Orange and T-Mobile are most complained-about networks
New figures from Ofcom show Orange and T-Mobile -- both owned by EE -- generated more complaints than rivals.
Orange and T-Mobile have been sent to the doghouse, as it's revealed that they are the two most complained-about networks in the UK.
Ofcom's latest report into the nation's service providers puts Orange as the network that's least popular with customers in the last three months of 2012, something that the communications watchdog blames on the operator's decision to withdraw its offer of free broadband.
Forcing customers to start paying line rental also put Orange on top of the broadband complaints list for the second quarter running, with the number of complaints per 1,000 customers rising since July-September last year.
Ofcom says that unhappiness with T-Mobile's monthly mobile service largely stems from billing woes, and customers that are unhappy with how complaints are handled. T-Mobile generated more complaints to Ofcom in the last three months of 2012 than it did in the July-September 2012 period, when it beat Orange to be the most-complained-about operator.
Orange and T-Mobile are part of EE, the umbrella network that recently launched the UK's first 4G network. Speedy mobile data is nothing to be sniffed at, but I'm sure many phone owners would rather see networks focusing on keeping customers happy.
In other highlights and lowlights news, TalkTalk is the landline company least popular with paying customers. Th good news is that despite generating more bile among buyers than Sky, Virgin Media and BT, the number of TalkTalk complaints has fallen steadily since the last few months of 2011.
While these figures don't necessarily represent enormous numbers of complaints, they provide a good overview of the industry, and which providers are keeping their customers happy. In the period that Orange topped the list, O2 was the operator that generated the fewest complaints, followed by Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.
Are you happy with the network providing your telephonic kicks? Or would you rather give your operator the boot? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.