT were most likely to experience an issue.

Virgin customers’ top complaint was price increases (38%), while 33% of Talk Talk customers and 22% of BT customers suffered “very slow” broadband speeds.

One in five broadband customers overall had had problems with speed, but 17% suffered frequent connection dropouts, 12% had a fault with the wireless router and 8% had no connection at all for hours or days at a time.

Separately, the results of Which?’s latest Consumer Insight survey also found that trust in the broadband industry stood at 41%, down three percentage points since last year.

Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home products and services, said: “Far too many people get a poor deal from their broadband provider, with problems ranging from very slow speeds to going days without any connection at all, which just isn’t good enough.

“The regulator must now deliver on its plans to improve the information that customers get about speeds when they sign up to a provider and allow them to easily exit a contract if they’re not getting what they’ve been promised.

“Customers who aren’t satisfied with the level of service they’re receiving should look to switch.”

Which? surveyed 1,709 telecoms customers between June and July.