Watchdog

[NewsreadeR]

About to start, BBC1 and the results of 50k customers broadband survey revealed.

[reddwarfcrew]

BBC - Consumer - TV and radio - Broadband providers

21 March 2007
We asked Watchdog viewers to rate their broadband provider on customer service, ease of set-up, cancellation, value for money, and reliability of service. The results aren't presented as a scientific statistical survey, but a unique snapshot of the personal opinions of the 50,000 viewers who chose to take part. As such, it isn't intended to represent the views of Watchdog or the BBC's view of any of the companies, or their current performance.

For the purposes of this survey, Virgin, NTL and Telewest were treated separately, as the companies had only just merged and it was too early to assess the new company's performance.

Our overall ranking is based on the total volume of votes cast, meaning the companies that came out best and worst are shown in tables one and two.

Respondents were asked whether they were either: extremely unsatisfied (1), unsatisfied (2), satisfied (3) or extremely satisfied (4).

TABLE 1 - THE BEST BROADBAND PROVIDERS

This table lists - in order of the total number of votes cast - the companies that, overall, viewers who took part in the survey were most happy with. It was calculated by adding together the 'satisfied' and 'extremely satisfied' ratings in each of the five categories. This total is the number listed after each company's name.

Based on sum of 3s & 4s (satisfied, extremely satisfied)
1. BT - 18,862
2. Virgin - 17,881
3. AOL Europe -16,977
4. Tiscali - 11,973
5. TalkTalk -10,802
6. NTL - 10,399
7. Orange - 9,036
8. Telewest - 8,062
9. Sky - 6,202
10. Pipex - 5,772
11. Plusnet - 5,014
12. Zen - 4,742
13. Eclipse - 2,781
14. Demon - 2,515
15. Tesco - 2,216
16. Freedom2Surf - 2,160
17. Madasafish - 2,031
18. Nildram - 1,619
19. Waitrose - 1,308
20. Bulldog - 1,162
21. Supanet - 1,131
22. UK_Online - 987
23. ToucanSurf - 895
24. One.Tel - 585
25. Homecall - 528
26. Force 9 - 518
27. Metronet - 426
28. Biscit - 258
29. Global - 166



TABLE 2 - THE WORST BROADBAND PROVIDERS

This table lists - in order of the total number of votes cast - the companies that, overall, viewers who took part in the survey were least happy with. It was calculated by adding together the 'extremely dissatisfied' and 'dissatisfied' ratings in each of the five categories. This total is the number listed after each company's name.

Based on sum of 1s & 2s (extremely dissatisfied, dissatisfied)
1. Orange - 12,313
2. TalkTalk - 11,944
3. BT - 10,669
4. Tiscali - 10,412
5. AOL Europe - 7,500
6. Sky - 6,525
7. Virgin - 6,306
8. Pipex - 4,083
9. NTL - 3,753
10. Plusnet - 2,109
11. Bulldog - 1985
12. Telewest - 1373
13. Biscit - 883
14. Eclipse - 869
15. ToucanSurf - 811
16. Demon - 738
17. Tesco - 555
18. Freedom2Surf - 469
19. UK_Online - 432
20. Supanet - 431
21. Zen - 371
22. Homecall - 326
23. One.Tel - 305
24. Force 9 - 229
25. Nildram - 256
26. Madasafish - 190
27. Waitrose - 80
28. Metronet - 47
29. Global - 8



TABLE 3 - PROPORTIONAL DISSATISFACTION RANKING

Our main results have been calculated according to the number of votes cast, as this gives a more complete picture of viewers' opinions. However, it's clear that some of the smaller, lesser known companies provoked a very definite response, so we've also included here a proportional ranking.

This table lists all of the companies surveyed according to the proportion of 'extremely dissatisfied' or 'dissatisfied' votes. The total number of these 'dissatisfied' votes for each company was worked out as a percentage of the total number of people who responded about that company. The companies are listed in order of dissatisfaction.

Votes for 1s and 2s as percentage of total votes for that company
1. Biscit - 77%
2. Bulldog - 63%
3. Orange - 58%
4. TalkTalk - 53%
5. Sky - 51%
6. ToucanSurf -48%
7. Tiscali - 47%
8. Pipex - 41%
9. Homecall - 38%
10. BT - 36%
11. One_Tel - 34%
12= AOL_Europe - 31%
12= Force 9 - 31%
14= Plusnet - 30%
14= UK_Online - 30%
16. Supanet - 28%
17. NTL - 27%
18. Virgin - 26%
19. Eclipse - 24%
20. Demon - 23%
21. Tesco - 20%
22. Freedom2Surf - 18%
23. Telewest - 15%
24. Nildram - 14%
25. Metronet - 10%
26. Madasafish - 9%
27. Zen - 7%
28. Waitrose - 6%
29. Global - 5%



TABLE 4 - PROPORTIONAL SATISFACTION RANKING

This table lists all of the companies surveyed according to the proportion of 'satisfied' or 'extremely satisfied' votes. The total number of these 'satisfied' votes for each company was worked out as a percentage of the total number of people who responded about that company. The companies are listed in order of satisfaction.

Votes for 3s and 4s as percentage of total votes for that company
1. Global - 95%
2. Waitrose - 94%
3. Zen - 93%
4. Madasafish - 91%
5. Metronet - 90%
6. Nildram - 86%
7. Telewest - 85%
8. Freedom2Surf - 82%
9. Tesco - 80%
10. Demon - 77%
11. Eclipse - 76%
12. Virgin - 74%
13. NTL - 73%
14. Supanet - 72%
15= Plusnet - 70%
15= UK_Online - 70%
17= AOL_Europe - 69%
17= Force 9 - 69%
19. One.Tel - 66%
20. BT - 64%
21. Homecall - 62%
22. Pipex - 59%
23. Tiscali - 53%
24. ToucanSurf - 52%
25. Sky - 49%
26. TalkTalk - 47%
27. Orange - 42%
28. Bulldog - 37%
29. Biscit - 23%

[yodasarmpit]

Didn't expect Sky to fair so badly, probably because I'm so happy with my experience.

Just shows they still have a long way to go.

[NewsreadeR]

Sky did not even get a mention on the proggie, thats not a bad thing.

I think Sky will sort themselves out, they are new to it, and have expanded so quickly. The quicker the staff are up to speed and the procedures perfected - has to be good for everyone.

[reddwarfcrew]

I agree, not getting mentioned is good. Notice how BT came top in one poll and poorly in another.

For such a new company (I mean as in CS staff as opposed to easynet) they have done well not to get a hammering.

Orange weren't a new company, just freeserve rebranded to wanadoo rebranded to Orange.

The sky set up is totally new even thou the infrastructure existed previously.

[SatDish]

as they say no news is good news and remember unlike all the other isp's SkyBB is only 7 months old

[NewsreadeR]

Sky now have something to aim for imho, the number one spot, for satisfaction.

[technorog]

I hope that Sky have a look at this survey and see how badly they faired and then do something urgently to put all the problems right. I regret that I took on Sky Max I only get appox 3.5m download which is dissapointing.The last 24hours is the first 1 day period that I have not had to re-boot the router.
I would like to mention if it was not for Skyuser and all the brilliant advice I have read (a complete novice on IT issues) I would have cancelled weeks ago under "not fit for purpose". A special thanks to Newsreader and other founder members for a fantastic site.
I think you should be looking for 20,000 members in the next 6 months.
Back to Sky value for money tops but wiyh this I can only see many more people taking it on so things will proberly get worse.
Rog

[Alan b]

The quicker the staff are up to speed and the procedures perfected - has to be good for everyone.

Sky have the potential to become a really good ISP but the problem with them at the moment is the customer service side of things is lacking somewhat.

[dholdi]

Sky have the potential to become a really good ISP but the problem with them at the moment is the customer service side of things is lacking somewhat.

Hear Hear !! My latest reply to Sky CS via email states that if it were not for this site I would have given up on them before now. I also suggested that they could learn some lessons from here and ought to support the site in some way. Probably fall on deaf ears tho.
Keep up the good work everyone.