There's an issue with your internet or mobile service, so being a diligent customer you contact your service provider's call centre.

But after 20 minutes, several repeats of the Dave Dobbyn song Loyal and with cobwebs starting to form there you are – still waiting to speak with a customer service representative.

More than 8600 Consumer NZ members recently participated in a customer satisfaction survey where they were asked to rate their internet and mobile service providers.

Consumer NZ chief executive Sue Chetwin says people who felt their telcos were easy to contact were more likely to be satisfied customers.

'Our latest survey of customer satisfaction showed 65 per cent of people experienced lengthy waits to speak to customer service representatives.

'Just 33 per cent thought their provider was very easy to contact.”

Skinny Mobile was the top performer for mobile service with 84 per cent of their customers saying they were ‘very satisfied' and rated above average on all key performance measures including value for money (86 per cent).

2degrees customers were also more likely than average to be satisfied with their mobile service with 69 per cent saying they were very satisfied and 63 per cent satisfied with their value for money.

While of the 12 internet providers surveyed, Spark and Vodafone rated lower than average on key performance measures including value for money and ease of contacting.

Small Manawatu-based company Inspire Net topped the ratings with 98 per cent satisfaction from its customers. Actrix and Now New Zealand were also highly rated.

'Most respondents had been with their telco for at least two years; about 60 per cent had been with the same provider for five years or more. But this may reflect the difficulty of comparing plans rather than customer loyalty,” says Sue.

For more information visit Consumer NZ's website at: www.consumer.org.nz