What's the time limit for external broadband reps/credit for non-service ?

Somerset

Probably phrased the title badly. Briefly, our broadband and phone went down last Saturday. Phoned the Post Office to report, and girl said something about 72 hours - couldn't establish what that 72 hours was ie repair, inspection, progress report, whatever.

So two questions :

1) Are we at the whim of BT ? We know the problem, a telephone pole has been damaged. Neighbours are affected too. So it's a BT repair job but no sign of them. Is there anything laid down legally about how long they have to attempt repairs ?

2) At what point, e.g. after 72 hours ? should my ISP 'credit' my next bill for non-service, again is this legislated anywhere ? The cynic in me knows a credit won't be automatically applied ( if due ), I'll have to ask.

I'm just trying to get an idea of timescales, mainly re point 1. I'd much prefer to have the broadband/phone back and forget the piddly refund. But since it's now gone 1 pm and no sign of BT on Day 3, I'm wondering where we stand re the 'right' to a speedy repair or if it's just a queue and they get to it, when they get to it. There's no point me asking BT - I'm not their customer, and there's no point me asking the Post Office - they have no information about BT 'jobs'.

macman

There is no service level agreement on a residential tariff. The most you will get is a credit for the downtime equal to the pro-rata'd cost. As you say, this is not automatic-you have to ask for it.

Somerset

macman wrote: »

There is no service level agreement on a residential tariff. .

Is ''service level agreement'' re the BT repair ? ie they have no set timeframe to comply with ? If that's the case I could be in for a long wait ...... and I'm already going mad using a dongle for the fourth day :eek:

macman

You have no SLA with the PO, and no contract with BT. If it takes 3 weeks to fix, then you can ask for 3 weeks credit on your bill. 4 days includes the weekend, so it's hardly excessive. It's two working days.
Repacing a pole is not always a straightforward job.

System

At what point, e.g. after 72 hours ? should my ISP 'credit' my next bill for non-service, again is this legislated anywhere ? The cynic in me knows a credit won't be automatically applied ( if due ), I'll have to ask.

The ISP won't credit you with anything and you won't be due anything from them. They are supplying the service but the phone line provider is preventing you using it.

iniltous

CP's (Communication providers) do have service level agreements with BT/OR and are compensated for service restored late automatically from BT/OR, there are exemptions and exclusions, where BT/OR can state the problem was beyond their reasonable control for example, but that doesnt mean the end user will be compensated, you would have to look at the CP's own T&C's, in the OP's case its the Post Office they should be contacting for updates/progress and asking what compensation they would be entitled to when the repair is completed,
BT Retail aim is to restore service within 3 working days, on a standard care contract, perhaps the PO is the same, as the weekend doesnt count, three days (72hrs) for a report on Sat 15th, would be close of business Wednesday 18th, not Tuesday 17th,

Somerset

macman wrote: »

You have no SLA with the PO, and no contract with BT. If it takes 3 weeks to fix, then you can ask for 3 weeks credit on your bill. 4 days includes the weekend, so it's hardly excessive. It's two working days.
Repacing a pole is not always a straightforward job.

Ok, I get that. So it's a matter of waiting for however long. It's just frustrating.

Btw, replacing a pole may not be straightforward. But BT haven't even been out to it yet.

Somerset

iniltous wrote: »

BT Retail aim is to restore service within 3 working days, on a standard care contract, perhaps the PO is the same, as the weekend doesnt count, three days (72hrs) for a report on Sat 15th, would be close of business Wednesday 18th, not Tuesday 17th,

That would make sense. As I said in my first post I was quoted 72 hours but when I questioned what that related to, the girl was hazy on detail. I did specifically ask if that was working days or whether weekends counted - she said they did, it was 72 hours from the saturday report. She obviously got that wrong.

Thanks for all the responses. Not what I wanted to hear but that's life. I had hoped there was a formal timescale BT had to adhere to but ............