Sky announce Broadband 'Major Issues' - I get banned from Forum !

[limasierra]

For the last two years or so our Sky broadband service has been pretty good...CT postcode.

Then a couple of weeks ago - continual failure to load webpages, 'timed out' messages, can't watch

i-Player,Youtube etc.

 

Checked out their Help Forum....blimey....loads and loads saying the same thing.

Rang Sky and went through the whole stupid rigmarole of unscrewing sockets, connecting ethernet cables, resetting router blah blah blah.

They told us there wasn't a problem,'our tests show you're getting a download of 9MB' oh ha ha ha. Speedtest.net showed regular results of 0.5MB. No they said,we're right, they're wrong.

 

Then I noticed their 'Help & Support' page stated they had a 'Major Issue' with their Broadband Status.

I wondered why the Sky 'knowledge advisors' on the forum weren't acknowledging this announcement when they told people to unscrew this that and everything else.

 

So I thought I'd reply to as many forum users as possible telling them what Sky had announced.

 

What happened?

 

'Sky knowledge adviser' GregorA sent me a private message telling me I'd been banned from the forum!!!!! Not just posting either,but VIEWING as well!!!

 

We pay Sky £90 odd a month for the TV/phone/broadband package, get no explanation for a non existent broadband service, then get banned from the forum for telling ther users what they've announced themselves.

 

Mr Brittas is alive and well and working for Sky.

Edited August 31, 2012 by limasierra
corrected Speedtest website name

[MARTIN3030]

Astonishing.

[cerberusalert]

Odd how Murdoch bleats about the right of freedom of speech isn't it?

 

A rule for one and one for another.

[limasierra]

:-)Wonder if he ever reads the Sky User Forum??

[Bang!]

Submit a written complaint about the message & its sender.

 

The reply should be interesting.

[limasierra]

I phoned and made an oral complaint soon after and the sympathetic employee promptly emailed the details to the Forum managers, saying she would call me back with a response.

 

No response yet.

 

Do you think they'd respond to a written complaint though?

From what I've read they don't respond to complaints and despite all the 'Contact us' buttons and phone numbers displayed on their web pages it seems to be a shopfront approach only.

[BritBrat]

Are you banned?

 

There seems to be no tag against your name if they use one, assuming name is "limasierra".

 

Time to cancel the whole Sky package:

 

 

Try loging in.

[limasierra]

Can now view and can now log in to my email, that was impossible yesterday afternoon.

[limasierra]

No broadband connection at all now, gremlins at work again!?

[BritBrat]

Then maybe the problem is at your end.

 

I won't go through all the normal tests as I am sure you know them and done them, but try turning off router (you are using the supplied sky router) and see if it comes back. Could you have had a lighteneing strike on the router?

[rebel11]

Hi lima

 

Write a Formal Letter of Complaint, mark it as such. Explain whats happened, how they have let you down (send an attachment of the e-mail you received) and what you want them to do.

 

Send it to:-

 

Jeremy Darroch, Chief Executive

[email protected]

 

Some tips:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1242161/How--write-letter-complaint.html

[limasierra]

Thanks very much rebel11, am in the process of writing and your info is very useful.

The private message from GregorA has been removed (presumably by them?) As has my response.....no matter, I shall still report it.

Also one or more of my responses to other forum members re the 'Major Issue' has also been removed and replaced by responses from the forum advisers.

[rebel11]

The message is more then lightly still there although it's been removed. That might sound strange but I believe that's how it works. Also your problem has been highlighted.

 

Thanks very much rebel11, am in the process of writing and your info is very useful.

The private message from GregorA has been removed (presumably by them?) As has my response.....no matter, I shall still report it.

Also one or more of my responses to other forum members re the 'Major Issue' has also been removed and replaced by responses from the forum advisers.

[locutus]

Did they say that you're connection was 9meg whilst plugged in normally, or only when it was plugged into the "master socket"?

 

That is the speed that your router is connected to their equipment in the phone exchange, which is not the only factor in your actual internet speed.

 

It is possible that someone else is downloading something using your router and taking a lot of your bandwidth. (I know some Sky routers have a security flaw where anybody can work out your key, and if thats the case they need to issue you with a new router, or fix the security issue!)

 

It's possible that Sky themselves have too much data running through their servers, and it's causing a bottleneck.

 

It's also possible that your computer(s) are downloading updates in the background that is taking all of your bandwidth, Or that you have a virus that is hijacking your internet and using your computer to perform an attack on a website (known as a DDOS attack... this is the kind of thing that the hactivists "Anonymous" do, they make many peoples computers constantly download as much as they can from a website, which quickly gets overwhelmed with the amount of data being taken from it and crashes)

 

I'd follow their complaints procedure here aswell as contacting the CEO.

[rebel11]

Basic stuff, set up a new connection. Delete all existing connections. Then set up a new connection, you'll need the password to do this.

 

http://www.sky.com/helpcentre/broadband/set-up/set-up-wireless/

[limasierra]

Thankyou Locutus and rebel11, I really appreciate your advice, I'm not getting my normal email notifications of responses to my thread at the moment so I apologise for the delay in answering.

 

We will check out the security issues you've mentioned and get on to sky again. The new filter arrived yesterday but it's made no difference, even though it's plugged into the master socket.

Sky said we were getting 9mb with and without the ethernet cable plugged into the test socket.

They seem to trot out the same mantra to everybody ....' test socket, ethernet cable, new filter, reset router....' and then that's it.

That is so infuriating because they have this air of resolution....as if they're saying 'so that's the last word'. Take it or leave it.

Why haven't they made the suggestions you have? Maybe the slow speed is due to contention.

They've had a big drive on lately for new customers with cheap prices so maybe in my area it's cut down the speed.

Oh well, I'm second guessing now!

[limasierra]

An update....

 

Thanks a lot for recommending the formal letter of complaint to the CEO rebel11 because it has definitely resulted in Sky taking this more seriously.

 

After many many calls, new filter, new router which initially they wanted to charge us £40 for - more on that later -

Sky sent BT Openreach yesterday.

The results were very interesting.

At the conclusion of very exhaustive testing the engineer found no problem at all with anything in our house or at the exchange.

When he phoned Sky back with his results we heard the following observations:

First thing, the Sky technician told the engineer a restriction had been placed on our line, plus all the time the engineer's testing equipment was plugged in we got a very strong and clear download upwards of 10mb but as soon as he reconnected our new Sagem N type router it deteriorated rapidly. The Sky technician acknowledged that apparently.

 

Having had no callback from Sky today following the tests I rang them. Very lengthy procedure, passed from one to another, very cagey, 'are things better today?'

I insisted in discussing the results which they didn't want to do, instead they wanted to know what the engineer had told us. He hadn't 'told ' us anything, I only know what I know from what I overheard.

 

The upshot is that they say they have lifted the restriction, no explanation of why it was there in the first place. We don't abuse our download, we're a couple in early retirement who use the internet for shopping, watch the occasional i-player episode of something we might have missed, check out a couple of social sites etc which has been impossible over the last few weeks.

We don't have youngsters around who use X-box or play internet games and neither do we download movies.

If our speed has been restricted to below 2mb every day then there's no point in us having internet at all.

Sky are taking money for something 'not fit for purpose' and from what I'm reading on this forum they're not alone.

 

In their defence I will say they have refunded us one months internet charge, which is something and I'm pleased they sent out the engineer. Without that I'm sure the restriction would not have been mentioned.

We'll test things tonight and for the next week by using i-player and Youtube and we'll also continue to record our download speeds, daren't hope for too much!

[limasierra]

Speed down again last night, 9.43 pm 0.48, this morning 7.40am 1.06 whoopee.

 

Funnily enough there's a brand new FTTC cab 500metres away from our house, Sky not responded to our request for fibre optic yet so maybe they're not yet in a position to sell it?

Loaded question?

Edited September 14, 2012 by limasierra
typo

[Lillibelle]

We got shot of Sky broadband and phone because the bb was absolutely rubbish,,constant slow speeds,,always having to reboot the router,,moved it all round the house to see if that helped and eventually got sick and tired of it,,We went to BT infinty,,when I rang Sky for the MAC code I was surprised to be given it straight away (normally comes via post?),the operator asked why we were leaving,I told her and her exact words were'oh you are so much better off with fibre optic!!' I was a bit shocked to say the least..Sky telling a customer their product is inferior! When the BT engineer came to sort the Infinity out I told him what was said by Sky and he told me that Sky can supply fibre optic,but they don't push the sale of it because they want to sell their own product??

Anyway,,we changed and our BB is brilliant,,absolutely no problems whatsoever and we have 4 laptops,a Wii,a PS3 and 4 iphones

[limasierra]

Glad to know you're not having to do speedchecks and router rebooting anymore Lillibelle! Life must be sweet!

 

Sky are 'taking orders online for Fibre Optic' but no-one speaks. I'm sure they'll be selling it but as far as I'm aware they would still have to use the green FTTC cabinets which are BT's property.

Anyone got any idea what the criteria is here?

[locutus]

Yup, BT have to allow other providers use their equipment, the same as you used to be able to go anywhere for your broadband and it was the same BT servers in the exchange when ADSL 1st came out.

[andyask]

Am also having problems with partners Sky Broadband in West London near Heathrow. A speed test always returns 0.4 to 1.3MB max. Have done all the checks etc. Helpdesk unable to assist ("you are quite far from the exchange")

Tried

http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/speedtest

and looked at Broadband Street Stats after the test. Most tests come from Virgin customers on 20mb+ lines with 20mb+ speeds.

Have now planned to move to Virgin ASAP.

[Surfer01]

Deleted

[matt_tee]

I have just been banned from sky help forum by Graham H, after complaining about sky Hd 'trial'.

what can I do?

he is now deleting other people's posts!!