SSE broadband feedback

MysteryMan00

I tried to change over. Was told 3 weeks to switch the landline then, after that, they'd request broadband to be switched which would take 7 days - and I'd be without it for that 7 days.

4 weeks after the start of the 3 weeks, I called to ask what was going on.
I found that no visit had been booked in - so they booked it then. If I hadn't called, god only knows when they might have spotted their error.

The switch happened. After 8 days with no broadband I called and asked if there was a problem. "Oh, there's been a problem - we haven't requested the broadband switch. I'll do it now and it will be 7 days"

They said "but you can't use it anyway as we haven't sent the router yet". Well, I use my own and it begs the question - why hadn't they sent it ready for the end of the 7 day window?

This was it for me. All these errors before we got started - no way I was getting into an 18 month contract with them. They're out of their depth.

I waited 20 mins to speak to a complaints person. He was very busy!! He tried T&C'ing me - telling me 7 days was just a target, not a promise. It took a bit of explaining till he got that the 7 days wasn't the issue - it was that they hadn't booked the switch and only realised their error when I called - and it had happened with both the landline and the broadband.

Anyway, I got them to allow me to switch with no fees to pay. They said as I'd complained, Ofcom requires them to send me a complaints pack. 2 weeks later - not received.

Btw - arranged a switch with someone else after that call. It's happening (all in 1 go) later this week. Much faster and better than SSE.

neviril

Update:

I didn't think it could get any worse but it did...

On the 27th of July an engineer was supposed to come out between 8 and 1, he didn't show up so I rang SSE they said he must have gone outside and not gone to the house and he must have assumed we already had the router and modem (which we didn't). I don't care if this is an SSE or BT or Openreach engineer as I'm SSE's customer I expect them to handle these things.
SSE was sorry and told me they could sent me the router by post but because it was after 1 it wouldn't arrive the next day. (I don't get why they didn't sent me the stupid router the day I signed up with them!?)
Anyway just before 6pm an engineer shows up saying he's been trying to call all day (he was clearly not notified that the phone line wasn't working) and apparently it wasn't in his job description to fix anything so he couldn't install the internet either but he did leave a modem/router.

So now we still had to wait till the 29th for the other engineer to show up to fix the phone line (& install the internet). At this point I didn't have much hope.
But fair enough the guy shows up spends hours fixing the phone line and the installs the internet, tests it, it works!
So to be honest I expected to have to pay starting from the 29th because before the phone line didn't work, but they still sent me out a bill between the 10th of July and beginning of August, they gave me a ten pound credit but this still means I'm paying for a service that didn't work which is ridiculous...

Here is where it got worse

Monday the 10th of August the internet stops working. Of course you can't ring SSE after 8pm so rang them first thing Tuesday morning as always customer service is poor, putting you on hold for over ten minutes and saying they'll call back within the hour but then they don't!
So he has to find out whatever the hell is wrong, I had an appointment so couldn't stay home so it was probably around 4 before I was able to call them back again.
Turns out my order had been 'rejected or cancelled' and even though someone can apparently switch me off at 9pm they can't just switch me back on again. They'll have to send an engineer... But they can't sent one until the 27th of august!!! So it takes them 17 days to send another engineer out.

At this point I was just crying on the phone, I had an online job interview which I now had to cancel, I could have had a job by now but instead I'm waiting and waiting and waiting for the internet, and when I finally get internet they'll just take it away from me again!

As a temporarily solution they told me they could sent me a dongle I told them that wouldn't work because there's only 1g/2g in the area. The agent treated me like an absolute idiot saying it would be fine so they sent out a dongle and obviously it doesn't work! Pages take ten minutes to try and load but then it just stops.

So that's it then, my temporary internet doesn't work, I've got to wait until the 27th before they'll sent an engineer out again it's been almost 3 months without internet and they still bill me. I'm absolutely disgusted with their service and would recommend this to no one.

dm01_2

27/07/15 Received email from BT about price rises and saying i could leave without penalty within 30 days, so went through TCB to sign up to SSE Phone and Fibre Broadband deal online, which would cut my costs by more than a third.

01/08/15 SSE Letter stating I have a verbal agreement with SSE on 29th for the above services, (odd since it was all done online on the 27th but anyway), advising me I would receive a further letter from them with landline and broadband activation dates within 2 weeks, never received any other letters/emails from them to date.

10/08/15 Letter from BT (dated 03/08/15) telling me im switching landline on 17th August but as Im keeping my broadband with them they are putting me on a new more expensive contract!!! I ring them and they tell me they cant cancel my broadband without canceling the switch for landline and I must get SSE to request the switch, try calling SSE but on hold then disconnected their end.

13/08/15 After 30 minutes on hold SSE I explain situation to them, polite lady tells me they can do switch for broadband on same day as I have Fibre and landline with BT already, so will send out modem and router with id & password in the box ahead of 17th.

17/08/15 Switch day but no equipment and no switch, I ring SSE at 6pm get through again after 30 minutes on hold, they said phone due to go live by midnight today but broadband not ordered yet cant do it same day, they insist other woman was wrong and that I will have to wait 24 hours till phone line is confirmed live from BT before they can request engineer to come out to switch fibre, now dates I can request are from 1st Septemeber onwards!!!!

All in all looks like its going to take more than the 30 days I had to switch without penalty, and so far no services from them at all. So If your in contract with BT or other provider and are switching on a penalty free 30 day offer after price rise notification, be prepared for SSE to take longer than this and go elsewhere.

dpc1979

So my story is very much the same as dm01 posts above. I rang on the 19th the dat after my phone switched. Was told the earlist Openreach can come and do an install was the 7th Sept.I informed them that i need to complete by the 2nd to avoid charges by BT. I was told to ring BT and explain the situation and hope for common sense.

So i ring BT and got a snotty women telling me BT will charge me a cancellation fee of £150 odd pounds because i have not completed in 30 days. so after arguing my points which was

1) the switch over is taking more than 30 days due to openreach - the BT women tried to tell me its not part of BT anymore - I told her that i was sure that it was and that deal has not been done yet.

2) the email from BT states that i only have to notify you about switching and nothing about completing within 30 days. I was told its in the T&C's when i asked where she couldn't answer and i was then told they dont have to print all of there T&C's

3) that technically BT was informed only that i was moving my phone service on the first date and not my broadband and as BT list phone and broadband as separate services and contracts then when BT was notified that my Broadband was switching on the 19th then 30 days should be from that date for my broadband service.

All i got was well its not and its in the T&C's after asking if she could send them to me and what section its in i was informed a manager would ring me back within the hour.

about 10 minutes after the phone call to BT i got a email from them stating my broadband was switching on the 7th and

Charges for ending your contract early
You won't have to pay any charges for ending your contract.

Yipee I then get another phone call 10 minutes after that from a BT manager who told me that there would be no cancellation charges.


Today 20th i received my SSE Fibre router which is a Technicolor TG799VN v2. i have read some good and bad things about this router and though i would plug it in just to see hat i can and cant do with it.

THE PROBLEM is that i cant log in to it using IP on the information card in the box. i have then read that the password is set to the serial no of the router. I have tried this many times with and without caps and no luck in getting into it.

I was also hoping to stick with my Asus RT66n which is currently plugged into a BTopenreach fibre modem. Does anybody know if the SSE broadband login is a generic one (like bthomehub@btinternet.com) or a account specific username/password. So that i can use my own Router and not bother with the technicolor.

SouthSimon

Price Changes

Just had a quick look at SSE website as still deciding about switching. Looks like the prices have gone up already. All the Landline monthly rental prices have changed except for the basic package of £12. If you want evening or 24/7 calls line rental now starts at £15, Hmm not sure going to change now. With all the other complaints on here about installation issues I will probably stay with Virgin at least it works.

Hump

Started the switch in July, migrating from EE, to save about £50. No problems, phone switched then had to wait 2+ weeks for the broadband which meant I incurred about 10 days of additional ee charges bringing the saving over the year down to a bit less than £40. As others found, if you already have caller ID then SSE will assume you still want it at £3+is per month, which would wipe out my savings completely - however to their credit they wrote to say I had it and having read the terms and realising there was a charge I called them up and they knocked it off the system and credited the account. Fingers crossed, saving money and possibly better customer service than Sky or Ee (IMHO)

jjcarv

We signed up for the Superfast Broadband and Phone deal at the start of July, with an expected swap over date of 3rd August given - with internet following on a few days later. Whilst the phone did transfer, we still don't have the internet. Customer service has been shocking and they have effectively called my father in law a liar. We might get connected in a fortnights time but really unhappy with the service so far.

[Deleted User]

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback. I think I am going to give SSE a miss this year, as it seems just too risky to put myself at their mercy. I could handle a couple of weeks without internet, but if the dreaded gremlins show up it could be 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks or even longer from what I can gather. Maybe next year then. Good luck to those still waiting for their problems to be resolved, you really do have my sympathy , and good luck to those who decide to take the leap in the next few weeks.

saynotofastway

I'm currently in the process of transfer to SSE Fibre from TalkTalk fibre.

Was annoyed that they initially said i'd be without broadband for 7 days but as i get 4G on my phone and unlimited tethering not a massive inconvenience.

Anyway, TalkTalk had disconnected me on the 25th and at some point on the 26th the phone line went active with SSE. They initially told me to wait for engineer in between 1-6 and noone turned up and when I rang up about this they said I wasn't informed I'd needed to be in, which they did.

I then asked where my router is as it still hasn't turned up, they said it would turn up a few days after fibre order is placed! Then he told me they couldn't place the fibre order yet as you had to wait a day before it can be done. I now have to wait for someone to ring me on Friday for some reason to book fibre date and they said I could be without internet for up to 2 weeks.

Not happy at all. Tethering hammers my phone battery so don't want to leave it on all day and my daughter is lost without the internet. As we are tv license free in this house and rely on catch up tv we are also having to live off blurays until it gets switched back on.

Beginning to wish i'd just stayed with TalkTalk :mad:

AprilLady

I'd been seriously considering switching to SSE with the price rises at Plusnet, but after reading the posts above I'm not too keen now! Plusnet have phoned me twice this week to 'check I'm on the best package', but could only offer me about a pound discount when I said I was thinking of leaving. Maybe I'll try haggling again!
Thank you to the people who've switched for sharing your stories!