SKY Broadband Cut Off Before Exchange by Owners To Be

moneyistooshorttomention

patman99 wrote: »

Buy yourself a PAYG mobile phone and make sure to keep all the receipts for the phone and top-ups.

Make sure your solicitor informs them that as THEY transferred THEIR broadband to YOUR number and address without obtaining YOUR permission, THEY are responsible for any and all costs incurred by you in remedying this.

They had an extreme cheek in doing this. They don't own the property (yet) so are in no position to start switching service providers.

Out of spite, I would arrange for the phone line to be disconnected at the exchange the day you complete. Now that would cost them a few quid to deal with.

No need for that.

It's probably down to Sky inefficiency - rather than any deliberate act by the buyers so to say.

The buyers probably told Sky the date they thought they would be in - and then there were further housebuying problems and Sky got told "Postpone it" by the buyers - but no record of their postponement request got transmitted through Sky's system.

I had to give a "start up of MY system" date to my Internet/phone provider when I bought current house pretty recently and, in the event, discovered that my provider had "started it all up" a couple of days or so sooner than I had agreed with them. It didn't matter in the event - because previous owner was deceased and house was empty anyway - but obviously it would have had an impact on the last owner if they had still been in residence. That wouldn't have been my fault. It would have been the fault of my provider.

princeofpounds

I don't know what the timescales involved for exchange and completion were supposed to be, but the handover of a landline can often take more than a week (I have been through these delays myself, it's particularly bad if you are swapping companies) and I understand the temptation to put in the request in advance of completion (although in advance of exchange is indeed jumping the gun).


Sky, when they get a request, are supposed to write to confirm (one of the reasons for the delay). It seems they did do that. You can't really fault them here; this is the correct procedure.


This is unfortunate, but there is more stupidity than malice in the chain of events.


I agree with Patman here that the best thing to do is probably to come to an arrangement where they reimburse you for the costs of a cheap PAYG mobile.

tom9980

My parents went through this last year with BT they were on holiday, a neighbour wanted a second line with broadband so someone deemed it a good idea to use an existing customers number. Obviously my parents couldn't respond to the letter, they lost broadband and phone number for 3-4 weeks and had a nightmare getting it sorted.

stokesley

Vaguely similar scenario, though mine happened in the 2 weeks between exchange and completion.


Edited highlights: phone line with BT, broadband with aol (shudder). Told BT we would be moving on x date, and to cancel phone from then. BT jumped the gun, cut off the phone immediately, and advised aol, who cut off our broadband. We were also blissfully unaware that BT had transferred our new telephone number to our vendors; they spent a fortnight wondering why they had no incoming telephone calls or internet.


Sadly, I can't give you a happy ending. Both aol and BT had nightmare call centres and I gave up, lived without landline and internet for a fortnight, and advised our change of address to everyone by snail mail. Cost a fortune...


Good luck - sounds as if something similar has happened to you.

ccskitten

I am currently in the same situation. I am due to complete Friday 5 February. We are currently with Sky. We called them to move our phone, broadband and TV from our completion date and they cut off our phone immediately. We thought they were doing it in advance of Friday so thought nothing of it. However, my vendor has since complained that hers has also been cut off.

I don't think it is your buyers fault as we clearly stated we weren't moving until 5 February but Sky went ahead anyway.

Dan-Dan

Same happened to us , our phone and BB were taken over by a third party , the only way i knew anything was occurring was checking a little used email account to see an email from BT in there

Cracken

Nicki wrote: »

Is there a working phone line just with a different number? If so, would the buyers to be not let you give that number as a temporary fix for hospital and work calls? Likewise if their broadband is up and running on their bill why can you not agree with them that you will use it until completion?

Not ideal but a practical fix perhaps. As they shouldn't have cut off your services it's not unreasonable they pick up the bill for the broadband and certainly non-international phone calls until completion

Thanks for your contribution Nicki this is spot on. The most sensible and obvious solution that's likely to give me the outcome I need without having to wrestle with Sky or get caught up in a new contract as warned by eddddy etc. Failing that I'll have to use a friends house until.

Thanks for all the concern over my post. Yes I have access (it's being sent to the in-laws who live nearby to the new property) and I'm not jumping the gun and I'm being pro-active. Just bear in mind things are not always straight forward, you never expect your wife to be on bed rest with pregnancy problems and your mother-in-law to be diagnosed with breast cancer while while trying to move house and change jobs - the result is I missed opening opening a letter from sky in time. Things like this just happen in life at times and I'm just battling through a lot of stuff to get things sorted for my family.

Thanks to everyone else for your input - some really good advice there

davidmcn

This is where snail mail supposedly being more reliable and "official" doesn't always work. I tend to presume that any post from my telecoms provider is junk trying to sell me additional services.

If they wanted to warn me that somebody claimed to be moving into my house and they were about to cut me off, I'd be more likely to pay attention if they contacted me by email or (since they obviously have my number!) by phone.

Cracken

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

No need for that.

It's probably down to Sky inefficiency - rather than any deliberate act by the buyers so to say.

The buyers probably told Sky the date they thought they would be in - and then there were further housebuying problems and Sky got told "Postpone it" by the buyers - but no record of their postponement request got transmitted through Sky's system.

I had to give a "start up of MY system" date to my Internet/phone provider when I bought current house pretty recently and, in the event, discovered that my provider had "started it all up" a couple of days or so sooner than I had agreed with them. It didn't matter in the event - because previous owner was deceased and house was empty anyway - but obviously it would have had an impact on the last owner if they had still been in residence. That wouldn't have been my fault. It would have been the fault of my provider.

Totally agree - I think there is enough spite in this world without adding to it. I'm absolutely sure it's innocent, unintentional and most likely SKY's inefficiencies as you say.

POPPYOSCAR

Sorry OP but I have never heard of someone being "Proactive" and having their post redirected before they have even exchanged contracts.


Very strange.