Is Sky in breach of contract?
RainbowsInTheSpray
Forumite 1.3K Posts
in Phones & TV
As mentioned in a previous posting, I have technical issues with Sky, namely that my landline stopped working a week ago.
This was notified to Sky almost immediately by email. Sky contacted me by return email this week and, to cut a long story short, eventually by mobile phone when I was made to wait in a muzak queue for their Tech Services dept. in deepest sub-continent. After over half an hour I gave up, having other matters needing my attention in the house. I later reported this inability to 'get through' to them, again by email. That was two days ago and they have not replied.
Anyone know when can I legitimately suspend my direct debit to them? I suspect this is the only thing which would get their attention. I'm paying for a service which, if it were goods, would be considered of 'unmerchantable quality'.
This was notified to Sky almost immediately by email. Sky contacted me by return email this week and, to cut a long story short, eventually by mobile phone when I was made to wait in a muzak queue for their Tech Services dept. in deepest sub-continent. After over half an hour I gave up, having other matters needing my attention in the house. I later reported this inability to 'get through' to them, again by email. That was two days ago and they have not replied.
Anyone know when can I legitimately suspend my direct debit to them? I suspect this is the only thing which would get their attention. I'm paying for a service which, if it were goods, would be considered of 'unmerchantable quality'.
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Escalate a formal complaint and then discuss compensation at a later date. But never throw yourself under a bus to get someone's attention.
But isn't there some notional date, after being given notice of a problem, by which they may be considered in breach of contract if they have done nothing? A period of X days..?
Frustrating situation.
It's been snowing ( you may have noticed ) and I assume MBORC ( matters beyond our reasonable control ) has kicked in for openreach . This allows them to prioritise reduced resources to where it's urgently required like hospitals , elderly vulnerable etc.
MBORC normally suspends their contractual requirements during that period.
Don't stop the direct debit , it will only affect you
You may be part of a bigger complex fault , for example some anti 5g moron set fire to equipment in Essex the other day . Not only did it damage the mast but destroy load of broadband equipment etc next to it . Not an easy fix quickly
It may be frustrating but you probably aren't their only customer and unless you have a specific quality of service clause in your contract (unlikely unless you have a business contract) then you'll have to wait your turn. As Browntoa says, there may be a problem which is difficult to fix - like a dug up cable, someone driving into a street cabinet etc. All these aren't under SKY's control. We had our optical cable dug up by the water company a couple of years ago and part of the difficulty in effecting the repair was the time it took for the council to give permission to Open Reach to close the road to do the job.
If you have a need to get a working broadband connection then either use your mobile phone as a hotspot or get a mifi dongle to tide yourself over and see if SKY will contribute towards its cost.
But first you need to exhaust their complaints procedure.
You are a residential customer , you are entitled to £8 a day compensation according to
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/auto-compensation.
The threat to "cancel your direct debit" shows an ignorance on your part of contract law and a total neglect to actually take your time to read the readily available terms and conditions and their readily available complaints procedure