No phone line for 6 days (Moved from Broadband)

[Osprey38]

 have Sky Talk with a boradband and TV package and have stayed loyal to Sky for years. Since Sunday 20th Feb 2022, my phone started crackling, and then I lost incoming and outgoing calls. For a short time my internet was also down but that has come back. If someone rings me number now it goes straight into answerphone which I can't retrieve.
I use a cordless set of phones which are new in December, I have plugged in other phones to make sure it isn't them, but with the same result.

I am elderly, on my own and my phone is my lifeline as well as my means to speak to friends and family to fill my day. I have been appalled by Sky's slowness to attend to this issue, and knowing my vulnerability etc, still haven't given me any clear time when this can be done.

I have called them daily from my mobile which I am having to keep paying extra for as I have no landline and the replies range from

• There's a fault outside, an engineer will be there within 48 hrs
• The engineer is working on it now and you should be up and running shortly (Tuesday)
• This could take a few weeks to sort
• I've no record of you speaking to anyone, but I'll arrange an engineer now.
• Engineers don't work the weekend so this will be looked at Monday or Tueday next week at the earliest.

My Sky contract ends in April and to be honest I haven't considered leaving before now, this service however has really upset me and the don't care attitude of some of their helpline staff is terrible.

Has anyone got any suggestions on how I can resolve this.

Thank you.

[Daniel0210 · Accepted solution]

@Osprey38 Openreach are responsible for the repair and are notorious for not updating their customers, which in this case is Sky. 
Openreach normally aim to fix reported faults within 3-5 working days of being notified of them. If the repair involves digging up the road this takes longer as they need to seek permission from the local council. Obviously since the three storms last week the number of reported faults will have grown significantly. You just have to contact Sky for periodic updates but they can only tell you what Openreach tell them. 

[Daniel0210]

@Osprey38 I've also removed your duplicate post on the Broadband forum as two posts on the same issue will only cause duplicate answers. 

[Osprey38]

Thank you for replying. It makes sense, but so upsetting for me being without my phone. An explanation like this would have stopped me contacting Sky daily. I spoke with them yesterday and there's a delay as somone has to go down a manhole 😞

Either way Daniel, your reply is appreciated.

[Osprey38]

So here I am, 4 weeks later and still no landline. I'm having to top up my mobile so I can keep in touch with friends and family and speaking to 'advisors' at Sky, it's like the same conversation everytime.

My contract expires in a couple of weeks, sorry Sky, your customer service and resolve to fix this is non existant. Even with Openreach as the company who repairs faults, Sky appear to be toothless in getting them to take action.

Virgin or BT or maybe one of the lesser known comapnies it will probably be, I know they use Openreach, but they don't charge the amount that Sky do for a poor service I'm sure!

[Mark39]

Unfortunately, as is the case with all providers dependent on them, Sky have no leverage over Openreach's timescales. Sky are competitive in terms of pricing.

The only provider not dependent on the Openreach infrastructure is Virgin, but I'm not sure they're any better in terms of pricing or ability to fix faults in a timely manner