When disruption to service becomes a health issue

[SDouza]

We've had disruption to Sky Talk twice in May.  The second disruption happened in less than two weeks since the first one tofay is the 4th day since the nuisance "Please check line cord".  SKY points a finger at Open Reach.  Open Reach points a finger at their sub-contractors, sub-contractors blame the set up of the wires contained in the trunk line at the corner of the street.  Insifferable excuse for an elderly couple.  What to do?!

[Daniel0210]

@SDouza 
Unfortunately two of those four days were a weekend, where Openreach do not work on individual issues. 

Once aware Sky usually quote 2 WORKING DAYS as a potential fix time because of the service level agreement in the UK between ISPs and Openreach for fixing a domestic fault.

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 April 2026 the rate has increased to £10.34 for every complete 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.
▫️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.

[SDouza]

Serviceable days v non-servicable days is not the utmost concern here but, the "passing of the buck"  which is quite the practice with SKY, Open Reach & their sub-contractors.  When an engineer from OR come to service other domestic clients' repair from the trunk line, it is guaranteed that a subscriber connected to that trunk line will be knocked off.  I had asked an OR engineer sat in front of that box on the corner of the road and he points to sub-contractors.  I told him that it was an OR engineer wearing an OR high viz and an OR van that was tinkering about the switches the day before we had problems with our SKY talk. 

[Mark39 · Accepted solution]

@SDouza for what it's worth, Openreach own and are responsible for the telephone network. The fact that they choose to use a sub contractor to carry out maintenance or repair work for them doesn't change that responsibility.

Sky and other service providers aren't permitted to touch Openreach infrastructure.

Sadly the telephone network is ancient and crumbling which is why Openreach are replacing it with a modern fibre optic network.

[SDouza]

Many thanks but, this is a simpler case than a need for a wider network of updated networks.  The problem is akin to someone unplugging my mobile charger so another person can charge his.  It's as simple as that really.  An engineer knocked off a connection when he servicing another subscriber but, couldnt be bothered to come back and make good the nuisance caused.