This topic

Compensation for loss of service

MisstickMeg — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 08:28:27 GMT

In August this year we and our neighbours found ourselves without our landlines. Fortunately we didn't lose our broadband connections so with a little ingenuity and by getting one of our very elderly neighbours a mobile and PAYG sim card we just about managed. I reported the loss of service as soon as I was aware and advised some of my neighbours to do the same.
It appears this was a fault on one of BT's underground cables. It wasn't just BT customers affected, of course.
We were given various promises about when service would be restored but it wasn't until the third week of September when we finally got our landlines back.
I don't know how many households were affected - but it was certainly dozens and could have been hundreds.

In our naivety we took the words of the Ofcom Automatic Compensation Scheme https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automatic-compensation-need-know to be a statement of fact; specifically Our automatic compensation scheme means broadband and landline customers will get money back from their provider when things go wrong, without having to ask for it.

If your broadband or landline service stops working, you will simply have to report the fault to your provider. If the service is not fixed after two full working days, you would not need to ask for compensation or contact your provider again, as your provider has systems in place that mean you will start receiving compensation automatically if the repair takes too long.

Compensation should be paid no later than:

30 calendar days after the loss of service is resolved or the service is terminated;

So, eventually this week, we phoned BT to ask what was happening.
Not much appears to be the answer. We have now received a credit of £50.40 (six days) and have had to make a complaint to get considered for the remainder of the compensation we are owed. We have had promises of phone calls from two BT personnel. None has materialised. Another one has been promised for Monday.

The real issue here is that BT look like they're trying to weasel out of their obligations under the compensation scheme - in my opinion all those affected should be getting compensation from 48 hours after the time they (BT) were first notified of the fault regardless of whether they reported loss of service themselves.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 08:38:42 GMT

@MisstickMeg

Welcome to this user forum for BT Retail phone and broadband customers.

This is just a customer to customer help forum, everyone here, including myself, are just customers.

The only BT Employees are the forum moderators.

The external network is maintained by Openreach.

If its a major fault that was caused by third party damage, then Openreach can declare MBORC (Matters Beyond Our Reasonable Control). Once that is declared, then any compensation will be stopped.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

MisstickMeg — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 08:52:13 GMT

So you're locking the post because?

Re: Compensation for loss of service

MisstickMeg — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 08:56:59 GMT

My opinion is that this is a service issue, nothing to do with bills and packages. Please move it back to its original location.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 09:06:06 GMT

Compensation is paid via your bill.

I have asked a moderator to look at your issue.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

JohnC2 — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 09:46:09 GMT

Hi @MisstickMeg, sorry you're not happy with the compensation you've been offered and are still waiting to be contacted back about it.

I've sent you a Private Message so you can get in touch with the Mod team and we'll be happy to help you with this if needed.

Cheers

John

Re: Compensation for loss of service

MisstickMeg — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 13:50:00 GMT

Thank you John.
Unfortunately this is a much bigger issue than one customer not getting their compensation - there's been a failure to communicate from the start and the automatic compensation failure is just the icing on the cake.
I completely understand that issues do occur from time to time on physical network infrastructure and that sometimes these can take a while to resolve particularly when when dealing with older assets. My understanding from talking to some of the other affected people is that a buried cable failed and this affected a large number of people.
I also understand that sometimes established processes and procedures fail for various reasons which may include computer or human error.
If we had been informed what the issue was and given a realistic timeframe for its resolution I would not be so aggrieved. I am now of the opinion that all affected parties should receive full compensation from 48 hours after BT was first aware of the failure regardless of whether they reported it themselves and also regardless of their service provider.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

iniltous — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 14:14:23 GMT

The OFCOM compensation scheme only apply to Communication Providers that have signed up , not all have , you may use BT , others that don’t would have to take up any claims for compensation with whoever they do use , those consumers are not BT’s concern…..it’s Openreach ( not BT ) who are responsible for the external network, and have service level agreements with CP’s , ( BT being just one of many providers that use OR as their network provider) the CP’s are compensated by OR for any outages , within the terms of the agreements between OR and the CP, there are several levels of service OR offer to CPs , not all take the ‘best’ SLA and take the cheaper option ( BT take the top SLA )
Your ‘complaint’ that your compensation with BT should have been dealt with in a speedy fashion many be justified, but you must have in mind , there is no point calculating the compensation while the problem is still ongoing , given that to a great extent the amount of time the fault exists is the basis for the amount of compensation due, it’s impossible to know what the compensation will be whilst the outage is ongoing, but there are limits on what compensation can be claimed , if , for example a third party was denying access to OR equipment to affect a repair , then that delay is hardly down to Openreach , or if this failure were classed as ‘MBORC’ , matter beyond our reasonable control , then limits can be applied.
Your neighbours that were affected by an Openreach outage, but are not BT customers, they are not BT’s problem.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

MisstickMeg — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 18:00:32 GMT

The loss of service was from the last week in August until 19 September.

No-one is trying to calculate compensation for an on-going outage.

The phone call we were promised today has still not happened. I'm sure BT can afford to p*** off individual customers with very little effect to their bottom line.

Looks like our next port of call is going to be the ombudsman.

I wonder how much we should charge for our time trying to get some sense out of the call centre.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

MisstickMeg — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 18:38:09 GMT

The good news is that we should now get almost all the compensation we're due.

I don't know how I will be able to tell since the help page on the website doesn't match the way MyBT looks.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

MisstickMeg — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 08:33:10 GMT

And here we are again.

BT have closed my complaint.

However, my bill history shows no results for compensation and credits.

They'd better be ready to be shouted at. Again.

I think I may very well be moving to a different provider for the sake of my mental health and blood pressure.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

garybs29 — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 09:41:50 GMT

@MisstickMegwrote:
They'd better be ready to be shouted at. Again.

What a lovely person you are, maybe call up & speak nicely to see if the issue can be resolved, if you start shouting at them they'd be quite within your rights to hang up on you

Feel free to move providers too some of the others haven't even signed up to the automatic scheme so may not even give you anywhere near as much for issues

Re: Compensation for loss of service

NeilO — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 10:00:37 GMT

Hi, @MisstickMeg I'm sorry for any confusion caused. I can see your complaint is still open and in a Manager escalation queue, it appears there has been more than one complaint opened for the same issue. @DavidM will be in touch with you again today to provide you with an update.

Neil

Re: Compensation for loss of service

DavidM — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 10:50:21 GMT

Hi @MisstickMeg ,

Thanks for the post. I'm sorry it took so long to get this sorted. I've called and spoke with Mrs MisstickMeg and have also dropped you a private message confirming everything. If you have any other problems please get in touch.

Cheers

David

Re: Compensation for loss of service

MisstickMeg — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 18:52:58 GMT

@garybs29

I thank you, but it's not necessary to call me a lovely person.

Because I sometimes have a short fuse I try to do these things by email or online - that way I have time to reflect on my words and how they might be taken, I also have time to check whether I think the person or persons I'm dealing with is being helpful or obstructive.

I'm glad you know what my rights are re hanging up. I think the people whom I might or might not be shouting at also have rights.

As you may have seen above if you've read the whole thread, this compensation process is meant to be automatic. In my mind (and the Ofgem code of practice) that means once the initial loss of service has been reported and not been fixed within the allowed 48 hours then the customer should receive compensation within 30 calendar days of the fix. This didn't happen. BT did not communicate with me other than to send me my monthly bill. 10 weeks after the fault was fixed we began wondering why nothing was happening. BT staff promised to phone back. Several times. Once would have been enough (as it was when @DavidM spoke with my wife).

I am dismayed that some of the BT community seems prepared to swear that black is white when presented with evidence of how BT's customer service isn't reaching the standards it aspires to.

There are issues that are outwith the scope of this forum relating to compensation for customers of both BT and other providers for larger scale faults and I shall pursue these elsewhere.

Thank you for your interest and helpful comments.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

MisstickMeg — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 18:57:24 GMT

@DavidM

Thank you for eventually resolving this. As you are aware my wife has spent a considerable amount of time talking to numerous people within BT and we are both relieved that we have managed to come to an agreed conclusion.

Re: Compensation for loss of service

iniltous — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 19:58:22 GMT

No one argued that poor customer service is acceptable, but your assertion that BT should compensate customers , even ones that are not customers of BT , but customers of BT’s competitors, for the time they were out of service , (minus the first two days ) , even if that customer has not reported that they were out of service, was and still is , nonsensical, as noted in message 8 , your complaint about the length of time it was taking to provide you with compensation was justified.