MSE News: Sky takes over O2 and Be broadband: What does this mean for customers?

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  • cookiejojo
    cookiejojo Posts: 12 Forumite
    I've been with o2 broadband for a few years, gutted when they sold to sky! If i wanted my broadband with sky I would have gone with them in the first place. Had sky tv for 12 or so years never have they done me any favours, even being conned out of an extra £5 month as they now have entertainment extra+ and if i change for the exact same package as i have now to save £5 im then contracted for another 12 months!...anyway BT sent me a "come to us" flyer £11.50 for broadband but i opted for infinity at £22..I may miss out on a good deal with sky but theres no way im changing my phoneline to them nor giving them one more penny out of my pocket. Their customer service is pants. And aslong as your still not in contract with o2 they are quick and helpful. Had my code within 30mins.
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    cookiejojo wrote: »
    ... theres no way im changing my phoneline to them......

    Unless you currently have your phoneline via o2 then there is no question of sky forcing you to change your phoneline to them.
  • thegrail
    thegrail Posts: 26 Forumite
    edited 22 May 2013 at 9:29AM
    Quentin wrote: »
    Unless you currently have your phoneline via o2 then there is no question of sky forcing you to change your phoneline to them.

    Spoke to O2/Sky this morning. First tranche of migrations (starting this Autumn) to the Sky broadband network will be those with both O2 phone line and O2 broadband. They will be provided with a Sky Hub as part of the move (worst rating in this month's PC Pro router review and you are force to use it!).

    Second tranche will be those currently with O2 broadband only. They will HAVE to move to Sky Phone and will be offered "encouraging" deals and also get the Sky Hub.

    If you don't want to go to Sky (I'm really not tempted on getting hooked by the extra channels and HD; and very worried about the year 2+ costs of Sky HD+Broadband+Calls) then you can get a MAC code now and cancel your contract at no cost.

    I have already been given free O2 broadband for 12 months to get me to stay with O2/Sky so I'm tempted to stay (and don't want to cut my own throat;)) for the moment, but as soon as they start adding on the costs (i.e. making us dial an 0844 number instead of 0800 for support) I'll definitely be off.

    I have, though, asked for my MAC, and I'm having a look round now to see if there are any good deals going.

    Not sure if it is still possible, but I did have O2 phone and broadband a while ago, but last year I switched the phone line back to BT (annual line charges and cheaper line options) and left the broadband with O2. Turns out my phone line was still physically with BT but O2 had only taken over billing, so the switch back was just a contractual change. Maybe those who don't want to go to Sky to quickly could switch their phone line back to BT now?
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    thegrail wrote: »

    Second tranche will be those currently with O2 broadband only. They will HAVE to move to Sky Phone .....

    This is in contradiction to what they have on their website!
    If you don’t have an O2 Home Phone or BE landline service currently, you won’t have to take these services with Sky.

    So maybe you were mislead by an ill trained rep??

    Having paid a lot to biy our contracts, they know the majority of us are not with o2 for our phone lines, and although no doubt they will offer inducements to swap to sky, they will also be faced with many of us in contracts elsewhere and cannot move to them even if we wanted to!

    And they won't simply renege on their written assurance (actually written twice on their faq page) we don't have to move phone line ........will they??
  • thegrail
    thegrail Posts: 26 Forumite
    Quentin wrote: »
    This is in contradiction to what they have on their website!



    So maybe you were mislead by an ill trained rep??

    Having paid a lot to biy our contracts, they know the majority of us are not with o2 for our phone lines, and although no doubt they will offer inducements to swap to sky, they will also be faced with many of us in contracts elsewhere and cannot move to them even if we wanted to!

    And they won't simply renege on their written assurance (actually written twice on their faq page) we don't have to move phone line ........will they??

    I agree with what you say - but this is what the rep told me.

    The rep did say that customers would be able to request a MAC at any time, so if you didn't want to take the Sky Phone option then you could leave. Would this meet the assurance that "you don't have to move your phone line to Sky"?
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    edited 22 May 2013 at 11:28AM
    thegrail wrote: »
    I agree with what you say - but this is what the rep told me.

    The rep did say that customers would be able to request a MAC at any time, so if you didn't want to take the Sky Phone option then you could leave. Would this meet the assurance that "you don't have to move your phone line to Sky"?

    Not really. That "assurance" on their website is in answer to questions regarding the changeover.

    The rep mislead you!
  • gezzs
    gezzs Posts: 35 Forumite
    I've been with O2 for several years and am gutted that they sold out to Sky. O2 have always been reliable and helpful. Somehow I wonder how this will go downhill once Sky have thousands more broadband users, which will doubtless impact the infrastructure, meaning calls to the unhelpful call centres.

    After hearing about the switch - I rang o2 to cancel, but stayed as they offered me 12 months free broadband with 12 month contract. I'll give it a go and ditch if I notice ANY change in service.

    As for phone packages - I will NEVER let my broadband provider have my line rental again. I got shafted by Talk Talk when they bought up Pipex (my previous provider). They moved my line onto their own exchange equipment so I was unable to switch broadband provider (you need a BT line). I was forced to take out an 18 month contract with BT to get my line reconnected with them, so that I could change to O2 for broadband.
  • PegasusPJ
    PegasusPJ Posts: 50
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
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    O2 customers might not be too bothered as they were already with a big corporation, but judging by the Be forum, Be ones are escaping en masse!
    Be customers are generally more tech savy and paid the premium for Be because of the excellent customer service, unthrottled and truly unlimited (long before the other ISPs).. the comments show that people are not leaving happily, but since lots of us were impatiently waiting for Be to offer fibre, now with the sale to Sky, time to jump ship.

    When O2 took over Be, they left it alone, and that was the smart move.. Sky are idiots (and Murdoch is not getting my money).

    BT engineer came this morning and I'm now on Plusnet fibre, getting 5x the download and 15x the upload for about a couple of quids more than before. :D
    I was with Be for 7+ years!

    most Be customers seem to go to either Plusnet or BT.
  • totmalysh
    totmalysh Posts: 73 Forumite
    I, as many of you state, was gutted when I found that O2 were selling their broadband service. I have been with O2 5 years and had glitches and problems solved there and then.
    I have been offered free 12 months contract by O2 and will see what is happening with Sky but doubt that I will be staying with the company, I have no TV set, have no need for Sky services and am more than happy with my Post Office phone.
  • thegrail
    thegrail Posts: 26 Forumite
    Quentin wrote: »
    Not really. That "assurance" on their website is in answer to questions regarding the changeover.

    The rep mislead you!

    Well - we'll wait and see what happens - this was one of the reasons I was worried about Sky - you can get different answers from different people.

    By chance just received the offer email from Sky - as well as the free Sky+HD (+line rental) deal there were also deals for Sky Broadband Unlimited at £2.50 per month (+line rental) and Sky Fibre Unlimited at £10 for6 months and then £20 per month (+line rental).

    Compared to my current BT phone line costs and my current free broadband I won't be taking the Sky Broadband Unlimitted offer; and I don't need fibre speeds (yet).

    And if Sky can afford to give Broadband Unlimitted + Sky+HD + EE+ for £0 (+line rental) they must be expecting to make a killing in year 2+.

    I make the second year costs to be £14.50 for line rental + £31.50 for Entertainment Extra + £7.50 for broadband +£8.25 for breakdown cover = £61.75 per month + any increases Sky think of.

    You can, of course, cancel after 12 months, but by then you might be hooked on the Sky package and I've seen comments that getting back off Sky to another telecoms company can be tricky.

    And if you want to find out any details on the deals directly from Sky you have to ring them on an 0844 number at 5p per minute +15p connect on a BT line and (as far as I recall) double that on an O2 phone line (it's a free call from a Sky phone line).
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