Karoo rated one of the worst ISPs in the country

[dylan]

The region's Internet service provider (ISP) has been named as one of the worst in the country in a customer survey.

Kcom-owned Karoo was ranked just 25th out of 30 by readers of consumer magazine Which?.

According to Which?, Karoo Lite – the cheapest broadband package offered by the company – was awarded just two stars out of five for connection speed and reliability and just one star for value for money.

Overall customer satisfaction for the ISP was 33 per cent, compared with 85 per cent for the two top-rated providers, Zen Internet and BE.

But Kcom has hit back at the findings, saying they are not in line with other independent studies.

In a statement, the company said Karoo had been ranked first and second by Epitiro, which provides global comparative broadband benchmarking.

Kcom also pointed out just 57 of its customers took part in the study, out of a total of 18,876 respondents.

The figure represents just 0.07 per cent of Karoo's broadband customers.

A spokesman for Kcom said the firm was disappointed with the Which? survey.

He told the Mail: "They do not appear to reflect the information and feedback that we are getting from other independent sources and our own customer satisfaction measures."

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Karoo-fares-poorly-UK-broadband-survey/article-296896-detail/article.html

[dylan]

Just as a note, how can Epitiro be rated as 'independent'. Looking through their website, it seems that Epitiro simply get some ADSL connections off KC and put testing kit on the end of them. What's to stop KCOM from giving Epitiro 'special' connections that run better than average?

Also, what is Karoo rated first and second for in Epitiro's surveys? I can't find anything relating to Karoo on Epitiro's website! See for yourself http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=site%3Aepitiro.com+karoo&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

If you want to see an independent test go to http://www.samknows.com These guys are running test on standard Karoo ADSL connections and have found Karoo to be a distinctly average ISP. The Sam Knows tests don't however look at value for money however, which most consumers agree is pretty rubbish here in Hull.

[desandcaz]

  57 people answered this survey  not exactly a proper run survey is it?

[dylan]

  57 people answered this survey  not exactly a proper run survey is it?

Do you mean that the survey wasn't undertaken properly? If so, I don't know to be honest. All it says is that 57 KCOM customers responded. It's probably not so far off the mark given Karoo's UK market share. But when it comes down to it there's "lies, damn lies and statistics!" so who knows what the actual percentages come down to... I don't think 'which' has a vested interest in any particular ISP winning does it?

It's reflective of larger surveys too, like the prime minister's questions survey, or the general opinion of most of the people here at karooforums.net, so I don't think we should dismiss any survey like this out of hand.

Dyls

[Mightymouse]

I took part in that survey just for the web cam I did it twice and got 2 ROFL

[richardmyers]

Let's face it though, if more people had actually answered the survey the results/findings would be FAR worse

[dylan]

When it comes down to it, it's just another interesting piece of Karoo news 

[Aly]

  57 people answered this survey  not exactly a proper run survey is it?

But it could have worked the other way and 57 people said Karoo was the bee's knees and it comes in top.
In reality it is one of the worst ISP's.