BT voted worst customer service

BT has been named as offering the worst customer service of any UK company.

The study of 5,000 people revealed the telecoms giant are nearly twice as bad at dealing with issues and complaints than second place British Gas.

Sky were third, followed by Virgin Media and Vodafone. Other corporate giants who fared badly were HSBC, AOL, Barclays, O2 and HMRC.

Automated telephone systems were the biggest problem for consumers, as they mean it can take several minutes to get through to a real person.

Other bug-bears included being passed around different people and having to keep on repeating yourself, along with foreign call centres where staff struggled to understand English, rude staff, and having to answer endless security questions.

BT also topped the list for the longest holding times, followed again by British Gas, and then Sky.

Those answering the survey said they believed they spent an average of around 23 minutes on the phone trying to sort out problems each time they called.

Just over 11 per cent said they regularly spent 30 minutes on the phone to companies.

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