You could get hundreds back in compensation for broadband outages and service failures

DODGY broadband is always frustrating, but you could get back hundreds of pounds if the service isn’t up to scratch.

Especially if you’re constantly met with outages and services failures.

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Whilst you’re paying for your broadband service, you will be entitled to compensation for when it goes awry.

If your connection goes down for more than two days you could be entitled to just over £8 a day.

So if your broadband was out for a fortnight that’d be around £117 that you could rack up, just for the inconvenience.

And should your engineer fail to show up, on top of all that, you could get even more.

First though, you’ll need to make sure you report the outage so your provider is aware of the problem, but then you will likely be entitled to money back automatically.

That’s thanks to the Automatic Compensation scheme which pays out when things go wrong for most broadband and landline customers.

Not everybody will cash-in from the issues though. There’s a set list of providers signed up to the scheme, including:

• BT
• EE
• Hyperoptic
• Sky and NOW Broadband
• TalkTalk
• Utility Warehouse
• Virgin Media
• Vodafone
• Zen Internet

But now Plusnet and John Lewis broadband customers will be automatically compensated for delayed repairs and loss of service too.

That’s because Plusnet, which runs the broadband service for John Lewis, has recently joined the nine other companies who have already been signed up since the scheme launched in 2019.

How much could I get back?

When you experience an outage, the clock starts ticking before you can get any money back for your troubles.

Though you should be set to receive an initial £8.40 if the failed service is not fixed two full working days after you report it.

Then, when problems persist, you get £8.40 for each full day it’s still not fixed after that.

They will also pay £26.24 for each missed appointment, or for appointments cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice.

Plus you’ll get up to £5.25 for each calendar day delay to the start of a new service.

If your broadband stops working, you simply have to report the fault to your provider to be in line for the compensation.

Also if your service doesn’t start when you expected it to, or if your engineer appointment is missed, your provider will pay you back automatically too.

You don’t need to take any action to receive any of the compensation – it will be sent as a credit on your bill no later than 30 days after the issue occurred.

For some people, it’s just not enough though.

And if the service has been sub par for some time, they might think about switching to another, better provider altogether.

Sometimes this can even help you save money on your bill overall, especially if you’re out of contract and find a cheaper deal to switch to.

But if you do decide to jump ship while still in credit with compensation, you’ll have the money refunded to the bank account you used to pay your direct debit.

Or it’ll be sent as a cheque, so you won’t miss out.

It’s worth noting that if a major issue isn’t fixed after 30 days, you have the right to leave the provider free of charge too.

Of course there’s other ways to save some pennies when it comes to your broadband charges – one is by haggling with your provider.

But you can also sign up for social tariffs, provided you meet the right criteria – and you could save as much as £144 a year with the cheaper alternative.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk