Compensation from phone/fibre/TV provider?

Mackle

Hello,

I am experiencing issues with a provider over services that have not been delivered, and I feel the need to contact their Corresponance department regarding recompence for all the annual leave that I have taken off and (as it now turns out) had wasted.

A very brief timeline of what transpired is:-
10/12/2013 - Fibre and TV services ordered, after a sales person responded to "Time is of the essence" with "fibre provisiiong will be completed and the TV services will be live, by 23/12/2013". Line provisioning scheduled for the 19/12/2013. 18 months line rental paid up front to take advantage of savings.

13/12/2013 - SMS received from Provider informing me that a survey would be carried out prior to the go live date, and that any changes to the installation date would be passed on to me

19/12/2013 - Took the day off on annual leave. No engineer turned up. Spoke to Providor retentions team who in turn spoke to wholesale provider, and it transpired that my appointment was cancelled on the 17/12/2013 as a result of the survey. According to the wholesale provider there was an issue of capacity and available connections in the green cabinet, so unable to provision

23/12/2013 - Informed by Provider that the capacity issues had been resolved, and that installation could now proceed. Scheduled for the 27/12/2013

27/12/2013 - Took a second day off on annual leave. No engineer turned up.

30/12/2013 - Assurance received from Provider CEO office that a multi-disciplined / LL1 engineer would definately attend the property on 08/01/2014 and complete all required work

08/12/2014 - Took a third day off on annual leave. An engineer turns up, but not an LL1 broadband engineer. The engineer installed a master socket, and then left, explaining that he was only there to install the socket and there was no line there to test because the line had not been provisioned

09/12/2014 - Informed by Provider that line could not be provisioned because of capacity issues in the green cabinet, and that currently the provisioning was indefinately postponed by the wholesale provider.


So my main gripes are that I've taken three days off on annual leave, two of which were no-shows and the third of which appears now to have been completely pointless.

The second issue is that I was sold a service on 10/12/2013 with a "time is of the essesance" provisioning for services that cannot be provided at all by the provider.

What I do next, I am a bit fuzzy about - I've read the long distance selling and sales of goods stuff, but when I was speaking to someone at the organisation today I was told "these are services and not goods Sir, you can't be compensated for services that are not live because compensation requires disruption to a live service".

Not sure where to go next with this, or what I am entitled to ask the providor for.


Thanks in advance for any advice given

penrhyn

Presumably BT Openreach were short staffed over Christmas, has the problem been sorted now.
BTW Was it Talk Talk?

JJ_Egan

Join the BT OR did not turn up and no compensation club .

Mackle

penrhyn wrote: »

Presumably BT Openreach were short staffed over Christmas, has the problem been sorted now.
BTW Was it Talk Talk?

Problem is not solved no. Openreach have said that there is currently not enough capacity in the green cabinet to provision - which was the reason they cancelled the appointment on 19/12/2013.

The Openreach engineer who attended yesterday said that he was only installing a master socket because the line had not been provisioned and that this would have to be looked in to by someone else in BT.

The current update from the supplier is that the provisioning is postponed until further notice, and that Openreach have yet to confirm that it's viable to add additional capacity.

Buzby

Since you never had the service, you cannot be compensated for something you didn't have (there's is no 'loss').

If you took their business service, this costs more BUT provides payments if they do not hit their targets. If you didn't - then other than goodwill, you are entitled to nothing.

Mackle

If I'd ordered goods, and they don't turn up whilst I am on annual leave waiting for them, I believe that there is a consumer law that means that any additional days taken off for recieving the goods can be claimed back under - in fact the guidance on this very site says "goods and installations".

I have taken more than one day of leave off, for engineers to no show. I cannot get that leave back from my company, so why should a phone install be immune from being able to claim for loss of leave yet other installations are not?

macman

Because it's consequential loss.

VisionMan

macman wrote: »

Because it's consequential loss.

Indeed. Its an indirect loss that has nothing to do with the contract for services. But as Buzby has said, once all the problems have been sorted they may give you a goodwill payment. But they are not obliged to do so.

mattyprice4004

You're pretty stuffed if they're not going to add capacity - our sales team had an order on hold for. Early a year before we gave up chasing BT to add the capacity!

oldagetraveller

For those who have experienced a "no show" from BTOR it might be worth bearing this http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/updates/briefings/generalbriefings/generalbriefingsarticles/gen02413.do in mind when asking for recompense from their ISP who have benefited from the missed appointment to the tune of £45.

Mackle

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

You're pretty stuffed if they're not going to add capacity - our sales team had an order on hold for. Early a year before we gave up chasing BT to add the capacity!

This is something that I'm worried about - a work colleague of mine used to work for Bulldog in a 3rd line function, and that often adding capacity needed not only an outlay from BT in purchasing additional equipment, but could also need local authority permission (the Openreach engineer who attended the house to put a master socket on the wall did say something cryptic about it may need approval from more than just Openreach).

I'm supposed to be hearing back from the CP this afternoon so it may well be the case that I'm put in a position where I have to go with Virgin, or come up with a 4G/LTE broadband solution that works without costing the earth (I've tried an EE dongle on my PC, and speed test frequently records 55mbs on that, and gave faultless performance when I played Company of Heroes on line with a friend via Steam, but it's a very expensive way to access the internet. Vodafone's 4G dongle recorded 14mbs, and I've not tried gaming with that. Three on their DC-HSDPA 3G seldom breaks past 0.6mbs in the part of Finchley that I reside, yet in other areas in London the same device has recorded 14mbs on Speedtest, it just doesn't like my area!).