Compensation for loss of service

[MisstickMeg]

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/automat... 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.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@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.

[MisstickMeg]

So you're locking the post because?

[MisstickMeg]

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

[Keith_Beddoe]

Compensation is paid via your bill.

I have asked a moderator to look at your issue.

[JohnC2]

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

[MisstickMeg]

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.

[iniltous]

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.

[MisstickMeg]

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.

[MisstickMeg]

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.