A provider signed up to Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme pays £32.31 when an engineer does not turn up in a confirmed slot, or when the provider cancels or moves the visit with less than 24 hours' notice. The customer does not have to claim. The payment is due no later than 30 calendar days after the missed visit, usually as a bill credit.
£32.31 is the amount Ofcom lists now. The code raises it every 1 April, in line with CPI from the previous October, so check Ofcom's page for the current year.
What exactly counts as a missed appointment?
The voluntary code sets three conditions. The customer needed an engineer for a new service or a repair, the provider confirmed a slot, and the engineer did not attend within that slot.
Two things take it out. The provider gives notice of the change at least 24 hours before the original appointment time, or the customer agrees to a different slot on the same day. The code is specific about the second: the provider or its agent has to record that agreement, on the phone or by other means.
The code set the payment at a minimum of £25, and it has risen with inflation each year since 2021. The provider also has to tell the customer they are eligible as soon as it knows the visit was missed, rather than waiting to be asked.
Which providers are signed up?
Ofcom's list names BT, EE, Hyperoptic, Plusnet, Sky (including NOW Broadband), TalkTalk, Utility Warehouse, Virgin Media, Vodafone and Zen Internet, with restrictions at TalkTalk for customers not on the Openreach network. Reading that list, most altnets are not on it.
The scheme covers residential landline and fixed broadband. Mobile is not part of it, and because it is written for residential customers, business accounts fall outside it too.
A provider outside the scheme owes nothing under it, but its customers can still see what the big names pay. The wider cost of the scheme, by failure type, is in Ofcom automatic compensation: what each failure costs.
When does the scheme not pay?
The exceptions in the code that matter most for appointments:
- The customer is at fault or stops the issue being fixed, based on evidence the provider holds. The code's examples are not giving access to the premises or equipment, not providing a safe place for the engineer to work, and not taking the first available repair date.
- The customer is in breach of the terms their service is supplied under.
- The fault is caused by equipment or activity inside the home.
- An event covered by emergency regulations under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 meant the provider could not reasonably have avoided the payment.
Bad weather or a strike on its own does not count. The code says compensation is still due when the cause is outside both sides' control, unless one of the exceptions applies.
The words "based on evidence" carry a lot of weight. A customer who was not in is not owed the payment, but the provider has to be able to show it, and when it cannot, the customer should be paid.
Why do engineer appointments get missed?
There are four common causes.
No access. The engineer arrives and nobody answers, or the communal door, the landlord's permission or the parking was never sorted.
The customer forgot. Slots are often booked weeks ahead, and a half-day window is easy to lose track of.
The wrong slot. Misheard on the phone, picked by default, or never suitable, and the customer only realises that morning.
Engineer overrun. The previous job ran long, travel slipped, or the team was short. That one is on the provider, and it is the one that pays.
The first three do not trigger the payment, but they still waste a visit and leave the customer without service for longer. The fourth is an operations problem. Reminders will not make engineers arrive on time.
How can an ISP reduce missed appointments?
Customer-side misses usually come down to not knowing, not remembering, or finding it hard to change the slot.
Confirm at booking, in writing. Date, window, and what the engineer needs, such as access to the property or where the router goes, on the channel the customer actually reads.
Remind twice. Once about two days out, which gives the customer time to move it without losing a day, and again the evening before.
Make the reply the reschedule. "Can't make it? Reply here and pick another slot" asks a lot less of the customer than a phone number with a queue behind it. On WhatsApp, SMS or web chat, they pick a new slot in the same conversation. That needs the agent connected to the booking system, not just sending texts.
Ask the access question. Will someone over 18 be in? Is there a door code or a communal entrance? Better to find a problem now and rebook than to send an engineer to a locked door.
The same channel helps when the problem is on your side. If tomorrow's engineer plan already looks short, tell the affected customers as early as you can and offer a new slot. Rebooking with their agreement a day or more ahead means nobody takes a morning off to wait in for a visit that was never going to happen. It does not change what they are owed if the original visit is missed.
What should a reminder agent record?
This is the part most reminder setups skip. When a visit is missed, the record decides whether the customer is paid correctly. The agent should write to the order or ticket:
- the slot confirmed, when, and on which channel
- each reminder sent, with delivery and read status where the channel gives it
- the customer's reply, word for word, with the time
- who asked for any change, the customer or the provider, and when
- for a same-day change, the customer's agreement, because the code asks for exactly that
- any access detail the customer gave, and any access problem they flagged
- any report from the customer that the engineer did not come, with the time, so the eligibility notice and the credit go out without them having to complain
With that in place, customers get what they are owed without chasing it, and nobody has to argue about what was agreed. Where AI does and does not change the payout itself is in Can AI reduce Ofcom automatic compensation payouts?
To see how a reminder conversation feels, try our agent.
