We have talked many times about the need to get some good advice before taking the plunge with a broadband subscription and this is further borne out by Which?’s latest research.
Which? surveyed 45 companies including many ISPs and found that while some offer free technical support (including O2, BT and Sky) many are using premium rate numbers. Key broadband culprits include Tesco Broadband, Supanet and Roxio who all use premium rate 090 numbers.
Tesco have already responded to the criticism, which comes hot on the heels of our research into what poor value Tesco broadband is for consumers even without the cost of the technical support. Tesco have said that it is planning to change to a cheaper tariff “as soon as possible”.
“The cost of calls to Tesco broadband technical support is something we’ve been looking at and listening to customer feedback on,” said a spokeswoman for the retail giant.
“As a result we’ll continue to provide a very high quality of technical expertise to all our broadband customers but calls will now be charged at a local rate.
“We’ll be contacting all our customers as soon as possible to let them know about the change in price,” she said.
Meanwhile Tesco Broadband customers will be forking out £5 for a 10 minute call to Tesco’s help desk.
The survey also found that nearly a third of broadband users were frustrated by customer support. Time spent waiting to be connected does seem to have improved. Only 12% were dissatisfied and the survey found that the average waiting time was just 1 minute 33 seconds. Plusnet customers have the longest average wait – at nearly eight minutes.