So, long story short, Sky – for reasons known only to them – cancelled my land line and broadband on Friday. The first I knew was when I had no wi-fi and the phone reported a line error.

After hours spent on the phone this weekend, the upshot is that it was:

• A human error on their part
• Impossible to retrieve/reinstate my landline number
• A minimum of 2 weeks before any service could be reinstated

… and here’s the best bit: my phone line won’t support broadband so they can’t reinstall it! That’s despite me enjoying perfectly adequate broadband for the past 2 years.

So, all my business stationery that includes my home contact number (business cards and letterheads) need binning, I have no phone or broadband and there’s no sign of me realistically having it reinstated any time soon.

I’ve insisted that, as an absolute minimum, they install fibre broadband (which is available) at no additional cost to myself as this seems to be the only way they can reinstate phone/internet services.

Now they’re saying that they will, but only if I sign up for an 18 month contract at full price and they will reimburse me for the additional 18 month’s costs.

I’ve told them that this is unacceptable; that I have a rolling contract with them that they have breached; and I want to be free to move elsewhere if they don’t rectify this and compensate me to my satisfaction.

That’s fair enough, isn’t it? Does anyone know where I would stand from a legal point of view?

G

Any thoughts anyone?

Sky have just rung me and told me that there are no internet services available to me in my area, not even fiber! This is in spite of 2 year’s uninterrupted broadband from them, and constant communications asking me to upgrade to fiber!

So they’re saying that I’ll have to go elsewhere, but they’ve lost my landline number and it can never be retrieved!

Fuming…

G

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/

+1 Ofcom – BT rolled over when I mentioned going to them with a complaint.

Yep, regulator, Watchdog, Dom.

Samknows should tell you what’s available in your area.

Play it a different way. Tell them that if it is not possible for them to provide broadband to you then you want a refund for all the broadband you have been paying them for for the last two years.

I like this ^^

Then yes, Ofcom, Twitter, Watchdog etc.

Tell them that if it is not possible for them to provide broadband to you then you want a refund for all the broadband you have been paying them for for the last two years.

That’s not a bad idea! Doesn’t solve any of my current problems though – no internet and no landline. And I live in an area with no mobile coverage so it’s vital that I have a landline.

Are they under any legal obligation to provide continued service?

G

Hardly an epic failure?

If a sky technician had managed to blow up your house and half the street too, then yes, I guess you could call that epic.

Humans have a habit of making mistakes, that’s what sells newspapers 😉

Ofcom did the grand sum of **** all when my old man had similar problems, and was left without a land line for months and having just come out of hospital after a triple bypass and recently being widowed, it seemed a pretty necessary requirement.

From what I can tell, regulators only give a shit if you are neighbors with or wear the same school tie as those who work for them

#whataboutery

Are you on connect bb by any chance.

Simply forget ofcom just email
jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com

Don’t be a dick just calmly put your point across but stick to the facts …..

What’s connect BB? Ofcom “don’t deal with individual complaints”. I’ve escalated Sky’s complaints procedure…

I’ve also read their terms and conditions which states that they need to give 1 month’s notice before they change their terms.

As far as I can tell, as I’m still paying, I still have a contract with them which they’re in breach of…

G

Eesh that’s a shocker Gatsby. Hope you get sorted – the phone number bit is a real bummer.
*makes note not to deal with Sky

I’d start moaning on Twitter. It seemed to get BT to listen to us when our LL was duff.

Broadband connect rural areas are put on it.
Don’t forget sky rent the lines from BT your number may have been taken back by bt.

Also if bt need to reconnect you at the exchange sky cannot tell them when to do it only ask for it to be re connected within a time frame. This time of year its always hard to get bt to hurry.

Oh and just email ^^^^^^^ I would be surprised if your not sorted by Monday if you do.

I’d be wary of mentioning impact to your business, as I believe most suppliers have get out of jail free stuff in their t&cs. This is of course assuming you had a plain domestic contract and not a business one.

Don’t forget sky rent the lines from BT your number may have been taken back by bt.

Apparently the number goes into quarantine, to be reallocated in due course. I can’t ever get it back… So whatever happens, I’ll have to reprint my business cards etc, and try and contact 100s of people with a new number.

I’m not on BB Connect. Just ordinary broadband.

I’ve emailed the chief exec, not going to hold my breath on that! I just stated all the facts and asked him to instruct whoever is able to resolve my issue to get onto it.

I get the impression that the manager just want me to cancel and go elsewhere to absolve them of any obligation to rectify things.

Where do I stand if they try and do this? Do they have an obligation to provide uninterrupted service?

G

Broadband disappeared, and is now unavailable? Sounds like they’re trying to back out of supplying your area/postcode and don’t want to admit it!

What happens if you go on a comparison site for broadband for you area? Whether you can get a quote or not might mean, err, something.

been on the recieving end of orange and 02s reliance on the openreach service twice- never again.

took 29 days both times to have openreach sort out faults via orange and o2.

yet on the occasions we have faults (been rural for the last 6 years so faults on overheads are reasonably regular) openreach via BT have rectified them within 5 days.

Friendly neighbours helping out with you on their broadband for a short while to keep things going … ?

It’s not a line fault, they sent out an engineer to replace my Sky box last month and the call handler accidentally switched my account to one without phone or internet. So 30 days later, it shut down.

They’ve admitted they f****d up…

G

I’d be wary of mentioning impact to your business, as I believe most suppliers have get out of jail free stuff in their t&cs.

I have my number listed…

Office: xxxxxxxxxxx
Home: xxxxxxxxxx
Mobile: xxxxxxxxxxx

I don’t think that would constitute a breach of any T&Cs… Would it?

G

Sadly but thankfully I haven’t experienced such a balls up.

I have though had some previously really unhelpful dealings with BT.

I called Ofcom who took me through BTs process for resolution of such a problem explaining to me the escalation approach.

In short they basically told me the right word to use!

Things may have changed but my issue was resolved in 12hrs after my with Ofcom and then BT.

Worth a try.

Stay calm in correspondence.

You won’t get an email back from him. It will be an underling, But they kick ass. The manager(call center) will want rid of you as it’s the easy option and no one above will ever know. If they contact you again tell them you have emailed the boss and you are awaiting his response. But be nice and polite .

Thanks PK, I’ll report back if it’s successful…

G

One reason for not being able to reinstate could be post cancellling line BT won’t reallocate number back to Sky due to your local cabinet being at or near capacity. I would try BT for a new line and see if you can have number back? Not ideal but not many other options to get BB back.

I think they’re telling the truth that because it was an automatic cancellation, the number is held in quarantine for a fixed period and can’t be reconnected. It’ll then be given to a new customer somewhere down the line.

As such, I think I should expect some sort of recompense for having to reprint my stationery…

G

Issue is that they don’t care if you work from home as its a residential contract.
They do business broadband but obviously not on a rolling contract.
They have however cocked up and you rightly have recourse to compensation – just make sure you keep the business side out of it – unfortunately that will scupper you.

I had a similar problem with Sky about two years ago. I have the whole Sky package, phone, BB, satBox and yet they cancelled my BB and phone for no reason. They admitted it was their problem but it took about 2weeks and a new phone number before I was connected again.

#shonky 😕

Did they offer any recompense? I’ve had no services for 4 days now, my solicitor advised me not to cancel my direct debit to ensure that my contract with them remains…

2 weeks would be f*****g inconvenient, but at least I would get my services back. However, they’re saying that they’ve changed to requirements for line speed and won’t provide broadband on my line any more!!

FFS, it’s 2014 and I live on the outskirts of Preston, not in the Outer Frickin Hebrides!!!!!

G

Have you escalated it above the usual channel? I took advice of here once when we were having problems with BT and emailed the CEO, obviously he didn’t answer it but it was sent to a crack team who sorted the problem in no time at all.
Also I find cancelling the direct debit concentrates their minds.

If I cancel the DD, I have effectively terminated the contract. I’m in a stronger position if they’re taking my money and failing to provide me with the services I;m paying for. It’s a flagrant breach of their “1-month notice” clause in their T&Cs.

I’ve done the CEO, I’ve done the Twitters. I’ve got one of their twitter monkeys giving me the PR schpiel as we speak…

I also wrote a formal letter of complaint on Saturday to escalate their internal complaints procedure.

G

If you don’t get anywhere with sky check out boundless communications , they provide wireless broadband in the preston area

Whenever I have problems with AOL/talk talk I just cancel the DD, that usually gets them on the phone within a few days. I’ve given up ringing them, there’s no point as they just fob you off.

Good luck anyway.

Have you got the CEO’s Have you got the CEO’s email?

Were having a nightmare with sky as they never gave us what we asked for and agreed when taking out the contract. They constantly add things and the bills are getting silly now with TV, BB and Phone.

They must have some of the worst customer Service in the country, id not recommend them to anyone for this reason.

OP, no compensation for my loss at all.. Once I tried to get a new router as the old Sky one was dropping out and they tried to charge me for a new one, £36 IIRC. However I then played the “you cut me off 6mths ago blah de blah” and I ended up getting the router for free, so I suppose I got something out of them.

They are a shonky outfit if anything goes wrong. They’ll supply new stuff or add packages no problem, but try to get something fixed and you’ve had it 😕

Given the will to do so, I’m pretty certain it’s not ‘impossible’ to get a number back, as I had a roughly similar situation with my mobile number when I ported over from Orange to O2. In the process some muppet managed to lose my cherished number, and I was told by the bloke in the O2 shop that it was lost, and had gone back into quarantine ready to be reused later. I was livid, although I didn’t have business issues with losing it.
I was offered a ‘special memorable number’ to replace the random one I’d been lumbered with, which I agreed to, but which turned out to be just a totally random series of numbers again!
Not a happy bunny! A day or so later, I get a call from O2 bloke, saying good news, I’ve got your number back!
And he had, too. Asked how, he just said he’d pulled some strings with people he knew higher up the techy food chain.
I certainly wouldn’t give up on this, I’d happily be a total asshole and keep bothering them until they get fed up with the hassle and give me what I want.
Watchdog, BBC’s The One Show, the Daily Mail’s City and Finance problem department, any and all would be worth trying, because poor publicity across a wide range of media is never good.

See if you can get hold of someone at the Broadband Pro tech support side of things. They’re based in Sofia but were inherited from Be, and offer some of the best customer support I’ve ever known.

Try 03448 245 100 or 03442 411 653.