In line with Ofcom requirements, the levels of Compensation payable under our Automatic Compensation Policy will be adjusted annually, every 1 April, based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation as of 31 October in the previous year. The payment increase will apply to any new service issues that occur from 1 April.
We aim to provide you, our residential customer, with an exceptional service. However, sometimes things go wrong and there may be a delay in providing you with the broadband service and/or telephone services you ordered from us (“Service or Services”), or there may be a delay in repairing a fault in these Services, or it may happen that one of our engineers misses an appointment you’ve arranged with us to have these Services installed or repaired.
We understand the importance, to you, of providing our Service(s) on time, repairing faults in these Service(s) quickly and keeping to appointments related to providing or repairing these Services. We recognise the difficulties caused when this doesn’t happen, as does Ofcom, our industry regulator. When you’re switching from us to another communications provider in the same premises, Ofcom obliges us to compensate you automatically when, in connection with that switch, we miss appointments we scheduled with you to provide/install our Service(s), or we delay activating our Service(s). We go beyond this and also compensate you automatically for other delays in activating your Service(s), for other missed engineer appointments we make with you related to providing or repairing your Service(s), and for delays in repairing your Service(s). We set out below in this Automatic Compensation Policy (“ACP”) when and how we do this.
Even if you’re entitled to compensation under this ACP, you can still make a complaint if you’re unhappy about any part of our service and we’ll do our best to sort out your problem or query – our Complaints Code of Practice sets out how you can do this.
Note also that compensation paid to you under this ACP doesn’t limit any other legal rights you may have as a consumer.
In this ACP, all references to “we”, “us” or “our” are references to Hyperoptic, all references to “you” and “your” are references to you, our residential customer (meaning a customer of our residential Service(s)) and all references to our website are to www.hyperoptic.com.
1. ABOUT US
Hyperoptic Ltd (“Hyperoptic”) is a full fibre internet service provider (“ISP”) and a limited company registered in England and Wales. Our company number is 07222543, our registered office and main trading address is at Kings House, 174 Hammersmith Road, London, W6 7JP and our VAT number is 164 6525 96.
We’re regulated in the UK by Ofcom, the UK communications regulator. We’re also a member of the UK Internet Service Providers Association (“ISPA”) and Ombudsman Services (an independent alternative dispute resolution service), about both of which there are further details in our Complaints Code of Practice.
2. ABOUT THIS ACP
This ACP covers any Service(s) we’ve agreed to provide you with, under your legally binding agreement with us.
It sets out how, if all the conditions relating to the delays and/or missed appointments described below apply to you, we’ll compensate you automatically.
There are 4 types of situation where this compensation will apply (delayed activation, delayed repair, missed engineer appointments and delayed switching). The details of the compensation (“Compensation”) we’ll pay you in relation to each of these situations (“Service Issues”) are set out below.
3. COMPENSATION
3.1 Compensation for delayed activation (Service Issue 1)
Unless section 3.4 applies, we’ll compensate you automatically if we don’t activate the Service(s) you ordered from us (which can include an upgrade of existing Services) by 11.59pm on the date we initially confirmed with you in writing that the activation would happen (the “Agreed Activation Date”). This compensation won’t apply where you’re switching to Hyperoptic from another communications provider at your current premises (i.e. where our Service(s) will replace some or all of the services they’re providing to you at those premises) – see section 3.4 below in relation to compensation for delays relating to such switches.
The “Service Issue 1 Daily Compensation Amount” for the period:
1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 is £6.10
1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 is £6.24
If you’re entitled to Compensation under this section 3.1, we will pay the Service Issue 1 Daily Compensation Amount if we fail to activate your Service(s) on the Agreed Activation Date and also for each full day following that Agreed Activation Date where those Service(s) have still not been activated 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).
For example, if your Agreed Activation Date is on a Wednesday (in June 2025) but we delay activating your Service(s) until Thursday, then we’ll compensate you £6.24 for missing the Agreed Activation Date. If instead we delayed activation until a day later (so your Service(s) became available on Friday), then £12.48 would be payable (£6.24 for missing the Agreed Activation Date and another £6.24 for the full day you had to wait (Thursday) before your Service(s) were activated on Friday).
We’ll also be treated as having missed your Agreed Activation Date if we fail to provide you with a Hyperhub router by that date (and you tell us that you haven’t received it), unless we can prove that we correctly posted it to you.
You don’t have to make a claim for Compensation under this section 3.1. We simply let you know if you’re entitled to it and automatically credit the amount we owe to your account with us (“your Hyperoptic Account”), as explained in section 3.5 below.
If you’re entitled to it, you’ll still receive Compensation under this section 3.1 even if you’re also entitled to Compensation for one of our engineers missing their appointment with you (as set out in section 3.3 below).
Note that the limits and exclusions set out in sections 3.6 and 3.7 below, will apply to any Compensation for delayed activation under this section 3.1.
3.2 Compensation for delayed repair (Service Issue 2)
We’ll compensate you for a delayed repair, if we’ve provided you with our Service(s) and you:
(i) report to us (either by calling us on 0333 332 1111, by emailing us at support@hyperoptic.com or by raising a ticket in the My Account section of our website) that you can’t access the public internet, or, if we’ve provided you with our telephone service (which works over the internet), that you can’t make calls using that Service (we call this a “Loss of Service”); and
(ii) after we check your Service(s) (either by engineer visit or testing remotely) we find that there’s an access problem, for which we should record (or have recorded) a fault; and
(iii) the fault isn’t repaired by 11.59pm either on the day 2 working days after you reported it (or are treated as having reported it – see next paragraph) (the “Report Time”) or by such later date as you request.
Note that unless we have you registered for “Priority Fault Repair”, if you report the Loss of Service on a non-working day or outside the “standard working hours” of 9.00am to 5.00pm on a working day, the Report Time will be 9.00am on the first working day after your report. If we have you registered for “Priority Fault Repair” under our Ofcom obligations, the Report Time will be treated as the time we first became aware of the fault, even if you only reported it to us later.
So, for example, if you report a Loss of Service(s) during standard working hours on Monday (or, where we have you registered for “Priority Fault Repair”, if we first become aware of your Loss of Service during that time), we’ll pay you Compensation if we haven’t fixed that fault by 11.59pm on Wednesday (unless you asked for a later repair time).
We won’t (as set out in section 3.7(i) below) have to pay you any Compensation under this section 3.2 where the delay is due to you not accepting the first date we offer you to sort out your Service Issue.
To be eligible for the Compensation, your Loss of Service should be due to an unplanned change in the way the network on which we provide your Service(s) (our “Network”) is working. We won’t compensate you for disruption to your Service(s) caused by planned work being carried out on our Network that we’ve already told you about.
The “Service Issue 2 Daily Compensation Amount” for the period:
1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 is £9.76
1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 is £9.98
If you’re entitled to Compensation under this section 3.2, we will pay the Service Issue 2 Daily Compensation Amount for missing the time limit set out in paragraph (iii) above and also for each full day that your Loss of Service continues after that time limit.
For example, if you’re entitled to Compensation under this section 3.2 for a Loss of Service which you reported to us in June 2025, we’ll pay you £9.98 for missing the time limit set out in paragraph (iii) above and (if it applies to you) a further £9.98 for each full day that your Loss of Service continues after that time limit.
If you’ve reported the Loss of Service and the other conditions of the Compensation apply to you, you don’t need to make a separate claim for the Compensation - we’ll automatically credit the amount we owe to your Hyperoptic Account, as explained in section 3.5 below.
If you’re entitled to it, you’ll still receive Compensation under this section 3.2 even if you’re also entitled to Compensation for one of our engineers missing their appointment with you (as set out in section 3.3 below).
If you report to us (by phone, email or by raising a ticket in the My Account section of our website, each as described in paragraph (i) above) that you can’t access the internet using our broadband service or make calls using our telephone service within 48 hours of our repairing a previous fault that’s eligible for Compensation and the new fault has the same underlying cause, then the way we’ll calculate any Compensation to which you’re entitled for this, will be as if the first fault had carried on without repair.
So, if you reported your first Loss of Service in June 2025 during standard working hours on Monday, if it was fixed on Thursday and was eligible for Compensation under this section 3.2, you’d receive £9.98 Compensation because the repair hadn’t been completed by the end of Wednesday (11.59pm on the day 2 working days after the Report Time). If you then reported a further Loss of Service within 48 hours of that repair, for example on Saturday, and this Loss of Service had the same underlying cause as the first Loss of Service, if this new Loss of Service was repaired on Monday (with no further Loss of Service), you’d be compensated as if the first Loss of Service (that you had reported on the previous Monday) had carried on until then. This means you’d also get £9.98 Compensation for each of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Note that the limits and exclusions set out in sections 3.6 and 3.7 below, will apply to any Compensation for a delayed repair under this section 3.2.
3.3 Compensation for missed engineer appointment (Service Issue 3)
We’ll compensate you for a missed engineer appointment if:
(i) we’ve confirmed an engineer appointment slot with you; and
(ii) you need this appointment in order for us to provide you with, or to repair, our broadband Service (which includes an upgrade to a Service with a higher speed); and
(iii) the engineer fails to arrive during that appointment slot,
except if a) we’ve called you (and left a message if you do not pick up the call) at least 24 hours before the beginning of your slot to tell you that this appointment has been changed or cancelled (we’ll also follow this up with a message to the email address you’ve registered with us (“your Registered Email Address”), confirming the same) or b) you agree with us to change the slot for another slot that same day.
The “Service Issue 3 Compensation Amount” for the period:
1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 is £30.49
1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 is £31.19
If you’re entitled to Compensation under this section 3.3, we will pay the Service Issue 3 Compensation Amount where we miss an engineer appointment slot.
You don’t have to make a claim for Compensation under this section 3.3. We simply tell you as soon as we know you’re entitled to it and automatically credit the amount we owe to your Hyperoptic Account, as explained in section 3.5 below.
If you’re entitled to it, you’ll still receive Compensation under this section 3.3 even if you’re also entitled to Compensation under any of sections 3.1, 3.2, or 3.4).
Note that the limits and exclusions set out in sections 3.6 and 3.7 below, will apply to any Compensation for a missed engineer appointment under this section 3.3.
3.4 Compensation for delayed switching at the same premises (Service Issue 4)
We’ll compensate you automatically if:
(i) you order Service(s) from us, as a new customer, for your premises; and
(ii) at the time of that order, and for those same premises, you’re already receiving broadband and/or fixed line (i.e. landline) services from another communications provider (your “Current Provider”), under a legal agreement you have with them; and
(iii) we haven’t Completed the Switch by 11.59pm on the Agreed Switch Date.
“Completed the Switch” means activated the Service(s) and sent your Current Provider a Switch Trigger Message.
“Agreed Switch Date” means:
a) the exact date on or by which we said we’d activate the Service(s), which we confirmed to you in writing after issuing your Contract Information document1; or, if you received no such date from us
b) the date set out in your Contract Information document for delivery of the Service(s).
“Switch Trigger Message” is a message from us to your Current Provider telling them that we’ve completed all our parts of the switch. This lets your Current Provider know that they should not charge you for their services which are due to end as a result of the switch, after the day we send that message.
The “Service Issue 4 Daily Compensation Amount” for the period:
3 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 is £3.00 (Level A compensation) or £6.10 (Level B compensation), as applicable.
1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 is £3.00 (Level A compensation) or £6.24 (Level B compensation), as applicable.
Level A compensation applies if we did not send your Current Provider a Switch Trigger Message on the Agreed Switch Date (so you continued to have their service after the Agreed Switch Date)
Level B compensation applies if we sent your Current Provider a Switch Trigger Message on the Agreed Switch Date.
If you’re entitled to Compensation under this section 3.4, we will pay the applicable Service Issue 4 Daily Compensation Amount if we fail to activate the Service(s) on the Agreed Switch Date and also for each full day following the Agreed Switch Date where the Service(s) have still not been activated until (but not including) either the date on which activation happens or, if earlier, the date you or we cancel or end those Service(s).
For example, if your Agreed Switch Date is on a Monday (in June 2025) but we don’t activate the Service(s) until Tuesday, then, if Level A compensation applies, we’ll compensate you £3.00 for not activating the Service(s) on the Agreed Switch Date. If, instead, we delayed activating the Service(s) until Friday, then £12.00 would be payable - £3.00 for missing the Agreed Switch Date and another £3.00 for each of the 3 full days you had to wait (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) until activation.
We’ll also be treated as having failed to activate the Service(s) on the Agreed Switch Date if we fail to provide you with a Hyperhub router by that date (and you tell us that you haven’t received it), unless we can prove that we correctly posted it to you.
You don’t have to make a claim for Compensation under this section 3.4. We simply let you know if you’re entitled to it and automatically credit the amount we owe to your Hyperoptic Account, as explained in section 3.5 below.
If you’re entitled to it, you’ll still receive Compensation under this section 3.4 even if you’re also entitled to Compensation for one of our engineers missing their appointment with you (as set out in section 3.3 above).
Note that the limits and exclusions set out sections 3.6 and 3.7 below will apply to any Compensation for delayed switching under this section 3.4.
3.5 Payment of Compensation
If you’re entitled to Compensation for delayed activation, delayed repair, a missed engineer appointment, or delayed switching, as set in sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4 above, we’ll credit your Hyperoptic Account with the amount due to you.
If, at the time we pay your Compensation, you have either never received a bill from us or won’t (for any reason) be receiving any further bills from us, we’ll make the payment directly into your bank account, using the most recent bank details you’ve provided us with in connection with your Hyperoptic Account.
Your Hyperoptic Account (or, if you won’t be receiving any bill from us, your bank account) will be credited with the Compensation no later than:
(i) for delayed activation (as described in section 3.1 above), 30 days after a) the Service Issue is sorted out or b) either you or we end or cancel the Service(s) intended to be activated, whichever happens earlier;
(ii) for delayed repair (as described in section 3.2 above), 30 days after a) the Service Issue is sorted out or b) either you or we end or cancel the affected Service(s), whichever happens earlier;
(iii) for a missed engineer appointment (as described in section 3.3 above), 30 days after the date of the missed appointment; and
(iv) for delayed switching (as described in section 3.4 above), 30 days after a) the Service Issue is sorted out or b) either you or we end or cancel the Service(s) you ordered from us under the switch, whichever happens earlier
Even if your Hyperoptic Account is credited with Compensation within the 30 day period described above, the amount may only appear on a bill we issue after those 30 days have ended.
3.6 Limits on Compensation
We won’t pay Compensation for any period after either you or we have lawfully ended or cancelled the affected Service(s).
Compensation applies on a “per order” rather than “per service” basis. This means that if you have ordered both our broadband and our telephone Services for your premises, and both Services are affected at the same time, you can’t receive separate Compensation for each Service – we’ll just make one Compensation payment in respect of both Services.
We won’t pay Compensation for faults which aren’t in our Network or which don’t relate to our Services.
If we send a notice to your Registered Email Address (a “Notice”) which satisfies the conditions set out in the following paragraph (including sub-paragraphs (i) to (iii) below), we won’t have to pay you any Compensation for delayed activation, delayed repair or delayed switching referred to in that Notice, related to any time after 30 days from the date of that Notice.
We won’t send you a Notice sooner than 30 days after you become eligible for Compensation for delayed activation, delayed repair or delayed switching. Any Notice we send you will set out:
(i) the date on which the Compensation to which it relates will stop (the “Stop Date”), which can’t be less than 30 days from the date of the Notice;
(ii) that you won’t have to pay a Service Termination Fee (as set out in our Guide to Charges and Fees for Residential Customers) if you want to end or cancel the Service(s) to which the Notice relates before the Stop Date (even if we activate or restore that/those Service(s) to you before the Stop Date); and
(iii) that you can still raise your delayed activation, delayed repair or delayed switching as a complaint (as set out in our Complaints Code of Practice) and how, if we can’t resolve your complaint within 8 weeks you may then be able to take the matter to an independent alternative dispute resolution provider (again, as set out in our Complaints Code of Practice).
If neither of us ends or cancels the affected Service(s) before the Stop Date, we’ll use reasonable efforts to try and reduce the impact of your not having the affected Service(s). If this isn’t possible, we’ll continue to pay Compensation for it, unless you’ve unreasonably refused any offer we make of an alternative arrangement to help solve your Service Issue.
Nothing set out above explaining how we can limit Compensation by sending you a Notice affects any right that a) you may have to cancel your Service(s) or claim any other compensation or b) we may have to cancel or end those Service(s).
3.7 Exceptions
We won’t pay you Compensation if:
(i) you’re at fault for the Service Issue or you prevent the Service Issue from being sorted out. This means, for example, that to be eligible for Compensation, you must give us the access we need to your premises and/or relevant equipment. It also means that we won’t pay you Compensation for delayed activation, delayed repair or delayed switching where the delay is due to you failing to accept the earliest date on which we offer to fix those Service Issues;
(ii) we reasonably believe that your report of a Loss of Service is baseless and intended to be a nuisance to us, or untrue, or dishonest, or trivial;
(iii) an event occurs for which emergency regulations have been made under Part 2 of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, and our obligation to pay the Compensation is due to the effects of this event and couldn’t reasonably be avoided by us;
(iv) we could reasonably expect that if we took the action needed to prevent us having to pay the Compensation, we would (or would be likely to) breach a law or regulation;
(v) you’ve committed an offence under sections 125 or 126 of the Communications Act 2003 (these legal provisions relate to dishonestly obtaining communications services);
(vi) you’re in breach of the terms and conditions which apply to your affected Service(s);
(vii) the fault doesn’t relate to the Service(s) we’re providing you with; or
(viii) the fault is caused by other equipment or activity at your premises.
Other than as set out in this section 3.7, we’ll pay any Compensation due to you, where your Service Issue was caused by something outside of your or our control.
This policy is effective from 1 April 2025.
