BT broadband down as hundreds of customers left without internet access

HUNDREDS of people have reported problems with their BT broadband today.

More than 300 people have logged complaints on the Downdetector website, which measures outages.

2

Some 91% of the issues reported in the last few hours were with the company's broadband, while 5% complained about emails and 4% about landlines.

Most of the reports came after 9am - just as millions of workers would have been logging on to begin their shifts.

Another BT issue

The incident comes a month after thousands of BT users experienced problems accessing their emails.

More than 5,000 people reported problems at the time.

The problem started early in the morning, with customers reporting complaints just after 5am.

Some vented their frustration on social media site X, with one saying: "BT your email servers are down and there is no response on your chat. What is going on?"

Another commented: "BT is your email system down? I'm not getting any emails at all and getting an error message."

A third wrote: "BT your internet mail server is down! Cannot get mail."

Can I get compensation?

If you're affected by internet outages, you may be able to get compensation - although only if you experience the issue for a certain amount of time.

First you should check whether there's a problem with your router.

This can often be fixed with a simple reset.

But if it's clear your internet issues are beyond your control, you should contact your internet provider.

They should be able to tell you about any problems in your area and hopefully offer an estimated time for a resolution.

You will likely only be able to claim compensation if your connection goes down for more than two days.

After this point, you'll receive £8.06 for every day your internet was down.

BT is among the providers signed up to the Automatic Compensation Scheme, which means you should receive compensation automatically if something goes wrong.

You will still need to report the fault to your provider to be in line for the compensation.

However you won't need to take any further action to receive the compensation and it will be sent as a credit on your bill no later than 30 days after the issue occurred.

The scheme also means you can receive compensation if your service doesn't start when you expected it to or if your engineer appointment is missed.

You can get £25 for engineers who don't arrive on time or cancel within 24 hours, and £5 per day for new services that fail to start on time.

Other providers signed up to the scheme are Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Zen Internet.

How BT ranked in recent customer survey

A recent survey by Which? ranking the UK's major broadband providers found BT had only improved by 2% since customers were asked about their experiences last year.

The consumer champion surveyed 4,000 broadband customers to get their feedback on service, value for money and reliable connections.

BT scored just 64% for customer satisfaction - however it did rank above Sky, TalkTalk, Now Broadband and Virgin Media.

Virgin Media and Now Broadband were at the bottom of the table with only 60% customer satisfaction.

They scored poorly for ease of contact, customer service, communication, technical support and value for money.

2

Meanwhile at the top of the table was Zen Internet, which had a satisfaction score of 77%.

Broadband bills set to rise in April

The survey came as broadband and mobile prices are set to rise from next month.

Providers have confirmed prices will rise for millions of customers.

How much your bill goes up by will depend on what you pay already and who your provider is.

You can check what your provider is doing in our guide.

The increases will come into effect either on March 31 or April 1.

This means the new rate will kick in from your next bill after that date.