Broadband customer stress

If you're not sure which broadband provider is right for you, we have a dedicated reviews section to point you in the right direction.

It's easy to compare packages by price, speed and extras, but customer service can be the make or break of a good broadband provider.

We know how important it is to feel looked after once you've signed up to a broadband package. Broadband Genie has analysed over 305,000 tweets to discover which providers are causing their customers the most stress. Take a look at our stress-o-meters, or you can view a random tweet sent to a provider.

Just remember, in this instance, higher scores aren't a good thing!

Stress levels

How we got these results

TensiStrength was used to analyse the content of tweets relating to broadband providers. Each tweet was assigned a “stress score”, ranging from -1 (low stress) to -5 (high stress). Our final ranking is based on providers that have the highest proportion of tweets classified as ‘moderately stressed’ or higher (-3 to -5 on the TensiStrengh scale).

TensiStrength is a tool developed by Mike Thelwall, professor of data science at the University of Wolverhampton. It estimates the strength of stress expressed in short texts, such as social media posts. You can try it for yourself at the tool’s homepage.

According to our data, Shell Energy Broadband, Post Office, and Plusnet are the top three most stressful providers. At the less stressed end of the spectrum is EE, NOW, and Hyperoptic who have the least stressed customers.

Logo	Provider	Stressed Tweet %
	Shell Energy Broadband	36.7%
	Post Office	35.3%
	Plusnet	32.9%
	Sky	31.1%
	Virgin	28.3%
	TalkTalk	27.1%
	BT	23.9%
	Origin	23.6%
	Vodafone	22.2%
	Direct Save	21.1%
	KCOM	20.4%
	Zen Internet	17.2%
	EE	17%
	NOW Broadband	14.2%
	Hyperoptic	13.4%

Break down of the results (Google sheet)

Find me a Tweet

Discover what customers said about their ISP by selecting a provider from the list and clicking the button to see a random tweet.