SKY and Openreach lying regarding repair

[AGrier]

On 26 Dec a tree took down our broadband line.  Open reach came and repaired the line on 27 and said we would be up and running on 29 (48 hours as per their service agreent with Sky) On 29 we contacted Sky who said it would take 48 hours (ie Sunday 31st) On Sunday SKy told us Openreach needed permission from Council to stop traffic - rubbish- the line was already repaired. When I queried this Sky stated dismissively that Open Reach had issued a form to the council e this on 27th!!!! They then assured me that the Open reach techicians were working on the sunday to get this repaired - the rude and stupid customer service person I spoke to stated that if Open Reach did not work 24/7 the whole of the UK would have an outage. Second phone call and a different stupid customer service person said that no one was working as it was a public holidayand that we would have to wait until Tuesday when everyone was back.  I have now been told that it is a major (of course it is) incident and will take up to two weeks to repair. In the meantime due to the lies I believed regarding being back on line in 48 hours I have lost a change of air flight which has cost me over £800 - so who do I sue for recompense for that. I undertand that Sky is trying to cut costs and thereby outsources their customer services out to the cheapest place (never within the UK) but ontop of that they clearly do not train their staff as every single one of them has told me a different story....... @openreach @Sky 

[jamesn123]

@AGrier 

Okay a lot of misinformation in the post so will just clear a few things up first.

- Openreach's target SLA is 48hrs but it is not guarantee.

- Once this 48hrs has passed you are then eligible for Sky's 'Total loss of service' compensation which is paid to your bill at £9.33 per  working day once the fault has been resolved.

- Openreach do work over the weekend but they do not work on domestic installs/faults only buisiness/majors

- Openreach do not work over public holidays on domestic connections

- The compensation & Openreach SLAs are not counted over public holidays or weekends therefore by my calculations you are currently only entitled to compensation for Friday 29th Dec & Today (2nd) Jan as the 30th & 31st were a weekend & the 1st was a public holiday.

- You also are in no way able to claim compensation for your missed chance of chagining your flight as this could have been done via mobile data, public WiFi or a friends WiFi. Sky nor Openreach guarantee 100% uptime of fixes within 48hrs so you should have other options in place to keep you going incase of faults like these. 

Now if you wish to get an update from Sky you'll need to call as the community messaging team wont be back until tomorrow. Or if you wait until tomorrow we can escalate your post on here to chat with an agent. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@AGrier wrote:

 In the meantime due to the lies I believed regarding being back on line in 48 hours I have lost a change of air flight which has cost me over £800 - so who do I sue for recompense for that. 

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I'd suggest that's essentially impossible, and you won't find a single instance where such a attempt has been successful: as @jamesn123 indicates, domestic ISPs offer no service level guarantee and so no provision for consequential loss in the event of service disruption.

[TimmyBGood]

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@AGrier wrote:

I undertand that Sky is trying to cut costs and thereby outsources their customer services out to the cheapest place (never within the UK) 

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I'd note that since 2018 Sky Group has been a relatively small overseas division of the Comcast corporation, so their ties to the UK are distinctly looser than in previous decades.

[AGrier]

Why is it that you who don't even work for Sky know more than their stupid untrained staff. Yes lots of lies told to me...... my fault is major - their word not mine ...... 

[jamesn123]

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@AGrier wrote:

Why is it that you who don't even work for Sky know more than their stupid untrained staff. Yes lots of lies told to me...... my fault is major - their word not mine ...... 

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As you said before really, during seasonal or busy periods calls may be routed to outsourced/less trained staff who don't have the real world experience that the community users do. 

If the fault is a localised major one then Openreach will be working on it everyday until its resolved. Did you get given an updated date for a fix?

[AGrier]

Today Sky told me that it will be in two weeks time but would not say what two weeks is.... is that 14 working days or is that calendar.  The tree took down the line on 26th - they fixed the line on 27th and after that no internet and keep getting told 48 hours etc etc.....  just lies all the time or stupidity or both. So I have to pay for lack of internet on publc holidays and weekends - I pay for nothing to a company who give me nothing yet takes my money????? Is that correct? Someone at sky live chatted to Open Reach and told me it was a major incident. What does that mean? If the line is reapaired what else is not workiing? Where is the fault if not on the line?

[AGrier]

Cheap outsourcing and then not training staff properly - shocking service but only what is to be expected.

[AGrier]

What phone numbr can I use to get to speak to someone who actually understands and can talk sense not just regurgitate from a script

[jamesn123]

@AGrier 

If Sky say 2 weeks that will be 14 calendar days or 10 working days, not 14 working days.

The problem may be something on the pole if a tree took down the whole cable it may require a different team to come and climb the pole. It could be as bad as needing a whole new Fibre distribution point if the tree ripped it apart. 

[jamesn123 · Accepted solution]

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@AGrier wrote:

What phone numbr can I use to get to speak to someone who actually understands and can talk sense not just regurgitate from a script

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The only number Sky have is the one given to you at the end of an online help journey or the 03 number listed at https://sky.com/help under 'Need more help?' State your problem as a broadband technical issue to the bot and then hold through any messages asking you to go online, get a text etc.