Sky Broadband - delays with installation?

dhokes

I ordered Sky fibre ultrafast broadband 500Mb/s and have a Sky installation date for 4th June. Openreach came around to do some work on the external connection outside my house however when I contacted Sky apparantly there is more work required which is due to take place on 3rd June which could delay my installation. Is there any way for me to see the progress of this work? BT search results. If I were to cancel my order with Sky and sign up with BT directly, would that speed up the installation or would that have no impact? Also, if I were to threaten to cancel my Sky order and/or cancel my Sky order, do Sky typically offer any kind of discount? My current contract with Virgin Media ends on 6th June so I'm trying to weigh up my options.

JSmithy45AD

No, you can't see where they're up to.

No, signing up with BT will make no difference whatsoever besides possibly pushing it back weeks.

No compensation, your contract with Sky won't start until it's up and running, if work needs doing then it needs doing.

Call Virgin and ask them to change the cancellation date. You're better off with an overlap anyway.

iniltous

External brown box ? , what’s that .
Sky are a little different to most ISP that can supply ( or arrange to supply ) FTTP over Openreach FTTP in that Sky engineers can fit Openreach FTTP equipment, obviously depending on where Sky have sent their own staff through Openreach training courses etc, so if their is a delay it could be Openreach or it could be Sky .
It really depends on what this supposed delay is ….if construction work is needed , a new duct from the footpath to your home for example, that’s not going to be quick and the date given may slip .

The only way cancelling with Sky and ordering with someone else would improve the date is if the delay is with Skys own FTTP installers , but it’s not likely to be that  , cancelling and reordering is more likely to introduce more delay not reduce it .
What does your survey note say , put your address in this checker 
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

post the part that looks like this ,

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG Feed with no anticipated issues.
and if it says single stage or KCI2 

This may indicate if a delay is likely 

dhokes

iniltous said:

External brown box ? , what’s that .
Sky are a little different to most ISP that can supply ( or arrange to supply ) FTTP over Openreach FTTP in that Sky engineers can fit Openreach FTTP equipment, obviously depending on where Sky have sent their own staff through Openreach training courses etc, so if their is a delay it could be Openreach or it could be Sky .
It really depends on what this supposed delay is ….if construction work is needed , a new duct from the footpath to your home for example, that’s not going to be quick and the date given may slip .

The only way cancelling with Sky and ordering with someone else would improve the date is if the delay is with Skys own FTTP installers , but it’s not likely to be that  , cancelling and reordering is more likely to introduce more delay not reduce it .
What does your survey note say , put your address in this checker 
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

post the part that looks like this ,

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG Feed with no anticipated issues.
and if it says single stage or KCI2 

This may indicate if a delay is likely 

Sorry I meant this grey box - https://imgur.com/a/ZnNth48

"Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG Feed Not Evaluated.

FTTP is available and a new ONT may be ordered.

The exchange is not in a current fibre priority programme"

Not sure if it makes a difference but I live on a 5 year old 'new build' estate.

dhokes

JSmithy45AD said:
Call Virgin and ask them to change the cancellation date. You're better off with an overlap anyway.

Is there a deadline to change my cancellation date or could I effectively call them the day before to change it and push it back?

JSmithy45AD

dhokes said:

JSmithy45AD said:
Call Virgin and ask them to change the cancellation date. You're better off with an overlap anyway.

Is there a deadline to change my cancellation date or could I effectively call them the day before to change it and push it back?

I don't know but if you can't be without BB (working from home for instance) then paying an extra month for £30 or so is surely worth it?

dhokes

JSmithy45AD said:

dhokes said:

JSmithy45AD said:
Call Virgin and ask them to change the cancellation date. You're better off with an overlap anyway.

Is there a deadline to change my cancellation date or could I effectively call them the day before to change it and push it back?

I don't know but if you can't be without BB (working from home for instance) then paying an extra month for £30 or so is surely worth it?

My contract is going up to £127/month hence why I'm trying to switch away however yes, I guess I'll have to take the hit or find an alternative solution.

iniltous

FWIW , it looks pretty straightforward job , the grey ( not brown ) plastic is where the Openreach duct from the footpath appears at you house wall , in the footpath joint box outside your house , will be the Openreach fibre CBT , so the only concern would be if in the 5 years since the house was built something has happened to the duct between the joint box and house wall , to stop the new fibre cable being installed and that’s not that likely.

Because it's Sky , it’s slightly different installation process , Openreach or a contractor will turn up on 3rd June and install the external optical cable from the footpath to your house wall , and leave it coiled in a different grey block called a CSP , chances are they will replace  the BT66 that exists ( the grey box on top of the grey plastic capping ) with the CSP ,so visually not much changes .

The next day Sky turn up and run another ‘internal’ optical cable from the new CSP into your home where you want the ONT fitted , install your router , and get you up a running , they splice the two fibre cables together in the CSP block .

Obviously there is always the chance something goes wrong , blocked duct or whatever, but at the moment there is no reason to think it will , as others have said , if keeping connected is essential it may have been better to pay for both services for a month that way if a delay happens you would still have Virgin , but the chances are it will all be fine , it’s probably too late to change the Virgin switch off date anyway .

dhokes

JSmithy45AD said:

No, you can't see where they're up to.

No, signing up with BT will make no difference whatsoever besides possibly pushing it back weeks.

No compensation, your contract with Sky won't start until it's up and running, if work needs doing then it needs doing.

Call Virgin and ask them to change the cancellation date. You're better off with an overlap anyway.

Looks like there is a compensation scheme for delayed work here - https://www.sky.com/help/articles/auto-compensation

JSmithy45AD

dhokes said:

JSmithy45AD said:

dhokes said:

JSmithy45AD said:
Call Virgin and ask them to change the cancellation date. You're better off with an overlap anyway.

Is there a deadline to change my cancellation date or could I effectively call them the day before to change it and push it back?

I don't know but if you can't be without BB (working from home for instance) then paying an extra month for £30 or so is surely worth it?

My contract is going up to £127/month hence why I'm trying to switch away however yes, I guess I'll have to take the hit or find an alternative solution.

That will be for the entire package though, although I'm not sure if they'd split the two for an extra month of their BB.

baser999

Our Sky contract was up for renewal and after a bit of discussion (an hour on the phone) we’ve managed to get upgraded to a full fibre set-up for only a few ££ more than the renewal prices they’d quoted. I understand this entails BT OpenReach installing a box outside and later that day a Sky engineer will be along to connect it all up and it’ll be from that point we’ll be charged the new rate. Been told we don’t need to be here for the BT installation although plan to so we can hopefully have some input where that box is fitted.