Sky cancelled my broadband (of 13 years) because they didn’t install fibre after 5 months

[Carnold83]

Hello all, I'm just looking for some help if anyone has had a similar problem.

ive had sky tv and broadband for 13 years. 5 months ago I took their fibre deal and re contracted with tv too. I've regretted it ever since. They cancelled my fibre order twice because openreach didn't come and clear a small blockage, which I had permission for them to do from my housing association and yes it was passed to them at least 5 times. 

we were waiting for openreach to come out to dig a small hole in the street outside the house but because they didn't come sky then actually cancelled my broadband all together, without notice. We have now been without internet at the house for 2 weeks and they advise it could be another 2 weeks or so for openreach to come do their job and after that we can be connected. I don't hold out any hope they will do what they havnt done in 5 months.

this has actually broken me, when the internet went off I got in touch only to be told "it's a system error there's nothing we can do". I've had many chats and calls with them the last 2 weeks, mostly me making contact as they almost never get back to me. I'm told to just wait. I've had the compensation thing twice now in the 5 months because they didn't get us connected and this is standard I'm told. We just wanted a faster service and now we have nothing. We didn't want money we wanted what we ordered or at least our normal broadband while we waited.

the service is appalling, they don't ring at the time stateed ever sometimes it's hours late and sometimes I've been told they tried to ring but havnt. My son, all he does is game and he's now depressed because we've had no internet for 2 weeks, its the summer holidays and he can't do anything. I'm paying for other services that I can only access with internet so can't use them. I asked if we could have unlimited data on our phones because it was their mistake, they said it would cost me £35 per sim per month, you can guess what I said to that.

has anyone else come close to this? At this point I'm done and I'm looking elsewhere for when openreach actually do their job so we can get connected but I don't know when that will be. I'm just disgusted and hugely disappointed with sky for doing this to us. We have no where to turn to for help with this. Can anyone offer some advice as to what to do? My son says take them to court but we don't have money to do this and there's probably something in the contract that gets them out of it. I am emotionally wrecked with all the back and forth for 5 months and then this. 

[Chrisee]

@Carnold83 Sky are in the hands of Openreach where they mess up as it apoears to have happened in your case there is nothing realistically Sky can do. These cases are rare but the forum has heard similar reports in the past and no doubt will do in the future.

Last year I was in a group of Superusers who met the Sky team that handle these most complex Openreach issues who were well aware of the limitations of what they can do. The communication channels between all telcos including BT Retail and Openreach are regulated by Ofcom to ensure no one telco has an unfair advantage. For a company in the communications business Openreach are lousy at keeping their customers informed on order progress those telcos in turn cannot tell the end customer what is happening. It is not an excuse it is a simple explanation.

In the end in some cases Openreach decline the order as itvappears they have done for you. Quite why is often impossible to discover your options would apoear to be to use an alternative network like Virgin Media if they have cabelling or to use a mobile servive which is these days a realistic option for many customers.

If you feel strongly that Sky are at fault you can raise a formal complaint and if you remain disatisfied with their answer you can then take it to formal Alternative Dispute Resolution which is far simpler than taking court action but neither will force Sky to provide a conection unfortunately. See How to make a Sky complaint | Sky Help | Sky.com

[Carnold83]

Thank you for the information, I really appreciate it 🙂