BT not delivering stayfast guarantee speed

Al_Ross

Diver22 said:

I’m posting this to see what others might think.

I recently moved home and as I already had a BT broadband contract imported it with me. In making the arrangements BT told me, and sent me a contract to the effect, that the estimated speed at my new property would be 29-36 Mbps with a ‘stayfast guarantee of 25 Mbps. However, the actual speed I get is 20 Mbps, sometimes a couple of Mb less. I’ve had the Openreach engineer who has checked everything at the cabinet (it is FTTC), at the pole, at at my house, and found no faults. He told me the problem is that I am situated 500 metres from the cabinet and  from there to my house is copper wire.Hismeasured max speed was also 20 Mbps. 

So I have a contract which I think was missold, and where BT is in breach of its guaranteed minimum speed and its estimated speeds. However there is no other provider of a network where I live so even if I left BT I can’t get any faster speeds from any other provider. I’m inclined to take the issue up with BT as a breach of contract issue, and to argue for specific performance ie that BT does what it takes to give me what it contracted to give me and what I have paid for. BT say on their website that where minimum granted speed isn’t delivered they award £20 compensation, but that feels risible to me over the term of the contract, when they are delivering only 80% of the guaranteed speed but want 100% of the contract price (less £20).

Has anyone else been in this situation where you have argued for specific performance of the contract and succeeded? Or argued for a reduction in price commensurate with proportion of speed not delivered?

Have others got any useful observations on how to approach this?

You should be able to negotiate a price reduction if you contact them and start a formal complaint.

How much are you actually paying a month for your broadband ?

Aylesbury_Duck

All you can do is try and negotiate a new price but you have no leverage, and they probably know that.

[Deleted User]

Unfortunately with the copper wires to the cabinet, the longer they are, the lower the signal strength, if the cable loops up and down the street, the 500m from the box could actually be even further

Put in a formal complaint and see where it goes, you might get more than £20 if you explain everything factually 

TELLIT01

BT are offering compensation in line with their T&C, so it's quite simply a case of accept the compensation or cancel the contract and go elsewhere.

Jumblebumble

Diver22 said:

I’m posting this to see what others might think.

I recently moved home and as I already had a BT broadband contract imported it with me. In making the arrangements BT told me, and sent me a contract to the effect, that the estimated speed at my new property would be 29-36 Mbps with a ‘stayfast guarantee of 25 Mbps. However, the actual speed I get is 20 Mbps, sometimes a couple of Mb less. I’ve had the Openreach engineer who has checked everything at the cabinet (it is FTTC), at the pole, at at my house, and found no faults. He told me the problem is that I am situated 500 metres from the cabinet and  from there to my house is copper wire.Hismeasured max speed was also 20 Mbps. 

So I have a contract which I think was missold, and where BT is in breach of its guaranteed minimum speed and its estimated speeds. However there is no other provider of a network where I live so even if I left BT I can’t get any faster speeds from any other provider. I’m inclined to take the issue up with BT as a breach of contract issue, and to argue for specific performance ie that BT does what it takes to give me what it contracted to give me and what I have paid for. BT say on their website that where minimum granted speed isn’t delivered they award £20 compensation, but that feels risible to me over the term of the contract, when they are delivering only 80% of the guaranteed speed but want 100% of the contract price (less £20).

Has anyone else been in this situation where you have argued for specific performance of the contract and succeeded? Or argued for a reduction in price commensurate with proportion of speed not delivered?

Have others got any useful observations on how to approach this?

So as you are  probably aware  BT buy FTTC from Openreach
If you think that BT are going to give you a reduction and make a long term  loss on your circuit rather than refunding you I  suspect you may be disappointed

MalMonroe

I have been with BT for years. Where I live, their broadband is the best. (I'm very rural and other providers have proved to be rubbish).

All you have to do with BT is phone them. 

Phone them and negotiate and haggle. I've even managed to get deals where they've told me at the outset it isn't possible.

Just phone and speak to a person, you will get a far better service and you stand a much better chance of getting exactly what you want if you do so.

My contract ends next month and so I'll be on the phone again. I never just accept any renewal or 'roll over' because it's more expensive. 

Much better to get chatting. And if I don't agree with what they say I tell them. Why not? After all, we're the paying customers. It's a free phone call, too.

MattMattMattUK

As others have said you are entitled to what is in the contract, £20 and the option to leave the contract, although if you ported from a previous property and are within the original contract term neither apply.

If you want a faster connection then get Starlink, although it will cost you a lot more and your 20mbps connection which is probably more than adequate. Starlink offer up to 200mbps to normal consumers.
https://www.starlink.com/

TELLIT01

I'm also with BT and have never been with anybody else.  I got my renewal notification a few days ago and the price is actually £5 per month less than last year.  No consolation to the OP but my connection is 70 mpbs download and 20 upload.  Any time I do a check on it, it is very close to those figures.

CardinalWolsey

I had speed issues with BT. After a couple of Openreach visits confirmed nothing could be done about it, I negotiated a mid-term exit from the contract for free. That allowed me to sign up for another provider as a new customer. That happened to be to a third-party FTTP provider, but the principle remains - don't go in heavy, you'll just get the poor sod on the other end of the line shaking their head. Call them, and politely explain that Openreach have confirmed the speed issue, what can you do with regards to pricing? They will negotiate. If you don't get down to a price that you're happy with, ask them to terminate the contract and you can go to the "open market" and choose a new provider. You may want to consider whether 4G might actually give you better performance.

MEM62

Diver22 said:

So I have a contract which I think was missold, and where BT is in breach of its guaranteed minimum speed and its estimated speeds. 

Miss sold is very specific term and probably does not apply in this case.  Neither is there a breach of contract.  What you have is a contract that has guarantee in terms of service level, in this case connection speed, and that service level is not being met.  Therefore, you have a right to whatever contractual compensation is provided for in respect of the service failure.