Engineer Came But Could Not Finish: What You Get Paid

• Checked by hand 18 August 2026
• 11 providers checked, 6 with a published figure
• Primary sources only, no forum claims
• Reviewed by Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith
• Next check 18 November 2026

• When the £32.31 still fires
• The payment that keeps running
• When the money stops
• Whose fault was it?
• Who you can actually chase
• What you may be charged
• If a charge lands
• What happens next
• How to ask for the money
• If you want out

When the £32.31 still fires

Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme lives in a document called the Communications Providers' Voluntary Code of Practice for an automatic compensation scheme. It creates three separate triggers, each with its own test. The missed appointment trigger is the famous one, and it is worth understanding exactly, because it fires more often than providers tend to volunteer.

Paragraph 23 sets a three part test, and all three parts have to be met:

Read part c closely, because two words in it are doing work that most summaries drop. The test is not simply that an engineer showed up. It is that the engineer attended in the confirmed appointment slot. That gives you the first of two situations where the money is still owed even though somebody appeared at your door.

Situation one: he came, but not in your slot

If your slot was eight until one and the van arrived at half past four, the engineer did not attend in the confirmed appointment slot. On the published wording of paragraph 23(c) the payment is due, whatever happened afterwards. Providers do not usually offer this and you will have to ask. Note the time of arrival, and note it on the day.

Situation two: they moved it on you at short notice

Paragraph 24 sets out when the missed appointment payment is switched off, and the wording cuts the other way from how it is usually presented:

So the exemption only bites at 24 hours or more of notice. A text at nine o'clock the night before, cancelling a nine o'clock appointment the next morning, is twelve hours. That appointment is a missed appointment and £32.31 is payable. This matters far more after a failed install than before one, because rebooked slots get moved at short notice constantly, and each short notice cancellation is its own payment. Two of them is £64.62.

And the situation where it genuinely does not fire

If an engineer arrived inside your slot, worked, and left without connecting you, parts a and b of paragraph 23 are satisfied and part c is not. On our reading the missed appointment payment does not arise, because the code tests attendance rather than outcome. That is our reading of the published wording, not a ruling by Ofcom or an ombudsman. If a customer service agent gives you that answer, it is a defensible answer and it may well be right. What it is not is the end of the conversation, because a completely different trigger has just been met.

One more thing worth knowing before you accept any answer. The code sets minimums, not maximums. Paragraph 25 puts the missed appointment figure at "a minimum fixed fee of £25", which Ofcom then uprates each year to the £32.31 currently published. Individual providers are free to publish something better, and some do, so it is always worth reading your own provider's compensation policy rather than assuming all ten are identical.

The payment that keeps running

Paragraph 9 creates a separate obligation, and it is written as a test of the result rather than of anyone's attendance:

If your install was booked for a Tuesday, the engineer came on the Tuesday, and you went to bed on the Tuesday with no broadband, then your service was not activated by 11.59pm on the date confirmed in writing. That is the whole test, and nothing in it asks whether anyone attended. The current rate is £6.46 for each day of delay.

Paragraph 12 confirms the two payments are not alternatives. Delayed activation compensation "will be payable for this service failure in addition to any automatic compensation payable as a result of a missed appointment". So on a day when the engineer both arrived late and failed to connect you, you have grounds to ask for both.

The part almost nobody is told: when the daily clock stops

This is the single most important paragraph on this page, and it is the one we got wrong in our first draft. It is easy to assume the daily payment runs until you are actually connected. Under the code, it does not. Paragraph 10 sets the amount and the end point together:

The daily payment runs until the first alternative activation date they offer you. Not until you are online. So if the visit fails on the Tuesday and they offer you a new date three weeks out, the code's minimum is the days from the Tuesday to that new date, and the wait itself is already priced in. If that second date is then missed as well, a fresh delay begins and the clock starts again. The £5 figures are the code's floor from 2019, uprated by Ofcom to £6.46 a day and £32.31 for the appointment.

Hyperoptic's published compensation policy says the same thing in its own words, running the payment "until (but not including) either the first alternative date on which we offer to activate those Service(s) or, if earlier, the date you or we cancel or end those Service(s)".

Zen's guidance is also worth reading, though more carefully than we first read it. Its full sentence is: "If provision is delayed because you miss your appointment, the compensation calculation will be paused, and will only resume if activation is not completed at the next engineer visit." That sentence is written about a delay you caused, so it is not a general endorsement of the argument on this page. What it does show is that Zen recognises the idea of a visit that does not complete an activation, and that such a visit can restart a payment. Treat it as a helpful pointer, not as Zen agreeing with us.

If you had a working service that stopped

There is a third trigger, worth £10.34 a day, and it is the biggest of the three. Paragraph 14 covers a Total Loss of Service, and paragraph 22 defines that as being unable to access the public internet "as a result of an unplanned change in the operation of the electronic communications network".

Whether that reaches a switcher whose old line was ceased on schedule while the new one failed is genuinely arguable, because a planned cessation is not obviously an unplanned change. We could not resolve it from the published wording and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we would say is this: if you have gone from having broadband to having none, it costs you nothing to ask the question, and to ask them to tell you in writing which of the three triggers they say applies and why. The gap between £6.46 and £10.34 a day is worth one email.

When the money stops

Alongside the paragraph 10 end point, the code gives providers a formal way to switch off a long running payment. It is set out at paragraphs 35 to 38, it is rarely mentioned, and it comes attached to a right that is very much in your favour.

A provider may limit delayed provision or loss of service compensation "to 30 calendar days beyond a notice ('the Notice') being sent to the customer informing them that automatic compensation payments will cease". It cannot serve that Notice until 30 calendar days after compensation started, and the Notice has to name a Cease Date at least 30 calendar days ahead. So the earliest any payment can be switched off is around 60 days in, which is where BT's published 60 day ceiling comes from.

So a cease notice is not simply bad news. It is the moment the code hands you a free exit and points you at the complaints process. If you receive one, read it properly and diarise the Cease Date, because that date is the deadline on your fee free way out.

How and when you actually get paid

The code is specific about this and the detail is useful. Payment "may be in the form of a bill credit or an alternative form of recompense of equivalent or higher worth" under paragraph 27, and where a provider offers an alternative it must present the bill credit with equal prominence. Under paragraph 29 it must be paid no later than 30 calendar days after the issue is resolved or the service is cancelled. Ofcom's guidance on the binding condition puts the same expectation more bluntly: "we expect payment to be made within 30 calendar days irrespective of whether a customer submits a claim or not".

Paragraph 28 is the one to remember if you are leaving. Where the customer "will not for any reason be liable to receive any further bill from the Communications Provider, and has no prepay account with it, the payment must be made as a monetary payment to the customer". A bill credit on an account you have closed is worth nothing, and the code says so.

Whose fault was it?

Everything downstream of a failed visit turns on one question: was the obstacle on the network side or on your side of the front door. Providers rarely put it to you in those terms, so here is the map. Treat the two money columns as the argument to make, not as a guarantee.

Who you can actually chase

When a visit fails, the instinct is to ring whoever was standing on your doorstep. If the van said Openreach or CityFibre, that instinct will cost you a fortnight, because neither company will take the case. Both say so plainly on their own websites.

Openreach: "Although Openreach is the network provider, your relationship is with your Communications Provider." It adds that "We manage the network, but your service is provided through your communications provider" and that "You must raise broadband issues, faults, or compensation claims directly with them, and they will contact us if needed." On its installation guidance it is blunter still: "We understand you may want to speak to us directly, but we don't have access to your order details. Your broadband provider manages your appointment and can resolve any issues."

CityFibre uses similar language: it does not sell "directly to consumers", and "any questions you may have about a service you have purchased, including it's installation, billing and speed, MUST be directed to your Broadband provider".

This is not corporate deflection. It is a genuine feature of how the UK market is built. You bought a service from a retailer, the retailer buys access from a network builder, and the network builder has no record of who you are. It also works in your favour, because your whole claim sits with one company that you pay every month. You never have to prove anything to Openreach. The same principle means chasing the wayleave or the survey is your provider's job, not yours.

What you may be charged

If the reason the visit failed sits on your side of the front door, money can flow the other way. What surprised us most in building this page is how far apart the published figures are. Before you read the numbers, one warning that matters more than any of them: these are not all charges for the same thing. A fee for cancelling an installation, a fee for missing an appointment and a fee for a repair visit that found no fault are three different products, and comparing them as one number would be unfair to the companies and useless to you. So the table separates them.

Every figure comes from the provider's own price document or terms, and we read each one on 18 August 2026.

The deadline is the part people trip over

Look at the fourth column again, because it is doing quiet damage. The window to move an appointment free of charge runs from 12 noon the day before at TalkTalk to three working days before at BT. Three working days is a very different thing from three days: an appointment on a Tuesday needs to be moved by the previous Wednesday if there is a bank holiday in between. If you realise on Sunday night that Tuesday will not work, several of these deadlines have already gone.

None of them is unreasonable on its own. They exist because an engineer slot that goes unused is a slot somebody else could have had. But they are published in price guides and terms documents rather than in the confirmation text you actually receive, so check yours the day you book rather than the day you need it.

If a charge lands

A charge for a visit that achieved nothing is worth challenging, and challenging properly costs you nothing. Two of the situations in the fault table are straightforwardly wrong charges: a visit that failed because of a blocked duct, a shortage of fibre or the wrong job type being sent is not a customer failure at all, and no term quoted on this page authorises a charge for it.

1. Put the dispute in writing on the same day

   An email or a message in the app, not a phone call, so there is a record with a date on it. Say plainly that you dispute the charge, and say why in one sentence.

2. Ask which term they rely on

   The question is: "Please tell me which clause of my contract or which line of your published price list you are applying, and quote it." Several providers reserve a discretionary right without naming a figure. A discretionary charge still has to be justified, and an unexpected fee can be challenged for fairness under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

3. Never cancel the direct debit

   This is the mistake that turns a £75 argument into a lasting problem. Cancelling the direct debit over a disputed charge can put your account into arrears and, in time, put a marker on your credit file that outlives the dispute by years. Our guide to unpaid broadband bills and your credit score explains what actually gets recorded. Keep paying, and dispute in parallel.

4. Ask for it to be held while it is investigated

   Most providers will suspend collection of a genuinely disputed charge while a complaint is open. Ask for that explicitly and ask them to confirm it in writing.

5. Escalate if it is refused

   A refusal in writing is what an alternative dispute resolution scheme needs. Our complaints and escalation hub sets out the current timings and which scheme your provider belongs to.

What happens next

A failed visit puts your order into one of a small number of states, and knowing which one tells you roughly how long you are waiting. This is the part providers are worst at explaining, largely because the answer often sits with a network team they cannot see either.

1. Straight rebook, usually days

   The commonest outcome. The engineer needed something simple, a second pair of hands or a longer ladder, and a new slot is offered without a survey. Openreach's installation guidance acknowledges this: "In some cases, the work may be more complex and require a follow-up appointment." Under paragraph 10, the daily compensation runs to that offered date.

2. Referred for a survey, usually one to three weeks

   A surveyor comes out before any engineer does. Nothing visible happens to you meanwhile, which is why this stage feels like being forgotten. Ask for the survey reference and the target date, and ask them to log the order as delayed rather than closed.

3. Referred for build work, weeks to months

   A duct is blocked, a pole needs replacing or a new cable has to be pulled, sometimes with street works and a council permit. Our installation times guide sets out realistic ranges by technology. This is the bucket where a cease notice under paragraph 35 becomes likely, so read that section above before you settle in to wait.

4. Held for permission, until someone else acts

   Wayleave, freeholder consent or an asbestos register. Openreach is explicit about the last: "We can't arrange a survey or start work until we know the building is safe and will place the survey and order on hold until we have a copy of the asbestos register." For a block built before 2000 that register comes from the landlord, freeholder or managing agent. For a block built after 2000 it needs written confirmation that no known asbestos exists. If you live in a flat, our wayleave guide explains who has to sign what.

5. Order cancelled, sometimes without a clear message

   Some providers close an order they cannot deliver rather than leave it open. If your order simply vanishes from your account, treat that as the trigger to complain rather than to start again, because under paragraph 10 a cancellation is one of the events that stops the daily payment.

How to ask for the money

Automatic compensation is supposed to be automatic. After a failed visit the delayed activation trigger is the one most likely to be missed, because internally the job may have been recorded as an engineer visit that happened rather than as an activation that did not. Six short steps.

1. Log a formal complaint today, and get the reference

   Do this first, not last. The clock that eventually lets you go to an ombudsman runs from the date of your formal complaint, not from the date of the failed visit, so a month spent on webchat is a month that does not count. Ask for a complaint reference and write down the date you got it.

2. Fix the date you were promised

   Find the written confirmation of your activation date, in the order email, the account page or the text message. Paragraph 9 hangs entirely on "the date initially confirmed in writing", so that document is your evidence. A date a salesperson said on the phone is much harder to run with.

3. Establish the reason the visit failed, and the engineer's arrival time

   Ask for the engineer's note or reason code. If it points at the network, you are in the clear on paragraph 39. If it points at you and you disagree, challenge it now, in writing, while the day is fresh. If he arrived outside your slot, say so in the same message, because that is a separate £32.31.

4. Claim by name, and ask for the stop date

   Ask them to confirm the daily amount, the date it started and the date they say it stops, plus whether any missed appointment payment is due for a late arrival or a short notice cancellation. If you have gone from having broadband to having none, ask them to confirm in writing which of the three triggers they say applies and why.

5. Check the rate and the form of payment

   For the year running 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 the figures are £32.31 for a missed appointment, £6.46 a day for delayed activation and £10.34 a day for loss of service. They are reviewed each April in line with inflation, and older documents lag, so if you are quoted £6.24 a day you are being offered the 2025/26 rate. Payment is due within 30 calendar days, and if you are leaving, paragraph 28 says it must be money rather than a credit on a closed account.

6. Escalate at eight weeks from your complaint, or on deadlock

   If it is not resolved, you can take it to an approved alternative dispute resolution scheme. Bring it well inside twelve months of the complaint, as schemes generally will not look at older cases. Our complaints and escalation hub sets out the current timings and which scheme covers your provider.

If you want out

Sometimes the right answer is not more compensation, it is a different provider. The order matters enormously here, because walking away in the wrong order costs you both the money you have accrued and, potentially, a cancellation fee on top.

You also have rights that sit outside the compensation code entirely. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 a service must be performed within a reasonable time, and repeated failures over months are the sort of thing that argument is built for. If you ordered online or over the phone and you are still inside the fourteen day cancellation period, that right is separate again. And if a monthly charge has already started collecting for a service that was never activated, ask for it back, because you have not received what you paid for.

Questions people actually ask

References

1. BT. (2026). Automatic compensation. https://www.bt.com/help/account-and-billing/automatic-compensation
2. BT. (2026). BT broadband service terms. https://www.bt.com/products/static/terms/broadband.html
3. CityFibre. (2026). When and how to contact CityFibre or your broadband provider. https://cityfibre.com/help-support/when-and-how-to-contact-cityfibre-or-your-broadband-provider
4. EE. (2026, March 1). EE home price guide [checked for a missed appointment charge; none present]. https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/help/terms-and-conditions/price-plans/home/ee-monthly-home-price-guide-1-march-2026.pdf
5. Hyperoptic. (2026). Automatic compensation policy. https://www.hyperoptic.com/legal/post/automatic-compensation-policy/
6. Hyperoptic. (2026). Guide to charges and fees for residential customers. https://www.hyperoptic.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/Hyperoptic_Price_Guide_Book.pdf
7. ISPreview. (2025, November 22). Broadband ISP BT ponders possible £50 charge for missed UK appointments. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/11/broadband-isp-bt-ponders-possible-50-charge-for-missed-uk-appointments.html
8. Ofcom. (2024). Communications providers' voluntary code of practice for an automatic compensation scheme. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/consultations/uncategorised/98684---automatic-compensation/associated-documents/industry-code-of-practice-for-automatic-compensation-2024-v1.pdf?v=392135
9. Ofcom. (2026, July 20). Automatic compensation: what you need to know. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automatic-compensation-need-know
10. Ofcom. (n.d.). Guidance on compensation related to switching and porting. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/general-authorisation-regime/guidance-compensation-switching-and-porting.pdf?v=329462
11. Openreach. (2026). Complaints policy. https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/when-to-get-in-touch-with-openreach/complaints-policy
12. Openreach. (2026). Landlords and multi dwelling units. https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/landlords-multi-dwelling-unit
13. Openreach. (2026). What will happen during my installation for Full Fibre. https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/full-fibre-broadband-installation-checklist
14. Plusnet. (2026). Plusnet price guide for residential products. https://www.plus.net/help/legal/plusnet-price-guide-for-residential-products/
15. TalkTalk. (2026). Engineer charges. https://help-centre.talktalk.co.uk/Billing_and_Payments/Something_else/Engineer_charges
16. toob. (2026, April 1). toob home broadband: charges and fees. https://www.toob.co.uk/legal/charges-and-fees-home-broadband/
17. Virgin Media. (2026). Am I eligible for automatic compensation? https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payments/automatic-compensation
18. Virgin Media. (2026). Other and unexpected charges explained. https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payments/unexpected-charges
19. Vodafone. (2026, February 25). Vodafone home broadband and phone: your price plan. https://binaries.vodafone.co.uk/gbnnsauqav4t/2tnqG2nFeC21VGS4GZR0n9/5c125106eca5f1334c9b5999dd588643/hbb-price-plan-250226.pdf
20. YouFibre. (2026, July 10). YouFibre residential terms and conditions. https://www.youfibre.com/legal/residential-terms-and-conditions/
21. Zen Internet. (2026). Auto compensation FAQ. https://www.zen.co.uk/help-support/auto-compensation-faq/
22. Zen Internet. (2026, May 18). Retail general terms and conditions. https://www.zen.co.uk/resources/docs/default-source/document-library/standard-terms-and-conditions/zen---standard-terms-document-v4-1-030621.pdf