Can I leave BT Broadband without charge due to a sufficiently long fault.

JamesA123

Hi,

My parents have been without Broadband for 11 days, and I'd like to move them to Zen. However they're within contract. Can they use the length of this fault to escape the contract?

 Thanks!

Browntoa

They are due compensation for the length of the fault but it's not a reason for breaking their contract. 

FishFras

Why is he BB down?
if it an external line fault, then moving to Zen will not make a difference as using the same line 👍

iniltous

A fault in itself isn’t reason enough to be excused early termination changes , you have to give a provider a chance to fix the problem, and TBH , it’s usually a broadband speed issue that can eventually trigger a penalty free release from a contract term ,  basically the ISP says you will get a minimum speed before the contract starts , the customer doesn’t get that speed , the ISP tries and fails to deliver the guaranteed speed, that failure can eventually lead to being allowed to leave penalty free, because the original contract term was never met or is no longer being met.

A  ‘hard fault’ is different,  it’s possible the restoration of service is delayed by matters beyond the provider’s reasonable control ( like storm damage, flooding etc ) and  isn’t going to trigger any escape clause, it would be ridiculous if it did .

As stated , if you moved to Zen on the same network ( Openreach ) then the fault would still be present, and the repair time would likely be longer not shorter , the BT fault is already logged in the system , that would be cancelled ,  Zen  would also need to report a faulty line  but only after their install date has passed ,and  that would be after the 10 day lead time for the installation, it could be a week or more  before the fault raised by Zen is back in the system, whereas the existing BT fault is already logged.

TBH , you  are probably simply trying to exploit the situation to change provider, and that’s against the spirit of the clause that allows consumers to leave penalty free.