When your move can leave you disconnected
THE joy of moving into a new home is being spoiled for many people these days as broadband providers seem to be reneging on promises to set up services on the date of moving.
A survey carried out for Citizens Advice by YouGov reveals that people moving into a new home are often left without a working internet connection for weeks after the date their provider said it would be set up.
Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, is worried about the stress this is causing on families at an already difficult time.
She said: “People paying to have their broadband set up all too often face big setbacks. Moving house can be a difficult and stressful experience and delays in getting the internet can make this worse, if providers fail to keep to promised dates or engineering visits don’t materialise.
“Broadband is now such an essential service that people moving house will often rely on it for crucial tasks, like changing their address for household bills or ordering essentials.”
One customer told Citizens Advice she was without an internet connection for three weeks even though she paid £82 upfront for installation and the first month. When she asked to cancel the contract, she was told that as the 14-day cancellation period had passed she would have to pay an exit fee of more than £200.
Gillian Guy reckons that this level of service is unacceptable and perhaps the regulators need to become involved now.
She said: “It is fundamentally unfair that in some cases customers are paying for a service they don’t receive for weeks or even months at a time after moving.
“Ofcom have rightly proposed a scheme that would automatically compensate customers who face delays or missed appointments, regardless of their provider.
“But this is now at risk of being watered down by a rival industry proposal that would be voluntary and lower the amount paid out by at least £52million.
“To hold providers to account for breaking promises to customers, the regulators should move forward with their mandatory automatic compensation scheme.”