Moving Home / Broadband setup

matt_matt_matthew

I purchased a flat at auction at the start of the month moving in to it in just ten days from now. Thought I'd get the ball rolling and see what broadband options i have and decided I'm going to go with Sky (currently living with parents so don't have current provider). I was going through the order process on sky website just to see if i could see what the waiting time was without finalising the order but when i put the address of the place I'm moving to it says

"Looks like we have found an account associated with your address. Please enter the valid email address linked to the account in order to continue with your order".

I presume this means the current owner already has sky broadband set up? I'm thinking about contacting the current owners through the estate agents because they don't actually live in the property (its used as a holiday let) so i don't think they'll be transferring it to another property so cancelling the broadband may have slipped their mind, and that waiting until I've moved in may be harder to contact and a longer waiting time.

Also as i have no experience with this so if the current owners didn't cancel it would i be responsible for paying it or liable in any way for the current broadband? Cheers in advance 

QrizB

This suggests to me that the property is already served by Sky. A coincidence, but not a remarkable one.

Have you tried signing up with a different supplier? This will initiate the switching process and the current subscriber will get a notification from Sky that someone has applied to switch.

You could try the MSE broadband deals finder to see what's available:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/compare-broadband-deals/

(Some people think it's unreliable but it's always worked for me.)

matt_matt_matthew

Thanks for the reply, Sky have the best deal for me so don't particularly want to use another provider.

QrizB

In which case, you've got fewer options.

Instead of trying to set it up online, can you phone Sky and explain what's happening? They might have a system for situations like this.

If you wait until you move in, I can see two possibilities: either the current owner has cancelled, in which case it could be three weeks before Sky set you up with a new contract, or the current owner hasn't yet cancelled, and you get free broadband until they realise then get cut off for three weeks before Sky set you up with a aew contract. Neither sounds ideal.

matt_matt_matthew

Just spoke to someone at Sky, apparently its quite a common thing, can't do it online if there's a broadband account associated with an address already until the previous account is cancelled, but can be done over the phone. Although if done over the phone can't get the online deals, so its £10 a month extra. 

QrizB

matt_matt_matthew said:

Just spoke to someone at Sky, apparently its quite a common thing, can't do it online if there's a broadband account associated with an address already until the previous account is cancelled, but can be done over the phone. Although if done over the phone can't get the online deals, so its £10 a month extra. 

OK, so now we know!

If it's going to cost an extra £10/month for at least a year, is Sky still your best option or would you be better off going with a different provider?

matt_matt_matthew

Now Broadband do a similar deal i may look at, i'm going to try and contact the current owners and see what they are going to do about their current sky broadband.