Waited in all day for a phone engineer who didn’t show? Now they will have to pay YOU...
THE long wait for phone and broadband providers to be clobbered for shoddy service could soon be over.
Telecoms firms are set to be forced into paying around £185million a year in automatic compensation to people who are left in the lurch.
Households would get £30 if an engineer fails to turn up for a booked appointment.
And if a fault is not fixed within two working days, there would be a £10 payout for each extra day people have to wait.
Householders who switch providers but do not receive the service on the promised date would get £6 a day until the service is up and running.
Lindsey Fussell, consumer group director at regulator Ofcom, which is planning the crackdown, 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.” She added the rules would mean people being “properly compensated”, and providers would feel the need to improve their service.
Ofcom stepped in after its research showed that each year 7.2 million landline and broadband customers suffer missed appointments or delays but just 1.1 million receive compensation, with payouts totalling £16.3million.
Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Automatic compensation has long existed in other markets such as energy and water, so this is welcome recognition from Ofcom that broadband internet is also a vital service.”
Ofcom will make a decision this year. BT, Sky and Virgin Media drafted joint plans for automatic compensation for poor service but the regulator rejected them as inadequate.
KICKING telephone and internet providers in the profits if they are shoddy will soon have them improving customer services.
The threat of a £30 penalty will mean engineers turning up on the dot – in fact, you will probably be able to set your watch by them.