£8 a day payouts if your internet fails

AUTOMATIC compensation is to be paid to millions of broadband customers when the service fails.

However, the new regime, which will offer £8 a day if the broadband or landline is cut off, won’t come into effect until 2019.

Telecoms regulator Ofcom yesterday announced the package amid growing customer frustration about poor service and high prices.

Under the arrangements, as well as the £8 daily payment for loss of service there will be £25 if a firm misses an appointment to carry out a repair.

Compensation of £5 per day will also be paid if a broadband firm fails to start a new service when promised.

The new regime will cover BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Zen Internet, which supply services to 90 per cent of homes.

Ofcom said it expects total payments to run to £142million a year, which is nine times more than the firms currently pay. There are 5.7million cases of consumers

experiencing a loss of their broadband or landline service every year, with engineers failing to turn up to around 250,000 appointments and one in eight installations being delayed.

At present, compensation is paid out in only about one in seven cases of landline or broadband customers suffering slow repairs, delayed installations or missed engineer appointments – and even then only in small amounts.

Ofcom said the 15-month delay in implementing the scheme is to allow time for the companies to change their billing systems.

It is a voluntary scheme but the watchdog says it will impose legal controls if companies fail to abide by the rules.

Director Lindsey Fussell said: ‘Providers will have to pay money back automatically. People will get the money they deserve, while providers will want to work harder to improve their service.’