I pay up front for a broadband & unlimited calls contract. On March 6th My BB & LL service were suspended due to late payment (my fault I know). I immediately paid. It was not reconnected 24hrs later so I called & was told it should have been automatically reconnected but there was something wrong with my account so they would get it fixed by the 10th.
I was then issued another bill, which I paid on time.
On the 10th neither the BB or LL were working again so I called back & was told there was something wrong with my account & it would be fixed by the 15th.
On the 15th neither the BB or LL were working so I called again. This time they told me there was a problem with the LL that was affecting the BB & after a long phone call they managed to get the BB back on but still no LL. They said they would fix it, but instead gave me a restricted service which would not let me make any outgoing calls & played a messages saying "You cannot make calls from this line, please contact your provider".
On March 31st I still had no outgoing calls so phoned again & was told there was a fault & I needed an engineer. The engineer came & said there was nothing he could do as BT had put me on a restricted service and he couldn't change that. I called back & once again was told there was a problem with my account & they would look into it.
On April 5th my LL finally started working again (a month after they turned it off).
I was then issued another bill and a reconnection charge. I then called to enquire about compensation & my account was credited for £49.50 & I was told any other compensation would be paid by May 13th.
On May 13th I was not given any compensation, but was issued another bill. I opened a complaint & was informed by Loretta that I was not entitled to any compensation because I did not have a total loss of service. She said the £49.50 was all I was getting to cover the period my BB was down but I wouldn't get anything for my LL not working & she closed my complaint. However the automatic compensation owed for that period comes to £58 not £49, so that is wrong & I also paid upfront for unlimited phone calls that I couldn't make, which wasn't refunded.
I then reopened my complaint because Ofcom confirmed to me that having no LL for a month does count as loss of service.
I then had another phone call from BT saying that yes I should get £58 instead of £49, but I was not entitled to any other compensation because the issue was not caused by a fault but by them choosing to turn my LL off. And as it wasn't a fault I was not entitled to automatic compensation. They then refunded my upfront charge but not the extra £9 they admit they owe me. I told them I was not happy and would like to escalate my complaint.
I then spoke to Ofcom again who confirmed a Loss of Service is a Loss of Service no matter what the reason is, and as BT have admitted it was their mistake I am entitled to automatic compensation for the entire month I was without a LL.
I have not heard anything else from BT who are trying to get away without paying for their mistake. I am going to take this to an ADR dispute if they do not sort it out but they seem unwilling to reply to my complaint. Their customer service is appalling.
