Home Phone Line - RANT

mercman1969

Excuse my rants

SKY is to whom I refer

I had a full television & telephone package with them paying £48.50 p/mth
Well to cut a long story short we simply dont watch television much and what we do watch is generally on freeview

Rang to cancel on 8th Jan and was told it would all cancel on 9th Feb
I called on 8th Feb to confirm it would be cancelled as we had not received any correspondence to confirm our cancellation.

After a long phone call I was pursueded to stay but at a greatly reduced monthly fee

Well on Feb 10th my home phone line ceased to work and despite phone calls everyday having to use my mobile, with some calls exceeding 2 hours we still do not have a working line!

Sky have admitted it is their error but despite promises from 10th Feb that a line will take 5 - 10 days to activate we still have no line

Another call today to be told nothing has been actioned and that they will email the correct department to resolve - also told today that our old number has been re allocated and that we cant retain it

I asked why my broadband is still active and have been told that the broadband remains active for upto 30 days and that it is likely to stop at any point

Well - as you are aware my printing business is ran from my home office and it is purely web based. I have informed them that the minute my broadband stops to expect a letter from my solicitor!

*ECKING *ANKERS - the damn left hand doesnt know what the right is doing

Its not very often i get rattled, but their sheer incompetance has got right under my skin

Can anybody recommend the cheapest/fastest way to get my home phone working again please?

Jemma-T

A lesson learned. If your line is that important don't mess about cancelling then changing your mind later and trusting some idiot in a call centre.

If I were you I'd phone back again for an update and tell them you want to be kept infomred when it's being turned on and if they can do it quicker with more manual input (ie not queuing in their (or your worst horror OpenReach's) systems). If they have cancelled your line it could take 5 working days to get things going but if they've 'cut' your line expect all sorts of problems and delays. 7-10 working days at best.

Get back on to them and keep it polite. Nobody's gonna be in the mood to help if you start mentioning lawyers and letters.

Heinz

And bear in mind Sky has 9 million customers - so you are not important to them.

mercman1969

Jemma,

Thanks for your input but could I suggest you re read my post.
You will see that i have called EVERYDAY since 9th Feb

Solicitors was only mentioned today when they told me I would possibly lose my broadband and that NOTHING had been done despite promises that it had!

As for trusting somebody in a call centre - do you not think it unreasonable to expect them to be able to administer something that they do everyday and something that IS there job and are paid a salary for?

Jemma-T wrote: »

A lesson learned. If your line is that important don't mess about cancelling then changing your mind later and trusting some idiot in a call centre.

If I were you I'd phone back again for an update and tell them you want to be kept infomred when it's being turned on and if they can do it quicker with more manual input (ie not queuing in their (or your worst horror OpenReach's) systems). If they have cancelled your line it could take 5 working days to get things going but if they've 'cut' your line expect all sorts of problems and delays. 7-10 working days at best.

Get back on to them and keep it polite. Nobody's gonna be in the mood to help if you start mentioning lawyers and letters.

Heinz

Partly your own fault or not, I am sorry to say that your experience is typical of how paying customers are treated now that the call centre mentality has taken over from the customer service mentality completely (incredibly, I am serviously considering changing my recommendation for a voice telephony calls provider from Primus Saver CPS (Penny Mobile 2 CPS) to BT simply because Primus's 'customer facing' operations have degraded so much since they outsourced to India).

penrhyn

I'm sure you are aware that Sky broadband is dependent on being a Sky TV subscriber, if you had followed through and cancelled your TV then the broadband would have ceased. You would have had to take steps to tranfer line rental back to BT and organise another ISP.
It does appear that you have been treated badly though, however I would not mention that you use the Sky broadband service for business, as Sky are only offering a domestic product.

Extract from T&Cs:
2. Using Sky Broadband (a) Sky Broadband is for private use by you and members of your household only. It must not be used for any commercial or business purpose.

theboylard

I did start to reply over an hour ago but thought better of it.

You do realise that Sky is a domestic service, and as such has no guaranteed service level?
If you are running a business from home then I hope you have other means of net access, otherwise you have a single point of failure?
If you're business is so important to you then you should have a business service that offers SLA's and has a contractual penalty clause in time of process errors just like this?
You'll get nowt from them as Heinz helpfully points out - you are a single number to them, they have more people signing everyday than leaving so they are quids in!
I also question the validity of changing to full LLU packages for telephone customers - for the majority of people it appears to be ok most of the time, but I have seen and read and had myself far too many problems with telcos that make me wonder if the cost saving is worth the hassle?

The BT line means that you have full control of which direction to take plus the cost saved by not having to reconnect to BT if you are unhappy with your provider could wipe out any savings made?

Anyways, I feel your frustration as I know exactly what it's like - I had a provider sit on my line for over a year, but I was fortunate to have cable access so they looked incrediby stupid when I updated the whole sorry saga on thinkbroadband (or adslguide as it was then) and eventually got my MAC!

utilitybroker

penrhyn wrote: »

I'm sure you are aware that Sky broadband is dependent on being a Sky TV subscriber, if you had followed through and cancelled your TV then the broadband would have ceased. You would have had to take steps to tranfer line rental back to BT and organise another ISP.
It does appear that you have been treated badly though, however I would not mention that you use the Sky broadband service for business, as Sky are only offering a domestic product.

Extract from T&Cs:
2. Using Sky Broadband (a) Sky Broadband is for private use by you and members of your household only. It must not be used for any commercial or business purpose.

The same applies to Sky Talk where the T&C say.

"Sky Talk is for your household’s own private domestic use and is not for use for any commercial or business purpose."

mercman1969

I didnt say my broadband was with Sky did I?
My broadband is with another ISP

Funny thing is - my television package hasnt stopped so why the *eck should my phone line have done!

penrhyn wrote: »

I'm sure you are aware that Sky broadband is dependent on being a Sky TV subscriber, if you had followed through and cancelled your TV then the broadband would have ceased. You would have had to take steps to tranfer line rental back to BT and organise another ISP.
It does appear that you have been treated badly though, however I would not mention that you use the Sky broadband service for business, as Sky are only offering a domestic product.

Extract from T&Cs:
2. Using Sky Broadband (a) Sky Broadband is for private use by you and members of your household only. It must not be used for any commercial or business purpose.

Jemma-T

My brother had a similar problem (accidental cancelling [by Sky]) and it pays off phoning every day, keeping names etc of whom you spoke with and push for this 'manual' fix. When I sorted this with Sky I spoke with a manager who said she'd do it 'manually'. No idea what that means but obviously it means she sorted it through her own work. I also got a gesture of goodwill (I think it was £100 or something).

I've always found Sky to provide excellent service and their CS staff are nearly always excellent. Like any CS, just phone back if you get someone you don't like the tone of.

Problems do happen so it's best not to touch things if the service is essential or get another phoneline as a backup. Not cheap but I wouldn't want to do without ADSL and phone.