How to escalate Sky issue. One of their engineers broke our system...

Sam_Brown

Live in a small block of flats with a communal system and one of my neighbours was having sky installed. Since then my sky has not been working. Sky have said they can't send someone out for two weeks. I don't find this acceptable as it is their engineer who has broken the system and feel they should rectify the fault ASAP. Im pulling my hair out dealing with them on the phone and just keep getting told there is nothing they can do and they refuse to escalate to a manager. Does anyone have any tips on how to get this sorted a bit quicker as I'm getting really frustrated. 

Neil_Jones

So what are you saying, the communal dish is now not working?

That's the responsibility of your landlord, not Sky.

Presume your neighbour was having Sky installed as in connecting to the communal setup?  That shouldn't affect yours as the whole idea of a communal system is one dish to feed multiple apartments.

Sam_Brown

Neil_Jones said:

So what are you saying, the communal dish is now not working?

That's the responsibility of your landlord, not Sky.

Presume your neighbour was having Sky installed as in connecting to the communal setup?  That shouldn't affect yours as the whole idea of a communal system is one dish to feed multiple apartments.

Firstly I don't know 100% if the communal dish is working or not. All I know if that I am getting no signal. However I've spoken to the landlord who has confirmed they've not had anyone else mention any issues. The landlord was not aware of any sky installations taking place either so they are in the dark.

The issue affecting our box only started once my neighbour had Sky Installed. I only know my neighbour had Sky installed as I came home from lunch on Tuesday afternoon and saw the engineer in the hallway. When I tried to watch Sky the following day is when I got the no signal error.

I agree that any work the engineer did "shouldn't" affect my box but I work in IT and know how many times a 3rd party has caused an outage in a Data Centre by unplugging the wrong thing or catching a cable he didn't realise. It's easy to do.

I am assuming the engineer has done something in the cupboard that has messed with my feed as it is quite tight in there with several Sky Q boosters all coming off the same Sky Splitter (don't know the correct term). It's quite feasible while installing the new Sky Q booster the engineer has accidentally knocked another cable or unplugged something he shouldn't have. Sky currently have said they will send someone out in March but as I believe the issue has been caused by the engineer it should be quicker than this which is why I'm asking for some help on how to expedite the fix.

If the fault is caused by the engineer then I would expect Sky to fix it and not the landlord assuming the issue came about when he performed the work on Tuesday. Why should the land lord have to pay to fix something I believe the Sky Engineer has done? I'll also add as the Landlord wasn't aware of the new installation then Sky have allowed this work to be booked in without consulting with the landlord first which I thought from my dealing with our own installation was a pre-req before getting the work scheduled in?

Neil_Jones

Yes but are you using the communal dish?  Was you using it before this engineer turned up?  Or do you have a dish of your own stuck to an outside wall?  Has your neighbour had a new dish put up?

If you have a dish of your own then there's nothing the engineer could have done to affect this (unless they've cut through a cable somewhere) but since you imply that this engineer has been in a cupboard somewhere with a load of splitters, that implies that they have done something with the communal setup and that you may be using it too.

Note that it is not Sky's responsibility to get permission for installations, it says quite clearly on the literature that you must get all consents.

Jono111

I bet the splitter was full and he has unplugged your cable and plugged the neighbour's cable in.

Sam_Brown

Neil_Jones said:

Yes but are you using the communal dish? 

If you have a dish of your own then there's nothing the engineer could have done to affect this (unless they've cut through a cable somewhere) but since you imply that this engineer has been in a cupboard somewhere with a load of splitters, that implies that they have done something with the communal setup and that you may be using it too.

Note that it is not Sky's responsibility to get permission for installations, it says quite clearly on the literature that you must get all consents.

I do not have my own dish. We share a communal system. Apologies if I didn't make that clear in my first post.

I get your point on the T&Cs but then there is nothing to stop someone ringing up and asking for an installation and lying about if they have consent or not which appears to be what has happened in this situation. Anyway I don't want to get bogged down in all that though we are where we are.

I primarily was after some advice on how to escalate and expedite the issue within Sky as previously I've seen older topics with e-mail addresses \ templates etc for heads of departments etc that have had great success in the past although a lot of those old contact methods seem to be out of date now.

Sam_Brown

Jono111 said:

I bet the splitter was full and he has unplugged your cable and plugged the neighbour's cable in.

Yes thought had crossed my mind. I'd like to think that the engineer would have a bit more about him than that but something has changed since he came to site and did the installation for my neighbour so something appears to have gone wrong whether intentionally or not. I just want Sky to sort it out and make good on the issue.

I hope that isn't the issue though as I don't want another engineer to come out, swap some more cables and just pass the issue on to another one of my neighbours.

brewerdave

Sam_Brown said:

Jono111 said:

I bet the splitter was full and he has unplugged your cable and plugged the neighbour's cable in.

Yes thought had crossed my mind. I'd like to think that the engineer would have a bit more about him than that but something has changed since he came to site and did the installation for my neighbour so something appears to have gone wrong whether intentionally or not. I just want Sky to sort it out and make good on the issue.

I hope that isn't the issue though as I don't want another engineer to come out, swap some more cables and just pass the issue on to another one of my neighbours.

Lay odds that the "engineer" has taken the easy way out and swopped cables, he can sign his job off. The next "engineer" will probably do the same unless he has a conscience!
The same happens quite often with BT phone lines particularly where new houses have been added to an already full cab.

headpin

You are only assuming that the Sky engineer my have caused your issue. Without any concrete evidence (loose wires, cut cables, etc. visible) then why should Sky just accept that it was caused by their engineer and push you in front of everyone else? If it does turn out that they caused the issue (how will you know and prove that?) then you can ask for a credit for the period without a service.

can you not go and look in the “tight” cupboard to see if there are loose cables or the like apparent that may then point you in the right direction? 

macman

Whether Sky caused the problem or not, the communal system is the responsibility of your LL, and he should fix it. How he does it is up to him.

Sam_Brown

Hi all wanted to give an update. I’ve had both Sky out and an Engineer from the Landlord who was the one who did the original install.  I did want to get both the sky engineer AND the landlords engineer out at the same time so they could work together but Sky refused to do this.

Essentially the issue boils down to a piece of kit called “Unitron dcss-422”.  

Sky say this is the responsibility of the landlord and the landlords engineer says this isn’t something they have installed and it’s sky’s kit. From my understanding the Unitron dcs-422 was installed by sky during my initial set up and acts as a way to enable legacy communal systems to be compatible with sky q. Apparently this is what has the issue. 

Can anyone in here claim with authority whether that kit is Sky’s or the Landlords responsibility? As it was Sky who installed it then I would imagine it’s there’s but they are denying all knowledge of it. 

For what it’s worth we have cancelled with Sky now and are moving to BT. We got a credit for the loss of service and were able to leave with no notice period.