How to claim against Sky?

RobDewar

Hello,

I've had a long standing complaint against Sky for a lack of broadband over a couple of months. Went through the Ombudsman who were fairly useless and rejected the case. They said they didn't consider laws and legislation in their decisions (which I later found to be wrong but can't appeal their decisions). I'm now forced down the legal route and trying to raise a small claim against them through the courts. Only problem now is that I live in England and they are registered in Scotland. I can't raise the claim online through MCOL because the company must have an English postcode but the Scottish site says I can only raise a claim by going to the local council which from the south of England would be a VERY long trip...

Anyone know how this is supposed to work? I'm a bit confused about whose jurisdiction this falls under.

Thanks

Johno100

And why are you so sure it's Sky's fault and not Openreach?

JJ_Egan

What are you going to claim for ??

tomtontom

Given the low cost of broadband, is it really worth it?

iniltous

The OP has no relationship with Openreach, Sky is their provider , it's doesn't matter where the problem is, on Sky's network or the the third party that Sky use to get their service to the OP's property, the end user pays Sky for a service, not Openreach, if Sky don't deliver that's Sky fault, if Sky want to persue OR should that be where the problem was/is they are at liberty to do that, not the OP

RobDewar

Thanks all for the replies. Yes I took the same standpoint as iniltous in thinking that Sky are the people I'm paying the subscription to so they should legally be liable for not providing the service I'm paying for.

The complaint went back and forth a lot and eventually was fixed when an engineer came out but this was 2 months down the line and with a lot of chasing and nagging. I'm looking to claim the costs back of those months where I didn't have broadband but was paying for it.

It is this whole faceflate thing which I know is a very contentious issue. The engineer said that the problem was wires which had fused together within the faceplate but Sky claimed that his report said it was down to cosmetic damage to the faceplate (i.e. suggesting I was to blame). I had a similar problem when I first took out the package (this time problems with the wiring in some sort of junction box outside) and they got an engineer out and fixed it within the week and compensated me without me even asking which I thought was great service. Maybe it made me complacent but I think for 2 months with no service and a lot of time spent chasing I should be entitled to something back.

JJ_Egan

Yes a refund of your payments for the no broadband period .

System

[QUOTE=RobDewar;69677373

It is this whole faceflate thing which I know is a very contentious issue. The engineer said that the problem was wires which had fused together within the faceplate but Sky claimed that his report said it was down to cosmetic damage to the faceplate (i.e. suggesting I was to blame). I had a similar problem when I first took out the package (this time problems with the wiring in some sort of junction box outside) and they got an engineer out and fixed it within the week and compensated me without me even asking which I thought was great service. Maybe it made me complacent but I think for 2 months with no service and a lot of time spent chasing I should be entitled to something back.[/QUOTE]

Take care. If Sky is suggesting that the fault is down to you (the customer) then it is possible that it will seek to recover from you any charges that BT Openreach might charge for the engineer visit and rectification. I assume that Sky advised you to run a broadband test from the test socket to rule out all faceplate/wiring/equipment issues before calling out an engineer. This is standard practice with the ISPs that I have used over the years.

macman

Assuming this is a residential contract, you have no right to any compensation for consequential losses, since there is no SLA on a residential contract. If you simply want a credit for the downtime, that should be readily given by Sky on request-why have they not done so if you have asked them to?
Taking this via the small claims process will simply be throwing money away under these circumstances.
Sky broadband costs c. £7.50 per month, so are you really prepared to go to these lengths to claim about £15?

zaax

easy http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/taking-action/small-claims