BT also advise you can call them from a mobile (pre 1st July when 0800 calls are now free from UK mobiles) on: 0330 123 4XXX - replacing the X's with 150 for Customer Service and 151 for Faults.

In reply to a post by BuckleZ:

f you were without say phone and BB for 3 days, and you paid £30pm, you would get back £3 (roughly)

Don't spend it all at once They used to refund a month's line rental for each day of outage. Has that gone? Lost to austerity / bumper dividends..

In reply to a post by edwincluck:

They used to refund a month's line rental for each day of outage.

Which parallel universe was that in?

The one with Planet Cluck at its centre.

I should have been clearer. Back in the early noughties, when Openreach failed to show for pre-arranged appointments to repair line fault (excluding force majeure, etc.) the compensation paid was one month's line rental for each day of ongoing outage.

Let me guess, that's long gone now.

What was the excuse for removing the compensation? Let me guess again. "Engineer No Shows" had become so common, that the compensation paid to inconvenienced customers was crippling the incumbent?

Edited by deleted (Thu 19-Nov-15 00:32:14)

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

The one with Planet Cluck at its centre.

All these worlds are yours � Except Cluck
Attempt no landing there

Openreach did not exist in the early 2000's

The Ofcom mandated changes led to the rise of Openreach and a larger price list as they became a more commercial unit having to account by charging for many more things that previously were part of the overall package.

OTA2 tracks Openreach performance for those wanting to find out more

Ahh thanks.

Just finding examples in the consumer columns of compensation that BT used to fork-out in the past..

This from the Birmingham Post ("All churned up in telecoms field"; 11 Aug 1998; p.19):

So a whole weekend with no phone service. And the contrast with BT gets even starker. If you go 24 hours or more with no service BT will refund a month's line rental.

Amazing how BT relies on the 'memory hole' to vanish uncomfortable slippage in its service levels.
When did the grasping incumbent ditch that compensation level?
When did customers stop getting one month's free line rental for 24 hours without service?
When BT Openreach came into being?
That compensation today would bankrupt BT with its dreadful record for engineer no shows!

Edited by deleted (Fri 20-Nov-15 00:03:23)

I have grave doubts about what you highlight.

In fact I think it is simply incorrect wrt domestic lines. Perhaps it was true for business lines with an enhanced SLA, but that's a different matter altogether. I wonder what the business enhanced SLA terms are now?

To answer my own question.

Apparently that acceptable compensation of -- one month's free line rental (worth £16 today) for 24 hours' loss of service -- was abolished in 2006, according to a poster on Which forum.

In fact, it looks like it was a gradual withdrawal of compensation; refunds getting progressive worse every year; BT exploiting what psychologists call the 'boiling frog syndrome':

From Which forums (Sept 2013):

In reference to conversation.which.co.uk/technology/ask-which-broadband-outage-comp...:

In 2006 they [BT] switched to offer about 30p per day, or to divert your calls to a mobile and pay £1/day to compensate customer for any outgoing calls from their mobile.

Today, BT has reduced its compensation to derisory levels. Even for those suffering very lengthy periods of no service.

Tony Hazell, the Daily Mail's finance columnist, reports on one most unfortunate woman. She was given just £10 as a "gesture of goodwill" for 26 days without a service.

As usual, with BT citing the arbitrary firewalls erected between BT Openreach and BT Retail to excuse paying her any more. A grand corporate swindle in itself.

The comments beneath the Mail's article are insightful too.
Note all the reports of engineer no shows; and engineers turning up unannounced when no one's at home.
What a mess BT Openreach is in.
---

Edited by deleted (Fri 20-Nov-15 02:27:47)