Issues with County Broadband and Sky boxes

ComicGeek

Recently had County Broadband install a full fibre network in our rural village, and got connected up at the first chance about 8 weeks ago. Really reliable to begin with, with up to 600 mbps.

Then started over a few weeks to get problems connecting the Sky Q boxes to the internet via WiFi, with the connection visibly dropping out every 4/5 seconds and then reconnecting itself - can actually see the tick/cross/tick on the settings screen. Not a problem watching life TV or recordings but started getting harder and harder to download as it would disconnect each time. No problem at the time with general internet, watching Netflix etc - just the Sky Q box internet connection.

Sky engineer came out and advised it was a County Broadband issue, and that they are visiting a lot of properties in the area with the same problem. Apparently as a small ISP, County Broadband share public IP address across multiple homes, so Sky won't allow internet connection for downloads if someone else within the shared public IP address already is using Sky.

Zero response from County Broadband after 5 weeks, despite escalating multiple times. Will now have to resort to Facebook/X, which I hate doing but seems to be the only way to get a response.

Sky seem to be fully aware of the issue, with emails to all local engineers, a dedicated team collating information, but no real progress in resolving the issue as they say it's County Broadband's issue. No response at all from County Broadband.

Has anyone else had any experience with this issue? I know County Broadband are a small ISP, but seem to be massively expanding where I am in East Anglia so must be some others that have experienced this?

Also to advise people to stay away from County Broadband until they get themselves better organised. Our internet connection is very unreliable, turns off promptly at 8.25pm every night, the router wifi has failed, a mandatory router hardwire update has made it impossible for some devices to connect, and zero customer support!

cerebus

For now I would one or more several things 

1. Get on county broadbands back until they resolve it
2. Change the router 
3. Use an ethernet cable to directly connect the sky box to the router 
4. Fix your ip address so it can't be changed , Google for instructions, unsure if you will even be able to do this 

ComicGeek

cerebus said:

For now I would one or more several things 

1. Get on county broadbands back until they resolve it
2. Change the router 
3. Use an ethernet cable to directly connect the sky box to the router 
4. Fix your ip address so it can't be changed , Google for instructions, unsure if you will even be able to do this 

1. Trying to - have emailed the CEO, posted on social media, but their support team seems non existent.

2. Have been told that's not possible, but will ask again.
3. Already hard wired all boxes, as the general WiFi on the boxes has always been flaky. Doesn't maintain internet connection even with Ethernet.
4. The box has a fixed IP address, but apparently it's our public IP address that's the issue and not under our control.

ComicGeek

Just to update this in case someone with the same problem stumbles across this thread.

After 5-6 weeks of chasing and zero response through the normal customer service routes, I sent a direct email to the CEO and posted on social media, and got a response within a couple of hours from his assistant, with a senior technician allocated to resolve it.

Had confirmation from them within a couple of hours that the 'issue with Sky is that the router needs to have a public routable IP address', which they don't provide as standard. And despite all other tiers of support flatly denying any issue and just blaming Sky. They changed the IP address, and then everything works!

It's great that it's working now, and appreciate their quick action, but frustrating that customer service only seems to work when you post negative things on social media!

matelodave

But that's true of most things nowadays.

A snottogram on Social Media or get the DM involved and problems that have ground on for weeks, months or even years suddenly get sorted out, frequently with a bit of compensation thrown in as well.

However that said, there are still plenty of companies who seem to be able to get it right first time and who's customer service is impeccable (mainly because no-one actually has to fight and argue with them to get the odd problem sorted out).

Then of course there are the other firms who don't care how bad a reputation they've got either because they have a virtual monopoly or people just whinge rather than voting with their feet. Walking away or escalating it to the media often has more effect than having a moan on a forum like this.

Frustrated_Bloke

You have my sympathies ComicGeek. County Broadband have a virtual monopoly because the copper speeds from the cabinets in rural East Anglia are really slow (25-30 mbps). Then all the roads were dug up and it was hell for a while before these guys suddenly offered fibre to the premises with speeds up to 900 mbps. Wow (in a little village).

So I enquired by phone. Nothing happened. Then I enquired via the web - and filled a load of forms in. Went for 300 mbps; 10x what I was used to. Got my installation date and they kept bombarding me with reminders to sort an installation date?? Called them - sorry about that, you've got two accounts. So she only went and cancelled the wrong one with all my direct debit details etc... 

Then the lads arrived and did a superb job of the installation. Brilliant. Unbelievable speed. Then about a week later, the internet stopped.

That's when I grew to hate that call centre you mentioned (and I couldn't report the issue online). Terrible. Eventually my internet came back on again for a few days and then stopped. This cycle went on for weeks (about 5 occasions) before someone with a brain realised that it was credit control... I hadn't paid the bill because I hadn't been sent a bill and I couldn't access my online account - because it didn't exist! Once my account had been rebuilt, and I started paying bills, the service has been brilliant.

During that troubled time, I was offered 'Ultra 900' mbps at a price that would have been rude to refuse. By the time the problems were sorted, the price had increased - so I reminded them and requested the upgrade. That was February. Suddenly, last week, they come back to me. No problem, we'll do the upgrade at the old price. Interestingly, my bill has changed but the speed hasn't... New saga coming on. 

So County Broadband offers the best internet connection in East Anglia. Just pray you don't get a problem or need to communicate with them!