Last month I spent more time speaking to my broadband providerās helpline than my family. I couldnāt resist telling this to the customer service support staff, and got a sympathetic laugh from the end of the line.
I donāt know what it is about being stuck on the phone trying to sort out technical problems, but I seem to turn into my dad. I canāt control it. It just happens.
Between coming up with awful dad jokes, such as the title for this piece, I was getting more and more frustrated. Iād spent three weeks with speeds under 2Mbps (I should have been getting much faster) and at some points I had no broadband at all.
I snapped. I started doing daily broadband speed tests and became one of those people who just spoke about their internet woes. Working on Which?ās Broadband Speed Guaranteed campaign was an excellent channel for this frustration, but I was no fun at parties.
Iām not alone in my frustration. Our latest broadband satisfaction survey reveals that the biggest providers are letting their customers down. BT, Sky and TalkTalk came bottom of the pile, with smaller providers like John Lewis Broadband, Plusnet and Zen Internet topping the tablet.
Give us broadband speed guaranteed
We also asked customers about their satisfaction with broadband speeds, and most of the providers received a score of three stars or less.
This ups the ante for our Broadband Speed Guaranteed campaign. Not only are we campaigning for providers to improve their service, we want customers to get the speeds theyāre promised when they sign up.
At the moment broadband providers are allowed to advertise speeds that only 10% of their customers actually get. Thatās why weāre reiterating our call to the advertising watchdogs, The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and The Broadcasting Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP), to tighten the rules so that advertised broadband speeds more closely match customers’ real experiences. Our executive director Richard Lloyd said today:
āWeāve told the advertising watchdogs that companies need to be much clearer with their customers about the speeds they can expect. However, three months on, weāre still waiting for them to announce how theyāll ensure adverts only show the speeds most customers actually receive.ā
Iām back online
In case youāre wondering, after four callouts my broadband is now back up and running. I was so happy I could have hugged my technician, Winston. (I did.)
Is your broadband service bringing you down loads? We want to hear about it.
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