Warning about SOGEA / VOIP

[cybercomputers]

Hi all

I am a small business and moved from BT FTTC and PTSN phone to Sky Business SOGEA and VOIP phone system. Had our number ported over with no issues.

Everything seemed ok until we noticed the phone wasnt as busy as it usually is. We thought nothing of it, business may just be quiet.. months went on.. We noticed calls where the phone would ring, we picked it up and it was silent. We assumed it was call centres and telemarketing.

6 months later customers who had my personal number started ringing me saying they have been calling the shop and cant get through.. Alarm bells now raised.

I tried ringing my landline, I could hear the dailing like usual in my mobile phones speaker, the landline would ring but when I picked up it immediatly went to voicemail, not even the alternative number we had as a divert.

Rang Sky to complain and advise that since moving to them we have potentially lost a LOT of calls and business and they basically said its tough. Blamed our phones and router. Sent a new router out, we bought new phones from Argos and soon as new equipment connected it still did the same thing.

Called back to Sky again who said they needed to re provision the VOIP and turn the router off for exactly 6 minutes, after this still issues persisted. Called back again and they arranged an engineer to visit. Not sure what he could do as the internet was always fine. Surely enough Engineer came, said everything is physically fine its a network issue and logged it and went on to his next job.

Anyway, not sure what happened next but the phones and divert seem to be working as they should be, I still come in every morning and ring the landline to test and it works.

Today I came in, VOIP light was RED on the router, phones not working, rang the landline and what a surprise the divert didnt work.

Basically what I am saying here is I strongly advise not to use this service and keep a standard phone line as long as you can. 

I cant really quantify how much damage this has done to my business or prove it, but needless to say I am very upset about all this. Sky offered no compensation at all and said well good luck trying to persue damages.

[GD1]

@cybercomputers  Do you have Sky Business Broadband?  If not and you are using a domestic service then I'm afraid there will be no recourse.

You do need to be using the relevant service for a Business.

[cybercomputers]

Yes its business broadband not domestic.

[GD1]

@cybercomputers  Then you need to speak to the Business Side of Sky and raise the complaint through them. https://www.sky.com/business/help/articles/contact-us 

We are all domestic customers here.

[Mark39]

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@cybercomputers wrote:

Yes its business broadband not domestic.

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Your contractual terms and conditions will set out what compensation, if any, Sky will pay. I expect it will be couched in terms of a total loss of service, though. Failing that, best to raise a co plaint as advised.

[TimmyBGood]

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@cybercomputers wrote:

Basically what I am saying here is I strongly advise not to use this service and keep a standard phone line as long as you can. 

Worth noting that as the UK has now passed 'stop sell' for PSTN, all new broadband orders, including switching provider and changing address, will result in provisioning over SOGEA with no analogue voice service.

I cant really quantify how much damage this has done to my business or prove it, but needless to say I am very upset about all this. Sky offered no compensation at all and said well good luck trying to persue damages.

I think I'd observe that Sky 'Business Broadband' is a rather odd product and that its contract conditions should be carefully examined before signing-up.

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