sky forcing customer to stay despite no service

Magiksen_2

My sister moved house in December. She called sky and said she wanted to continue using them for the TV phone and Internet.
She moved house and it turned out there was no cabling down for Internet / phone in the new build so she is still without Internet nearly four months on.
So Sky can't provide what she signed up to but as they can still provide the TV they're charging her for that and not letting her out of the contract!
It's costing £21.50 a month and she can't even use it properly as it can't connect to the Internet!
Sky say that when you sign up to a bundled package there are three separate contracts of phone/TV/broadband. This was not made clear when she signed up. She thought it was one contract for all three services.

Does anyone know if it's legal for sky to do this? They aren't charging for the phone and broadband but they're still saying that my sister is tied to them for TV.

As for BT open reach.. I have no idea how long they're going to take but my sister is already thinking of moving out in June mainly due to this.

I hope someone out there can help!

mije1983

Yes I believe all 3 are seperate contracts as you don't have to have all 3 if you choose not to.

They are providing the service they can (TV) so they will charge for that part of the deal and she will be tied into whatever minimum term she agreed.

If the problem is with the actual cabling not being present, no provider that uses a BT line will be able to give her a service. So that counts out everyone bar Virgin, and with it being a new build it's unlikely that cable is available currently.

Has your sister talked to the builders/site manager to see when they think OR will be enabling the phone service?

Magiksen_2

Yes she has been speaking with them but they keep saying 'in two weeks time' which clearly it hasn't been! Thanks so much for the information you gave me.

Magiksen_2

What makes it worse is that next door took the last cable so they have to put new ones in before she can even get connected.

macman

What 'cable' are you referring to? The basic Sky service is delivered via the sat dish, no internet connection is required. So why can she not use the TV service? What she won't be able to get without broadband are the on-demand services.
It's not Sky's fault that the developer has not arranged the landline provision with OR in time.

Pincher

There is a BT black cable that terminates in the junction box in the front of the house, shared between two semis. It contains four pairs of wires, so we can have four landlines between the two semis.


Currently, they have two landlines, I have two landlines.
No spare wires, so BT has to pull another cable from the nearest cabinet if we want more.


Fortunately, the Virgin cable TV junction box has a phone line cable too, so it is possible to have a third if I really want to.


When a neighbour moves out, they cancel their landline, so one pair becomes de-allocated. Obviously you have to jump in quick, place an order before the next tenant does. Open Reach will come and find the spare pair, cut it, and splice in the cable to your flat.


The new neighbour says, what's going on, there was a working phone line when he viewed, and he asked how fast the broadband was. Eventually, he finds the cut wires, and feels cheated.


Actually, that's what just happened to you.

System

I am as confused as everybody else. You have a working phone line, and I assume that Sky can put up a satellite TV dish for Sky TV. This does not need any phone connection to work. The bit that does need a working phone is ON DEMAND services: that is, the internet. In most homes this just uses the existing phone line with the phone and internet signals filtered out at the master junction box. I am not sure why you think that you need a third 'pair'.

Edit: Thinking about this a bit more. The issue may be that Sky cannot take over the existing line from BT as it is being used for shared services with the adjacent property. The answer to your problem may be that you ditch Sky internet and go for an internet service with BT or another BTW-provider such as Talk Talk. I have Sky TV and ON DEMand on Sky via Zen ISP on a BT line.

iniltous

Seems to be some confusion here, it seems to me that the OP's sister is paying Sky for TV,but doesn't have the on demand services that come 'free' with it, as they don't have a landline and broadband,which they also ordered from Sky but has not been provided
Because of the failure to provide a phone service they want to be released penalty free from the TV contract , but Sky are saying the TV and phone contracts are separate , and they have fulfilled the TV contract, so to cancel it early will bring early termination charges, they are not charging for the phone as it isn't provided.
The OP position is that as they failed to supply TV and phone they should be able to walk away penalty free from everything...it's a tricky one,

I hate to say it but I think Sky probably right, if the TV contract is 12 months and you want to end it early ETC 's apply, why would the OP order TV from Sky knowing it's a 12 month contract and because the phone it's available want to cancel it ?, if the phone /internet is so important that they would move home because of the lack of it, they probably should have ensured it's availability before moving in
It's quite possible OR are paying Sky compensation for not providing a phone line, but are Sky obliged to compensate their customer, perhaps they should check Sky's T&C's