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Broadband providers' tech support rake in £34m

Posted 17th August 2007 at 4:52pm by Alex Buttle

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Broadband providers are profiting by tens of millions of pounds a year from customers' calls to support help-lines, it has been revealed.

According to figures from uSwitch.com, some 19 million calls are made to such technical support help lines, netting internet service providers a total of £34 million annually.

Steve Weller, head of communications at uSwitch, said: "To rake in an additional £34m just for helping customers to resolve technical hitches is just wrong. It's interesting that sales lines are free to call."

Worse still it seems that much of this expense is being built up through multiple calls from clients to sort out the same problem, with the research revealing that only 40 per cent of problems are fixed first time.

The average customer phoned up to 3.67 times per year, with the costs of each call standing at around £1.82, uSwitch's study showed.

The most common source of complaints from customers was network connection difficulties.

More news on: Customer service and satisfaction

3 comments

  • 1

    Derek Anthony Ayres, 17th August 2007.

    I AGREE WITH THE COMMENTS ABOUT THE TECHNICAL SUPPORT LINES, MY CONNECTION WENT DOWN IN JULY AND THE NUMBER OF TIMES I HAVE HAD TO PHONE IS RIDICULOUS, I WAS ALWAYS GETTING PUT THROUGH TO INDIAN CALL CENTRES WHICH IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH, ALL THEY SEEM TO DO IS PUT YOU ON HOLD AND THEN TELL YOU THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN, I HAVE SINCE REQUESTED A MAC CODE FROM MY ISP AND GUESS WHAT? MY CONNECTION HAS BEEN BACK ON NOW FOR 2 DAYS, ALSO THESE CALLS ARE ALL AT NATIONAL RATE WHICH I BELIEVE IS 7p PER MINUTE, THIS SOON ADDS UP WHEN YOU ARE ON THE PHONE FOR ABOUT 40 MINUTES AT A TIME.

    Reply
  • 2

    Ant, 17th August 2007.

    I also agree, it's terrible companies can get away with this, technical support should be local call at most. After all that's what you pay for subscription for, and your right funny how sales calls are free? Some companies charge unfair amounts like 25p/min + but its us consumers that are daft enough not to stand up and say we are not paying it!!!! Vote with our feet!!

    Reply
  • 3

    Jamie, 17th August 2007.

    I never realised ISPs actually make profit from these call centres. Call me naive but I thought the reason they had to charge so much was because the call centres are so expensive to operate.

    It's an absolute outrage! It almost makes it worthwhile for ISPs to cause problems on their network so users have to call for support and make them more profit.

    Reply

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