You’re entitled to automatic compensation for broadband issues

Given its long-standing association with pranks and what we now call fake news, it’s remarkable how many key policies are introduced on the first of April each year.

Partly, this may be tax-inspired, with the new tax year just four days away at that point.

Yet it also seems to be a popular time to unveil new rules and regulations, particularly concerning the telecommunications sector.

It’s been six April Fools Days since the telecommunications industry regulator Ofcom announced a new scheme of automatic compensation for broadband issues experienced by customers.

Yet six and a half years later, many people remain unaware of this scheme’s existence – let alone how it can benefit them, or what it applies to.

The big issue

The automatic compensation programme is deployed in scenarios where customers have experienced a delayed broadband installation or where an engineer has missed an appointment.

It also applies to outages lasting more than two working days. Lengthy outages are relatively unusual, but strange things can knock your broadband service offline – and keep it there.

None of these three scenarios happen routinely, which may explain why public awareness of the automatic compensation scheme has remained low.

In some respects, ignorance is bliss. If your ISP is dependable, and you don’t suffer a significant outage, there’s no need to claim, so the scheme won’t be relevant.

Rather than having to claim money back, as happens with Delay Repay rail schemes and suchlike, ISPs have to automatically compensate consumers in a subsequent bill or invoice.

Payment might take the form of cashback or credit to be offset against future bills, though alternative compensation methods may be of a higher value.

The big ISPs were day-one signatories to this scheme, with companies like Vodafone and Hyperoptic joining shortly after its launch in 2019.

Today, the biggest brands listed on BroadbandDeals.co.uk are all signed up to the scheme. They include BT, Hyperoptic, NOW Broadband, Plusnet, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone.

How much will I receive?

Compensation rates are set by Ofcom rather than the ISPs themselves, so payments remain the same whether you’re on a cut-price ADSL package or a quad-play fibre contract.

If connectivity isn’t restored two full working days after an outage, you’ll receive a very precise £9.98 on each subsequent calendar day when the service isn’t repaired.

If an engineer fails to show up to an appointment or cancels at less than 24 hours’ notice, the sum is considerably bigger – £31.19.

Meanwhile, delays in the commencement of a new service are worth £6.24 per day, including the missed start date itself.

In fairness, this is rarely an issue in the age of one-touch switching, when ISPs speak to each other and switchovers tend to be professionally handled.

Payments increase in line with inflation from – that date again – the first of April each year, based on the Consumer Price Index as it stood on Halloween the previous year.

Compensation must be paid within 30 calendar days of the missed appointment, delayed service start or the outage.

Are there any exemptions and exclusions?

The provision of automatic compensation for broadband issues covers all residential fixed broadband and landline products.

It also covers unforeseen circumstances extreme weather, third-party acts or strikes.

Obviously, this scheme doesn’t apply if your broadband outage is caused by domestic issues – wireless device interference, an unplugged router, a faulty computer and so on.

It won’t cover engineer appointments missed because you weren’t in or didn’t answer the door, or outages caused by a breach of contract or a self-inflicted broadband outage.

We’ve recently written about proposals to extend the concept of automatic compensation for broadband issues to businesses, but small businesses may not presently be eligible.

ISPs which haven’t joined Ofcom’s scheme don’t need to adhere to it (many smaller firms haven’t), and even signatories only have to pay compensation for a maximum of 60 days.