Sky refusing to send engineer without charging as we are out of contract

hungrytiger

Hello,

I've been a Sky customer since 2015 paying for broadband and line rental.

In recent months, I've had issues with them over my telephone not working and not having a dial tone.  I've also always renewed year. Recently, we decided not to renew and have been paying full price with no discount since our contract ended both for line rental and broadband.

We now have the same issue again with our telephone line not having a dial tone. Having tried to get an engineer out, they have said we need to pay a charge for this because we are no longer in a fixed term contract with them and this apparently is in their terms and conditions.

Having read their terms and conditions, I can't see anything that states this. I'm not sure if anyone else can. I would have thought the fact I am paying them for a service for line rental would also cover them correcting any faults.

I'd be grateful if anyone could advise on the following:

1) Has anyone else had the same experience and how did you resolve it?

2) Are such terms and conditions even allowed? This is the first I've experienced this with any telephone/broadband provider. It seems a very unfair condition to have.

I know the easiest solution is to leave and move to a different provider or recontract with them but we don't want to be in a fixed contract any longer with anybody as we are looking to move out of our flat so I would just want to cancel the service altogether so, for now, that isn't an option.

Boohoo

Unless things have changed if you have a fault Openreach will come and see if they can fix the fault free if it is any fault on their line, equipment or exchange upto where the line enter your property.
If the fault is from/after the BT box then you will have to pay that is why it's best to make sure it's not a faulty phone first.

I don't know if Sky are saying you have to pay first and then somebody comes out and they will refund you if the faults is with Openreach I am not sure but I would call again and ask to be put through to somebody higher up the chain of command.

JJ_Egan

As above .

You really need to check its not your fault to avoid charge up to £175 .

Check phone and connections and filters .

redux

This house had a problem of some incoming calls not ringing, or hanging up a couple of seconds after answer, or difficult or impossible to hear at one or both ends. Also internet was dropping to 4 Mb/s, long latency time, intermittently unavailable, or dropping out when the phone rang.

I discussed this with Sky, who said the remote tests they did indicated no line faults and this was within the house. I promised myself to do some tests with the router plugged straight into the master socket, but I was slow to get around to this, as it's right at the back of the cupboard under the stairs.

A few weeks later I switched to Plusnet. The line didn't become active when expected. They arranged an Openreach visit which did a series of tests in house and outside, and established there was a line fault about 400m away, possibly at a roadside cabinet. Eventually they discovered 2 or 3 dozen other lines were also affected. I went away for a few days, and eventually my calls home were answered after about 4 days. When I got home the broadband speed was back to 13-14 Mb/s.

Sky continued charging me the next month's direct debit. I complained about this, and they said they would refund next month, including pro rata for part of the previous month, to the disconnect date. I also suggested they make a goodwill offer for the reduced service while they were telling me a false diagnosis where the fault was. Agreed. These all came through correctly in due course, as a direct debit refund.

In your position, I'd go to their complaints team as they are refusing to investigate a fault in the service they are charging for. It may turn out the fault is in your house, and then there may be a charge, check T&C, but I don't see how they can preemptively assume this in advance without any tests.

Before that though, can you try your handset and or router direct to the master socket (or have you already), so as to eliminate any internal extension lead issues? Also substitute in spare filters if you have some. If it's still poor, I can't see how they can make you liable for the repair cost, unless you've inadvertently damaged the cable on its way in. My suspicion is that you have a similar issue to ours, and it will be on the way to the exchange.

macman

No, it's utter nonsense. It doesn't matter if you are out of minimum term or not. You are still in contract, you have to give 4 weeks notice to leave.
Ring them again and report a line fault, not a broadband fault, and this time get the call escalated to someone who has a clue. You will only be charged if the fault is downstream of the master socket, or if you have caused external cable damage (such as a tree growing into the cable).

oldagetraveller1

If your master socket has a user removable faceplate then there should be a "test socket" behind that. Plug directly into that, using a known good microfilter. Doing so will eliminate any internal fault(s). If the fault persists, after doing that, it's an external fault.

If your master socket doesn't have this capablity then ignore the above.

I had a fault on the line which was causing a broadband speed reduction. After four OR visits it was still not fixed. It was fixed, only when I reported it as a line fault rather than a broadband fault. OR then sent a telephone person, not a broadband person.

As macman has suggested.