Sorry, we're having technical difficulties

[GT34]

I tried to sign up to Sky today as a new customer and saw this error message: "Sorry, we're having technical difficulties
Unfortunately, we have not been able to proceed with your order. Please try again later"

I see this has been asked here many times but does anyone understand what causes this?

I managed to get on the phone with Sky but they just told me to try again with a new email address and phone number. Pretty poor service.

[Mark39]

 @GT34 if you've been a Sky customer before, the advice to use a different email address would be correct. Not sure a different phone number is required. 

[GT34]

Thanks. I've never been a sky customer and still doesn't work with a different email address. 

The issue seems to be more address dependent. Any idea what could be triggering it?

[sunnybones]

have had this problem for the last few days 

tried different card , tried different email address ,same 

rang the number and its closed at the weekends (despite  not mentioning it ) 

giving up and going with Virgin instead

[GT34]

I managed to place an order but then discovered that at some point the flat number got dropped from the address. I called sky to fix this and got told the only way to fix it is to cancel the order and place a new one online (with a new email address and phone number!). 

So it seems I am stuck in a catch 22 because either I get an error or the address gets messed up.

This is completely baffling, how is it that nobody knows what triggers this error and how to fix it?! As far as I can see from this forum, it's been happening for at least a few years!