Ongoing broadband fault - no internet for 6 days, openreach delay

[Marcus123456789]

My Sky broadband has been completely down since Thursday 23rd October. A Sky engineer confirmed it’s an external fault. The issue was passed to Openreach on Friday morning, but nothing has happened since — no engineer, no update, still showing “in progress” in the Sky app. I have spoken with sky and they refuse to escalate the request and chase openreach. 

Has anyone else had similar long delays with Openreach not picking up a fault?

[Daniel0210 · Accepted solution]

@Marcus123456789 
Sky usually quote 2 WORKING DAYS as a potential fix time as this is the service level agreement in the UK between ISPs and Openreach for fixing a fault. Openreach claim to be successful within that timeframe in about 85% of cases. Some repairs take longer, for example when Openreach need to dig the road up (after getting permission from the local council).

▪️

This link explains the Ofcom agreed auto compensation scheme which Sky operates for when there is a TOTAL loss of Sky Broadband or Sky Talk for UK customers.
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/auto-compensation

If you have a total loss of service and it isn’t fixed after two full WORKING days from when Sky are notified of the fault, you will become eligible for it.

From Ofcom’s website:~
If your broadband or landline service stops working, you will have to report the fault to your provider. If the service is not fixed after two full working days, you would not need to ask for compensation or contact your provider again, as your provider has systems in place that mean you will start receiving compensation automatically if the repair takes too long.

This auto compensation is applied 30 days after the fault has been repaired and will come in the form of a credit appearing on your Sky account (from 01/04/25 the new rates are £9.98 per day)

▫️There is no equivalent scheme in place for customers in the Republic of Ireland.
▫️There is no automatic compensation for TV services affected by a broadband problem.
▫️I’m not aware of City Fibre being part of this scheme.
▫️Sky broadband being discussed here is a domestic service therefore whilst it's fine for customers who work from home to use it for that purpose they won't receive additional or quicker support.

[Chrisee]

@Marcus123456789 you are buying a domestic connection where Openreach's SLA is two full working days from report so a fault reported on Friday is not overdue until tomorrow - the third working day. In practice while 85% of faults are cleared within the SLA 15% are not. It all depends on the issue and availability of staff. 

Sky have very limited ability to hurry Openreach up but compensation does start accrueing when the SLA is exceeded see Customer Auto-Compensation | Sky Help | Sky.com

[JLB2205]

I am having the same problem- it was supposed to be fixed by today.  It isn't.

[Daniel0210]

@JLB2205 

See the earlier replies including 

Sky usually quote 2 WORKING DAYS as a potential fix time as this is the service level agreement in the UK between ISPs and Openreach for fixing a fault. Openreach claim to be successful within that timeframe in about 85% of cases. Some repairs take longer, for example when Openreach need to dig the road up (after getting permission from the local council).

[Marcus123456789]

Thanks for the info — that makes sense, but my situation’s now gone well beyond the standard timeframe.

Sky first raised my fault to Openreach on Thursday 23 October, and as of today (30 October) I’ve still got no service. Openreach have already postponed work at least twice due to “workload”, and Sky haven’t provided any proactive updates.

I understand delays can happen, but we’re now at a full week without broadband, well past the 2-working-day SLA that’s meant to apply. I’ve already had to formally escalate this to Sky’s Executive Complaints Team, but I wanted to check if anyone else has experienced this kind of extended delay where Openreach keep pushing the job back and sky do nothing to tell openreach that this is gone way beyond when the fault should have been fixed

[Marcus123456789]

Thanks for the info — that makes sense, but my situation’s now gone well beyond the standard timeframe.

Sky first raised my fault to Openreach on Thursday 23 October, and as of today (30 October) I’ve still got no service. Openreach have already postponed work at least twice due to “workload”, and Sky haven’t provided any proactive updates.

I understand delays can happen, but we’re now at a full week without broadband, well past the 2-working-day SLA that’s meant to apply. I’ve already had to formally escalate this to Sky’s Executive Complaints Team, but I wanted to check if anyone else has experienced this kind of extended delay where Openreach keep pushing the job back.

[Marcus123456789]

Yeah I've had the same problem with open reach no turning up, I've been promised 3 days in a row now that openreach are turning up to fix the fault and nothing has happened, they just keep saying 'delayed due to workload, but sky seem to refuse to chase them properly and tell them this has gone way beyond the 2 working day SLA repair window. Someone was meant to come this morning at 8am and no one's turned up yet again 

[Chelmsford1]

Can I ask what ended up happening please? We've been in this exact boat but for two weeks now! No one from open reach shows up, Sky totally useless at helping.

[Daniel0210]

@Chelmsford1 

They might have been working on it remotely? Have you contacted Sky to see if they've had any update from Openreach? 

The above advice for auto compensation applies to you too. 

[Chelmsford1]

Thank you! Have been on the phone to Sky every day (for at least an hour) for the past two weeks. I always have to explain the situation from scratch again, and they eventually explain to me that it is an external issue and Open Reach will work on it. Some days when I talk to Sky I get a follow on text telling me when the Open Reach engineer will come, other days I don't - but I always get told Open Reach are coming.. Today I ask for the Open Reach Job reference number, to which they provided a Sky Order number instead. They would not provide me with an Open Reach Job number (in the OR job ref format), which I am entitled to. Makes me concerded that no one is looking into this... 

[Chelmsford1]

and when I press Sky on the status of the Open Reach job, all they can tell me is that the job status is 'open' - no other updates on the fix...

[JLB2205]

After 6 days they managed to sort it. Asked for compensation which should have been at least 3 working days. They offered £5! I will be following it up.

[Chrisee]

@Chelmsford1 save your time as itis pointless calling Sky every day as Openreach simply dont tell them the progress on a repair. If its a major local fault your best source of information is local media. While 85% of faults are cleared within the SLA of two whole days from report 15% aren't. Some take a few days more but in rare cases it can be a lot longer. It all depends on what needs fixing.

The delay can be simply waiting for permission to do road works, waiting for specialist equipment to become available or in many cases the repair requires replacement kit as one of the common issues is some bozzo taking out a street cabinet with a vehicle. There is nothing Sky or you can do to get your line back up.

You should be credited with compensation oncectge line is back see Customer Auto-Compensation | Sky Help | Sky.com