Switched to Sky broadband and calls. Phone number change error. Compensation?

charlie12525

We were with NOW broadband and calls. NOW had told me that their router was not being updated and could stop working.
We got a cold call from Sky to change to them.
The price was OK and the Sky salesman promised that the landline number would remain the same.
I took the deal.

Of course, openreach turned up, did some reconnections to FTTC, and we had a new phone number.

I have been speaking to Sky. They confirmed that it was put in as a ported number order. They don't know or won't tell me what went wrong. They say that if I do a completely new order/ installation we might get the number back. The cust service rep I have been dealing with does seem to care. She said that if we did this we probably had a 10% chance of getting the number back and would be without phone or wifi for maybe a week.
I don't think it is worth doing.

This is all in my parents' house. They are in their 80's. My father has dementia. They had the old number since 1979. This is a big deal for them. There is the stress and inconvenience of now changing the phone number with all contacts, internet banking, etc.

I submitted a complaint to Sky on the phone today. I asked for no less than £300 compensation. I'm sure they will offer me much less. At a guess £100.
Is it then worth me taking it further to the comms ombudsman?

Interested in any views, thanks.

dnpark38

Happened to me when changing to Sky, I never thought of compensation though.

littleboo

I'm arguing with Sky on a compensation issue (different problem)and they are completely incompetent.

They seem to have form in messing up number ports. However, how did you arrive at £300?

If the number is important, you have 30 days from when the change happened to get someone like A&A to port it. You would then need suitable equipment to use it - perhaps the cost of that would be your quantifiable loss.

dnpark38

Doing a recent comparison of ISPs I noticed not many will do a phone with a landline number. So the future is a mobile phone and when I change from Sky I will need to give my mobile number out.

So maybe your parents should have a mobile number.

JSmithy45AD

You can't take a Now TV landline number to Sky (and I think the same the other way). I suspect you'd be lucky to get double figures compensation, so good luck with your random £300 figure.

charlie12525

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82142387#Comment_82142387

I haven't looked into it properly but I may consider taking it to the small claims court.
I am in Scotland and claims up to £300 only cost £23. It is called a Simple Procedure.
So, in the absence of having any clue about how much compensation to request, I went with £300.
I have received similar amounts of compensation for similar inconvenience when banks/ finance firms messed up.
I think the amount is warranted. My parents are very stressed about this.

charlie12525

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82142813#Comment_82142813

I have now seen it mentioned online that you can't take a NOW phone number to Sky. The Sky salesman knew I was coming from NOW. More deception.
Maybe £300 is a random number. I think it's reasonable. No doubt Sky will disagree.
Please advise me of a non-random number.

In my experience of receiving compensation from incompetent financial firms they rarely give you what you ask for.
If you ask for 500 they offer you 250. If you asked for 250 in the first place they would offer you 150.

AndyPK

Sky also messed up my number transfer.

So far 3 long calls to try and get it fixed.

And also hearing the cancel and put a new order in story. I assume it was for them to get commission, but maybe it is a way that actually works

iniltous

The cancel and re-order can make sense in a way , if the original order either never requested the number to be moved or it did but the request was not acted upon, a new order can either retrieve the number in the 30 period when the old provider needs to make the number available after they have ceased it or the new order simply gets again to move the number to the new provider

The weird thing here is those that say you can’t take a number from Now to Sky and presumably Sky to Now , when Sky and Now are basically the same company, so being pedantic you can’t port a number from Now to Sky , but that’s because you only port numbers between networks, if the companies are already on the same network ( this isn’t the external network , like Openreach and City Fibre for example but the ‘internal’ telephone/broadband network) then the number in question stays on the network it was already on , it’s effectively just the bill provider that changes from Now to Sky , Now don’t have any network they are a part of Sky .