Business broadband provider - rights?
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jrcd92
Posts: 41 Forumite
Hi all! Very tricky pickle we've got with our broadband provider at the office, and I wonder if anyone can help/has experience of similar? I'm not going to name the provider at the mo - simply looking for advice on our rights and best way to resolve issue or get out of contract if possible.
We've had recurring problems with internet since it was installed in August 2018. The internet drops out for about 45 mins at a time, regularly every Monday morning, and also sporadically during the week. We're quite an internet-dependent business and it's cut out a number of times during sales webinars with clients, potentially costing £1,000s in business, given that the average purchase is £1,200 for our main product.
The facts of the matter thus far are as below:
1. Their sales rep came to the office in July, I explained our needs for internet provision, and she assured me the package would be fit for the purpose required.
2. The contract is business-to-business to we are seemingly not covered by the Consumer Rights Act, sadly. (Is this true? And is there any alternative provision?)
3. I first reported the dropping out problem on September 10th. They admitted their standard router wasn't fit for purpose, and suggested buying a more powerful, better router would resolve the problem, offering a small contribution towards that cost as a credit off the bill.
4. It didn't fix the issue, so I've continued to report it with three calls and two emails between 17th September and late November, as well as keeping a log of downtime. I mean, my home internet drops out from time to time, but not 2-3 times a week, for 45 minutes at a time. I can get a log of this to work out the exact times, but I estimate we've been on hold for about 4 hours of time on calls to them during this period. They have suggested every time to "power cycle" the router, which of course is always our first course of action, and haven't been able to do any more than that.
5. I called and tried to escalate the issue, eventually getting a response on 3rd December. They've sent an Openreach engineer out at their cost, after much debate about who should bear that cost, and he has found no problems with either the copper or broadband tests. That was much as expected, as we never had any issue with previous provider.
6. I am expecting a further call once they have these results to discuss next steps. Basically, though, it appears that the fault is on their end, rather than with our equipment.
7. There is a clause in the contract that states: "If the period of delay or non-performance continues for eight weeks, the party not affected may terminate this Contract on 30 days written notice to the affected party." Though the "party not affected" bit is quite ambiguous and suggests we don't have the right to terminate.
So that's the lie of the land. The ideal result for us is getting out of the contract on the grounds that the product isn't fit-for-purpose or as advertised, and that customer service has been poor and hasn't resolved our issue in nearly three months since first reported. All I'm seeking is some advice on what rights we have in this case, if anyone has experience of similar, and in the meantime I'll wait for the team to ring me back to see what they suggest on the back of the tests this morning.
Thanks so much in advance!
Jack
We've had recurring problems with internet since it was installed in August 2018. The internet drops out for about 45 mins at a time, regularly every Monday morning, and also sporadically during the week. We're quite an internet-dependent business and it's cut out a number of times during sales webinars with clients, potentially costing £1,000s in business, given that the average purchase is £1,200 for our main product.
The facts of the matter thus far are as below:
1. Their sales rep came to the office in July, I explained our needs for internet provision, and she assured me the package would be fit for the purpose required.
2. The contract is business-to-business to we are seemingly not covered by the Consumer Rights Act, sadly. (Is this true? And is there any alternative provision?)
3. I first reported the dropping out problem on September 10th. They admitted their standard router wasn't fit for purpose, and suggested buying a more powerful, better router would resolve the problem, offering a small contribution towards that cost as a credit off the bill.
4. It didn't fix the issue, so I've continued to report it with three calls and two emails between 17th September and late November, as well as keeping a log of downtime. I mean, my home internet drops out from time to time, but not 2-3 times a week, for 45 minutes at a time. I can get a log of this to work out the exact times, but I estimate we've been on hold for about 4 hours of time on calls to them during this period. They have suggested every time to "power cycle" the router, which of course is always our first course of action, and haven't been able to do any more than that.
5. I called and tried to escalate the issue, eventually getting a response on 3rd December. They've sent an Openreach engineer out at their cost, after much debate about who should bear that cost, and he has found no problems with either the copper or broadband tests. That was much as expected, as we never had any issue with previous provider.
6. I am expecting a further call once they have these results to discuss next steps. Basically, though, it appears that the fault is on their end, rather than with our equipment.
7. There is a clause in the contract that states: "If the period of delay or non-performance continues for eight weeks, the party not affected may terminate this Contract on 30 days written notice to the affected party." Though the "party not affected" bit is quite ambiguous and suggests we don't have the right to terminate.
So that's the lie of the land. The ideal result for us is getting out of the contract on the grounds that the product isn't fit-for-purpose or as advertised, and that customer service has been poor and hasn't resolved our issue in nearly three months since first reported. All I'm seeking is some advice on what rights we have in this case, if anyone has experience of similar, and in the meantime I'll wait for the team to ring me back to see what they suggest on the back of the tests this morning.
Thanks so much in advance!
Jack
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Comments
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2. The contract is business-to-business to we are seemingly not covered by the Consumer Rights Act, sadly. (Is this true? And is there any alternative provision?)
Correct .
Basics are your terms and conditions .
You should pass this over to your legal people .0 -
Thanks JJ. Response is much appreciated!
However, we're a small organisation of 10 employees and as such don't have legal people we can task this with. With our scale in mind, the time and money it's potentially costing us is going beyond sustainable and I'm wondering what we can do as a next port of call.0 -
What you do next is get a second line put in and take out a contract with another provider.
If the cost to your business of a connection going down for 45 minutes is potentially £1000s of lost sales, you should have redundancy in your provision.
I'm intrigued by the router "not being powerful enough". What does that mean when it's at home? I hope you're not talking about wifi.Proud member of the wokerati, though I don't eat tofu.Home is where my books are.Solar PV 5.2kWp system, SE facing, >1% shading, installed March 2019.Mortgage free July 20230 -
onomatopoeia99 wrote: »What you do next is get a second line put in and take out a contract with another provider.
If the cost to your business of a connection going down for 45 minutes is potentially £1000s of lost sales, you should have redundancy in your provision.
I'm intrigued by the router "not being powerful enough". What does that mean when it's at home? I hope you're not talking about wifi.
Sure, I appreciate that, but for duplication of costs. We're a young business that doesn't have hundreds of pounds excess cashflow each month. We're paying a provider to have an internet connection that's relatively reliable (as I pointed out above, the odd drop in connection is okay, but not this regularly), and they're not doing that at present.
Yep, wifi. Sorry...! We have one ethernet room which we use for webinars and calls but that also drops when the internet goes.
Basically, while I appreciate your thoughts, I'm asking for advice on whether there's anything to protect us from poor customer service or misrepresentation of services, rather than comments on the IT setup in itself. If you can help, that's great. If not, thanks anyhow0 -
Try 'The Small Biz & Charities' MoneySaving Board'
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=270 -
Colin_Maybe wrote: »Try 'The Small Biz & Charities' MoneySaving Board'
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=27
Thanks Colin, that's fab. Will share in there too, to see if anyone can help! Cheers :beer:0 -
It looks like you don't have the automatic right to quit , if they cannot fix ( in a reasonable timeframe) the issues you have, it still requires them to consent to you leaving penalty free, in other words , after you have spent time allowing them to investigate and try to fix whatever the problem is,they can still insist you see out the minimum term.
If it's business grade broadband does it have business grade compensation , like consequential loss ?, if not perhaps they were not ( with the benefit of hindsight) a good choice .
There are some quite dodgy 'business' type providers, that are only interested in your money, and if you want to leave , apply onerous charges , if you are with one of these company's you may find they will only release you if you pay up the entire contract....although a business , Ofcom may still be interested in your plight0 -
It looks like you don't have the automatic right to quit , if they cannot fix ( in a reasonable timeframe) the issues you have, it still requires them to consent to you leaving penalty free, in other words , after you have spent time allowing them to investigate and try to fix whatever the problem is,they can still insist you see out the minimum term.
If it's business grade broadband does it have business grade compensation , like consequential loss ?, if not perhaps they were not ( with the benefit of hindsight) a good choice .
There are some quite dodgy 'business' type providers, that are only interested in your money, and if you want to leave , apply onerous charges , if you are with one of these company's you may find they will only release you if you pay up the entire contract....although a business , Ofcom may still be interested in your plight
Thank you! That's really helpful you're certainly right that it wasn't a good choice at the time. Should have done some more digging, but then we were promised improved internet at a really busy time when we needed it, so it seemed like a godsend at the time. Definitely will learn from it, but as you say, I'll give them a chance to fix it and see what they come back with to try and fix the fault. I expect they'll not budge much, as you say, but we can only do what we can, and helpful to have your advice!! Thanks again!0 -
Probably a long shot but is your business ISP one of the following?
BT Business
Daisy Communications
KCOM (Hull business)
TalkTalk Business
Virgin Media Business
XLN
Zen
If it is, the above ISPs have signed up to Ofcom's Business Broadcom Code of Practice which means they will let you leave penalty free if they can't resolve your issues:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice-for-businesses/knowing-your-rights/business-broadband-cop0 -
Butch_Dingle wrote: »Probably a long shot but is your business ISP one of the following?
BT Business
Daisy Communications
KCOM (Hull business)
TalkTalk Business
Virgin Media Business
XLN
Zen
If it is, the above ISPs have signed up to Ofcom's Business Broadcom Code of Practice which means they will let you leave penalty free if they can't resolve your issues:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice-for-businesses/knowing-your-rights/business-broadband-cop
Great thinking - thank you! Sadly it's not one of those but useful to know nevertheless. I'll have a conversation with them when they've got the test results back and see what they suggest as next steps to try and solve it! Much appreciated0
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