Move External Junction Box/Point Of Entry

[PatrickM001]

Due to building work starting in a few months, in February I contacted Sky to have the External Junction Box/Point Of Entry moved. They booked an Open Reach Engineer and took payment, appointment was two month later (April). Engineer turned up to move Master Socket inside the house, when I explained the work was needed on the outside, he was unable to do the work, but would pass details on to Open Reach. An Open Reach Surveyor turned up a few days later, marked out where the garden needed to be dug up for re-routing of cable. Engineer told me to let Sky know so they can contact Open Reach to get a team out to complete the work. I contacted Sky and they organised another Open Reach Engineer. On the appointment day the Engineer contacted me, and I explained what needed doing, but yet again Sky had booked the wrong job, it had been booked as a fault. Yesterday I spoke to Sky, got passed around different departments as no one knew who dealt with this, eventually someone said he had booked Open Reach to complete the required work. Not long after I receive a text saying Sky needed more information, I phoned Sky to ask what Information they needed, I tell them an appointment has been booked with Open Reach to move EJB/POE, but she tells me there is no appointment booked. After being put on hold a couple of times while she checks with others, she then tells me they do not know how to book this work and I need to contact Open Reach direct. Is this the case? If so why did Sky not tell me this two months ago.

[Chrisee]

@PatrickM001 the issue is simply you cannot normally communicate directly with Openreach unless they contact you first.  Contact with Openreach is heavily regulated by Ofcom and they cannot deal directly with the end customer. The job you want doing is quite complex as it requires a new feed from the road and presumably a move of the external CSP box and therefore beyond the scope of a simple move of an internal line entry point where a new line is run from the existing CSP which is what in practice you ordered. This isnt something the agent who took your payment could have predicted until the site survey

I am not surprised that Sky cannot offer the flexibility to book the larger job for you as a mass market ISP their systems are quite rigid. This comes up quite frequently with installations of new lines where customers want a custom job while Openreach in theory can do the work and charge Sky but there is no mechanism to pass on the charge to the customer. 

You can of course complain but from experience it is unlikely Sky can practically sort this for you.but they might release you from contract so you can find an ISP who can help. Smaller companies like Zen are more likely to be able to help.

[PatrickM001]

The job does not require a new feed from the road. The box that is on my house wall needs to be moved 1m to the right along the same wall, this would then mean the cable in the lawn needs to move 1m at the wall too. An Open Reach Surveyor has already marked up on my wall and lawn what needs to be moved. His report has been sent to Sky, so Open Reach are only waiting for Sky to give them the authorisation to do the job.

[Chrisee]

@PatrickM001 I wish you luck with that as I doubt Sky can actually place that order as on past experience they have very limited flexibility. Raising a formal complaint might work see  How to make a Sky complaint | Sky Help | Sky.com

[Johnh1982]

Hi

Was this work ever completed? Im

looking to do something similar and I'm currently waiting for openreach to complete a survey.