Broadband and landline auto-compensation from Monday 1 April
01 April 2019
We’ve been concerned by the problems customers encounter when they try and sort out faults with their service. Previously, only around one in seven broadband or home phone customers who suffered delayed repairs, installations or missed engineer appointments received compensation from their provider. And even when they did, this was only in small amounts.
So, having worked closely with Ofcom, we’re pleased to see that the regulator has now intervened to ensure fairness for customers, while also giving companies a strong incentive to avoid delays in the first place.
The UK’s largest broadband and home phone firms have agreed to compensate customers when they experience these delays, without the customer having to ask.
BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Zen Internet had already signed up to the scheme. Ofcom has today announced that Hyperoptic and Vodafone have also signed up, and will start paying compensation automatically later this year. Together, the firms that have committed to the scheme account for more than 95% of broadband and home phone customers in the UK.
The new scheme could see customers benefit from a total of £142m in payments – around nine times the amount they received before. As well as consumers, it will benefit the many small and medium-sized businesses who use residential landline and broadband services.