If you were one of the thousands of UK users who suffered from Vodafone’s massive broadband outage yesterday, October 13, there’s a chance you could be owed some money back. The UK Internet Service Provider (ISP) is part of Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme, which means users will get money back from the firm when things go wrong.
Payments can sometimes be made automatically if Vodafone knows it has missed a deadline or has not fixed a service within an agreed timeframe, but there are also times when you must let them know if things still aren’t working. This could be one of those occasions, so if your internet is still offline, then it’s a good idea to get in touch.
“If you’re experiencing issues with your broadband, please get in touch with us,” Vodafone explained on its website.
So, will you get compensation for this latest outage?
It appears most users are now back online, which means there’s no compensation available.
As Ofcom explains, “As a landline or broadband customer, you would be entitled to compensation if your service has stopped working and it is not fully fixed after two full working days.”
If your connection stays offline until tomorrow, October 15, and you have informed Vodafone, then you could get £9.98 for each calendar day that the service is not repaired.
“If your broadband or landline service stops working, you will simply have to report the fault to your provider,” Ofcom added.
“If the service is not fixed after two full working days, you would not need to ask for compensation or contact your provider again, as your provider has systems in place that mean you will start receiving compensation automatically if the repair takes too long.
“You will receive an initial £9.98 if the service is not fixed two full working days after you report it, and then £9.98 for each full day it is still not fixed after that.”
So, if you are still having issues, get in touch with Vodafone. If you are fully back online and the issues only lastes a few hours then you won’t be able to claim. FULL DETAILS CAN BE FOUND HERE
In a statement about the problems, Vodafone said: “For a short time, the Vodafone network had an issue affecting broadband, 4G and 5G services. 2G voice calls and SMS messaging were unaffected and the network is now recovering. We apologise for any inconvenience this caused our customers.”