Sky Phoneline Crackling

Orlando_Virgin

Hi All,

Hope you can help.

Having recently moved into my new home I have had a phoneline activated and got Sky Broadband and Sky Talk. For the first few weeks the line was fine and although the speed of the broadband is average, the line clarity seemed ok and there wasn't any problems with connectivity.

All of a sudden a couple of weeks ago, the phoneline started to crackle and you can barely hear someone speak, as well as the internet light refusing to come on. It does occasionally but flickers and then eventually goes off.

I called Sky support and they had me try a number of things to make it better, new modem cable, different phone, take the plate off the front and try the "test socket", all still crackles.

After this she recommended sending an engineer out, to which if he finds something is wrong with "the house" then we would be responsible for payment of a £100 call out fee plus £74 an hour after to fix. I wasn't comfortable with this because there was nothing on paper and they could tell me anything.

What is the best step from here and why has this happened all of a sudden??

Orlando_Virgin

I've also just read the post about vandalised phoneline above and that makes me even more nervous about them sending an engineer out to see whose fault it is.

Sky say I have tried everything that could be my fault so I "SHOULD" be ok.

Thats what they say, any advice all would be really welcome!!

Lost without Broadband!!

macman

I assume you are paying your line rental to Sky? If you've tested it using a 'good' handset from the test socket, with anything else that might cause interference disconnected, then the problem is almost certainly upstream of the master socket, which is not your responsibility. It's probably due to a bad connection, water ingress, cable damage, all sorts of possibilities.
They always play up the call-out charge angle to discourage people from calling them out, because they get billed by OpenReach for fixing it.

Orlando_Virgin

Thanks macman, I'm just used to getting shafted by companies so didn't want to end up footing the bill.
Adam

Orlando_Virgin

This is really getting a concern now.

I just called Sky again today after seeing no engineer and I get a different story from another guy. He says the line is showing "no fault" from his end so I would end up paying for the call out for the engineer. There is no way I am paying hundreds of pounds for an engineer to fix a phoneline fault, but at the moment I'm paying for nothing, as I can't use the landline nor internet.

I can't cancel the phoneline as its a 12 month contract and all they're saying is you can write to the complaints department! How long is that going to take!!

SO FRUSTRATING.

duchy

Presume you also changed your filters (and filtered all phone sockets) and checked to see if crackle goes away when router is turned off ?

Orlando_Virgin

duchy wrote: »

Presume you also changed your filters (and filtered all phone sockets) and checked to see if crackle goes away when router is turned off ?

Yeah, there was another 2 filters in the box from Sky, I tried them both and no change. I've tried the phone in the test socket with nothing else connected and router off and still no change.

There is only one phone socket in the house as far as I can see.

We've changed the phones, the cables to the phones, I really don't know what else we can do.

pinkhammy

Hi,
This has just happened to me! Recently changed to sky and had no problems until last week and now can hardly hear anyone speaking when they call the house phone.
Not feeling too hopeful in Sky helping after reading ur post ;-(

macman

Orlando_Virgin wrote: »

Yeah, there was another 2 filters in the box from Sky, I tried them both and no change. I've tried the phone in the test socket with nothing else connected and router off and still no change.

There is only one phone socket in the house as far as I can see.

We've changed the phones, the cables to the phones, I really don't know what else we can do.

You've done everything correctly to establish that the fault is on the BT side of the network. You just have to call Sky again and insist that they escalate the fault to OpenReach, because there is noise on the line. It's not always possible to detect this at their end.

Orlando_Virgin

macman wrote: »

You've done everything correctly to establish that the fault is on the BT side of the network. You just have to call Sky again and insist that they escalate the fault to OpenReach, because there is noise on the line. It's not always possible to detect this at their end.

I've ordered a Sky engineer out anyway, we'll see what happens. I'm really wary about all this, they are still adamant there is no fault showing on their system but when I plug the telephone only into the test socket its crackling worse than ever before.

They say they will send an open reach engineer out to the exchange to do some tests from there to the test socket and if he doesn't find a fault he will visit the house. If he doesn't find a fault on the property I will pay for the engineer's time. £99 call out charge and £64.50 an hour therefore after.

I would stay locked to this thread because knowing my luck I am going to end up in a lengthy battle with Sky over payment, I don't know what else to do I'm currently paying for a landline and broadband and getting nothing in return, but risk paying ridiculous fees to BT if I don't try to have it fixed.

Orlando_Virgin

Orlando_Virgin wrote: »

I've ordered a Sky engineer out anyway, we'll see what happens. I'm really wary about all this, they are still adamant there is no fault showing on their system but when I plug the telephone only into the test socket its crackling worse than ever before.

They say they will send an open reach engineer out to the exchange to do some tests from there to the test socket and if he doesn't find a fault he will visit the house. If he doesn't find a fault on the property I will pay for the engineer's time. £99 call out charge and £64.50 an hour therefore after.

I would stay locked to this thread because knowing my luck I am going to end up in a lengthy battle with Sky over payment, I don't know what else to do I'm currently paying for a landline and broadband and getting nothing in return, but risk paying ridiculous fees to BT if I don't try to have it fixed.

As I suspected its never straight forward. They sent out an OpenReach engineer yesterday who checked from the exchange to the mast, no problems, so he needs to get into the property, we were both at work so I have to make another appointment.

I guarantee they find some sort of old cabling or work on our property that they argue I will have to pay for, oh well I will make another appointment. Even more worrying, I now appear to have no dialtone whatsoever, rather than the crackling.