Ofcom compensation scheme

Grandad2b

In August this year we and our neighbours found ourselves without our landlines. Fortunately we didn't lose our broadband connections so with a little ingenuity and by getting one of our very elderly neighbours a mobile and PAYG sim card we just about managed. I reported the loss of service as soon as I was aware and advised some of my neighbours to do the same.
It appears this was a fault on one of BT's underground cables. It wasn't just BT customers affected, of course.
We were given various promises about when service would be restored but it wasn't until the third week of September when we finally got our landlines back. 
I don't know how many households were affected - but it was certainly dozens and could have been hundreds.

In our naivety we took the words of the Ofcom Automatic Compensation Scheme https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automatic-compensation-need-know to be a statement of fact; specifically Our automatic compensation scheme means broadband and landline customers will get money back from their provider when things go wrong, without having to ask for it.

If your broadband or landline service stops working, you will simply have to report the fault to your provider. If the service is not fixed after two full working days, you would not need to ask for compensation or contact your provider again, as your provider has systems in place that mean you will start receiving compensation automatically if the repair takes too long.

Compensation should be paid no later than:

• 30 calendar days after the loss of service is resolved or the service is terminated;
  

So, eventually this week, we phoned BT to ask what was happening.
Not much appears to be the answer. We have now received a credit of £50.40 (six days) and have had to make a complaint to get considered for the remainder of the compensation we are owed. We have had promises of phone calls from two BT personnel. None has materialised. Another one has been promised for Monday.

The real issue here is that BT look like they're trying to weasel out of their obligations under the compensation scheme - all those affected should be getting compensation from 48 hours after the time they (BT) were first notified of the fault regardless of whether they reported loss of service themselves.

littleboo

What you posted states "if your broadband or landline service stops working, you will simply have to report the fault to your provider." which would seem to (reasonably)  imply that if you don't report an fault, you don't get compensation and the compensation starts from when you reported it.  And there needs to be a clear distinction between Openreach cables (not BT cables) and BT (the retailer)

Grandad2b

The distinction between openreach and BT is entirely fictitious: BT own the cables, BT own openreach. Openreach are responsible for managing and maintaining BT's cables. 

And, yes, I take your point that a fault needs to be reported. However, if my neighbour has reported it then why should I? I'm just creating an administrative burden.

iniltous

The individual customer would have to report the outage to their provider , just because you reported it to BT doesn’t help ( for example ) a Sky or Talk Talk customer , if they don’t report it , and are brought back into service as a consequence of the repair OR undertake possibly driven by the report made by a BT customer  , then those customers wouldn’t be compensated by Sky or Talk Talk because they never reported it to them ,Sky or Talk Talk would have no evidence that these customers were ever out of service if they don’t advise this to their provider.

 BT quite obviously don’t have any obligation to Sky or Talk Talk customers , any claim for compensation from a Talk Talk customer or Sky customer made to BT would be laughable, any ‘claim’ made directly to Openreach then consumer would be directed to towards that consumers provider , the process is quite clear , the consumer is entitled to compensation from their own provider , as long as the report the problem in the first place 

littleboo

Grandad2b said:

The distinction between openreach and BT is entirely fictitious: BT own the cables, BT own openreach. Openreach are responsible for managing and maintaining BT's cables. 

And, yes, I take your point that a fault needs to be reported. However, if my neighbour has reported it then why should I? I'm just creating an administrative burden.

Yes, Openreach and BT Consumer are both part of BT Group, but operationally, they are separate entities and BT Consumer interacts with Openreach using the same processes and tools as any other retail ISP's, so the distinction is very much not fictitious in this scenario.

The reason that you need to report it as well is are several; but most obviously, you won't get compensation.

Neil_Jones

Grandad2b said:

And, yes, I take your point that a fault needs to be reported. However, if my neighbour has reported it then why should I? I'm just creating an administrative burden.

A fault on your neighbour's line may not the same as yours, even if its the same end result (ie not working).

Theirs may be fixed quickly, yours may be more complex.  But if you didn't report it then how does the provider know there is a problem on your line?

If you want the full compensation you have to play by the rules to get it.  Which includes you report your own fault.

Grandad2b

Neil_Jones said:

A fault on your neighbour's line may not the same as yours, even if its the same end result (ie not working).

Theirs may be fixed quickly, yours may be more complex.  But if you didn't report it then how does the provider know there is a problem on your line?

If you want the full compensation you have to play by the rules to get it.  Which includes you report your own fault.

That seems fair enough until you look at the implications. This was a fault affecting dozens, perhaps hundreds of properties; Openreach would have quickly been aware that this was not an isolated fault. I reported the fault to BT and so far have received about a quarter of the compensation I am due.
I have an elderly neighbour who relies on her phone. She's with another provider. Clearly I can't report the fault on her line. In a case like this Openreach should do the decent thing and compensate everyone affected.

sevenhills

I reported a fault with my broadband to my provider, One.
I went via the ombudsman and got adequate compensation, no problems.
Openreach is not a broadband provider.

littleboo

Grandad2b said:

Neil_Jones said:

A fault on your neighbour's line may not the same as yours, even if its the same end result (ie not working).

Theirs may be fixed quickly, yours may be more complex.  But if you didn't report it then how does the provider know there is a problem on your line?

If you want the full compensation you have to play by the rules to get it.  Which includes you report your own fault.

That seems fair enough until you look at the implications. This was a fault affecting dozens, perhaps hundreds of properties; Openreach would have quickly been aware that this was not an isolated fault. I reported the fault to BT and so far have received about a quarter of the compensation I am due.
I have an elderly neighbour who relies on her phone. She's with another provider. Clearly I can't report the fault on her line. In a case like this Openreach should do the decent thing and compensate everyone affected.

Openreach don't compensate consumers. It's the service provider which compensates consumers, so your neighbors issue, if there is one, would be with their provider

Neil_Jones

Grandad2b said:

Neil_Jones said:

A fault on your neighbour's line may not the same as yours, even if its the same end result (ie not working).

Theirs may be fixed quickly, yours may be more complex.  But if you didn't report it then how does the provider know there is a problem on your line?

If you want the full compensation you have to play by the rules to get it.  Which includes you report your own fault.

That seems fair enough until you look at the implications. This was a fault affecting dozens, perhaps hundreds of properties; Openreach would have quickly been aware that this was not an isolated fault. I reported the fault to BT and so far have received about a quarter of the compensation I am due.
I have an elderly neighbour who relies on her phone. She's with another provider. Clearly I can't report the fault on her line. In a case like this Openreach should do the decent thing and compensate everyone affected.

Openreach is not the internet provider.  It just maintains the backbone that every other BT line based provider uses.  Until a problem is reported to them from the ISP (via your report(s) they will probably not have the foggiest idea there is an issue particularly if its micro-regional or just a particular estate.  It may not even be in the BT part of the network thanks to unbundling.

Compensation comes from the provider.  Not Openreach.

Grandad2b

sevenhills said:

I reported a fault with my broadband to my provider, One.
I went via the ombudsman and got adequate compensation, no problems.
Openreach is not a broadband provider.

Glad to hear that. Why did you have to go to the ombudsman?

I understand precisely that openreach is responsible for the network. the fault on the network affected customers of many providers. I don't think most people want to be in a position where they should be entitled to compensation - they want a working service. 

littleboo said:

Openreach don't compensate consumers. It's the service provider which compensates consumers, so your neighbors issue, if there is one, would be with their provider

Which begs the question of how they are to report the fault.

Neil_Jones said:

Openreach is not the internet provider.  It just maintains the backbone that every other BT line based provider uses.  Until a problem is reported to them from the ISP (via your report(s) they will probably not have the foggiest idea there is an issue particularly if its micro-regional or just a particular estate.  It may not even be in the BT part of the network thanks to unbundling.

Compensation comes from the provider.  Not Openreach.

What's this "BT line based provider"? 

You make it sound like Openreach don't know where their network is or what cables serve which cabinets. You'd think they's have managed to put 2 and 2 together if they got notification that a bunch of lines through the same cabinet was out. Or maybe they don't have any systems that can do that.

The compensation payment to the consumer may come from the provider but if the fault is with the openreach network I bet they have claims process to recover the costs plus admin.