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MSE News: Ofcom to give customers right to walk away free over low broadband speeds

Customers of BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky and TalkTalk will soon be able to leave their contract penalty free is speeds are slow...
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Ofcom to give customers right to walk away free over low broadband speeds

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Comments

  • oldagetraveller
    oldagetraveller Posts: 3,653 Forumite
    So what happens after the first three months?
    If speed falls part way through a minimum contract and the I.S.P. fails to improve the connection then the customer still has to finish the minimum term or pay a leaving "penalty".
    Define "acceptable".
    My speed has dropped to less than that advised when I agreed to a minimum term and the I.S.P. states that is acceptable.
    More hot air from a toothless nonentity!
  • abicat
    abicat Posts: 18 Forumite
    10 Posts
    Wonder if it will also let me leave BT because there is no room to connect me in my local box. Took months to put in a line so I could have a phone and Internet and it drops out regularly. Engineer came out (the day after the agreed appointment and with no notification so I had stayed in waiting for nothing) on Wednesday 10 June 2015. Result of the visit was that I was left with a noisy line and slow broadband. New appointment made for Monday 15 June as each time they treat it as a new problem. Tonight I have no usable connection for Broadband at all. I would never recommend BT to anyone after my experience and can't wait to leave them. Will be complaining to their MD.
  • LadyDee
    LadyDee Posts: 4,293 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I thought broadband providers only quoted "up to" speeds, not "guaranteed"?

    I foresee another rash of cold calls from these compensation claim parasites!
  • Oblivion
    Oblivion Posts: 20,248 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic
    From the MSE article ...

    "With Virgin Media, which uses a cable network instead of copper or fibre, the regulator assumes that speeds tend to be consistent with what is advertised."

    Try telling that to the numerous Virgin Media customers who are paying for a 152 Mbps service and only receiving dial up speeds because the infrastructure can't cope!


    Ofcom, about as much use as a [please insert your choice of insult here]
    ... Dave
    Happily retired and enjoying my 14th year of leisure
    I am cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
    Bring me sunshine in your smile
  • Retrogamer
    Retrogamer Posts: 4,218 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Do they mean sync speeds, or throughput speeds i wonder.
    Any ISP i worked with when we gave quotes, the quotes were for sync speeds, usually using calculations and database information from Openreach on line length.
    With profiling we'd normally expect people to get no less than 70% of their throughput rate vs sync speed.

    It seems Ofcom have made it as clear as mud.
    All your base are belong to us.
  • JJ_Egan
    JJ_Egan Posts: 20,281 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    MGALS represents the fasted speed to 10% of the customer base getting the lowest speeds .
    This apparently is going to be the marker .
    Customers must give the ISP reasonable chance to fix the problem .

    http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/6988-detail-for-new-broadband-speeds-code-now-published.html

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33083056
  • Thehud
    Thehud Posts: 785 Forumite
    Well it looks like I/we have been well and truly ripped off!

    18 months ago TT offered me a TV service, which I clicked on, went through the process and found out at the end I could not have it because my speeds could not deliver. However, I had to call to get back to my old contract, which I did. Re did the contract and thought it would just be everything back to normal.

    The bandwidth has become increasingly slow over the last year and following a letter saying that they were putting up the price because we are now getting faster broadband I started looking around for another option.

    Transfered yesterday and they are charging me £128.24 minimum for leaving a contract early and being 6 days out of the free chance to leave. Our current bandwidth speed is download 1.48 and upload 0.67 which is a disgrace.

    I can't see how I can get out of this charge even though they are failing to deliver an even adequate service. Even our telephone service is rubbish with voices coming and going, we got new phones, it made no difference. They say they have no complaints logged. We had no internet or telephone service for about a week at one point and they were told.

    Talk Talk, Talk about possibly the worst company in the whole communications business. We have been with them for 8 years and this is how they treat us.

    I am absolutely blistering with anger.

    Rant over, thanks for listening:o
  • kwikbreaks
    kwikbreaks Posts: 9,187 Forumite
    LadyDee wrote: »
    I thought broadband providers only quoted "up to" speeds, not "guaranteed"?

    I foresee another rash of cold calls from these compensation claim parasites!
    For some time now they have been forced to give an estimated speed based on your line when you take out a new contract.
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