Which? Name ISP Virgin Media as Worst Telecoms Provider 2024
Big Telcos need to get better at delivery and customer service
Whilst I do not like to criticise other providers in the market in which we operate as it is such a tough market to deliver consistently high-quality services, the internet is such a crucial part of our lives today and consumers expectations are high, rightly so, this article in the ISP Review is really disappointing to hear as the company, Virgin Media, fails on so many levels.
Our Experience
Dealing with institutional investors, housebuilders and developers on a weekly basis, you get to hear some of the challenges these companies face with the big Internet Service Providers and the same names keep cropping up time and time again.
Virgin Media being one of them.
Redundancies
It does not come as a surprise after so many redundancies (Sky News) 2,000 in Virgin Media and BT shedding 55,000 employees by the end of 2030, being made in these companies. Granted some will be warranted as BT progress their plans on AI, but when you remove key personal such as Customer Service, Delivery and Operations, if not done correctly in line with a growing subscriber / consumer base, you will undoubtedly end up in trouble as this ISP Review article shows.
The Worst Telecoms Company in the UK for 2023 and 2024
Virgin Media were named the “worst telecoms company” in the UK two years in a row winning the prestigious Which Award “Shoddy Awards 2024”.
In order to be nominated for “shoddy“, companies had to fall short on one of the following four criteria;
Failing an industry standard
Potentially breaking the law
Causing consumer detriment or confusion
Regularly underperforming in the consumer champion’s customer surveys
All judged from a judging panel from across Which? based on the findings of past studies and their “in-house experts“.
Which? has written to their CEO before, here, requesting them as well as Scottish Power and British Gas in the hope of “urging them to improve their customer service“, which comes after a survey conducted by the magazine found all three to be the “worst broadband and energy firms for customer service.”
But Why?
You have to ask the question if revenues and profits are on the rise with these companies, why are they performing so badly? Where are there actual interests?
Why do we as consumers of these basic, but massively important utilities have to suffer this poor service?
Yes we can move provider, but often times, these companies have a monopoly and you cannot move, or maybe cannot afford to move even.
Better Regulation?
It does feel to me that that the regulators need to get more involved and become more strict with providers that continue on a large scale to fail the consumer.
I really do hope Virgin Media get their act together as I know from having worked with them on multiple projects, across all areas of their business in the past, they have some extremely talented people and no doubt have what it takes to deliver an exceptional service – they just need to deliver on their promises.
If their slogan is still the same “Honey we shrunk the Internet”, maybe they might want to think about changing that… something to ponder on.