Compensation for landline and broadband customers when things go wrong 22 March 2017
Providers would have to compensate for slow repairs, missed deadlines and appointments
Up to £185m in extra compensation would be paid out each year
Proposals part of Ofcom's plan for a step-change in telecoms service quality
Landline and broadband customers who suffer slow repairs, or missed deadlines or appointments, would receive money back from their provider, without having to ask.
Ofcom is today proposing to require providers to pay automatic compensation either a cash payment, or a credit on a bill to customers who suffer from these kinds of poor service.
Customers would be entitled to automatic compensation, without having to go through a potentially lengthy and difficult claims process, whenever:
their landline or broadband is not fixed quickly enough after it has stopped working; or
their new landline or broadband service is not up and running on the day promised; or
an engineer doesn't arrive for an appointment as scheduled.
Ofcom estimates that the plans would mean up to 2.6 million additional landline and broadband customers could receive up to £185m in new compensation payments each year.[1]
Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom's Consumer Group Director, said: When a customer's landline or broadband goes wrong, that is frustrating enough without having to fight tooth and nail to get fair compensation from the provider.
So we're proposing new rules to force providers to pay money back to customers automatically, whenever repairs or installations don't happen on time, or when people wait in for an engineer who doesn't turn up. This would mean customers are properly compensated, while providers will want to work harder to improve their service.
Compensation payments would be set by Ofcom, and designed to reflect the degree of harm suffered by consumers. Here is how Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme would work:
Today's proposals apply to fixed broadband and landline telephone services only. Our analysis shows that mobile companies already make significant compensation payments to customers and we estimate that less than 1% of mobile customers lose service for more than 24 hours.[2] However, we will continue to monitor this area.
The situation todayWhile most consumers are generally satisfied with their telecoms services[3], a significant minority still experience problems.
Our analysis suggests that each year:
there are 5.7 million cases of consumers experiencing a loss of their landline or broadband service;
engineers failed to turn up for around 250,000 appointments; and
around one in eight landline and broadband installations were delayed (12%), affecting more than 1.3 million people.
When they occur, these problems can leave customers unable to keep in touch with friends and family, or use the internet, while one in four people (26%) who experienced a missed appointment have taken a wasted day off work to wait at home for an engineer.
Compensation payments are currently given ad-hoc to only a minority of those suffering problems (in up to 15% of cases), and can fail to adequately reflect the harm caused.
Measures for small businessesAround one-third of small and medium-sized enterprises choose residential landline and broadband services and would also benefit from our compensation proposals.
But we propose that all SMEs should benefit from clearer, more detailed information upfront about the service on offer including whether they are entitled to compensation, and how much, when problems occur.
SMEs can negotiate bespoke terms and there are standard landline and broadband business contracts that provide service guarantees and compensation for a number of different problems, including loss of service. But our research found that around half of SMEs (49%) were uncertain of their rights when providers fell short.
Our proposals for greater transparency should help SMEs to compare the service quality and compensation arrangements for different contracts, and choose the one that best meets the needs of their business.
Next stepsA consultation on today's proposals is open until 5 June 2017 at 5pm, and we will publish our decision statement around the end of the year.
In response to Ofcom's plans, BT, Sky and Virgin Media have jointly put forward a draft proposal to introduce automatic compensation through a draft voluntary industry code of practice. At this stage, we do not consider that this proposal sufficiently meets our concerns, when quality of service falls short.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
Currently, there are 7.2m instances where landline or broadband customers suffer delayed repairs, missed appointments or delays to new installations. Financial compensation, totalling around £16.3m, is currently paid out in 1.1m of these cases.
Our analysis of the number of consumers that experience loss of mobile service entails making several assumptions and provides a broad sense of the order of magnitude of loss of service. Further detail is set out in Annex 9 to the consultation.
Around nine in ten of residential landline telephone users (88%) and fixed broadband users (87%) were either very' or fairly' satisfied with their service in 2016.[1] Eight in ten SMEs (83%) are satisfied with their landline and 69% of SMEs are satisfied with fixed line broadband.[2]
1 Source: Ofcom Communications Market Report 2016, August 2016, Figures 4.38 and 4.40: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/26826/cmr_uk_2016.pdf
2 Source: SME experience of communications services, January 2017, p. 33: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/96348/Ofcom-SME-consumer-experience-research-2016-Report.pdf
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Compensation for landline and broadband customers when things go wrong 22 March 2017 
