Ask Our Expert

Mobile broadband refund

Our Broadband Expert says...

Dear David, although around 90 per cent of the UK has access to a mobile broadband signal, coverage can be patchy in some rural areas, and the strength of your signal will vary depending on a number of factors, including the type of building you live in, how close you are to a mast and even other physical factors such as “trees, tunnels and other building masonry”, according to Orange Broadband (www.Orange.co.uk).

It is important to make sure that you do a mobile broadband coverage check before signing a contract, but as you have found out, that doesn’t always mean that you are guaranteed a good signal. Thankfully, mobile broadband operators have recognised this and offer customers a “grace period” within which to cancel their contract.

Mobile broadband grace period

Although O2 Broadband (www.O2.co.uk) is the only mobile broadband provider to actively advertise its money-back guarantee - or Happiness Guarantee - as O2 calls it, almost all of the other providers also offer a “grace period” ranging from 14 days to a month if you’re unhappy with the product.

Although O2 says that its mobile broadband coverage checker is accurate enough to tell you if you will have no coverage in any rooms in your home, it does still offer customers 30 days in which to return the mobile USB modem for a full refund and contract cancellation.

Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) also offers customers a month in which to cancel their contract. A Virgin Media spokesperson said, “We’re keen to ensure our Virgin Media mobile broadband customers can get the full benefit of broadband on the move, so give customers a month to have a play and see how it works for them. If coverage at their home or work means they aren’t getting the speeds they are expecting, or they have another problem, all they need to do is let us know and we'll be happy to refund them.”

Two week returns policy

3 Broadband (www.Three.co.uk) and Orange, on the other hand, allow 14 days in which to cancel your contract if you find that the service is unsuitable.

3 has recently increased its “window of opportunity” from just three days to 14, while Orange said: “We continually invest in our mobile network to ensure we deliver the best quality service we are able to. Please be aware though that local and physical factors may affect the signal strength in a particular location (such as tunnels, trees and building masonry), so we offer a two week coverage guarantee policy with our mobile broadband service should consumers return home and find they have limited signal.”

Case by case

Finally, T-Mobile Broadband (www.T-Mobile.co.uk) deals with coverage issues on an individual basis. A spokesperson told BroadbandChoices.co.uk: “We advise all our customers to do a mobile broadband coverage check and to only purchase if the results are good. However, there can be exceptions, so all T-Mobile customers have a statutory right of return when a product appears to be ‘not fit for service’, which is dealt with on a case by case basis.”

Compare mobile broadband

Mobile broadband coverage is often the best place to start when comparing packages, since you’ll almost always want to go with the provider that can offer the best speeds.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a big city where you’ll be spoilt for choice, you can then start looking at other factors such as download allowances and monthly cost.

While cost is an important factor in any purchase, the cheapest packages don’t always offer the best value. If you have a low download allowance of only 1GB for example, you might well exceed your limit and end up having to pay for more at the end of the month for out of bundle downloads.

Install our Broadband Download Monitor to ensure that you never exceed you limit, and make sure you compare mobile broadband packages - and coverage - before signing up.

NB Best buy tables (orange background) are always current.

Examples in the text of the article (white background) are correct at time of publication.

Ask us a question

If you have a general switching or provider query please email us at OurExpert@broadbandchoices.co.uk

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