The UK’s biggest mobile providers have fallen short on value for money and are being outperformed by smaller rivals who piggyback on their networks, according to Which?’s annual customer satisfaction survey.
During the pandemic, more people than ever have turned to their phones and technology as a way to keep in touch with family and friends.
The Big Four mobile providers – O2, EE, Vodafone and Three – serve nearly nine in 10 UK customers.
However, in Which?’s annual customer satisfaction survey, smaller providers that use the Big Four’s networks managed to outdo them across the board – including on value for money, customer service and network reliability.
O2 scored the highest of the Big Four providers and earned joint fifth place out of 15 providers, alongside Utility Warehouse.
It received a high rating for ease of contact, but its customers considered it below average for value for money. Only a quarter (23%) rated it as being ‘excellent’ in this area.
However, GiffGaff, Tesco Mobile and Sky Mobile, which all piggyback on O2’s network, triumphed over their larger rival in Which? rankings. GiffGaff came in first place and earned strong ratings in several categories with 91 per cent of customers saying they’d recommend it to a friend.
Tesco Mobile came in joint second place with Sky Mobile and SMARTY. Both Sky Mobile and Tesco Mobile scored higher than O2 on value for money – an area all of the Big Four providers fell short on in our survey.
EE and Vodafone came in the bottom half of the rankings. Both EE and Vodafone performed poorly on value for money. This is perhaps unsurprising given that 7 per cent of their customers received incorrect or unexpectedly high bills – the highest across all the providers.
Three earned the lowest score of the Big Four providers. Value for money and network reliability were key weak points for Three.
Three customers were the most likely to experience network outages lasting more than one whole day (8%) and one in ten (10%) experienced unexpected or unreasonable price hikes.
One Three customer responding to Which?’s survey said that a universal change in tariff had made it more expensive for them to use the provider despite having a substantial balance to use up.
Like O2, Three was beaten by a smaller operator using its network. SMARTY is owned by Three and is a new entrant to Which?’s survey at joint second place.
The highest-scoring mobile providers are eligible for Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) status, which also requires providers to offer reasonably priced contract deals, including Sim-only.
Ofcom now requires all providers to notify customers when their telecoms contracts come to an end. Which? encourages consumers to compare the deals available when their contract comes to end – even if they’re planning to stay with their current provider – to ensure they aren’t overpaying.
Rocio Concha, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Which?, said: “Our research found that the biggest mobile providers are being outshone by their smaller rivals.A provider should not only give you good network reliability but also value for money and customer support when you need it.
“If customers are out of contract but happy with the service they’re receiving, they should try negotiating a new deal but if all else fails it might be time to switch.”
Read more about Which?’s mobile switching service:
Vague and costly recommendations are not enough to reboot aviation and tourism sectors facing another summer without international travel, says Westminster’s Transport Committee.
In an analysis of the Government’s Global Travel Taskforce Report, the Committee concludes that the Report sets out a framework without the detail required to restart international travel. Where detail is provided, the costs may be disproportionate to the risk and add £500 on to the cost of a family of four travelling to the safest parts of the globe where the vaccine roll-out is comparable to the UK.
This distinct lack of clarity does not offer confidence to industry or consumers to plan, invest or recover from the coronavirus pandemic. It leaves the planned safe restart of international travel on May 17 in jeopardy.
The UK’s aviation and tourism sectors were poised to accommodate the public’s desire to travel for business, study, holidays and to visit loved-ones. The UK [aviation industry] has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, according to the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. Another summer without international travel heralds significant economic adversity.
Recommendations
In its Report, the Committee sets out four clear recommended actions for Government:
Populate the traffic-light framework with destination countries by May 1 and announce the details in a statement to Parliament.
Explain the criteria and mechanism by which countries will move between risk categories by May 1.
Offer an affordable testing regime that supports public health and safe travel for everyone by maximising the role of lateral flow tests and ensuring the provision of affordable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, where required.
Act immediately to reduce waiting times and queues at the UK border, including working bilaterally with partner countries to agree mutual recognition of travel health certification, deploying more staff at the border, processing passenger locator forms before passengers arrive in the UK and establishing an efficient system based on a single digital app to process health certification submitted in a range of languages.
Transport Committee Chair, Huw Merriman MP, said: “The aviation and travel sectors were crying out for a functional report, setting out clear rules and offering certainty. This is not it.
“Where the industry craved certainty, the Government has failed to provide it. For UK citizens seeking to travel to the parts of the globe where the vaccine has been delivered as rapidly as the UK, the cost to families from testing could be greater than the cost of the flights.
“This is a missed opportunity for the Government to capitalise on the UK’s world-leading ‘vaccine dividend’. How can it be right that hauliers, arriving from parts of the globe where the vaccine roll-out is slow, are able to use cheaper lateral flow testing whilst a trip back from Israel requires a PCR test which is four times as expensive?
“This was an opportunity to provide a global lead with standardised rules on international health certification and promoting app-based technology, making the processes at borders more secure and less time consuming. The urgent situation facing the aviation and travel sectors warrants a clear action plan to green light our travel – and the Government must urgently set it out.”
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said:“The government is reliant on factors outside its control in restarting international travel, including high and changing infection rates in many countries, so it’s understandable that it cannot provide clarity on where people can go yet. However, it needs to do a better job of fixing the issues it does control.
“Given the government has now dropped its advice not to book holidays, consumers need clarity on how the traffic light system will work and reassurance that last-minute changes won’t leave them facing thousand pound bills – as they did last summer.
“Test costs remain too high and risk pricing millions out of travel, while the problem of passengers queuing for several hours at border control at some UK airports has been going on for months.
“If people are to travel this summer, whether to see loved ones or on holiday, they need the government to make sure it is affordable and safe.”
A traffic light system, which will categorise countries based on risk alongside the restrictions required for travel, will be set up to protect the public and the vaccine rollout from international COVID-19 variants.
Key factors in the assessment will include:
the percentage of their population that have been vaccinated
the rate of infection
the prevalence of variants of concern
the country’s access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing
The report, produced by the Global Travel Taskforce, shows how international travel could resume from 17 May 2021 at the earliest, in an accessible and affordable way. This includes the removal of the permission to travel form – meaning passengers would no longer need to prove they have a valid reason to leave the country.
The UK is a global leader in genome sequencing, which in positive cases allows the identification of variants of concern.
The risks posed by these variants remain significant, and restrictions for inbound passengers, such as 10-day managed quarantine, home quarantine, and stringent testing will remain in place – but will apply to people differently depending on whether the destination visited is categorised as ‘green’, ‘amber’ or ‘red’.
Green: arrivals will need to take a pre-departure test as well as a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on or before day 2 of their arrival back into the UK – but will not need to quarantine on return (unless they receive a positive result) or take any additional tests, halving the cost of tests on their return from holiday
Amber: arrivals will need to quarantine for a period of 10 days and take a pre-departure test, and a PCR test on day 2 and day 8 with the option for Test to Release on day 5 to end self-isolation early
Testing remains an essential part of protecting public health as restrictions begin to ease – with all arrivals who are not exempt required to book a pre-departure, day 2 and day 8 test before travelling.
Arrivals travelling from ‘red list’ countries should book a quarantine package before departure, and arrivals from ‘amber’ and ‘green’ countries will be required to book test packages before travelling from one of the government’s approved list of providers.
Testing post-arrival remains an important tool in our wider measures to manage the risk of imported cases – allowing us to monitor positive tests and ensure people isolate, as well as identify and genomically sequence variants of concern.
We will also work with the travel industry and private testing providers ahead of international travel reopening, to see how we can further reduce the cost of travel for the British public, while ensuring travel is as safe as possible.
This could include cheaper tests being used when holidaymakers return home, as well as whether the government would be able to provide pre-departure tests.
It is too early to predict which countries will be on which list over the summer, and the government continues to consider a range of factors to inform the restrictions placed on them. We will set out by early May which countries will fall into which category, as well as confirming whether international travel can resume from 17 May 2021.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “International travel is vital – it boosts businesses and underpins the UK economy – but more than that, it brings people together, connects families who have been kept apart, and allows us to explore new horizons.
“The framework announced today will help allow us to reopen travel safely and sustainably, ensure we protect our hard-won achievements on the vaccine roll out, and offer peace of mind to both passengers and industry as we begin to take trips abroad once again.”
The UK will also play a leading role in the development of international standards around a digital travel certification system.
The Department for Transport (DfT) is working across government to consider the role certification could play in facilitating outbound travel, for those countries which have systems in place. Work also continues to develop a system that would facilitate travel certification for inbound international travel.
To give passengers more certainty when travelling, a ‘green watchlist’ will be introduced to help identify countries most at risk of moving from ‘green’ to ‘amber’. The watchlist will provide greater assurance for those who wish to travel abroad.
While the watchlist will warn travellers of potential changes in advance, the government will not hesitate to act immediately should the data show that countries risk ratings have changed.
The allocation of countries will be kept under review and respond to emerging evidence, with a particular focus on variants of concern.
Restrictions will be formally reviewed on 28 June 2021 to take account of the domestic and international health picture, and to see whether current measures could be rolled back. Further formal reviews will take place at checkpoints no later than 31 July and 1 October 2021.
To ensure the UK’s borders remain safe and efficient when passenger flows increase, the government has also announced plans to digitise the passenger locator form, integrating it into the UK border system and enabling checks to take place at e-gates by autumn 2021.
To further boost consumer confidence, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will be given additional enforcement powers to act on airlines that have breached consumer rights – with a dedicated consultation on how to use additional tools to enforce consumer rights expected later this year.
A COVID-19 charter will also be introduced from 17 May 2021, clearly setting out what is required of passengers and what their rights are while measures remain in place.
Responding to the announcement Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said:“This is an important step towards resuming international travel. The report correctly identifies some of the key barriers facing travellers, but it falls short in providing solutions.
“Holidaymakers will still face the eye-watering costs of Covid tests, which are currently much more expensive in the UK than in many other European countries, and risk pricing people out of taking a holiday.
“There is also little detail on reassurances that destinations won’t suddenly be moved from green to amber or red, putting travellers at risk of last-minute changes and unaffordable quarantine costs.
“It is encouraging to hear plans to give the CAA greater powers to tackle the consistent lawbreaking we saw on refunds from some airlines in the last year. These must be sufficiently tough, and give the ability to fine airlines directly for past behaviour to ensure they won’t step out of line again.”
Facebook to make it harder for people to find groups and profiles that buy and sell fake reviews
16,000 trading groups removed with suspensions or bans for users who create these groups
it comes after CMA investigation found more evidence of misleading content
This latest action by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) follows reports that fake and misleading reviews continued to be bought and sold on the social media platforms.
In January 2020, Facebook committed to better identify, investigate and remove groups and other pages where fake and misleading reviews were being traded, and prevent them from reappearing.
Facebook gave a similar pledge in relation to its Instagram.com business in May 2020, after the CMA had identified similar concerns.
A follow-up investigation found evidence that the illegal trade in fake reviews was still taking place on both Facebook and Instagram and the CMA intervened for a second time.
Facebook has now removed a further 16,000 groups that were dealing in fake and misleading reviews. It has also made further changes to its systems for identifying, removing and preventing such content on its social media platforms to ensure it is fulfilling its previous commitments.
These include:
suspending or banning users who are repeatedly creating Facebook groups and Instagram profiles that promote, encourage or facilitate fake and misleading reviews
introducing new automated processes that will improve the detection and removal of this content
making it harder for people to use Facebook’s search tools to find fake and misleading review groups and profiles on Facebook and Instagram
putting in place dedicated processes to make sure that these changes continue to work effectively and stop the problems from reappearing
Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive of the CMA, said: “Never before has online shopping been so important. The pandemic has meant that more and more people are buying online, and millions of us read reviews to enable us to make informed choices when we shop around.
“That’s why fake and misleading reviews are so damaging – if people lose trust in online reviews, they are less able to shop around with confidence, and will miss out on the best deals. It also means that businesses playing by the rules miss out.
“Facebook has a duty to do all it can to stop the trading of such content on its platforms. After we intervened again, the company made significant changes – but it is disappointing it has taken them over a year to fix these issues.
“We will continue to keep a close eye on Facebook, including its Instagram business. Should we find it is failing to honour its commitments, we will not hesitate to take further action.”
This move follows the UK Government’s announcement that a dedicated Digital Markets Unit (DMU) will be set up within the CMA from April 2021.
Once the necessary legislation is in place, this will introduce and enforce a new code for governing the behaviour of platforms that currently dominate the market. As part of this process, the CMA has been advising government on the design and implementation of a pro-competition regime for digital markets.
Rocio Concha, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Which?, said:“We’ve previously raised the alarm about fake review factories continuing to operate at scale on Facebook, leaving online shoppers at huge risk of being misled. The tech giant failed to meet its earlier commitment to the CMA, so it is positive that the regulator has stepped in and demanded more robust action.
“Facebook must deliver this time round – it has shown it has the sophisticated technology to eradicate these misleading review groups and needs to do so much more swiftly and effectively.
“The CMA and Facebook now need to monitor the situation and if the problems persist the regulator must take stronger measures to ensure that trust in online reviews does not continue to be undermined.
“Online platforms should also have greater legal responsibility for tackling fake and fraudulent content and activity on their sites.”
Consumer champion Which? is warning holidaymakers to hold off booking trips abroad until more details become clear.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said:“Millions of people will be excited to know their next holiday abroad might not be too far off, but the current guidance leaves too many questions unanswered about important aspects of foreign travel – so we would advise consumers to hold off on booking a holiday until the details become clearer.
“Apart from not knowing where we can go and when, the government has also warned that countries will be moved between green, amber and red. Until it details how these changes will take place, consumers face the risk of 10 days quarantine and paying for additional tests, or worse, having to pay £1,750 for hotel quarantine.
“There also remain questions over what the total cost of testing will be for trips, which currently runs into the hundreds of pounds, and what steps will be taken to ensure testing is affordable and accessible. It is vital that the government provides clarity on these issues before people think about parting with their money.”
Which? reveals the UK’s best and worst motorway service stations
Gloucester and Tebay services have been named Britain’s best service stations, while Bridgwater in the south west of England has been ranked the worst, according to a new survey from Which?.
As UK holidaymakers prepare to hit the road this summer, the consumer champion has revealed the country’s best and worst service stations for a pitstop on the way to their destination.
Which? surveyed more than 2,700 members covering around 5,600 experiences at almost 70 motorway service stations across the UK. Members rated them on various criteria, including range of facilities, prices, and ease of social distancing.
Though some respondents dismissed service stations as “all the same”, the survey found stark differences across the country – particularly with regards to cleanliness. The best and worst ranked services were only an hour’s drive apart on the M5, showing the value of planning ahead when it comes to taking a break on a long journey.
The top three service stations all belong to Westmorland. Gloucester (on the M5), Tebay (on the M6 at the edge of the Lake District) and Cairn Lodge (on the M74 in Lanarkshire) ranked first, second and third in the table, respectively.
Gloucester received the top score of 86 per cent, scoring five stars for cleanliness, range and quality of its shops and food outlets, as well as its range of facilities.
One visitor described Gloucester services as “as far from a typical motorway stop as you can imagine”, where customers can enjoy home cooked meals and buy local produce from the “fabulous” farm shop.
Tebay received similar praise, with a score of 83 per cent and plaudits for the freshly prepared food on offer in the restaurant and for sale in the farm shop, while Cairn Lodge was given a score of 69 per cent.
At the other end of the table was Bridgwater on the M5, owned by Moto. The service station received a dismal score of 32 per cent, and was awarded just one star in every category.
Recent visitors described it as “dirty” and “depressing”, and others complained of a urine smell and toilet paper strewn on the floor. Another simply said it “should be demolished”.
Welcome Break was responsible for half of the 10 service stations at the bottom of the table – more than any other brand.
Its service station in Gordano came just ahead of Bridgwater, with a score of 40 per cent, while its services in Newport Pagnell (41%), Keele (42%), London Gateway (45%), and Birchanger Green (45%) also populated the bottom 10.
Even its highest scoring service station, found in Warwick, scored a decidedly average 57 per cent.
Roadchef runs three of the services listed in the bottom 10, including Watford Gap on the M1 (43%) and Sandbach on the M6 (42%), both of which earned a dismal one star for their range of facilities and just two stars for cleanliness.
Often, drivers can have a much better experience by planning ahead to ensure they stop at one of the better service stations on their route. For example, those driving north on the M6 between junctions 36 and 39 have the choice of stopping at Tebay or Killington Lake, scoring 83 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively.
The two stations are just 12 miles apart, with both benefiting from picturesque surroundings – but visitors were much more positive about Tebay than Killington Lake, with customers at the latter complaining of long queues and difficulty in adhering to social distancing.
Meanwhile on the M1, Donington (60%) is far superior to Trowell (46%), as is Cairn Lodge (69%) to Abington (49%) on the M74.
Some domestic travel restrictions in England are set to lift on 12 April at the earliest, when overnight stays at self-contained accommodation will be allowed, with further restrictions expected to ease no earlier than 17 May when hotels and B&Bs will be able to reopen for leisure stays.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said:“The results of our survey show that it pays to plan ahead to avoid some of the UK’s worst motorway services. It could be the difference between a home-cooked meal in peaceful surroundings, or crowded queues in downright dirty facilities.
“Whether you’re zipping down the M5 towards the beaches on the south-west coast, or up the M6 towards the Scottish border, make sure your journey isn’t spoiled by a stop at a shoddy service station.”
A report from Westminster’s Work and Pensions Committee is calling on the UK Government to ‘act quickly and decisively’ to protect pension savers, more than five years on from the introduction of the pension freedoms, which have put people at risk of a much wider range of scams and fraud.
The report warns that commonly cited figures of the scale of pension scamming are likely to substantially underestimate the problem.
The situation is likely to be getting worse rather than better, with the covid-19 pandemic offering scammers new opportunities.
The Committee heard throughout its inquiry that pension scammers have moved online, with regulators powerless to hold search engines and social media to account for hosting scam adverts as they do traditional media.
Tech firms such as Google are accepting payment to advertise scams and then further payments from regulators to publish warnings – a practice the Committee describes as ‘immoral’.
The Government must now rethink its decision to exclude financial harms from the forthcoming Online Safety Bill and use it to legislate against online investment fraud.
In the same way as traditional media, online publishers should be required to ensure financial promotions are authorised.
The report also calls for the multi-agency task force set up to tackle pension fraud to be strengthened.
The existing Project Bloom should be renamed the Pension Scams Centre and given dedicated funding and staffing to manage an intelligence database and law enforcement.
Currently the fragmentation of reporting, investigation and enforcement has made tackling pension scams more difficult.
The Financial Conduct Authority must also ‘raise its game’ and publish information about its enforcement action, with the Committee hearing numerous criticisms that it is not effective in stopping scams, punishing scammers or retrieving scam proceeds.
Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said: “The pension freedoms brought more choice for savers on how to use their pension pots, but the reforms have also opened up a whole new world of opportunity for scammers and fraudsters.
“At the same time, a woeful lack of online regulation has helped them reach more people than ever before.
“The result is an online free for all, where scammers can advertise with impunity while the tech giants line their pockets from the proceeds of their crimes.
“With global firms such as Google being increasingly influential as providers of information, consumers looking for financial advice are being let down by not being afforded the same level of protection they receive from adverts which appear on television or in a newspaper.
“There must now be parity across the media to ensure all adverts are regulated and the Government should use its Online Safety Bill to act.
“Tighter online regulation must be just the first step in improving protections for savers. Stronger enforcement with a new Pensions Scams Centre, a more effective FCA and extra support for victims are also desperately needed.
“Pension scams can cause huge financial harm and psychological distress and any one of us saving for the future is at risk of falling prey to a scammer.
“The Government and the regulators have been left playing catch-up following the pension freedom reforms and must now act quickly to protect savers and their hard-earned money.”
Rocio Concha, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Which?, said:“This report is a damning indictment of the approach of tech giants like Google to tackling scams.
“These companies have some of the most sophisticated technology in the world, yet they are failing to utilise it to prevent scammers from abusing the platforms by using fake and fraudulent content on an industrial scale to target victims and devastate lives.
“The case for including scams in the Online Safety Bill is overwhelming. Online platforms must be given a legal responsibility to identify, prevent and remove fake and fraudulent content from appearing on their sites and give their users the protection they deserve. The government must not miss the opportunity to act now.”
Plans to restart foreign travel for millions of people could be doomed to fail if the government does not effectively consult consumers and reassure them that trips abroad will be safe, affordable and their refund rights will be upheld, according to Which?.
The UK government’s Global Travel Taskforce (GTT) is due to outline how it will restart international travel, currently set to reopen no earlier than 17 May, when it publishes its report in early April.
However, Which? is concerned that limited opportunities for travellers to engage with the GTT could mean that their concerns won’t be addressed ahead of international travel reopening.
The GTT page on the government’s website says it is consulting with a range of groups, including the transport industry, international partners, the tourism sector, the private testing sector, and academia and policy institutes.
Engagement with consumers seems to be largely limited to an email address that travellers can send their concerns about travel reopening to, and even this is not listed clearly on the GTT web page for passengers to find.
Today, Which? is publishing its list of consumer priorities for travel, which the GTT must take on board if its plans to restart international travel are to be successful. They focus on vital measures to build passenger confidence around the safety of travel, accessibility and affordability of Covid tests and vaccine passports and assurances that holidaymakers will not be left out of pocket by coronavirus travel disruption.
Which? is also urging people to share their experiences with the Taskforce of how the pandemic has affected their travel plans over the past year and their concerns ahead of travel reopening via email or social media in the two weeks left before the GTT is due to report.
For more than a year now, the consumer champion has been hearing from people who have been let down by their travel provider after the pandemic grounded most international travel, which saw confidence in the industry plunge to a record low.
According to the Competition and Markets Authority, cancellation and refund complaints have accounted for the overwhelming majority of complaints to the regulator since April 2020, with around 47,000 cancellation complaints about holiday companies since March 2020, and more than 10,000 cancellation complaints about airlines.
Though many holiday companies and airlines have since improved their performance, Which? is warning that travellers risk facing another summer of chaos and cancelled holidays if the government does not provide assurances around safety, testing costs, health travel certificates, and how bookings will be protected from changing travel restrictions and associated costs, such as Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) warnings against travel or the potential of costly hotel quarantine for arrivals from popular destinations.
With the risk of variants of the virus present in other countries being transmitted and brought back to the UK, it is essential that the government ensures that effective measures are put in place to ensure international travel is safe, particularly in airports.
Last summer, Which? reported that passengers endured queues in Stansted Airport with no social distancing, raising concerns around how airports will cope this summer if mass air travel is allowed to resume.
Given the limited data available on the ability of vaccines to reduce transmission, Which? is asking the GTT to ensure that clear guidance is in place for airports to facilitate social distancing between passengers, particularly in instances where passengers from ‘red list’ countries are travelling.
Which? is also concerned that travellers could face astronomical costs for testing, which is likely to be required for entry into most destinations this summer. Most countries now require a negative test before departure and a follow up on arrival, and passengers also need a negative test to return to the UK, and further tests on day two and eight of quarantine.
With PCR private tests costing around £120 each, the potential of up to five tests could mean travellers face paying hundreds more on top of the cost of their trip, potentially pricing people out of travelling.
Which? has also found that testing costs in the UK are considerably higher than in other countries. When it looked at the total cost of all the tests passengers would need for travel to a number of popular destinations across Europe, it found that the cost of tests were much lower on average compared to the UK. In Italy, for example, the average cost is €86 (£74) per test.
Additionally, Which? understands there will be a need for travel health certification, such as vaccine passports, but believes people need reassurance over how these will operate internationally, how their privacy will be maintained and their data protected, and what provisions will be made for those who cannot or do not want to rely on digital certifications. It is also essential that if certification is to be mandatory for travel, that it is provided free of charge.
The consumer champion is also urging the Taskforce to consider how travellers’ money will be protected if they cannot legally or reasonably travel to their destination because of coronavirus restrictions.
Despite many airlines offering reassurances that passengers can benefit from flexible booking policies this summer, Which? continues to hear from people who are still out of pocket for holidays that were disrupted last year.
Suzanna Mahoney, from Leeds, booked a holiday to Lanzarote with Loveholidays in January 2020. She was due to travel in August 2020, but when the time came, Loveholidays informed her that the FCDO advice for travel to Lanzarote had changed and asked if she still intended to travel.
Not wanting to travel against government advice, she chose the option of cancelling her holiday and was refunded the cost of her accommodation. She has not received a refund for the cost of her flights though, as they departed as scheduled, and has been left £1,600 out of pocket as a result.
Which? is engaging with the GTT and has shared its calls on the Taskforce to deliver for consumers.
It is asking the Taskforce to ensure that travellers will be given clear information about changing travel rules by the government and travel providers, that international travel will be safe, that they won’t face unreasonable additional costs and that the financial risk to consumers is minimised, that they will be able to get their money back if their holiday can’t go ahead, and that any travel health certification will be private and secure.
Until the Taskforce has published its report, Which? is advising people not to book any international travel or holidays, and wait until details of the GTT’s roadmap have been revealed before making any plans.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said:“Many of us are looking forward to the opportunity to step on a plane and travel to family and friends or take a holiday again in the near future, but the past year has taught us that there are a number of risks involved with international travel that need to be removed or reduced before we will be comfortable doing so.
“Confidence in overseas travel has plummeted as a result of the pandemic, and government interventions for both the industry and passengers who have been let down by their operator or airline have been woefully insufficient.
“The Taskforce has a real opportunity to give passengers the confidence to travel again, but it must take their concerns into consideration, or else it risks another disastrous summer for passengers and industry alike.”
A spokesperson for Loveholidays said:“As we have done with all our customers who had holidays booked to a destination where the FCDO subsequently advised against traveling, we asked Ms Mahoney whether she wished to go ahead with her trip and gave her the option to cancel or amend her booking.
“She opted to cancel and we waived our cancellation fee and provided her with a full cash refund for the part of the holiday that we are able to do so – her hotel booking. As a change of FCDO advice does not of itself trigger cancellation and full refund rights under the PTRs, any flight refund is dependent on Ryanair agreeing to do so, which to date they have not. This was made clear when Ms Mahoney chose to cancel.
“Unfortunately, some airlines including Ryanair, chose to continue to operate flights despite a change in FCDO guidance for that destination. In accordance with Ryanair’s terms and conditions, they refuse to provide customers with a cash refund if a flight is still going ahead even if a customer quite understandably chooses to not to travel in light of the latest FCDO advice.
“Ryanair holds the flight sums. If we had received a flight refund from Ryanair, we would have forwarded this to Ms Mahoney within five working days of receipt, as we have done with many other customers who cancelled in the same circumstances.”
Which? is calling for a major overhaul of the UK’s fragmented electric vehicle public charging network to ensure emission-free vehicles are a viable option for all consumers.
The consumer champion analysed the UK’s electric car public charging network and found serious issues within the infrastructure that could deter people from buying electric vehicles.
It found motorists cannot easily use charging networks operated by different providers as they rely on a bewildering array of sub-standard apps and payment methods, and drivers can face unnecessarily expensive charges.
With around 12 million electric cars expected to be on UK roads by 2030, according to the Climate Change Committee, Which? believes the public charging network as it stands is not fit for purpose for the millions of people who will soon depend on it, and is in dire need of reform to ensure it is accessible for all consumers.
More than 30 providers make up the UK’s public charging network, however Which? found almost all require motorists to download a network-specific app, or sign up for a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) card to use their charge point – a confusing system that would mean drivers planning long journeys would have to ensure they have the right app or RFID for chargers on their route.
Tesla has one of the most affordable networks of ultra-rapid public chargers (120-250kW), but this can only be used by Tesla car owners, dividing the public charging network even further. When Which? asked if Tesla would open its supercharger network to other car brands in the future, the company said it would not make “future-looking statements”.
Tesla also has a network of “destination chargers” with a power output of 3-22 kW, some of which are only available to Tesla models, whereas others can be used by any car with a Type 2 plug. However, these chargers could be opened up to all cars, as Tesla confirmed there is “just a switch inside that makes it [the charging point] universal or Tesla only”.
The UK government previously advised that all rapid chargers built from spring 2020 should allow payment by card – but as it is not legislation, not all firms have installed card payment machines.
According to Zap-Map, fewer than one in 10 (8%) of charge points offer rapid chargers (25-100kW) and allow card payments. Most other types of chargers do not accept cards. Drivers who use chargers and want to pay by card can face additional costs, as some that do accept cards charge more.
BP Pulse, one of the biggest providers in the UK, accepts contactless payments but charges 25p per kWh for those who pay via its website or app and 30p per kWh for card payments. Which? calculated that this 5p difference, using the Volkswagen id.3 as an example, could mean owners paying by card would be charged around £140 extra annually.
While Which? believes it is charging customers more for using a bank card, BP Pulse told the consumer champion: “those who choose to sign up for a free membership receive a discount on their charging costs”.
Motorists could also face higher charging costs if they use a network that charges per minute rather than per kWh, such as Source London.
Using the Volkswagen id.3 as an example, Which? found from Source London’s 7.4 kW charger it would cost £1,012 annually to charge, but this would increase to £1,740 a year from a 22 kW charge point, which costs more due to its faster charging rate, though most cars have a maximum AC charging rate of 11kWh.
Source London told Which? that its prices include on-street parking, which others do not, and that its “price per minute pricing structure is designed to encourage users to disconnect their vehicle as soon as they have finished charging.” It also confirmed customers will still be charged even once their car reaches 100 per cent charge, though overnight chargers are cut off after four hours.
As a first step to reform the public charging network, the government and industry should consider making public chargers universal so motorists need just one app, RFID card and account to access all networks across the UK. While creating a universal infrastructure will have its challenges, Which? believes it is essential to create a simple and appealing network.
Other improvements that should be considered include avoiding single-brand networks from being created, and for Tesla to open its charging points to all EV drivers, as the UK needs more charge points. It should also consider implementing a pence per kWh pricing structure as opposed to charging per minute to ensure drivers are not overcharged and can easily compare costs across different providers.
The government’s ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars will encourage more motorists to switch to emission-free vehicles, which will play a vital role in achieving net-zero by 2050. However, to ensure motorists can make this transition, the public charging network needs to work much better for consumers.
Harry Rose, Which? Magazine Editor, said:“Millions of consumers will be expected to own electric cars in less than a decade, but the public charging network is disjointed and in dire need of reform to ensure it is a viable option for all consumers, especially those who do not have access to a private charger.
“The lack of universal access to the various charging networks must be addressed and a much simpler pricing structure is needed so consumers can easily compare prices across providers and ensure they are not overcharged.”
Buying an electric car
If you’ve never driven an electric car, you may be surprised by the quick acceleration from a standstill, so take it slowly on your test drive until you get used to it.
You will save money on car tax. Electric cars are exempt from car tax as they emit zero CO2. Also, they are exempt from the ‘expensive car supplement’, which sees most models that cost over £40,000 liable for an extra £310 per year for years two to six of ownership.
If you can charge at home, you’ll want to get a wall box charging point. The UK government currently offers a grant toward buying and installing a wall box, called the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme, which covers 75% of the cost, capped to a maximum of £350. For those living in Scotland, the Energy Saving Trust will provide up to £300 further funding on top of this, with an additional £100 available for those in the most remote areas.
Some of the UK’s biggest broadband providers have been letting down their customers on connection reliability, internet speeds and value for money during the pandemic, according to Which?’s annual customer satisfaction survey.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, broadband has proved more important than ever – with millions of people relying on their internet to work from home, educate their children and keep in touch with loved ones.
In Which?’s annual survey, seven in 10 people (71%) said they had used their connection more since the outbreak of the pandemic, with nearly two thirds of those saying their use has increased substantially.
However, the volume of issues consumers have experienced with their broadband provider has also increased over the past year. Seven in 10 (69%) respondents said they had experienced an issue with their connection in the past 12 months – a substantial increase on last year’s survey.
Very low speeds (59%) and frequent dropouts (53%) were the most common problems experienced more often during the pandemic, compared to before the pandemic. Almost half of respondents (48%) reported they had been left without a connection for more than a day and around four in 10 (44%) said they had been left without internet for more than an hour.
The findings reflect the likelihood that an increased reliance on broadband over the past year means customers are more likely to notice – and be frustrated by – any connection issues.
Although the Big Four broadband providers – BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media – supply nine in ten households, our survey found they have left many customers disappointed.
Virgin Media has its own cable network in parts of the UK, which allows it to offer some of the fastest broadband speeds. Yet its customers gave it poor ratings for connection reliability – with one in three Virgin Media customers saying they had experienced a connection outage lasting at least an hour in the past year and almost a quarter saying their connection was slow to upload or download.
Virgin Media customers were also less likely to be satisfied with their customer service, ease of setup and value for money. Overall, Virgin received a low overall customer score of just 53 per cent – leaving it second from bottom in Which’s satisfaction rankings.
TalkTalk and Sky fared similarly, with customer scores of 54 per cent. While TalkTalk scored fairly well for value for money, it had the highest proportion of customers who would not recommend their provider to others.
Sky rated poorly for value for money – perhaps because a quarter of Sky customers experienced frequent dropouts despite paying more for their service than the average broadband customer.
To add insult to injury, more than a quarter of Sky customers said the price of their deal had increased in the past year.
Sky also received low scores for connection speed, connection reliability and ease of setup and dropped three places in this year’s survey. The Which survey also revealed Sky to be the joint worst provider – along with Utility Warehouse – for very slow speeds, which affected three in 10 (29%) customers.
BT earned the highest score of the Big Four providers (57%) but still only managed eighth place overall – just one place up from its ranking last year. It scored middling ratings across the board apart from value for money, which scored poorly.
One BT customer said they were satisfied with BT but believed the provider could do better – especially during the pandemic, when more people are working from home and dependent on an internet connection.
More than half of BT’s customers had never been with another provider, and the majority were not planning to switch. But our results show that out-of-contract BT customers should consider making a move as they are likely to find an alternative that is both cheaper and more reliable.
Only John Lewis scored lower than the Big Four (47%), with low ratings for connection speed, connection reliability and ease of setup.
At the other end of the scale, Zen Internet achieved the highest customer score of 70 per cent and was the highest ranked broadband provider for the second year in a row (scoring 84 per cent in 2020).
Zen achieved high scores across the board and despite not offering the cheapest tariffs, 85 per cent said they would recommend it to a friend.
Zen narrowly missed out on Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) status as it has not yet signed up to Ofcom’s codes of practice on broadband speeds. However the company is actively working towards signing up soon, at which point it will become a WRP.
The survey also found customers who upgraded to fibre broadband often felt the benefits. Of the nearly 3,000 respondents who had fibre broadband, 63 per cent noticed faster speeds after switching and 45 per cent noticed fewer connection dropouts.
However, although superfast fibre connections are available to 96 per cent of the country, many are yet to take them up. Around a quarter of the respondents told Which? they still had standard broadband.
In light of these disappointing results for many providers, the broadband industry must up its game. Consumers are relying much more heavily on their internet connection during the pandemic and broadband companies will have to work harder to meet customers’ rising expectations and provide value for money.
The government has also recognised that as part of achieving its goal for at least 85 per cent of the UK to have access to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, low consumer demand for these services in the current market must be addressed.
In August 2020, the UK government asked Which? to convene and chair the Gigabit Take-up Advisory Group (GigaTAG) to put forward recommendations on how to encourage more consumers to switch to gigabit-capable networks.
The GigaTAG is considering these barriers and the potential solutions in more detail and will report back to the government in spring 2021.
Natalie Hitchins, Which? Head of Home Products and Services, said:“With so many people at home relying on their internet during the pandemic, a good connection has never been more important – but we found some of the UK’s biggest suppliers are not up to speed.
“Broadband providers must up their game and meet the challenge of providing fast, reliable connections and good customer service for millions of customers whose needs and expectations have risen over the last year.
“The industry and government must also work together to ensure more people have the chance to switch to faster and more reliable gigabit-capable broadband services in the years to come – or risk undermining the UK’s goal of becoming a world leader in connectivity.”
