Small businesses in the UK may be not fulfilling their duty to complain to their internet service provider (ISP) should the quality of their broadband connection be decent, it has been said.

A study taken out by Consumer Choices found that over half of respondents (54 per cent) had not had their complaint responded to.

However, oHow product director for Broadbandchoices.co.uk Michael Phillips emphasised that 36 per cent of people are not complaining at all about a poor quality of service because they feel their issues will not be met with constructive IT support from their ISP.

"We found a distinct lack of awareness amongst broadband users of the proper way to ensure their complaints are taken seriously," he added, listing a number of things people should do in such situations.

They ranged from simple directions, such as telling them in writing of the grievance and the subsequent wish to enter an official complaints procedure, as well as getting legal help if all else fails from companies such as Which? Legal Services which "provides low cost, smart consumer legal advice", Mr Phillips added.

Broadbandchoices.co.uk was launched in 2005 and powers other search engines including GoCompare and Confused.com.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.