Sky/Openreach Broad...
 

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[Closed] Sky/Openreach Broadband Nightmare

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So we had sky tv and broadband installed on the 4th December.
On the 13th the wife came home and noticed that the broadband had dropped off, no light on router etc...
Rang sky, they apologise, say it could be up to 5 days but as an apology give us movies for a discounted rate for the rest of our contract...i wasn’t too happy about this as they have managed to get another £8 a month out of me for effectively not providing a service (the wife agreed as she loves films)
Anyway, rang after 5 days told it could take another 5 days....
We are now on day 48 and have just been told another ****ing 5 days!!!
Gone down the route of social media to try and push things along but that hasn’t helped, still got told 5 days 🙄
Anyone else have this problem? How did you get it rectified?
One plus is that mobile signal has improved dramatically in the area since moving away and coming back again so we can get 4G but need the odd bolt on which is costing me ££


 
Posted : 30/01/2020 9:08 pm
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So hang on you've had no internet for 48 days?


 
Posted : 30/01/2020 9:30 pm
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Yes that’s correct....


 
Posted : 30/01/2020 9:43 pm
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Ah, the old provider/open reach loop of neverending shite.

And that horrible automated bollocks that Sky have every time you have to ring them!

You have my deepest sympathies OP.

I binned Sky off for PlusNet, they messed up and we were left with no internet whatsoever. Went with ee 4gee home broadband in the end, it just works.


 
Posted : 30/01/2020 9:56 pm
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WTF? 48 days?!?!

Call Sky once more - demand to speak to the service desk manager and say firstly you want compensation for having no service (this should be an automatic thing these days) and secondly you want it fixed within 48 hours otherwise will be using a dispute resolution service https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/problems/broadband-landline-faults

If they can't commit to a 48 hour fix then you need to demand contract termination and go elsewhere.

48 days!!!


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 7:12 am
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When the wife spoke to them yesterday she mentioned about compensation or knocking money off the sky bill because we can’t use features such as catch up etc, they said we aren’t entitled to money off as they are a “free service”
We have since found out that the person next door had their broadband cut off the day ours was made live and they have had theirs reinstated and that’s when ours stopped working.
By the way, we are still paying for the broadband, I guess when it/if it finally does start working again they will adjust the bill for the lost time.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 8:07 am
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No personal experience of it but Sky are signed up to the scheme:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automatic-compensation-need-know

It says you should get compensation of £8 per day when you don't have service. It's supposed to kick in automatically after you log the fault call. I'm sure there's t&c exemptions for them to try and wriggle out of things but as it will be 50+ days until you get a fix that should be over £400 you're due...


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 8:49 am
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I think you should cancel service and go with another provider 48 Days is the worst I have ever heard - I would speak with sky and find out about early termination due to this issue, good luck.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 8:53 am
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Or would you rather have some internet? If so follow Fuzzy’s advice, go for breach of contract and move on.

Ah, the old provider/open reach loop of neverending shite.

NEVERENDING being the operative word. One day your internet might come back, but then again . . .


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 8:59 am
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All I can say is, best of luck. You're long gone into the openreacharound farce now.

Get ofcom involved - 48 days is way too long.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 9:34 am
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Openreach is an absolute shower of numpties. They don't want to connect remote areas because it's too expensive so if you live in the countryside, forget it.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 9:38 am
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Thanks @fuzzywuzzy for the link, have forwarded it to the wife...
As it’s in her name they won’t let me speak to them as i am not the account holder...
Another thing is, they don’t count weekends as days without service, only working days


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 9:51 am
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Another thing is, they don’t count weekends as days without service, only working days

Um WTF? You're paying for a service to be 24/7, they can't pull a stunt like that Shirley?

As for the "free service" that you are paying for as part of your subscription. You access it through their equipment.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 10:20 am
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We have since found out that the person next door had their broadband cut off the day ours was made live and they have had theirs reinstated and that’s when ours stopped working.

I forget the name of it, but there's a sort of shared phone line system which splits one line into two, and it causes compatibility issues with DSL. Quite common on flats. Is there an odd box on your wall somewhere?


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 10:54 am
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they can’t pull a stunt like that Shirley?

Who's Shirley?

shared phone line system

The old partyline?

Can you get a mobile signal OK?
If so tether your phone as a wifi hotspot until the landline is sorted.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 11:00 am
 Alex
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I forget the name of it, but there’s a sort of shared phone line system which splits one line into two, and it causes compatibility issues with DSL

It used to be called a DAX. That was my thought having read the thread. Or - if it's a remote location - lack of pairs in the DSLAM (Cabinet) or more likely a few very ropey pairs to choose from, none of which are very good.

Not sure if it's still the case, teh Openreach's documentation on what's connected where is terrible. We were once paying them to install some very expensive fibre into a building in the middle of Brum, and the engineers were working with 10 year old annotated drawings!

Anyway, sounds like you have more than good grounds for an escalation/grievance procedure. It was dealing with the finger pointing OR/Provider crap that finally pushed us over the edge to go Cell Broadband.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 11:09 am
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It used to be called a DAX.

Is there another similar name for it? That sounds almost right but not quite what I was thinking. I could be wrong of course, this is a memory from half a lifetime ago back when USB ADSL modems were a thing.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 11:20 am
 Alex
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You may be right @couger. I think the DAX might have been for analogue splitting for plain old telephones, maybe pre-DSL?


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 12:39 pm
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The penny just dropped, it's DACS!

That's been bugging the crap out of me for the last hour.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 1:02 pm
 Alex
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Nice one. I just googled it and remembered the max modem speed thing so it was definitely pre-DSL.

Anyway don’t wish to derail the thread. It probably isn’t one of those since the latest version was released in 1995!


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 1:44 pm
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Wow that sounds like terrible service from Sky and very different to my experience.
I started to get almost daily drop outs when my Sky Broadband was upgraded to Fibre. I contacted Sky 6 times over the last few months and not waited more than 3 days for an engineer visit from them. Once they realised the fault was with the cables outside my property, Openreach were involved. It has taken several visits to fix the issue but I have never waited more than 48 hours for Openreach to attend.
My drop outs usually lasted a minute or so and I was never out of service for more than 5 minutes at a time. I normally contacted Sky via their website. Defo time for the OP to take this further and do not allow them to fob you off.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 2:00 pm
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need the odd bolt on which is costing me ££

You can afford it 😉

Sounds proper shitty, good luck getting it sorted mate.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 2:12 pm
 Keva
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I would've just stopped the direct debit after 10days and got another ISP. Just stop paying them, then they'll contact you and you can explain exactly why you have.

Plusnet have been fine for me. Saying that their first router conked out after 1 day but I had another arrive in the post 2days later.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 2:23 pm
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News Update! Openreach have turned up out of the blue, so have had to race home and let them in, luckily only working a few minutes away...


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 2:42 pm
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luckily only working a few minutes away…

Working...on a Friday afternoon? Yeah, right 🤣


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 2:51 pm
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I have BT for BB; principally because if something goes bung with the line, they are best placed to deal with it.

With that being said, I have had some bother with a replacement Sky Q box not being on speaking terms with the BT hub. It's taken several visits from Sky and BT where they both point fingers at each other, but I've resolved it with tech advice from Google!

I would have been at Defcon 1 many weeks ago; give them hell and demand compensation and a cancellation of any contract


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 2:52 pm
 DezB
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We have since found out that the person next door had their broadband cut off the day ours was made live and they have had theirs reinstated and that’s when ours stopped working.

Funnily enough, when I recently switched, internet wasn't working when the new provider said I was up & ready to go. Openreach guy turns up, says he's had a report of one of the neighbours getting cut off at the time when mine was supposed to have been made live. Somehow the engineer had cut the neighbour off and failed to enable mine at the same time. Quality service from BT


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 3:10 pm
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A colleague had issues with poor line speed and intermittent dropouts for over 4 years.

He was with BT and sent all the documentation to MD@BT (who it turns out has a team of people who specifically deal with customers who are pee'd off enough to email him) and they were very helpful. Still took another 4 motnhs to get it resolved because it turned out they had to dig up the local high street for a week to relay a massive section of compromised cable...

My advice - escalate - get senior managers names and email addresses, be peristent, chase people up.


 
Posted : 31/01/2020 4:03 pm

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