Broadband ISP BT Ponders Possible £50 Charge for Missed UK Appointments

Information allegedly leaked from inside broadband ISP BT (inc. EE and Plusnet) suggests that customers may in the future have to face a charge of £50 for a missed appointment, such as when the engineer turns up on time to find that the customer is not present. But the provider doesn’t currently plan to enforce this.

At present, the telecoms giant’s policy is that if an engineer (usually from Openreach) misses a customer’s scheduled appointment, or changes it with less than 24 hours’ notice, then customers will receive £31.19 for each missed appointment. This charge aligns with Ofcom’s system of Automatic Compensation. Openreach have, in recent years, also helped to reduce missed appointments by improving direct customer communications (here).

The problem is that this door swings both ways – sometimes engineers turn up to find nobody is home, which can be a costly waste of their time. According to the leak, some 10% of fibre broadband (FTTC/P/SOGEA) installs are allegedly missed on the day by customers, despite various reminders being sent.

The indication seems to be that BT are planning to get a bit tougher with this, but they won’t hit anybody with the charge itself.. yet: “The “possible” charge is being advised to encourage customers to re-book appointments if they cannot meet it. At this point we won’t be adding the charge while we work through the finer details and impact of the charges, but we do reserve the right to charge and may do so in the future,” said an allegedly internal BT email.

The policy would not actually be all that unusual for the industry. A number of internet providers already take a similar approach, and a few years back Virgin Media took plenty of flak from customers when they introduced a £25 charge for missed appointments (here). As we said back then, it’s easy to see why such a charge might be greeted negatively, particularly as some people can easily take longer than others getting to the door (e.g. disability, being on the toilet / in a shower or being at the wrong end of the garden etc.).

Part of the problem is that, after ringing the doorbell and knocking on the door, engineers are sometimes too quick to leave the premises and mark the event as a missed appointment. Sometimes a quick call to the customer’s phone and then mobile number, especially if done beforehand, is all that it would take to avoid this happening, but not always. In the past we’ve also seen other cases of engineers, working as contractors, not turning up but then marking cases as a missed appointment.

What’s BT’s position?

Naturally, ISPreview queried this with BT. The provider did not furnish us with a comment, but they did state that this is not a new charge and that they have always had a policy in place that if you agree to an engineer appointment slot and are not available for this, BT may raise a charge on your account. But the provider said it remained at their discretion whether to raise the charge or not.

The general home broadband T&C‘s do state that “if you need to change or cancel an appointment, you must tell us at least two working days beforehand“, although they don’t appear to explicitly state a “missed appointment fee” for customers in those general terms. No specific figure, like £50, is mentioned anywhere, but in some places there are suggestions of potentially charging a fee similar to the installation cost (note: their broadband packages currently have an upfront fee of £0).

BT told us that they are not threatening customers, but instead aim to make them aware of a potential charge if they are not available for their engineer appointment. BT added that it was in their interest to connect customers as soon as possible and avoid any delays.