Britain's broadband bugbears revealed

A new survey of some 4,000 broadband customers, conducted by Broadbandchoices.co.uk, has revealed what is most important to broadband users and also what aspects cause the most dissatisfaction and drive them to lodge a complaint.

When asked to identify the most important aspect of their broadband service, over a third (34% - the top answer) said connection reliability. This was followed by speed of connection (30%) while value for money lagged behind with 23% of respondents choosing this as the most important requirement from their broadband service.

When asked if they felt their ISP had lived up to its promises, almost half (47%) said no. Top gripe (70%) was disappointment with connection speed; reliability issues with the broadband connection received 32%. Over a third (36%) felt let down by their ISP's customer service.

Michael Phillips, product director of Broadbandchoices.co.uk said: "It is surprising to see that broadband users valued connection reliability ahead of value for money, customer service and even speed of broadband connection.

"Nine years after broadband was first introduced in the UK, it is troubling to find that nearly half of broadband customers claim that the service isn't living up to their expectations.

"The main reason for dissatisfaction is overwhelmingly because of broadband speed, demonstrating that ISPs are still falling short when it comes to meeting their customer's expectations after advertising unattainable headline speeds in the media.

"The most disappointing findings from our research was how over half (55%) of respondents who had lodged a complaint with their ISP felt it did not reach a successful resolution. Whilst raising a complaint is never easy, consumers can significantly reduce any hassle and dramatically improve their chances of having their complaint quickly resolved by following our 10 tips to effective complaints resolution, below."

Be wise before the event. Even if your relationship with the ISP is running smoothly, make sure that your paperwork is in order. Keep your bills filed in chronological order and keep all correspondence between yourself and the ISP.

Always approach your ISP first with any complaints or grievances and insist that they explain their official complaints procedure to you before you enter into a dispute.

Tell them, in writing, of your grievance and that you wish to enter into an official complaints procedure.

Maintain a call log detailing each call that you made to your ISP. Include such details as the time and date of the call, and the name of the person that you spoke with.

Remember any passwords or keywords that you might need; your claim will lack credibility if you forget.

Use bank statements to add credibility to your claims, particularly those concerned with billing errors.

When communicating with your ISP, be both patient and personable. Don't raise your voice or get irritable. Make sure that you are targeting the correct department and the right people with your complaints.

Insist on written confirmation of any changes to your contract, or any verbal agreements that are made over the phone.

If you have exhausted your ISP's complaints procedure with no resolution after 8 weeks, contact Cisas or Otelo, and ask them to advise you on the next step you should take.

If all else fails, get legal help - Which? Legal Services provides low cost, smart consumer legal advice.