More than a third of people who move house are experiencing delays in the set-up of their broadband, according to a report.
Citizens Advice found that people moving into a new home were ‘often’ left without a working internet connection for weeks after the set-up date given by their provider.
Others reported having to wait at home for engineers on multiple occasions or being left with a slow or intermittent connection.
A new report revealed that over a third of people who move house experience delays in broadband set-up
The charity found 15 per cent of house movers with a broadband connection found it was slow or unreliable when initiated, 11 per cent reported that engineers had to make multiple visits and 9 per cent had their engineer appointments rescheduled.
Among the cases reported to the charity, one woman did not have a broadband connection for three weeks even though she had paid £82 upfront for the installation and first month of fibre, and had called her provider repeatedly about the problem.
When she asked to cancel the contract she was told that as the 14 day cancellation period had passed she would have to pay an exit fee of more than £200.
The findings come after last month’s launch of the Government’s £400 million Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund to boost investment in ‘full-fibre’ broadband that can offer speeds of up to 1Gbps to households and businesses.
Citizens Advice is calling on regulator Ofcom to put in place the mandatory scheme it proposed earlier this year to automatically compensate people affected by delayed set ups or repairs to their broadband or landline.
Phillip Hammond promised more than £1bn to boost broadband speeds for up two million homes and businesses in November
But the broadband industry has proposed a watered down voluntary scheme which would reduce the amount of compensation available.
Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: ‘It is fundamentally unfair that in some cases customers are paying for a service they don’t receive for weeks or even months at a time after moving.
‘To hold providers to account for breaking promises to their customers, the regulator should move forward with its mandatory automatic compensation scheme.
‘This would make it clear to people what they are entitled to when they get poor service and put an end to customers having to negotiate how much they get back for their wasted time.’
Internet providers are already under fire for providing a poor service, with households across large swathes of Britain are forced to put up with woeful broadband speed.
A recent report from consumer group Which? found a total of 12 local authorities failed to reach the proposed legal minimum download speed of 10 megabytes per second (mbps), which the government plans to enforce by 2020.
Which? found a total of 12 local authorities failed to reach the proposed legal minimum download speed of 10 megabytes per second as movers are among the worst-hit
This is also the minimum recommended by telecoms watchdog Ofcom.
The Orkney Islands, Ryedale in Yorkshire and Purbeck in Dorset are among those worst affected. Others include West Devon and Powys in Wales.
The analysis by MPs and consumer campaigners have been fiercely critical of the slow broadband endured by many households and businesses across the UK.
Broadband providers have also been accused of misleading customers by exaggerating the speed of their internet connection.
As well as being highly inconvenient, campaigners say slow broadband hampers businesses – making them less productive. This holds back the wider economy.
The government has recognised the need to increase broadband speeds to help stimulate the economy.
In his autumn statement in November, Chancellor Phillip Hammond pledged more than £1bn to boost broadband speeds for up two million homes and businesses as part of an infrastructure plan to be outlined in the autumn statement.
At the centre of this long running row has been BT. It has been criticised for failing to invest enough in its infrastructure arm Openreach, which controls the fibre connections, ducts and pipes behind the UK’s broadband infrastructure and sells access to rivals, such as TalkTalk and Sky.
It was ordered by Ofcom earlier this year to legally separate from Openreach.