Major complaint categories

How we handle complaints

This year, we received 261 818 contacts from consumers and small businesses who claimed they could not resolve a problem with their telephone or internet service provider.

A total of 31 753 of these contacts were classed as enquiries, which we do not have the power to examine. (More information about what we can and cannot examine is available here) We cannot, for example, examine commercial actions such as a provider’s decision not to supply a particular area with broadband.

A total of 230 065 contacts were classed as complaints, which we have the power to examine.

Complaints are classified according to the service type they concern; that is internet, mobile, landline or mobile premium services. Each complaint may be about several complaint issues. For example, a person who complains about a landline bill may also complain about a landline fault or a credit management issue. This year, we recorded 481 418 complaint issues.

Complaint issues are recorded under several broad categories, which are broken down further by keywords. The figure on the opposite page, provides a summary of our complaint issue categories. More detailed analysis and detailed descriptions of our keywords are provided in the following pages.

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