Compensation for Loss of Broadband Fibre Service

Ballantrae

Just checking others experience on this . Recently Virgin Media were installing new cables in my area. They pulled out the Open Reach fibre cable in error and cut the fibre broadband service to myself and my neighbours in the street. This happened on a Friday mid afternoon and we were without internet service until the following Monday late pm, a total of three full days. When I approached the Virgin Media contractors they admitted it was their fault. I have written to Virgin Media requesting compensation for the loss of my service. So far they have refused saying that I should approach my own provider, Talk Talk but I cannot see how they would offer anything given that they were not involved in the disruption. I should add that the Open Reach engineer who reinstated the service did say that they would be billing Virgin Media for their expenses incurred. So I think if Open Reach can do this then why can’t I?

Any views / similar experience?

JJ_Egan

Take VM to the small claims court or see what your ISP says .

They may give you compo and claim off VM .#

3 full days does not get you much compensation unless you have a business service with pre agreed compensation .

[Deleted User]

You are only entitled to compensation for an outage that isn't repaired after 2 full working days. So in this case you aren't entitled to a penny under the Ofcom £8 per day compensation scheme.

iniltous

Your only claim for compo is with your provider , if you satisfy the criteria then it should be automatic, you have no claim against Virgin or their contractor.
OR had the expense of repairing the damage ‘VM’ caused,  if you have a valid claim against TT ( it doesn’t matter that TT were not responsible) then chances are TT will have a claim against OR even though they were not responsible either...that’s why OR as well as expecting compo from VM or VM’s contractor for the time and money spent repairing the damage may well also expect some extra payment to cover any out of service claims they may have to pay to ISPs that claim against OR.

You ask if OR have a claim, why don’t you, that’s quite simple nothing you own was damaged, you had no expense, and if the amount of time you were out of service is sufficient that it triggers compo , you will be compensated.
 Basically any extra claim from you against them isn’t  going to be considered.

macman

As above: you have no contract with VM, so no claim. Any claim is against your own provider, which they can counter-claim from VM if they want to.
Since there is no SLA on a residential telcoms contract, you are not entitled to any compo for loss of service. All you can get is a pro-rata credit for the downtime from TT, if you ask for it.

Ballantrae

Thanks for the replies, I now know the correct position so will save the time and effort if I had pursued