Telcos ignore customer grievances and are nearly impossible to contact, Oftel director David Edmonds said last week.

Edmonds was commenting on statistics of complaints made by 49,500 business and residential consumers to Oftel over the six months to March 2000.

Local Tel had the worst record of customer complaints, followed by NextCall, Cellular Operations including 1st Line, and Cable & Wireless Communications.

Edmonds said that customers clearly want more information on the level of performance of telecommunications companies. He added that details of the research provide useful information on how well companies handle complaints and the sorts of problems customers face.

The Telecoms User Association's member services manager, Steve Thorpe, said it was unsatisfactory that telcos had such a problem communicating with their customers. "This name and shame method should force them to get their act together, but it needs the publicity so that people know what level of services is out there.

"The gripe behind the complaint is that no-one takes the time to write back or otherwise contact the customer," Thorpe added. "Or they just get a computer-generated letter that doesn't answer their questions," he said.

Local Tel didn't comment, but NextCall said that its low ranking was because of issues associated which a sales agency it no longer uses.