A phone or broadband complaint now counts six weeks from the start

Phone and broadband are the one sector where you do not have to wait eight weeks. Ofcom’s rule is six. After six weeks, or sooner if they send you a “deadlock” letter, a free dispute scheme will take your case whether the provider likes it or not.

Your case already knew that. The page where you write the letter did not. It said eight weeks and day 56 to everyone, which meant anyone complaining to a mobile or broadband provider was being told to sit on their hands for two weeks longer than the regulator asks of them.

What changed

Write a complaint to a phone or broadband provider and every mention of the wait now says six weeks, counting to day 42. Everything else is unchanged, because eight weeks is still right for energy, insurance, flights and the shops.

The list of what happens next is in date order too. On a six-week clock the end of the wait arrives before our day 45 check-in, so it is now listed in the order it actually happens.

Everything that follows says six too. The nudge asking whether your letter ever went in, the page that confirms you have sent it, the note we send if their address bounces, and the screen you land on after paying all count the same six weeks, so nothing later can give you a different date to the page you wrote the letter on.

Two weeks is a long time

Six weeks on a complaint that has gone nowhere is already a long wait. Two weeks on top of it, for no reason, is the sort of thing that makes people give up. If your provider has had your complaint for six weeks, you can take it further today.