BT BB switch nightmare

lilac_dawn

I stupidly decided to switch broadband and landline from Talktalk to BT, mainly because the Talktalk broadband was constantly dropping. Went through all the usual checks with BT online - they said they could take over the line without anyone needing to visit, retain the number and it would take 2 weeks, so I placed the order.
Wish I hadn't!
I received all the usual emails and texts to say the order was going ahead and on the day itself the phone line and broadband stopped at about 11:00am.

Long story short: 4 weeks later, I finally got my broadband and landline, with original number, up and running.

BT are offering no compensation for loss of earnings - I am self employed - despite originally ensuring that I would not have to take time off work, which I did for the line to be reconnected. They offer no compensation for the fact I haven't been able to open the communal door (no landline to do so) or compensation for lack of BB, which is essential for my work. No mention of the offer (voucher? Amazon?) which was available when I ordered or the amount of cashback not received via a certain cashback site, as they messed up.
I am severely out of pocket and this has caused no end of hassle (inc giving me an old fax number which resulted in the line being totally unusable for 2 days) but all they offer is 2 months free BB as a 'goodwill' gesture.
Also still no mention of who is to blame for it all. Talktalk blame BT and BT blame Talktalk.
Is it correct that BT are under no obligation to offer compensation?
Can they just cut off your landline?
Thanks for any advice.

JJ_Egan

Compensation not unless you had a business service supplied ,probably against the T&C to run a business over the retail service .
Compensation is usually a pro rata refund on the line charges per day .

lilac_dawn

So they are entitled to just cut off the line - even though according to TT BT knew they wouldn't be connecting it?
They can assure me I wouldn't lose cash but then made sure I did?

iniltous

TBH any compensation will be for days you were paying rental but not getting service, so if the changeover was delayed by a month, and BT don't charge you rental for that month then no compensation is due from them
you won't get (as others have said) anything for loss of earnings on a residential line because running a business on it shouldn't be done anyway,
The disconnection of TT and provision of BT would normally be done at the same time on a migration type order, rather than a cease and provide , but if that wasn't done properly then perhaps your TT cease had one date and your BT provide another, so a break in service due to mis matched dates rather than a fault or error
You need to see when TT charged you rental till, and when BT started to charge you rental from, to see who if anyone owes you a refund on rental charges
It's possible that the engineer who disconnected TT did that correctly but didn't connect BT up correctly (this is done by Openreach) , if that is the reason for the month without service you should get a months worth of compensation

lilac_dawn

TT ceased rental and BT started charging on the same day. They have refunded the month without any service at all. They also charged to reconnect the line - I am still waiting for the refund on this, as obviously I didn't want a new line installed and there wasn't any need to do so.
How do I best find out if it's Openreach or BT who are at fault?
My loss of earnings is due to having to wait in for the line to be reconnected.

JJ_Egan

BT are the seller of your service .
BT Open Reach are the provider to BT .
BT OR only deal with Telcos and ISPs .
Any complaint is made to your service provider . Any downtime refund is from your service provider .

Nothing to stop you from asking for xx compensation but as you do not have a business service expect a no .

onomatopoeia99

You won't get consequential loss. Your contract will state what compensation but it's likely to be a pro-rata refund of monthly charges with maybe a small goodwill gesture. BT are at fault, you are contracted to them so whether it is a fault in their systems or a fault caused by their subcontractor (Openreach), the responsibility stops with them.

Some advice for the future though :

If you want a product with a guaranteed service level agreement and compensation, do not buy a domestic broadband product.

If you depend on your internet connection for your work, do not buy a domestic broadband product. In that circumstance you should at minimum have two telephone lines with a broadband connection on both for redundancy, and a router that accepts a 3G data sim for an emergency backup connection if both lines fail. This will cost a lot more than BT domestic broadband. Or you could get a proper leased line. Those are very expensive, but come with >99.9% (or better) uptime guarantees and adequate compensation arrangements.