Millions spent on technical calls by UK broadband users

A shocking new report has shown that UK broadband users have spent millions of pounds on making calls to technical helplines to get assistance with a service that they are already paying for.

Anyone that takes out a broadband service from one of the various broadband internet service providers in the UK hopes that all will run smoothly, but if there are any glitches it would not be unreasonable to expect some assistance from the provider to get you back on track. However, whilst the advice and support may be available many broadband users in the UK appear to be paying through the nose simply to get help for a service that they are already paying for.

A new report has revealed that collectively UK broadband users have spent six million pounds on ringing technical helplines to get assistance with their broadband services. The research was carried out by comparison site uswitch.com, and the data also showed that despite these costs around fifty five percent of broadband customers were happy with the service that they received from their provider when it came to technical support.

Many broadband users are charged up to ten pence a minute for calling their broadband service provider’s technical helpline for broadband problem assistance. Each year around sixteen million calls are made to these technical helplines, and data shows that the average call time is around seventeen minutes.

An official involved in the research stated: ‘It is still disheartening to see some companies continue to charge customers for technical support. In such a competitive arena it’s surprising that they haven’t wised up to the fact that customers expect more from their broadband service than a cheap deal.’

Source – BCS