Suffered a Difficult Broadband Cancellation? Ofcom Wants to Know

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, doesn’t normally handle individual consumer complaints, but in a rare move they’ve today called upon customers of broadband, phone and pay TV operators to send in feedback if they’ve recently tried to, or succeeded in, terminating their service contract.

Ofcom claims to receive a “significant number” of complaints about the difficulties experienced by consumers when trying to exit their contracts, which is why they launched a related monitoring and enforcement programme in June (here).

The new monitoring programme followed the introduction of a harmonised migration system for fixed line broadband and phone providers (here), which was setup to simplify the task of switching providers and make it harder for losing ISPs to stop customers from leaving via dirty tactics (e.g. refusing to respond to migration requests).

In support of this work Ofcom has today put out a call for consumers to get in contact and tell them about their experiences with cancelling related contracts via a special questionnaire. None of the feedback will be published in public and they will only use the responses to inform their existing enforcement work.

Consumers can also contact Ofcom’s Consumer Contact Team on 0300 123 3333 or write to them at:

Cancellations and Terminations Programme
Ofcom Consumer Affairs
Riverside House
2A Southwark Bridge Road
London, SE1 9HA