Left with no internet and phone line

[Costadeltel]

Just ordered Sky Business Broadband and this was supposed to be installed Tuesday this week. Engineer comes and does the internal works and then says another engineer will need to complete the external work. I call Sky and they say they cannot schedule this for another 2 weeks. I'm currently without any internet and phone line. I am a small work-from-home business and completely reply on this. It also means my home security system is down in the meantime, leaving my home vulnerable while I have 2 young children. I've contacted Sky explaining all this and I've failed to get any commitment to fix this prior to two weeks time. Any ideas how i can escalate this far and wide. It's disgusting to leave long standing customers this way! 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Costadeltel wrote:

 I've contacted Sky explaining all this and I've failed to get any commitment to fix this prior to two weeks time.

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External work is typically the remit of Openreach rather than any ISP: generally speaking no ISP personnel can touch the Openreach network past the CSP (for FTTP) and the master socket (for FTTC)  Where completing installation is on an Openreach timeframe, ISPs are extremely limited in their options to apply pressure on their customers behalf.

Unfortunately 'business broadband' (from Sky or another ISP) doesn't bring any additional service priority until it gets into leased-line territory and commensurate pricing.

[Chrisee]

@Costadeltel this forum supports Sky's domestic service and cannot really help with Sky Business connections which is effectively a separate business. However these type of delays are not unheard of where the running of a new line hits a snag like a blocked duct or something like trees  blocking a overhead line both of which would require a team to sort. Domestic customers do get compensated but not sure of the position for business customers. 

Effectvely there is little Sky can do but wait until Openreach sort the problem. 

[Costadeltel]

I don't understand why they don't check for issues prior to starting any work. If this is a common issue that could leave people without internet for days or weeks, then further due diligence should be taken before anything is touched. Especially, if its a business line, or like with most homes now, attached to home security devices. 

Their measly offering of £6 per business day compensation won't cut it. I need my internet, back, not insulting lip service from Sky. 

[jamesn123]

@Costadeltel 

Not being funny but if your relying on it for your business what happened to your previous internet supply? If I was running such a mission critical business from home I would ensure there was overlap from my previous supplier so issues like this dont occur.

If this is your first connection at the property then I would recommend using mobile hotspot for the time being. 

[Costadeltel]

I was with sky residential broadband for 12 years with zero issues. Since I started my own business it was time to switch to business broadband. I am with the same supplier and I was reassured on setting it up that it would be very simple to get me switched seeing as I'm an existing Sky customer. 

Plan B is obviously mobile hotspot but that doesn't help when you're business needs fast internet and a phone line. 

in any case, if Sky are to blame they should provide temporary measures to support people so they are not further out of pocket and time. The D-Link dongle may have somewhat helped but the one they gave me doesn't work.

[jamesn123]

@Costadeltel 

Is your residential connection not still live then? If the activation has failed for your business line the residential should've stayed up unless you specifically cancelled it with a date. 

[Costadeltel]

No. The residential line was cancelled on the date they were installing the new business line. Sky residential and business teams do not speak to each other and their systems do not speak either , so I've been back and forth. 

I asked them to reactivate my old line until the business one is resolved but they say they can't and this could take 2 weeks to sort. They also say I can complain but it might be 10 days till I get a reply. 

it seems they have you over a barrel with nowhere to turn. 

If I'm having these issues transferring internally within Sky then god knows how bad it is coming from a completely different supplier!

[jamesn123]

@Costadeltel 

You are right, Sky Residential & Sky Business are basically two different entities so getting them to communicate would be near enough impossible. 

They are also right in saying that re-activating your old line would take around 2 weeks as once its been ceased a new order would have to be put in with Openreach and the lead time is 10 working days. 

As others have mentioned this kind of problem with activating FTTP for the first time can happen when Openreach engineer availability is scarce or they need a specialist time to complete the exterior works. It's something which should be communicated to customers so they can make alternative provisions incase of such a delay. 

At this point you are stuck since your old service has been terminated and there is no speeding up the FTTP activation. I'd recommend getting a good mobile hotspot system. 

[Chrisee]

@Costadeltel oddly transferring between different suppliers can be simpler. Sky's systems have issues with transfers between their internal businesses which we see quite frequently with Sky Broadband to Now Broadband services and vice versa. Sorry but as you can gather you are effectively in a no man's land but certainly changing to a third party supplier at this point will delay things further.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Costadeltel wrote:

I don't understand why they don't check for issues prior to starting any work. If this is a common issue that could leave people without internet for days or weeks, then further due diligence should be taken before anything is touched. Especially, if its a business line, or like with most homes now, attached to home security devices. 

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Realistically a domestic or ('business broadband' charged at a similar rate) subscription just doesn't cover that kind of service.  To get a pre-install survey you'd have to be ordering a leased-line from a higher-tier business provider at several hundred pounds per month running cost.

I'm afraid that 'Sky Business Broadband' being priced at essentially the same level as their domestic offerings really should be a clue, and that would also be the case for other ISPs competing in the same space.

[Costadeltel]

I appreciate everyone's replies here. Seems like I'm completely stuffed and at the behest of Sky/Openreach until they bother to send anyone out.

I won't be letting it go with the Sky team. Excuses only work once. Its clear there is a pattern of issues here with multiple customers being affected by it. 

We're all paying customers and we deserve to get the services we paid for on the date it's promised. Imagine if we treated our own businesses and customers the same way, we'd quickly be ran out of business and rightly so!

[TimmyBGood]

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@Costadeltel wrote:

  Its clear there is a pattern of issues here with multiple customers being affected by it. 

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Certainly: given the government target is to have 85% of UK properties on full fibre by December 2026 there are many thousands of scheduled activation attempts each working day, and some of these inevitably fail or get delayed: on that kind of scale only a small percentage of problems is still a large number of unhappy customers.