Automatic compensation of £5.83 per day?

[FlyAgaric]

Hi all.

Has anyone here received  automatic compensation from BT?  See
https://www.bt.com/help/account-and-billing/automatic-compensation which states:

"If we don’t activate landline or broadband on the day we promised (including when switching from another provider), you’ll receive £5.83 compensation automatically. Plus you’ll receive another £5.83 for every extra day you have to wait, not including the day your service is activated."

The Ofcom Code of Practice for automatic compensation (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automat... states that compensation applies (inter alia) to "delays to the start of a new service" and (clause 8 of the code) "The code applies to the provision (including existing customers’ service upgrades which result in them being subject to a new contractual commitment period) and repair of residential fixed-line and broadband services."  Further, clause 41 states "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 ".

What happened to me.

I'm a domestic customer of BT. On 21st Sep 2023 I placed an order to upgrade from landline + FTTC to FTTP + digital voice, which was accepted by BT who quoted an installation date of 28 Sep. This upgrade order failed and was eventually cleared out of the system by 4th Oct.

Six subsequent attempted upgrade orders have also failed and been cancelled by BT. I still have no FTTP as of 17th Nov.

I have lodged a formal complaint with BT - but have had no response from them yet.

What do you think? Has anyone here successfully got automatic compensation when BT failed to meet their offered FTTP service  activation date?

[Keith_Beddoe]

@FlyAgaric 

You would not get any compensation until your service has been activated and you have paid your first bill. Any compensation is then paid as a credit towards future bills.

If you still have an FTTC connection, then you still have a working service. What you are waiting for is a regrade.

[FlyAgaric]

What you are waiting for is a regrade.

That's true, but the Ofcom code explicitly includes " existing customers’ service upgrades which result in them being subject to a new contractual commitment period" (Clause 8).

[-Richie-]

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@FlyAgaricwrote:

What happened to me.

I'm a domestic customer of BT. On 21st Sep 2023 I placed an order to upgrade from landline + FTTC to FTTP + digital voice, which was accepted by BT who quoted an installation date of 28 Sep. This upgrade order failed and was eventually cleared out of the system by 4th Oct.

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It depends if the email said it would be activated and live on that date, all orders are subject to a survey, if the order failed and never reached the supplier (Openreach) then any dates were an estimate, not a promised activation or go live date.

Regrades and new provisions do attract automatic compensation though but there are also other criteria, it will be addressed though when your services go live, right now the priority will be getting the services live.

[iniltous]

Understandably there are restrictions, say someone had a failed appointment , and the ISP wanted to rearrange a new appointment for 3 days after the failed appointment, ( if it were just a resourcing issue ) if the consumer said that this new date was unsatisfactory and wanted a reappointment for 10 days after the appointment, those extra 7 days compensation would be unwarranted, because it’s the consumer adding to the delay , not the ISP , in a similar fashion if your order were taken in error and then cancelled because this error were realised ( so arguably you were never failed , the order cancelled before that install date actually came around ) then arguably you haven’t been subject to a failure.

Compensation is arguably is to compensate for waiting for someone to turn up , that never does, or a working service not repaired in a reasonable time , if there were no restrictions, it’s completely unreasonable to expect ( for example) potentially years of compensation to be paid because service were ‘sold’ over a network that doesn’t actually exist, there are limits .

[FlyAgaric]

@-Richie-  wrote

It depends if the email said it would be activated and live on that date, all orders are subject to a survey, if the order failed and never reached the supplier (Openreach) then any dates were an estimate, not a promised activation or go live date.

Thanks.  In all 7 failed upgrade orders BT's activation dates were provisional - dependent on being accepted by Openreach.  So I guess automatic compensation (£5.83 p.d.) isn't on.  But I am pressing for substantial compensation when (if!) FTTP eventually works.

[-Richie-]

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@FlyAgaricwrote:
But I am pressing for substantial compensation when (if!) FTTP eventually works.

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For what? just going from your info provided, the orders have not reached suppliers, which means no appointments have been made, resulting in no missed engineers, you might of had to make some calls but BT don't pay customers for their time, residential accounts are for recreational purposes and don't cover loss of earnings and you've had zero downtime in your existing FTTC service.

You might be offered a small gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience, contractually speaking you're not entitled to anything.

I'm not trying to upset you here but your expectations seem a tad off.

[FlyAgaric]

@-Richie- 

The good news is Openreach are coming on Mon 11 Dec to install fibre.  But please read the following catalogue of failed upgrade attempts by BT/Openreach and imagine how I felt during the 2½ months it took them to succeed.

To date 9 orders to upgrade from FTTC to BT Full Fibre 100 + Digital Voice have been placed. All have failed and been cancelled. The details of each of the 9 upgrade orders are as follows.

1. I placed the first order on 21st Sep), which failed and was eventually cleared out of the system by 4th Oct.
2. BT cancelled and re-submitted my order  on 28th Sep which also failed and was cancelled.
3. BT placed an upgrade order for me on 4th Oct  which was cancelled on 9th Oct due to system problems.
4. I placed an upgrade order  on 16th Oct, which failed and was cancelled.
5. BT placed an upgrade order  on 11am 18th Oct, which failed and was cancelled.
6. BT placed an upgrade order  on 5pm 18th Oct, which is still open but has a failed engineer appointment. BT support have said the reason for this failed appointment is that there is already an order on their system for my tel.line. They are checking through all the OpenReach systems for that other order and will close it. Hopefully once the blocking order is cleared, my upgrade order will succeed!
This order also failed due to a system problem.
7. BT placed an upgrade order  on 26/10/2023 at 12:38. The engineer appointment failed, and BT cancelled this order on 27th Oct.
8. BT placed an upgrade order  on 21/11/2023 at 13:18. Its engineer appointment failed.
9. BT placed an upgrade order  on 2023-11-22 at 14:15. The engineer appointment failed.

Finally success! BT placed new order for FTTP on 30th Nov (NB not an upgrade from FTTC to FTTP). This has been accepted by Openreach who will install the fibre on Mon 11 Dec.

To date I have spoken to BT support 24 times: on 27th Sept(twice), 28th Sep, 29th Sep, 3rd Oct, 4th Oct (twice), 9th Oct, 11 Oct (3 times), 14th Oct, 16th Oct, 18th Oct (4 times), on 27th Oct, on 3rd Nov, on 15 Nov, on Nov 18, on Nov 21, on Nov 29 and on Nov 30.

[-Richie-]

@FlyAgaric  That's good news and just in time fo Christmas 🙂
I never said it had been a great experience, it's clear from your post it's been awful, I referenced the fact you expect substantial compensation, your expectations might not be met.

[FloFosterJenkins]

That’s really bad. Crumbs of comfort in that the Customer care response is much better than it used to be.

It’s really galling that after each of my failed FTTP upgrades (three) I received texts saying “Now that your broadband is installed…” and “Here’s how to activate your exciting new digital voice service …”

No efficient broadband (EE temporary box is of limited use), no telephone (I’m on chemo, and immunotherapy-compromised, and I need the landline - analogue - backup but that’s been wiped, and only Freeview TV.