Crossed line and no broadband

hellen456

I am a Sky customer and since Wednesday have had someone else’s phone line in my home, no internet and someone else with my phone line. I have been on to sky to report this, which is proving to be very difficult. An open reach engineer came out yesterday, apparently, and it was reported to be resolved. It isn’t resolved and I now have to take time off work for an engineer to access my property on Tuesday. In the meantime I am receiving calls and messages intended for the other people who’s phone line is accessible in my home as is mine in their home. I asked sky if they could put a bar on the phone lines while this is being dealt with but was told they can’t do that. Surely they are breaching the new data protection act by allowing this to continue as I know the names, phone number and other information about these people and have no doubt they also know information about me and my family. I have now unplugged the phone as I feel wrong about using it. I have made an official complaint but feel they are not taking this seriously enough.

iniltous

Has the other party involved, the 'owner' of the number that is incorrectly available in your home, reported the issue to their provider, and do you know who this provider is ?
It does seem odd that, even if Sky have nothing to do with the other line , they cannot temporarily bar outgoing calls being made from from your number , obviously reducing the risk of any billing complaints from you when the problem is sorted out, and they should offer to divert incoming calls to your landline number to your mobile free of charge, ( if that would be of benefit to you.)
No doubt , someone will be along saying the problem isn't of Sky's making and the crossed line is probably down to an Openreach error , which is true, but as you cannot contact OR about this , it is down to Sky to get it resolved via OR.
Personally , out of curiosity , I would plug the phone back in, and dial 17070 , if the AVR is something like, 'Hi , I'm Zoe' then you are crossed with another Sky customer.

hellen456

The other line is bt as I’ve had messages from them on the phone to let the other people know there is a fault. Obviously they can’t get these messages so I thought I would ring bt to inform them. They were awful, The customer service advisor said she understood my isssue but couldn’t help as I wasn’t a bt customer. I told her that surely she could try as she had the other peoples account details from the phone I was ringing from. She informed me that without their permission she couldn’t do that as it broke data protection laws. This is when I said I thought data protection had already been compromised because of the situation. I have rung the phone and it just rings out. I think it’s the house across the road. It’s been sold, nobody has fully moved in yet but I’m only guessing it’s them.

iniltous

hellen456 wrote: »

The other line is bt as I’ve had messages from them on the phone to let the other people know there is a fault. Obviously they can’t get these messages so I thought I would ring bt to inform them. They were awful, The customer service advisor said she understood my isssue but couldn’t help as I wasn’t a bt customer. I told her that surely she could try as she had the other peoples account details from the phone I was ringing from. She informed me that without their permission she couldn’t do that as it broke data protection laws. This is when I said I thought data protection had already been compromised because of the situation. I have rung the phone and it just rings out. I think it’s the house across the road. It’s been sold, nobody has fully moved in yet but I’m only guessing it’s them.

TBH, any provider, asked to accept a fault report for a number from anyone but the account holder would be breaching data protection and what's more, (maybe not in this case, but in general) if a fault is raised by anyone other than the account holder , and the visit turns out to be chargeable , then how are the charges valid, if the account holder didn't get the warning about potential charges if the 'fault' turns out to be nothing OR are responsible for.
You are not a BT customer, if you are not happy with the way the fault is being handled it's your providers responsibility to sort it out, not BT...if the other party's provider is BT then obviously BT is responsible for them

AndyPK

On the plus side you could ring the other person up using your phone number and have a chat about it

hellen456

Yes I've done that and found out its actually my next door neighbour. She has changed from sky to Bt. She waited in all day yesterday for an engineer, who didn't show. Was told they would come today, no show again, and now has been told Wednesday. So I've got one coming on Tuesday and she has on Wednesday, what a joke. Just shows how little communication goes on between communication companies.

ValiantSon

hellen456 wrote: »

I am a Sky customer and since Wednesday have had someone else’s phone line in my home, no internet and someone else with my phone line. I have been on to sky to report this, which is proving to be very difficult. An open reach engineer came out yesterday, apparently, and it was reported to be resolved. It isn’t resolved and I now have to take time off work for an engineer to access my property on Tuesday. In the meantime I am receiving calls and messages intended for the other people who’s phone line is accessible in my home as is mine in their home. I asked sky if they could put a bar on the phone lines while this is being dealt with but was told they can’t do that. Surely they are breaching the new data protection act by allowing this to continue as I know the names, phone number and other information about these people and have no doubt they also know information about me and my family. I have now unplugged the phone as I feel wrong about using it. I have made an official complaint but feel they are not taking this seriously enough.

No, this is not a breach of the Data Protection Act, nor of GDPR. Don't make this part of your complaint.

Lorian

hellen456 wrote: »

Yes I've done that and found out its actually my next door neighbour. She has changed from sky to Bt. She waited in all day yesterday for an engineer, who didn't show. Was told they would come today, no show again, and now has been told Wednesday. So I've got one coming on Tuesday and she has on Wednesday, what a joke. Just shows how little communication goes on between communication companies.

Make sure the openreach engineer is wearing his glasses this time.

Neighbours fault stands a reasonable chance of getting fixed by your appointment too.

It shouldn't really need access to either property, other than to test.

hellen456

Yes hopefully it will get sorted on Tuesday. At least now I don't need to take time off as my neighbour said she will let them in my house if they need access. I need it sorting for my sanity tbh as my fifteen year old is driving me crazy about it.