Hi all,
Thanks for the posts everyone, been holding off commenting while I waited for BT's response...
They've paid £456.70 compensation:
£131.20 for missed appointments (5 days @ £26.24)
£325.50 for delay of service (62 days @ £5.25).
The dates they've offered this are confusing; this compensation started on 23rd September, only 5 days after placing the order and ended November 24th.
The first date I have in writing that my service would be activated on was December 20th. The order was cancelled on June 10th, so this compensation should run from 20/12/2021 to 10/06/2022, 173 days.
The reason BT have given for the reduced compensation is that Openreach apparently tried contacting the landowner of the footway outside the flat for the first time on 24/11, so any delay past that was outside their control and they won't pay compensation for it. There are a couple of issue with this:
- From every account I have had before this point, Openreach did NOT contact the landowner on that date. Openreach themselves called me directly on 4th May to ask me if the land ownership of the footway had been transferred to me. When I explained to them I would not be getting land ownership of the footpath and I had no idea where that got that from, they said they were "very close to finding out who the landowner was".
- It doesn't matter anyway according to Ofcom. Whether the delay is with BT, Openreach, or the landowner, I'm due compensation from the first service installation date I received in writing to the service cancellation date. I have had to chase for 7 months and haven't been able to seek out an alternative service, because throughout the order period I have been told "soon".
BT's automatic compensation page is a bit sparse, but makes absolutely no mention of withholding compensation for these reasons. The relevant parts are:
- If we don’t activate landline or broadband on the day we promised, you’ll receive £5.25 compensation automatically
- Plus you’ll receive another £5.25 for every extra day you have to wait, not including the day your service is activated
- You are eligible for compensation if your service isn’t activated by one minute to midnight on the activation date we sent by email or post.
- Reasons you wouldn’t get compensation:
- If you cancelled your engineer appointment or weren't at home (never happened)
- If you turned down an earlier appointment (never happened)
- If an order is cancelled before it's activated, automatic compensation will stop on the cancellation date
That's all that's mentioned, so the full 173 days is due.
Ofcom is a bit more specific in their Automatic Compensation Code of Practice (pdf) (still shows the 2021 costs but the rest is still up to date). The relevant parts are:
- 10a. £5 for the missed initial activation date; plus
- 10b. £5 for each full calendar day that expires after the initial activation date until the first available date that is offered as an alternative activation date or, if earlier, the date the customer or Communications Provider terminates or cancels the affected service or services (the service(s) the Communications Provider agreed to activate on a given date).
- 40a-g. [These are reasons in which BT would be exempt from making the compensation payment, none of which apply to this case]
- 41. Subject to the exceptions in paragraph 40 above, the Communications Provider does not avoid payment of automatic compensation if the issue was caused by an event outside of the customer’s or its own control.
I think that last sentence is very final.
The total amount of compensation due is £1039.45:
£131.20 for missed appointments (5 days @ £26.24)
£908.25 for delay of service (173 days @ £5.25)
I'm currently waiting for a letter from the executive team which was sent on Thursday, I have absolutely no idea what the contents of that letter are. I'll wait a couple more days then follow up if it hasn't arrived.
If I can't get this sorted through the executive team, does anybody know the correct escalation procedure?
Many thanks!
