Sky Broadband problems

Hi I would be grateful for some advise please . I have been a customer of sky for years with little or no issues . In Mid September I decided to upgrade from Sky fibre unlimited to Sky fibre Max . I duly phoned up and the upgrade was processed ( I was told expect 48 hours for it to be done). The next day the broadband stopped working . I assumed this was the upgrade taking place . When the broadband did not start working after the 48 hours I phoned up to be told there was a problem with the cabinet . After a few more days and more chasing I was told the fibre max was not available due to works on the cabinet but they would downgrade me to the fibre unlimited .


This again took ages and when they finally sorted out the broadband 3 weeks later I found that I have been downgraded to ADSL instead of the original package I had . Again Phoned only to be told fibre is no longer available and basically tough .So effectively I have had no broadband for 3 weeks and when it is "fixed" I have speeds of half of what I had before . I realise this is mainly Openreach's fault but my contract is with Sky . They have offered to keep a note of when Fibre is available ( expected in the next 2 to 3 months). I am basically at the end of my tether as basically through no fault of my own I have a substandard product . I have cancelled both my TV and broadband with them out of principle but still feel quite hard done by . In terms of compensation all I have been offered is the refund of the broadband per month which in my mind does not equate to disruption of no broadband for 3 weeks and endless phone calls ( each half to an hour at a time ) . Any ideas as to how I can take this further?

Comments

  • JJ_Egan
    JJ_Egan Posts: 20,281
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    Compensation is about right but you can claim the cost of the calls back . But not if they where free calls .
    They might give you the industry standard circa £30 unless you are on a business contract .
    Why not ask Sky can you cancel the contract due to this problem.


    Or engage a compensation soliciter if you want £££.
  • iniltous
    iniltous Posts: 3,022
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    edited 17 October 2018 at 1:12PM
    Newman1000 wrote: »
    Hi I would be grateful for some advise please . I have been a customer of sky for years with little or no issues . In Mid September I decided to upgrade from Sky fibre unlimited to Sky fibre Max . I duly phoned up and the upgrade was processed ( I was told expect 48 hours for it to be done). The next day the broadband stopped working . I assumed this was the upgrade taking place . When the broadband did not start working after the 48 hours I phoned up to be told there was a problem with the cabinet . After a few more days and more chasing I was told the fibre max was not available due to works on the cabinet but they would downgrade me to the fibre unlimited .


    This again took ages and when they finally sorted out the broadband 3 weeks later I found that I have been downgraded to ADSL instead of the original package I had . Again Phoned only to be told fibre is no longer available and basically tough .So effectively I have had no broadband for 3 weeks and when it is "fixed" I have speeds of half of what I had before . I realise this is mainly Openreach's fault but my contract is with Sky . They have offered to keep a note of when Fibre is available ( expected in the next 2 to 3 months). I am basically at the end of my tether as basically through no fault of my own I have a substandard product . I have cancelled both my TV and broadband with them out of principle but still feel quite hard done by . In terms of compensation all I have been offered is the refund of the broadband per month which in my mind does not equate to disruption of no broadband for 3 weeks and endless phone calls ( each half to an hour at a time ) . Any ideas as to how I can take this further?

    Have you checked your cabinet to see if it's 'waiting list' ?
    As you had a Sky phone line the phone number won't work but try your post code /address
    https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/

    It seems to be a quirk that changing FTTC speed requires a spare port in the cab to move you onto, (even though you already occupy one) and if Sky knew there wasn't any spare ports they should have waited until there was before offering you an upgrade....when they ceased your 40Mb service , that port becoming free was probably immediately snapped up by someone else waiting for FTTC, and then obviously your 80Mb service couldn't be provided , presumably because of the lack of a spare port.
    Its unclear why if you already have a port, they swap you into another port rather than just turning up or down the port speed, I don't know if this is OR's decision or one Ofcom insists on, but it does seem to be the way speed changes are done, and Sky should be aware of this
    As far as compensation, as it's a residential product, the chances are that the offer will be little more that rental fee paid when you had no service refunded with possibly a little extra for the inconvenience , I doubt they will offer much more than that.
  • Hi Yes the cabinet is currently on the activate stage ( It was on the accepting orders stage previously) . It was almost a perfect storm as apparently the cabinet upgrade was botched hence the change back to activate and yes it does seem someone else was the recipient of my original fibre package .


    Although I understand it is mainly Openreach who were at fault it was incredibly frustrating having to phone each day only to go through the whole story again, get promised the earth and end up with basically a substandard product . I have cancelled the whole package and have until mid November to sort out another provider . I am hoping that in this time the cabinet upgrade will be resolved .


    I thought that unless I do something drastic like engage a solicitor ( which I suspect will just cause more angst for little reward) I will just have to write this off as a bad experience.


    Thanks for your help
  • iniltous
    iniltous Posts: 3,022
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    edited 17 October 2018 at 4:01PM
    Can you post the image from the link to the DSL checker ?
    If you previously had FTTC , how can the cab be anything other that accepting orders but possibly with a waiting list because of no spare ports....even if a second cab is required to alleviate a capacity problem, I doubt the build status would go backwards from accepting orders after all there is always the chance that someone with service on the current cab ceases it, and that creates a spare port ( so however briefly it's not waiting list anymore )
  • Newman1000 wrote: »
    I have cancelled the whole package and have until mid November to sort out another provider .

    BB is generally 14 days for cancellation, only the TV part is likely to be 30 days notice.
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