Another week, another bad survey for JT...

Thursday 29 January 2015

Another survey has slammed JT for its services to Islanders – and this time, it’s their broadband in the firing line.

Previous surveys have criticised the States-owned company for its mobile and landline services, but today’s survey by the competition regulator reveals that just 27% of respondents find JT’s broadband services satisfactory.

That is around a third of the 77% who found competitor Sure’s services “satisfactory or highly satisfactory”.

JT also fared worst in the Channel Islands Competition Regulatory Authority’s questions about billing and customer service – and 63% of customers said that they were “likely” or “very likely” to switch provider.

In response, JT say that they are sticking by the three promises that they have made customers over the barrage of critical reports – and they have again raised questions about how the surveys are conducted.

They say that they will give customers a year of free landline rental if they take more than five working days to fix a fault or move a landline on time after being given 15 working days notice, and that if they take more than three months to complete a fibre installation from their first visit, they will give away a year’s fibre landline rental.

Chief executive Graeme Millar said: “We have asked the regulator to publish both the full data, rather than a summary, and their full methodology, so that firm conclusions can be drawn; the reason for that note of caution is that these survey results seem to differ widely from the direct feedback we receive, the actual commercial data we see every day, such as the numbers of customers choosing to stay with JT in a highly competitive market, and the independent market research we commission each quarter.”

CICRA director Louise Read said: “There are significant differences in the scores achieved by the operators across both islands.

“It is pleasing to see that each operator has made progress in some areas but progress is not consistent across the board. There is still room for improvement by all operators and particularly so in Guernsey.

“I would urge all operators to listen and react quickly and decisively to the feedback from its customers, and use today’s survey results and those from May, to identify areas where they may need to improve to better meet their customers’ needs.”