Beware sky auto compensation

Scouterdan

I have been told by Sky this evening that my auto compensation was declined because I missed my broadband activation appointment, even though the told me that I didn’t need to be home for the appointment.

I was returning to sky after a brief and unfulfilling stint with Virgin Media. All seemed to be going well appointments book for TV and broadband slight hiccup being told that I didn’t need a 2nd Q box as I had an amazon Tv this isn’t true if the salesman sells you that line.

I get my broadband activation date of 10th May. Sky tell me that I don’t need to be at home as engineer doesn’t need access to my house. A few days later I get a text from BT telling me I need to be at home for the appointment, confused I call sky who assure me that the text was sent by mistake and I didn’t need to be there for the appointment. A few days later I get another text from BT telling me that I need to be at home for the appointment, again I call sky telling them how confused I am. I get told again that I didn’t need to be home for the appointment. I ring them a few more times over the next couple of days just to make sure.

10th May arrives I travel to work excited at the prospect of have my broadband working by the time I get home. 9:30 arrives with a call from a BT engineer telling me that he couldn’t activate my broadband because I wasn’t there. I call up sky aghast that they told me I wouldn’t be needed for the appointment when I clearly was. Was told that they could reschedule until engineer updated the call. They advised me to call back tomorrow (Saturday) at 8:00am to reschedule and that auto compensation would kick in as they failed to activate my line on the day they promised.

Saturday morning - I wait till 9:30 to call just to give them time to wake up. Upon calling I find that they are not open till 10am, I call them back after 10. After a very lengthy call with them I am told that it’s completely their fault and that I was given the wrong information. I was then asked to pick 2 more dates I would be available for my broadband appointment. I pick 18th and 19th, at this point I was pretty unhappy that they were so far away but was told that the dates didn’t matter as the man would personally get my appointment brought forward as he had done many times. He told me that it would be Monday before he heard back from them and would call me, even assuring me that he would right it in such away that he couldn’t not call me or he would get in trouble.

Monday - no call from the man.

Tuesday - I call up speak to a very nice Scottish woman, after taking a huge amount of time to read my vast amounts of notes on my call, informs me that BT still haven’t confirmed the dates for the new appointment and that I can never have a fibre broadband installation expedited. I should call back tomorrow and see if there is a date this is after the man tries to sell me sky movies.

Wednesday- I call up dreading what today will bring. Finally talk to someone and get a date 22nd of May that’s 12 days after my initial appointment but at this point I just need the broadband to be fitted. I discuss again the auto compensation and I’m told that it kicked in and I was covered by this. I have several arguments with departments about being charged for parts of my service that are unavailable to me as I don’t have broadband, I get these refunded as loss of service with a get £10 good will payment from the broadband team.

Wednesday 22nd May arrives. BT engineer fits my broadband, the kids a finally happy they can watch YouTube unboxing videos again. I wait a couple of days before calling sky to ask about the compensation and was told that it would be £25 after querying this as £5 per day including original activation day was £60, I was told it takes 30 days to fully calculate the amount I pay my fist bill and wait.

25 June after 33 days I haven’t heard anything. I call I sky to be told that my auto compensation claim had been declined as I missed my initial appointment on the 10th May. After arguing that I find the miss the appointment I’m told that there is nothing they can do as its automated but they can give me £9.50 of my phone bill for the next 3 months as a “good will gesture”. Sky customer service at its best.

Boohoo

I would just take the £28.50 from Sky and just move on.


With this auto compo the company paying out will want to get their money back from somebody.


Sky pay OR for the work to be carried out and Sky said no home visit needed. Maybe OR have billed Sky for the failed visit and then Sky tried to get the money back by saying the your broadband was not connected on the day it should be but as nobody was at home it is not OR's fault so no compo from OR to Sky.


I think if your are within your cooling off period you can leave penalty free but then you would be without phone/broadband for a few weeks waiting for the new provider to connect you.