Money back in mobile data for time without broadband?

marvelman1985

Hi everyone, wondering if you would be kind enough to offer your advice on a query I have regarding the recent trials and tribulations I experienced when moving house and my Sky broadband account with it.

LONG VERSION (scroll for TL;DR)
Basically, I moved towns and took my Sky BB package with me, but the property was a refurbished build in a block of flats and seemingly needed some form of telephone line activation from Openreach as we are the first tenants in the flat. A little annoying, but all well and good.

Unfortunately Sky told us that the first available day Openreach could activate the line was 6 weeks away, which would fall 2 weeks after I moved in to the property. Not ideal as I use internet heavily for work, but then I thought "I'll just use data on my iPhone, it's only 2 weeks. It'll be fine!"

Time eventually moves along and then we get a call a few days before the activation date from Sky telling us there's some kind of bigger cabling problem and Openreach will not now be able to activate for another 3 weeks due to work they have to undertake to fix the issue. So we rebook the appointment. Now it's getting very annoying as my mobile data charges are starting to add up - my bundled data has run out and I'm having to purchase bolt ons (I'm with O2, pay monthly FYI).

A few days before the NEW activation data and, for some reason, I just have a feeling like something else will go wrong so I ring Sky to check everything is ok. Good job I did. They have no record of the booking. I don't know who I spoke to previously, but apologies are profuse. However, the only thing they can do is rebook ANOTHER appointment with Openreach. And this will now be a further 3 weeks wait. Well, I'm pretty bloody angry by this point as I'm having to purchase data bolt on after bolt on, which has resulted in mobile phone bills of £60 and £80 for the two billing periods I've been in my new property so far (my normal bill is usually ~£30).

Finally, two months after moving in to the property (and three months after initially ringing Sky) my broadband is activated. Hooray.

My question to you: Can I get any money back from Sky for my mobile data charges?

TL;DR
Do I have the right to complain to Sky and ask for some monetary contribution towards my extensive mobile phone bills that have been accrued due to delays with the activation of my broadband?

Chino

marvelman1985 wrote: »

Do I have the right to complain to Sky and ask for some monetary contribution towards my extensive mobile phone bills that have been accrued due to delays with the activation of my broadband?

Clause 9(e) of Sky's Broadband Terms & Conditions – UK ("http://www.sky.com/shop/terms-conditions/broadband/") states:

"9. What we are not liable for
We will not be liable under this Contract to you, or any other person who you allow to use Sky Broadband, for:
...
(e) any delay or failure by us to provide any element of Sky Broadband or part of it where such delay or failure is caused by events outside our reasonable control. Matters outside our reasonable control include (but are not limited to) severe weather conditions, epidemic, civil disorder, terrorist activity, war and government action;"

So Sky might refuse to reimburse you for your expenses incurred as a result of delays caused by Openreach but it might be worth trying to claim for the additional expense you incurred as a result of Sky losing your order.

marvelman1985

Chino wrote: »

Clause 9(e) of Sky's Broadband Terms & Conditions – UK states:

"9. What we are not liable for
We will not be liable under this Contract to you, or any other person who you allow to use Sky Broadband, for:
...
(e) any delay or failure by us to provide any element of Sky Broadband or part of it where such delay or failure is caused by events outside our reasonable control. Matters outside our reasonable control include (but are not limited to) severe weather conditions, epidemic, civil disorder, terrorist activity, war and government action;"

So Sky might refuse to reimburse you for your expenses incurred as a result of delays caused by Openreach but it might be worth trying to claim for the additional expense you incurred as a result of Sky losing your order.

I see! Thanks for pulling that out of the T&C's - I probably should have checked that myself, sorry.

In which case, I think I will put together an email to ask if they will compensate my data charges for the additional delay caused by their error.