Big broadband firms ‘try to deny customers £52million in refunds’
BROADBAND providers are attempting to avoid paying £52 million in compensation to customers for poor service, Citizens Advice has said.
Under Ofcom plans, households will automatically receive refunds for late installations, slow repairs and engineer no-shows.
But three of Britain’s biggest internet providers – BT, Virgin Media and Sky – are seeking to water down the proposals so customers get less money.
Citizens Advice last night accused the firms of trying to ‘short-change’ broadband users by seeking to replace the regulator’s plan for mandatory payments with a voluntary system.
Ofcom suggested in March that customers should receive £10 for each day they suffer a complete loss of connection, with £30 for cancelled engineer appointments, and £6 a day for delayed installations. The regulator estimated there were about 5.7 million cases of householders losing their landline or broadband service each year, with engineers failing to turn up for around 250,000 appointments annually.
About one in eight landline and broadband installations are delayed a year, affecting more than 1.3 million people.
However, in response to a consultation on the plans, the three companies have jointly asked Ofcom to reduce the compensation payments by a third to £7 a day for loss of connectivity, £20 for a missed appointment and £4 a day for late instalments. Citizens Advice estimates this would lead to customers losing out by at least £52 million a year, with total annual compensation payments expected to fall from between £163 million and £201 million to between £111 million and £138 million.
Gillian Guy, head of Citizens Advice, said: ‘A watered down compensation scheme would short-change customers by millions of pounds. Thousands of people each year seek our help when their provider fails to repair or set up their broadband. Some people are left without a working internet connection for weeks despite numerous calls to their provider or no-shows from engineers.
‘Broadband is now an essential service, with households relying on it for everyday activities, so a lack of a working service can make day-to-day tasks more difficult.
‘The regulator must hold its ground and introduce a compulsory automatic compensation scheme that clearly lays out how much consumers are entitled to when they get poor service, with the amount providers have to pay reflecting as closely as possible the detriment faced by consumers.’
Tory MP Grant Shapps, chairman of the British Infrastructure Group (BIG), a cross-party group of campaigning MPs, said: ‘Time and again the sector has failed to compensate consumers for poor broadband. That’s why BIG is calling for ministers to stop dilly-dallying and use the powers that Parliament has provided to guarantee compensation for households who are fed up with not receiving the internet service they’ve paid for.’