Many broadband customers are being hit by high technical support helpline costs according to a new survey by Which? Computing.<\/p>\n
The company investigated 45 different technology companies to see how much they charged for a broadband technical call. Out of the 45 companies, 32 of them were found to use high cost telephone numbers for their helplines.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly one of the highest charging companies was Tesco Broadband. The editor of Which? Computing, Sarah Kidner stated: \u201cIt\u2019s particularly galling to see a huge company like Tesco Broadband using such expensive lines. If other companies can offer a freephone number, so can Tesco. After all, every little helps.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investigation found that Tesco Broadband, Roxio, Supanet and Nero had the highest charging broadband helplines. Tesco\u2019s helpline which starts with 090 typically costs \u00a35 for a ten minute phone call from a landline and that’s not including additional connection charges.<\/p>\n
However the results of the investigation were not all bad. Six broadband providers were found to use freephone numbers. These included O2, Corel, BT, Sony, UK Online and Waitrose.<\/p>\n
Tesco has released a statement in response to the criticism it is now facing. A spokeswoman said: \u201cThe cost of calls to Tesco Broadband technical support is something we\u2019ve been looking at and listening to customer feedback on. As a result we\u2019ll continue to provide high quality technical expertise to all our broadband customers but calls will now be charged at a local rate. We\u2019ll be contacting all our customers as soon as possible to let them know about the change in price.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall broadband technical helplines can cost a fortune and often customers have no idea what they are paying. Tesco dropping their rate is definitely a step forward. However, it is still vital that consumers pay more attention to the rates before they sign up for a broadband service or make a call to the technical support team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many broadband customers are being hit by high technical support helpline costs according to a new survey by Which? Computing. The company investigated 45 different technology companies to see how much they charged for a broadband technical call. Out of the 45 companies, 32 of them were found to use high cost telephone numbers for<\/p>\n