Signed up to Sky in late March live in London, Broadband still not installed in July,

[David538]

I am writing with the disgusting and appalling customer service treatment we have had and continue to receive from Sky and Openreach.  We recently bought a house on in Surrey in March, normal residential street near Hampton Court,,  in spite of many promises and appointments we still have not had broadband installed and yet sky are charging us £19.00 a month for tv we cannot use.

1. Apparently it not skys problem and  it's not openreaches problem that we get every month a note to say there is another cancelled appointments and a further monthly delay, this has moved from May to June to now the end of July. Both myself and my partner are in senior executive roles in a uk listed company and simply cannot move into our new  house as the broadband hasn't been installed.  The solution sky recommended was so slow it wasn't fit for purpose.
2. i can only stay  in the house a couple days in a week to work  burning huge amounts of data on my mobile and no tv etc.
3. Our complaints  have fallen on deaf ears and apparently it is being urgently looked at has meant another month of a delay to get it installed, our new latest date is 29 July have been moved from 9 July this week.
4. I may sound annoyed but 4 months waiting for broadband is ridiculous. Especially as the previous owner who moved out in March 2025  had wired sky broadband, but openreach wont do that any more.
5. We cannot move in and consequently we cannot move out of our exiting home, it is costing us an absolute fortune.  Nobody seems to care in sorting out a necessity for us.

[GD1]

@David538  Not moving home due to broadband not being installed is your choice and as it stands you won't be compensated for this.

Have you looked at mobile broadband using 4G/5G?  

The only compensation you'll be entitled to is the Ofcom Auto Compensation for delayed activation once it's up and running.

As it stands you'll need to keep contacting Sky for updates and going to another provider may not resolve anything, unless there is an Alt etc provider such as Virgin Media, Community Fibre, City Fibre etc your options are going to be limited but none of this prevents you moving in, this is your choice not to.  Sky are not responsible for you not moving home.

[jamesn123]

@David538 

Its quite likely that Openreach need to do some work to bring a fibre cable into the property there can be many reasons for a delay such as

- That the area is at capacity

- They are assessing the best way to duct the cable 

- The pole is overcrowded

or many others.

If you go to this site and use the 'address checker' then post the resulting table back here there may be some notes as to why there is such a delay. 

As for burning mobile data, you can get an unlimited data sim for like £20-30 a month from any major carrier these days which you can then just put in some sort of MiFi unit, easy solution to allow you to move in. 

[David538]

Observing the replies, clearly neither responder is showing much sympathy  for us waiting 4 months for Broadband to be installed after buying a house.

I've clicked the site link in one of the replies and put in my address which says fttp available and no issues, which was checked when we ordered the broadband back in March and what was expected when the sky person turned up in early May, who said he couldn't install. Seems that the information on the site link is incorrect otherwise would have had the Broadband installed months ago.

The "super user" on the forum who are not linked to Sky employees is more concerned about me seeking an expensive compensation claim against Sky than receiving the Sky service I paid for, and am still paying for.  I bought a EE MIFi recommended by Sky customer service and it didn't work and was extremely slow.  Maybe the one Sky recommended to us to buy was the wrong. one or not fast enough, , which is why I and my partner reverted back to my phone hotspot.  The same Sky company that tells me every month the broadbaand issue will be resolve and openreach are coming ina few days

We have had a person say on this forum and also advised directly from Sky yesterday have you considered virgin  broadband as that could solve your issue.  

it feels that Sky are washing their hands of us having us contracting with them to provide a service to us.

im wondering is anyone else out there is experiencing the same challenges I am, as I love to hear other people's stories of poor customer service from Openreach and Sky. Perhaps we can share experiences to get things sorted or not and continue to publish our fun and games dealing with these companies.  I'll keep the forum updated  as to what happens next.

[JimM1]

@David538 Nobody is interested in what compensation you think you will get or not, you probably did not even read the contract correctly and after 90 Day's of trying sky either have to commit or not, OR Openreach own and operate the infrastructure to your home, sky only supply the service, It could be over sold, difficult install, lack of engineer availability know one knows, and just because it say's on the web search it is available anyone you go to that uses OR will have exactly the same problem getting it done and installed.

It is one off the big issues, when copper is there and Fibre is also, as soon as the previous occupant released and they could have kept the copper as NOT forced to change unless OR Refused to supply or repair, but new like you Fibre is king and copper does not exist in the slightest....

How you read it is all up to you, all customers like yourself, can pass on a wealth off experience and knowledge to the what if why and when.

Poor 4g/5g mobile area signal cannot be compensated for, takes some specialist equipment, but if you do have a good mobile signal then either talk to the area operators or even better a neighbour who may even be going down that path!

[JimM1]

@David538 As a little footnote lady accross the road, ordered sept 2024, installed 18th Jun 2025, OR difficulties installing and completing, i ordered 1st Sep 2024, installed mid Oct 2024. and that was with a 21 Day extra delay because the 1st installer OR Contractor had not a clue what was needed and i would not take any off his **bleep**. OR came 21 day's later and installed NO problem!

[Chrisee]

@David538 you are not the first person to have a delay in installing a fibre connection and almost certainly wont be the last. Given Openreach are installing over 10,000 connections per day a few will inevitably go wrong it is simply bad luck your's is one of them. I had a 10 week delay in running fibre to my home. 

I certainly dont care if you bring a case against Sky but I do suggest you get legal advice or at least read the terms of the contract you have entered into for a DOMESTIC broadbsnd supply first. I think you will find your rights to compensation are limited to the Ofcom approved scheme. Professionally I ran consumer advice centres for some years and my advisers sadly had to point out that customers rights are often limited by the terms of the contract they have entered into whether they wished to believe thst or not. Sky's standard terms are here https://static.skyassets.com/contentstack/assets/blt7f2b03fd02c7fe60/bltc2bb2eb831b81a73/684a9ac1fc2... read section 8 on page 12. Before you say a court can rule this term uninforceable which is true take advice as the courts are very unlikely to do so for what is consequential loss claim.

Speed of a mobile broadband service is not something a Sky service agent can predict as they have no way of knowing the mobile signal level in your property. In general EE do have good coverage nationally so it was not unreasonable suggestion but in no way do Sky have any liability there it was a suggestion made in good faith. 

It is simple good advice that if Openreach have hit an issue to consider other suppliers. So if Virgin Media can offer a service or these days there are potentially another 20 or more altnet providers who may have cables passing your property they maybe a better choice. Other alternatives are mobile broadband, but check the signal strength before buying and in most places Starlink are also viable alternatives. That Sky staff recognise that their service is not the best choice for every home is something to welcome not to complain about. You can cancel the Sky order at no cost up to 31 days after the service starts.

You also misunderstand the role of superusers we are  independent of Sky and we often give advice Sky dont like BUT sorry we cannot say things thst are manifestly untrue despite what you want the position to be. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@David538 wrote:

im wondering is anyone else out there is experiencing the same challenges I am, 

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Inevitably, yes: Openreach is attempting to carry out 80,000+ new FTTP installations every week to meet the target date for the national rollout, and some undoubtedly go wrong.  There's also a particular problem with house moves where existing copper cannot be activated when fibre is delayed.

If your new property has incorrect information in its BT Wholesale record then that's an additional complication.

[David538]

Thank you for the replies and the welcome and helpful context and advice the wider super users have given.  My partner signed the contract with Sky, so I did not see or read the small print and t&cs, but I do see the tears and stress it is causing her at the moment and how much time it is taking out of her work day speaking to Sky to chase this matter with little progress.

I want to stress I am not litigation hungry or an ambulance-chaser seeking compensation, and acknowledge that in major rollouts such as what Openreach are doing you can be one of the unlucky ones.  However, I'm sure you can understand my frustrations of us receiving appointments, notifications, rearranging the work diary , planning to be at the property and then get subsequently cancelled a day before and the next appointment or update rolled forwarded another month and unable to contact Openreach directly to see what is going on.

It is something we wanted sorted before we move in and terminate living in our current home and we simply can't make plans until that happens. I do regard good reliable broadband as an essential necessity of us moving into our new property, in the same way water, electrics and heating are working.  

I'm sure many people have the same view as us. I check with the previous owner what Broadband provider they used and it was confirmed as Sky, so could not foresee an installation issue.

I'll park my individual case to one side and make some observations from what I have read.  As one user has described it can unfortunately be a lottery in terms of how quickly Openreach will deal with the installation if fibre is not installed already.  One house takes months and months and next door takes a few weeks.  It's not possible to contact Openreach directly to understand what is going on and any requests are required to go through your chosen provider ie for us that is Sky. ( in my case I felt Sky offered the service I was looking for, as and was better than Virgin broadband which I have used in a previously rented property), I was completely unaware, how much reliance and criticality there was on Openreach behind the scenes too to deliver the Sky service.

Even if broadband is installed on copper and that is disconnected due to the previous owner moving house,, there is no way of reconnecting, it has to be fibre or nothing even if that means months of delay. Accepted high speed mobile broadband could be purchased as a temporary alternative, but with unclear dates and commitments as to when you broadband will be installed that could be an expensive option or commit to a longer contract and find you need to get out of it fast as openreach solve the installation problem quickly or within their original planned timeline. I am sure there will be an increasing number of unlucky people finding this out in their house moves.  I'm very very surpised openreach cannot provide an interim solution, while the fibre

in many other industries,  if a customer had these challenges or delays it would not be acceptable being the unlucky consumer.  In banking, tourism, hospitality, professional services and and retail the customer expects and requires a high quality service and more progressive companies encourage their customers to share poor quality experiences as it may help improve the service quality for others.  

I travel the world on business and leisure and super fast broadband/ WiFi where I am staying or in the restaurant I am eating is the norm and am disappointed when it is slow, be it Vietnam, Cambodia, Columbia, Scandinavia or Spain.  

In these establishments did they have to wait 4 months to get it installed or was the service quality quicker? I don't know, but I'm still a bit in shock as to being the unlucky consumer in UK experiencing delays, which is why I have found this forum beneficial.

.

[GD1]

@David538  You may reasonably expect broadband to be an essential service, in fact in this day age with such heavy reliance on it most people would think it is.

However it's not actually classed as an essential service unlike an energy or water supply.

At this point I'd be looking at alternatives, sadly as mentioned elsewhere you can't use lack of broadband as mitigation to not moving in and subsequently incurring extra costs in not doing so, costs you would never receive any recompense for this so will continue to be out of pocket.

The choice is in your hands, look at alternatives that may be more expensive or continue incurring duplicate costs for 2 properties.

[TimmyBGood]

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@David538 wrote:

I travel the world on business and leisure and super fast broadband/ WiFi where I am staying or in the restaurant I am eating is the norm and am disappointed when it is slow, be it Vietnam, Cambodia, Columbia, Scandinavia or Spain.  

In these establishments did they have to wait 4 months to get it installed or was the service quality quicker? I don't know, but I'm still a bit in shock as to being the unlucky consumer in UK experiencing delays, which is why I have found this forum beneficial.

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One point to consider is that the UK now suffers from having been one of the very first countries to establish a national telephone network, because that means there's a huge proportion of long-established legacy connections in place. Nations without such a distribution can actually implement full fibre and cellular faster because there's just less stuff to get in the way.

[JimM1]

@David538 You have pretty much defined it all in the nutshell, and with Sky finding it hard to extract the INFO out off OR to why all such delay's are occuring it is hard, appointment's cancelled are although a complete pain are just what has to happen, resources are not finite and in the major capitals with the highest density connections wise it does just get compounded. With the install period on a monthly basis if that is the kind off timeframe then that is the push period, and you will see from your experience alone thats the way it is working.

Supply and demand, demand is so high the supply side just cannot keep it up! Below is a little blurb from the OR bible so take a read.

1. FTTP is a contended service, up to 32 users can be sharing the 2.5Gb backhaul, so you can never expect the full speed all the time, you may get 900mb when there are fewer people using it. I expect that you are sharing the backhaul with many users. If everyone was using it fully, you may only get 78mbs. Its called statistical multiplexing, which relies on the fact that all users are not utilising their connection fully, all of the time.

BT quote up to 900mb, so you are likely to get much less than that during peak times.

Speed tests pass very little data, so normally give a much higher speed.

2. The max OR connect to a splitter is 30 ( 32 is the splitter maximum but policy is 30 ) not every CBT port provided is likely to have a customer using it , so unless on a ‘new site’ that has no alternatives to OR FTTP the actual number on a splitter is likely to be way less , OR currently have about a 30% take up, so maybe 10 users per splitter , plus the majority don’t take 900Mb but slower profiles , and the chances of those ‘on line ‘ at any one time all and doing something intensive, rather than browsing / Netflix that may be consuming less than 30-100Mb , is slim , that’s why there is a 700Mb minimum speed guarantee on 900Mb …..the 2.4Gb will be plenty ,you would have to be incredibly unlucky to have any consistent congestion.

If you suspect PON congestion, try at a time when there won’t be much activity, late evening or early morning .

Although you have tried somethings to ‘ isolate’ the problem , the most obvious thing to do ( that you haven’t apparently tried ) is use the BT router , without doing that , you haven’t really proved anything , your third party router may great , but even great routers can be mis configured or faulty

[David538]

An update as sky and openreach had expedited my query and I saw last Thursday an openreach van outside my house making a connection between the post office  manhole and the connector outside to my property which was about 10 meters in length and then tarmacing the hole.  I asked them was all the work done and they said yes. I was hopeful.

Roll forward to today and an engineer called to make the router connection into the property.  He opened the manhole on the street and looked and said there was no fibre connection and confirmed that by looking at other manholes down the road to my house.  He showed his frustration and annoyance as he was told everything was ready by openreach, which I had confirmed verbally last week He mentioned it is happening more and more frequently where he felt he and his company contracted by openreach were being dropped in it, to sort out issues OR had created.

He was helpful and i have the sky router installed, inside the house connected from outside the house, all I am waiting for now is openreach to do what they need to do on cabling on the street and connect to the outside of the house, , which means is running 100+ meters of cable from the nearest broadband fibre connection per the engineer  that is installed today,  this should not take long, but I cannot be sure.. only openreach has access to this length of cable. 

So the saga continues, but I want to say  I was very happy on the professional service received from the contracted engineer today and his efforts to help me..

[JimM1]

@David538 And that is what has been wrong the whole time, OR have filled all the closer CBT's due to the demand that has been requested, and lucky for you further away they can get you on another CBT, think that standard fibre carried about is 55M so correct the extra longer is going to be required, it's getting closer all the time now, just hope the ball does not get dropped and they are dealing with it all as quickly as it can be done!👍👍

[David538]

Another conversation with Sky customer service and more tears from my partner, still no update on installation timeline by open reach, OR are saying the duct is blocked  and the comments were, sorry the earliest you will get any further information is Tuesday next week at the earliest.  Then the customer service rep said "don't talk over me" when my partner questioned this,, which ended the call.