UK Broadband ISP Complaints Advice
Welcome to the UK Broadband ISP Complaints section, which contains detailed information and advice on the problems consumers often experience with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and how to get them solved. To make life easier for our readers we’ve also split this section up into five common sense categories and ordered everything by priority. Please take careful account of each.
Complaint Topics
Common ISP Complaints and Advice
Sadly some problems are more common than others and as a result of this we have summarised a shortlist of the most frustratingly serious and frequently experienced complaints by consumers. Most of these situations will require a complaint (if the ISP does not resolve them) and it is advisable to pursue the proper ‘Official ISP Complaint Handlers and Procedures’ first.
1. Difficulty Gaining a Broadband Migration Authorisation Code (MAC).
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2. Tag on Line (Broadband Connection Ownership Conflict).
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3. Slamming (Mis-Selling).
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4. Serious and Persistent Declines in Broadband Speed.
Extremely significant and unexpected drops in service speed that continue for longer than a few days can be a serious matter (e.g. real-world daytime rates of 6Mbps drop to 1Mbps). It’s important to make sure that natural peak usage trends or traffic management policies (heavy users be warned – P2P and online video services are often targeted with specific restrictions) are not to blame. Don’t be afraid to change ISP if it underperforms.
Broadband is a variable “best efforts” service but you should not accept a dramatically slower speed than your line is PREDICTED to cope with, especially if the problem occurs throughout the day and no traffic or fair usage policies are being deliberately applied (ask your ISP). Some BT based ISPs will consider anything below 400Kbps to be a line fault requiring investigation, though internal policies do vary.
Under Ofcom’s voluntary Code of Practice (CoP) on speeds, which 95% of UK ISPs have already agreed to (CoP ISP LIST), broadband providers must:•Provide consumers at the point of sale with an accurate estimate of the maximum speed that their line can support.Customers experiencing problems like this with their ISP should run a series of Broadband Speed Tests at different times of the day over several days to see if they can spot any trends. It’s also worth trying to see if performance varies between different services or websites, as this may signal a problem with the remote site (or traffic management) rather than your ISP. When reporting a problem with speed to your ISP it is a good idea to have screenshots of your speedtest results (make a note of the date and time they were conducted).
•Explain clearly and simply how technical factors may slow down speeds, while also offering help and advice to consumers to improve the situation at home.
•Offer an alternative package (if there is one) without any penalties, if the actual speed is a lot lower than the original estimate.
•Explain fair usage policies (FUP) clearly and alert consumers when they have been breached.
Problems with speed can also occur due to physical line problems, environmental electrical interference (Christmas tree lights, AC adaptors, microwave ovens etc.) or an issue with your broadband router/modem ; it may not be the fault of your ISP. The ‘Broadband ADSL Connection Tips’ article we wrote should be helpful in diagnosing most problems.
More advanced users should also consider running a traceroute, which tests the flow of traffic between your connection and another server. The following service will do one each time you reload the page (can take up to around 30 seconds to complete): http://traceroute.xilo.net . Problems can be identified by any servers in the chain that either time-out or run very slowly (500ms+ is usually bad).
It’s very important to be aware that most of these rules and situations relate to traditional land based telephone providers. Do not apply the same principals to Mobile Broadband (T-Mobile, Vodafone etc.) services, where dramatic fluctuations in speed are to be expected.
5. Frequent and Lengthy Broadband Connection Problems.
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6. Billing and Cancellation Errors.
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7. Unreachable Customer Support Departments.
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8. Lengthy Critical Service (Email, Website Browsing etc.) Outages.
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A MAC code can be issued by a provider for transfer of broadband services from one provider to another unless the following is true:
1) Your provider provides the line and you are connected using an MPF LLU account. No MAC can be created for this line the line is not transferred it is cancelled and your new provider creates a new line and broadband services on it.
2) Your account is inactive, this may be for a number of reasons too numerous to go into.
3) There is work of certain types being carried out on your line/broadband service. This work involves BTO and therefore the MAC cannot be generated. Again this work falls into various types.
Added to all this is the increasing regularity of the new Provider not using the MAC code and not informing the old provider, thus they set up Broadband on your line but do not inform your old provider, you can therefore continue to be billed by the old provider. This is not their fault but the fault of the new provider.
Always check after migrating that your old account is cancelled maybe 10 working days after migrating. If it is not, cancel the account, then go to your new provider and complain that the old provider was not informed you should get a credit for your hassle from your new provider.
Francis