Sky holding me to ransom - appalling company

cinereus

1. Moved into a new house yesterday. I signed up to TenTel last week and needed to confirm my phone number to them.
2. Sky have co-opted the whole line and suspended all outgoing calls. Mobile numbers don't work (blocked) and BT numbers like 17070 are redirected to Sky customer services.
3. After several calls to Sky, they are still refusing to give me the phone number even though I am the new tenant. The previous account holder is needed to confirm the phone number on MY property. Everyone at Sky including several supervisors are completely unwilling to find a way to let me discover MY OWN number so I can set up a phone line. I work from home and I'm already losing 2 weeks of work despite there being an active line in the property but this is delaying things even further.

Anyone had any luck finding out their phone number on a Sky line when they are being as incredibly unhelpful as this?

duchy

You don't need the phone number to set up a line and it isn't your number it belongs to the person who had a line there previous to you. It sounds like the problem has nothing to do with the number and everything to do with the last occupant not cancelling or not paying termination charges when they left.

The reason Sky won't give you the number is because it isn't yours so to do so would breech the data protection act.

Your issue is with your new provider and the past tenant .

Browntoa

You cannot find it online. You could use a spare phone and plug it into the socket. If you get dial-tone, the dial 17070, it may give you the number.

If you contact BT, they should be able to tell you whether they had a working line there. They will not tell you the old number, for security reasons.

kwikbreaks

Won't work....

cinereus wrote: »

BT numbers like 17070 are redirected to Sky customer services.

iniltous

cinereus wrote: »

1. Moved into a new house yesterday. I signed up to TenTel last week and needed to confirm my phone number to them.
2. Sky have co-opted the whole line and suspended all outgoing calls. Mobile numbers don't work (blocked) and BT numbers like 17070 are redirected to Sky customer services.
3. After several calls to Sky, they are still refusing to give me the phone number even though I am the new tenant. The previous account holder is needed to confirm the phone number on MY property. Everyone at Sky including several supervisors are completely unwilling to find a way to let me discover MY OWN number so I can set up a phone line. I work from home and I'm already losing 2 weeks of work despite there being an active line in the property but this is delaying things even further.

Anyone had any luck finding out their phone number on a Sky line when they are being as incredibly unhelpful as this?

Although Sky are not helping you ( they have no reason to, you are not one of their customers) your real problem appears to be with the company you have chosen to use to provider your service not following industry processes
If you move into a property with a line connected but in a 'stopped' status, your new provider should be able to takeover that line without the phone number of that stopped line, but it takes a while, they arrange ( via Openreach) for a letter to be sent to your address , but for the previous occupant, saying someone has applied to takeover the line, obviously if they have already gone, the letter goes unanswered, that is taken as no problem with taking over the line, so the transfer then takes place, if you don't want to wait (I think it takes about 10 days to send the letter and await a possible reply) you could ask your new provider to provide a brand new line , but this may cost them and you more ££'s as Opernreach potentially have more work to do and may end up not being any quicker, and the OR engineer in truth would probably use the 'stopped line' anyway, but as an engineer visits your property it costs the service provider more, and they usually pass that charge on, a 'transfer' doesn't need a visit to your property , so the OR charge to the service provider is very small,

cinereus

Browntoa wrote: »

You cannot find it online. You could use a spare phone and plug it into the socket. If you get dial-tone, the dial 17070, it may give you the number.

As per my OP, it doesn't work.

iniltous wrote: »

Although Sky are not helping you ( they have no reason to, you are not one of their customers) your real problem appears to be with the company you have chosen to use to provider your service not following industry processes
If you move into a property with a line connected but in a 'stopped' status, your new provider should be able to takeover that line without the phone number of that stopped line, but it takes a while

Right. Thanks for this. Tentel is the new provider. They previously told me that if there's an active line, I can be set up within the week. However, they then took the last 6 days to confirm that even though there's an active line, Ofcom regulations require 2 weeks for them to confirm with Sky that then can takeover. This pushes my date to more than 3 weeks after my initial order. Not much use for a provider that specialises in monthly short-term contracts!

How do businesses work like this? It is really true that a person or company resident in premises needs to wait 2-3 weeks to set up a working broadband connection whether all the hardware is already in place?! In 2016?

rusty_f

Its not how business works, its the regulations as outlined by Ofcom to prevent 'slamming'. They are only following the rules.

All telcos will have this lead time for any active lines. If the line was inactive the lead time would be less.

Can you contact the previous occupier and ask them to cease the line? Same/next day ceases are possible and then when the line is inactive you can try to place your order again.

Of course, the length of time to do that may mean it is actually just quicker to place the 'working line takeover' order and wait the 10 working days.

cinereus

There's no way of contacting the old tenant as I have no idea who they are (and I have tried).

So effectively one forgetful person can disappear into the aether and royally screw over the incoming tenant and Ofcom provides no workaround whatsoever? This can't be so uncommon. How can they have more rights to the line in the property I possess than me?

rusty_f

Any exception to a process is open to abuse.

A 10 working day protects the consumer from 'slamming'. There must be enough time provided for a provider to write to the existing line owner to notify them of termination, and allow the owner to contest it. Imagine if you were living somewhere, and suddenly found that the line was taken over by someone else? You wouldn't be happy. Mistakes happen - House number 3 selected instead of 3C. And of course it could be someone doing something maliciously.

cinereus

Slamming is an issue which causes inconvenience and has multiple solutions. It's trivial to think of better alternatives and if you are slammed it seems trivial to switch back - this solution causes more inconvenience than it solves and is clearly not fit for purpose. But then, I guess it's Ofcom...

So if I can somehow track down the old tenant I can switch within a week or so?

rtho782

The line that is there is paid for by the previous tenant, it belongs to them, you are not allowed to steal it.

If you want a line now, then have a new one installed.