Sky Disconnection

[carrieann]

Hi everyone. I hope someone can assist me with a problem my dad is experiencing with Sky.

 

In July, his broadband connection went down for 3 weeks. He called them several times and they never rang him back. They eventually replaced his router and basically signed him up for a brand new contract.

 

After the new contract was signed and a new router installed, the internet was fine and my dad continued his business until now. His internet connection has gone again, but this time his phone line has also been disconnected. He has only been in the contract since July and the connections have been down for 2 weeks already. He has rang the customer support line - via his mobile as his phone connection is dead - and they have promised to ring him back but don't.

 

Surely Sky are breaking some terms of the contract in providing this absurd and lack of service. Please can anyone advise on where my dad stands in this instance considering the continual issues and short length of the contract.

 

Also, is there any letters of complaint floating around that I can use?

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide. xx

[johnvernon74]

I recall an issue with Sky a few years ago and they have an executive office. I either called or emailed the main switchboard and the issue was resolved quickly. Hope this assists

[locutus]

You could try [email protected] and ask the CEO's department to look into the issue, and ask them to give your dad an applicable refund, any out of pocket expenses (mobile bill etc) and also offer some compensation for the trouble.

[Conniff]

You say -

and my dad continued his business

 

Is this a domestic phone and internet supplied to his house or to a business?

Is he running a business on a domestic contract and tarif?

[carrieann]

You say -

 

Is this a domestic phone and internet supplied to his house or to a business?

Is he running a business on a domestic contract and tarif?

 

Hi Conniff. He does run a small home business but has a domestic tariff.

 

I have written a letter of complaint just because it has happened twice within a two month period and for a total of 5 weeks now. I only hope that achieves some results.

[carrieann]

You could try [email protected] and ask the CEO's department to look into the issue, and ask them to give your dad an applicable refund, any out of pocket expenses (mobile bill etc) and also offer some compensation for the trouble.

 

 

 

Thanks, I will give this email address a try. xx

[asm76]

Be careful because Sky don't look favourably on customers using residential broadband for business use. I had a huge argument with them after I couldn't connect via my companies VPN. Apparently they used to block VPN access and told me "I was running a business from home", which is utter nonsense. My company run their business from their offices, I was simply working from home. In the end they saw my point and sent me a Netgear router that allowed VPN access, and they've since upgraded the firmware on their Sagem routers to allow VPN access because of the amount of complaints.

[locutus]

Business telecoms offer business compensation, which would be nice, and if it's a business under 10 people, you still benefit from their "consumer" code of practice.

[carrieann]

You could try [email protected] and ask the CEO's department to look into the issue, and ask them to give your dad an applicable refund, any out of pocket expenses (mobile bill etc) and also offer some compensation for the trouble.

 

This email address worked a treat, thank you. The complaint has now been escalated to the highest priority by all accounts. Will see what happens from here.

[locutus]

Great Keep us updated.

[carrieann]

Business telecoms offer business compensation, which would be nice, and if it's a business under 10 people, you still benefit from their "consumer" code of practice.

 

That's interesting. I may check that out for myself. Thank you.

[IdaInFife]

Sky don't cover business use at all. Don't mention this to them.

[melrob]

we have had a very similar problem with sky and it still hasnt been resolved 5 months later. we have now had to contact the communications ombudsman,ofcom and trading standards. we had our sky + installed at the end of june this year,and were told we would get our broadband installation date a couple of weeks later,which we did on the morning that the engineer was coming!!!

We had an 8am-1pm appointment so had to very quickly arrange for one of us to take time off as the letter stated if no one was home we would be charged for a second engineer visit. i stayed home and waited and no engineer so rang sky and was informed i should ignore that letter as it was only provisional!!

 

It then took them six weeks to work out why we werent getting an installation date,numerous phone calls to them to be told they were working on it. when my partner phoned for an update we were told it was because we had no direct debit set up,and when we asked why we were not told this previously she said she had no idea as it was on the screen and plain as day!!! we then set up the direct debit and our broadband was installed two weeks later,but with no apology from sky for the time it took them to give us a reason.

 

Once our broadband was installed we had it on for three weeks and then it started dropping and we couldnt get an internet connection for more than 6 seconds as the router would go off and reboot. we phoned sky and went through all the basic checks and were then told we needed an engineer,who came the following morning and ended up having to lay a whole new phone line,which still didnt resolve the issue,so the engineer advised us to phone sky and ask for a srn reset,which he did only to be told sky cant do this,and were then told our problem wasnt an internet problem it was a phone line problem even though we had just had a new phone line fitted!!!

 

He then advised us to go around the neighbours and ask if we could either plug our phone into their socket or ask if we could borrow their phone to plug in our socket which as we had just moved into the area we werent prepared to do as we didnt know anyone,he then advised us we needed another engineer to come out as the one that had laid the phone line was a broadband engineer and we needed a phone engineer,we did mention that the engineer had fitted a whole new phone line so would that not make him a phone engineer????

The customer service advisor then started reading out a statement to say that as we were unwilling to test our equipment that we would be charged for the second engineer visit if he tested the phone and line and they were found to be faulty.

 

The next morning engineer number 2 arrived and had to ask us why he was here,we explained what sky had advised us and he explained that that was a load of rubbish and that all the engineers at bt are phone engineers and 1 or 2 from each area train for the broadband and the engineer we had had the previous day was the correct engineer and there was nothing he could do........back on the phone to sky.

 

This time we were told it was the router so they would send us a new one my partner at that time asked if it could be the network card at the exchange and was told definatly not it was the router. 3 days later the router arrived we set it up and still nothing. during this time we had been escalated to tier 2 were once again my partner mentioned the network card and this time was told it was a possibility,so network solutions were involved and after some initial checks were done told it was a faulty network card at the exchange.they informed us that they would reboot it early hours of the following morning and if that didnt work they would have to move us to another card.

 

The next morning the internet was on and working fine we had a follow up call to check it was working after the reboot and also to ask us why did we have another engineer booked to come out and we knew nothing about it.what is it with customer service sending out engineers??????

It took sky nearly 3 weeks to sort out our internet problem,in those three weeks while trying to sort this out,i had had customer service agents putting the phone down on me,promises from supervisors and managers promising to phone me back,and never,we spoke to over 18 differant customer service advisors,and each one said we had been given the wrong information by the previous advisor,it was an absolute nightmare.

 

When the internet was sorted,we then were told by customer solutions that because of all the stress we had had,they would give us an extra two months of internet free and they were trying to get us free tv as compensation.they phoned us back to say they couldnt authorise free tv but could do a 25% reduction which we accepted,we were now at the beginning of october.

Then on the 14th october we recieved a letter from the managing director of marketing to say that our sky viewing would be nil. and since then we have not had any discounts applied to our bill,we had to phone them in october,november and again this month in october and november they reduced the bills accordingly and it was a lot less,this month though apparantly there were no notes on the computer to advise of free internet so we had to pay the full amount and set up a direct debit as our services had been turned off this morning,after id given the direct debit details i was then told i could phone the bank and cancel the direct debit!!!!

 

once again onto sky customer complaints who told us the letter we recieved in august from the managing director was an automated letter and didnt actually mean that we'd have free sky viewing for 12 months,he then went on to say that it didnt matter who you addressed an email to all emails went to them and were dealt with by them and any emails that we send addressed to the managing director or anyone else would be deleted by him as as far as he was concerned the case was closed.

He then offered to credit our account with £30 to cover for the internet and to close the case which we refused.He then went on to say that there was nowhere else we could go as they were the highest in sky and as he was personally dealing with our case which he now considered closed further emails would be deleted!!!

 

Unfortunatly for sky there are higher places we can go to and have.

sky customer services are absolutly useless they have no respect for their customers and cant think outside the box,they read whatever is on that computer screen,and will not vary off it.

i would strongly advise anyone thats having problems with sky to report it to the organisations i mentioned at the top,as sky are loathe to help and make it as difficult as possible.Do sky just drag people in off the street to be their customer service advisors??? and tell them to "just sit in front of that computer and when you get a call just read off the screen and do not vary,whatever the customer is saying".

Edited December 22, 2011 by Conniff
conniff couldnt read it

[Conniff]

Welcome Melrob and 'gosh' can you edit your post and put some paragraphs in it please as it practically impossilbe to read as is

[melrob]

thankyou for the welcome. hope its a little more readable now.

[Conniff]

Don't worry about the length, there is as much space as you want, so added line breaks as well.

 

conniff couldnt read it

lol

[melrob]

sorry,its the first time i have used a site like this,i am sure i will get the hang eventually.

[Conniff]

No problem.

 

I haven't read through your post as yet, but have you been in contact with the big chief - if not, then give him a go [email protected]

Edited December 22, 2011 by Conniff

[melrob]

After what we were told earlier by customer complaints i am a little unsure if the person i address the email to actually gets it.

[Conniff]

The CEO above will get it through his personal secretary.

[silverfox1961]

When I had to email the boss, it was actually handled by a minion although it was a chap in the executive office.

 

Within 48 hours, my most important issue was resolved. the rest took about a week.

[melrob]

I am willing at this time to try anything that might help,so will start my email to him.(also i will try to remember about my paragraphs).

thankyou for your time and advice.

[melrob]

sounds promising,so i'll try him.thankyou.

[Conniff]

I am willing at this time to try anything that might help,so will start my email to him.(also i will try to remember about my paragraphs).

thankyou for your time and advice.

 

You can put it up here before you send for a once over if you wish rob.

[melrob]

It will have names in it of the customer service staff,and will be a lot more detailed.

Would it be better if i left the names blank and edited them in after you have checked it?