Sky Broadband Ordering

[Mark+Hayward]

You can guess from the subject the general content of this post. I thought I would share my experience to help other customers set their expectations when dealing with sky in trying to set up broadband, tv and talk after moving home.

I would also hope that sky may listen and try to improve, especially as this is not the first time ive had issues with their service.

I have tried setting up sky in a new home twice now on both occasions the TV was set up within 48hrs of moving in for no cost which is excellent, the guys who came were on time, cleaned up after they had drilled through walls and were very polite.

However phone and broadband have been a continual total disappointment. 2 years ago when I moved in to a flat I was repeatedly promised call backs which were never made and it took over 8 weeks for broadband and phone to be set up. I complained, received some credit on my account to cover the cost of my calls. I would have hoped that my complaint and the others I have seen on sky help forums would have highlighted that customers are experiencing problems with the service they are getting from sky and that sky would have done something about it - this doesn’t appear to be the case.

I have recently moved again. I called sky on the 8th April to inform them I was moving on the 15th. It was around 10pm, the website says customer service lines are open 24/7 - may be someone should tell sky as the automated answering service said the call centre was closed.

I called back on the 9th April to try to set up a home move. I was told the home move service is closed at weekends.

I called back on the 11th April the TV set up was booked for the 17th April. But the phone and broadband would take 14 days to cancel and I would receive a call back on 29th April.

29th April - No call. I had to call sky. The account was still active on the old address. I was told by the lady that she would cancel the account and call me back on the 30th as it takes 24 hrs.

If this lady could cancel the account in 24hrs why I was initially told it would take 14 days?

30th April – No call. I called back. Finally I was able to arrange for broadband and sky talk to be set up. I have been given the date of 17th May for activation of the sky talk. And then 2 weeks after for broadband, although it may be sooner after sky talk goes live. Essentially, im looking at the 29 May before I should definitely be connected. This is a full 8 weeks after i tried to inform sky i was moving.

Why does it take so long? The house has a line installed, checks have been done by sky to determine the line speed, i have the router from the previous flat, so why does it take so long. Use BT checks as an excuse is simply not good enough im a SKY customer not a BT customer. It should not take 8 weeks to set up broadband and a phone line.

I will be making a complaint and will expect to receive some compensation for the phone calls i have had to make because sky have failed to stick to their promises.

[michael-r]

Hi Mark+Haayward,

I'm sorry to hear you have a had a poor experience whilst going through the home move process with Sky.  Certainly, the process has come a long way over time and we're always looking to improve on the procedures and time scales that are involved.

The line and broadband does involve a different time scale to the TV side of the home move process. Once the line and broadband has cancelled down, this then needs to be re-ordered. This involves work being carried out at the telephone exchange in conjunction with BT Openreach.

This can take around 14 days to cancel down and then the order needs to be processed through the new address.  The order progression does normally take around 14 days to go active but can be delayed due to the availability of a BT Openreach engineer in your area. Throughout the cancellation and re-order, a BT Openreach engineer is required to work at the telephone exchange. Sometimes work is also required at the property, but isn't always the case.

The customer services lines are open 24/7 but the department that can process a home move are open between 08:30 to 21:00. The particular department that can deal with moving line rental services aren't open on the weekends either. This is due to BT Openreach also being close over the weekends.

The cancellation and moving home procedures can differ depending on what type of network you are configured to. These also have different cancellation time scales. In order to obtain more information about the network you are configured to you would need to contact us, as an advisor within the contact centre will need to access your account specifically.

Even though you have had a negative experience, we appreciate your feedback involving the process.

[Mark+Hayward]

unsurprisingly another problem has occurred. Today i received a letter from sky informing me that my order was unable to be processed and i need to call sky.

After calling i have been told that there are "so many things that can go wrong and something has gone wrong" and "there is no way of telling what it was that has stopped the order".

I have had to reorder but the lady could not promise me that the same thing that stopped the previous order would not stop this order.

I now have an activation date of the 19th - another delay and will now need to ask for a different day off work. 

Why cant sky tell me what went wrong with the order? and surely if sky dont know why is didnt progress then I could be forever ordering and being rejected. 

This probably wont be the last problem i have. 

[Robert]

Hi Mark+Hayward, 

I'm sorry to hear this, the reason for your order not completing successfully may be retreived by our Provisioning team when accessing the details of the order on our back-systems. Unfortunately we cannot provide this information through the forum as this would require access to your account.

Please use the Contact Us page and select Talk at step 1 followed by Track My Order at step 2, this will generate Phone and E-Mail options for this team at the bottom of the page.

[loopy23]

I am having the same problem with Sky. I had an awful experience with sky customer service after moving home. Its been two month and I have still not got my broadband....

[Robert]

Hi loopy23, 

Can you give us a bit more information on the issue? we'll try our best to help.

Thanks

[James711]

Having identical issues. Was told I'd get a call back on 9th May. No call back. Called again today after receiving an email confirming my 'wish to cancel'. Have now been told I have to call them back 19th before I can cancel my old telephone line and she didn't know how long it would be before my new line would be activated never mind broadband. Why is it such an issue to move an account to a new address? I bet if I was a new customer signing up it would be a much quicker,smoother process. No loyalty rewarded obviously.

[Bexster34]

The exact same thing has happened to me.  Moved house on the 21st April and informed sky about a week before.  They told me to call back on the day I was moving.  Did this only to be told it would take 2 weeks for everything to swap over to new address.  The previous occupants had everything with sky so would think that it would be easy to swap everything over....oh no.  TV was fine straight away.  Broadband has been a nightmare....we still dont have it and its now the 16th may.  Got told they would send us out a free dongle....this has never arrived so I had to go and buy one myself.  As for sky talk well on my account it just said it had been cancelled but no one had reordered it.  I have called so many times and the latest is I am going to have to wait another 2 weeks for sky talk.  That means 6 weeks with no phone.  If i could get virgin in my area I would swap as the service I have received has been awful.  I would not recommend sky to anyone.

[michael-r]

Hi James 711 & Bexster34,

The best thing to do would be to go through to our new home move site which can be found here. Through this you can book an initial home move and also speak to advisor using our Live Chat facility. A Live Chat advisor, within the contact centre, will be able to check on specific details within your account and help keep you up to date with this process.

[Tony1234]

Hi

I have a problem now and wonder if one of the guys from Sky can advise.

I am a new customer and ordered TV, Talk and Broadband for the new house I was moving into (which the previous occupant already had installed so no physical work needed) and as with previous users on here, the tv was installed quickly, professionally and on the day specified in the letter I recieved from Sky. ( The 6th May )

In the next paragraph of the letter it stated that the phone and broadband would be installed on 16th May PM and warned me that if nobody was at home on this day then I may be charged £105 if a second visit is needed.

So on the 16th we waited and waited and waited until eventually we phoned Sky asking if the man was on his way.

In horror we were told that no one was on their way as the person who took the order and sent the letter out did not order the phone number from OFCOM or someone and we would now have to wait another 29 days.

I tried to complain but wase badly spoken to when asked to speak to a supervisor and kept on hold for so long that I ran out of credit on my phone.

Why should I have to wait another 29 days especially as the mistake was due to an error at Sky and not me.

What sort of recourse do I have about this and is it possible to cancel my contract and get Virgin Media installed instead.

Who do I complain to ???

Please help

[Robert]

Hi Tony1234,

I'm sorry to hear that this has happened. In this case it is unfortunate that the order was not processed properly leading to your current situation. As you have indicated a new order has now been placed and confirmed with a new activation date.

The order should not require an engineer visit to your property if the existing wiring and line are tested remotely and found to be in working order. Instead an engineer will need to be dispatched to the local exchange to connect the line up and perform remote activation.

I appreciate that this is frustrating however the timescales for this to be completed which are in place currently cannot be changed, if we could speed up the progress of the order we would.

In order to log a complaint regarding this please follow the steps on our Complaints Code and use the Contact Us page to raise the complaint either by phone or e-mail to the relevant team.

[Tony1234]

Thanks for your reply Robert, but how do I know that a new order has been placed? I may be sitting here forever.....

How can I find out that a new order is active and get a date for connection?

Do you need my customer number or address?

[Robert]

Hi Tony1234, 

If a new router has been ordered it will appear when you log into the My Sky website and click on Track Order from the options on the left of the page. Please allow up to 24 hours after the request is made for details to appear. Once the router has been dispatched a tracking number will be displayed on the website along with a link to the tracking site for the router with the courier we are using.

You will also find details on the progress of your order for Sky Broadband and Sky Talk including the expected activation date for these services on the Order Tracking page.

[RikJames]

Hi, I am having exactly the same issues. I moved house on the 4th May, a few days later BT provided a VOL confirmation code, confirming that the previous occupiers had cancelled their contract. In advance of the move I contacted the 'SKYmoves team', twice via the moving home function online (which failed both times) and eventually on the phone  in mid April to try and minimse the time we were without the phone/broadband.

I have had a number of calls with SKY since then trying to get this resolved - on the call today i was told that there is not an existing BT line at our house (despite providing the VOL number and confirming to the operator that is not the case) so an engineer will need to come out and we will need to take time off work to be there. As if this is not bad enough it will then take up to 3 weeks for the phone line to be activated and possible a further 3 weeks for the broadband.

This is totally unacceptable and to be honest I am typing this more to release my frustrations than in expectation that SKY will be embarrassed about my situation and specifically the service/process to date and expedite the necessary fixes. 

[Robert-B]

Hi RikJames,

I'm sorry to hear that you are still without your services at your new property.

Is your order currently in progress just now?

If it is then it will be booked as a new line provide even though there was a previous active BT line at the property, this will take approximately 2-3 weeks to go live. Your line can be remote activated at the exchange however an engineer visit is booked in case the existing line and phone point needs to be checked, this is to avoid further delays.

Once active and if your not in a Sky Voice & Broadband Network area then a separate order will be started for your broadband which can take a further 14 days to go active.