Mis-sold Talk lines when on Fibre

RT74

Hi, I signed up with Sky over 6.5yrs ago and was told that I needed a phone line to connect to my Fibre broadband .. I’ve never changed the package but recently I realised that when on fibre, you have never needed a phone line and I’ve never used it at any point during my contract as only use my mobile. 

Sky are refusing to refund my Talk charges and only trying to upsell me into a new contract.

is there advice to reclaim these fees as I have been paying £18.99 pcm for no reason at all ? 

Thanks in advance for any guidance provided 

Ayr_Rage

For part fibre (FTTC) the last part is provided over a physical phone line, what you don't need is a calls package as the phone service will just work on a PAYG basis.

Do you actually have real FULL FIBRE or as above, FTTC, where you connect your router to an old style phone socket which has a splitter, either built in or standalone where one side goes to the router and the other to a handset?

iniltous

I suspect there is way more to this and you haven’t provided anywhere near enough information

Sky  still provides a basic phone service with their broadband but its the PAYG version has zero cost , ( unless you make a call , it’s ‘free’ ) ..other companies like BT were harangued into providing a broadband only service and it had to be cheaper than broadband with telephone, BT for example charge £5 less for standalone broadband compared to broadband with an included PAYG phone service , but it  isn’t compulsory to offer broadband on its own , even though it’s technically possible and has been possible for years , that’s upto the ISP , Sky have decided to keep the phone service for its broadband customers but they say it’s ‘free’ unless you make a call .

Where do you get this figure of £18.99 from ? , for decades broadband charges have not  been split into separate items on the bill , so if a ‘service’ were £30/month , the bill doesn’t say line rental £20, broadband £10 to give a total of £30 ….it just says £30 ,

Say £30 is the cost for BT and Sky , BT could say £27 broadband and £3 ( after discount ) for telephone ( not line rental ) to give £30 total . Sky just say £30 , no difference really , but BT could be £3 cheaper, but then ,  Sky may only be £27 …it depends on the deals at the time , but basically it’s the same , no real difference and certainly not £18.99.

Decades ago the way broadband was provided was on top of the telephone service, so the phone was the primary service, but now  broadband is the primary service , with the option of taking telephone, Sky have decided to give basic telephone for free , but the cost is not dissimilar to broadband only from other ISPs so it’s difficult to make a argument that it’s a rip off, and if they removed telephony you could save possibly £1 or £2 , certainly nothing like £18.99, you need to provide way more information and how the charges are shown on your bill .

You  definitely aren’t paying £18.99 for telephony unless you have been paying for the unlimited calls package , and if you do that , and don’t actually make calls , that’s your fault, because the ‘free’ PAYG option was obviously a better fit for you ,  caveat emptor, it’s your responsibility not Sky’s  to make sure you are in the appropriate package , if you have been paying for included calls but never made any , you should have switched to PAYG before now , it’s not Sky’s job to switch your packages unless you tell them 

Ayr_Rage

@iniltous I think it will transpire that @rt74 is actually referring to a calls package, not line rental.

Edit:

However, as they haven't changed anything for over 6 years it may be a legacy package that none of us can find and is actually line rental and calls.

iniltous

6 years isn’t enough time to be a legacy SMPF ( shared metallic path facility ) customer, where the dialtone and broadband could be separate services from different companies ,
Sky gave their broadband only customers that were also BT telephone customers an ultimatum , over 10 years ago , may be as much as 15 years , to use Sky for both services (  provided on the one bill ) those that wanted to stay with separate services ( usually BT for phone and Sky for broadband ) had to find a new provider as Sky got rid of all ‘off net’ telephone customers, as the OP presumably joined Sky 6 years ago they were always a MPF customer, not SMPF .

Ayr_Rage

I guess we'll have to wait until @RT74 is able to confirm exactly what appears on their Sky bill and whether they have an ONT or phone socket.