Sky have ceased my BB and telephone line in error.

[Mark_G]

Hi, I'm getting to the end of my tether and searching on the internet has brought me here, hope someone can help as Sky can't/won't?

I used to work for BT so understand pretty much exactly how it should work at the BT end, but Sky seem to be a law unto themselves.

Basically, our broadband stopped working a couple of weeks ago, no light on the router to say we had broadband and no dial tone from the telephone (we only really use the line to get broadband so rarely have a phone plugged in) line rental is with Sky btw.

SEVERAL phone calls to Sky proved costly and fruitless, they advised that the line was ceased by "a third party" in September they won't tell us who this is. We didn't realise any problem with the landline as it was only used for broadband and it was only when the broadband stopped working did we check the line and phone Sky. They now say that our line rental/BB can't be reinstated and we will have to get a new line arranged with BT.

BT say the line is ceased and will cost £120 to reprovide, I'm obviously unwilling to pay that as we didn't ask for our Sky line to be disconnected. Any ideas where to go next, phonecalls and email responses basically say that Sky can't do anything and even going down the road to ask for a face to face chat in the sky call centre here only resulted in being told I'd get a phone call which hasn't happened.

So i don't really know where to go now, all I want is the same service I have had for years, which I was actually very happy with, any suggestions?

[Smithy99]

There are a few of these problems that crop up from time to time.

You could always try ringing the customer relations department, they have a much better understanding and can do a lot more to help.

It may also be worth firing off an e-mail the head honcho (it used to be James murdoch but I think this has changed) this has sometimes proved very fruitful.

You will have to do a search for these details on this site, you should be able to find them.

[Isitme]

SEVERAL phone calls to Sky proved costly and fruitless, they advised that the line was ceased by "a third party" in September they won't tell us who this is

I think have seen a couple of posts about this in the last couple of weeks. There is a serious flaw in the system where any company can phone up with your number and address and take your phone over. It is called 'slamming' and you may have fallen victim to this. This Ofcom article tells you what action you can take. It can happen with any company not just Sky. For something as important as this it should require the written consent of the contract owner to make changes, not just someone phoning up and saying we are taking over this phone.

The strangest part (bold) is that they, Sky, say due to the privacy regulations they can't tell you who has taken it. It is your phone for goodness sake, who else has more right to know who has taken it over than you.

It could be quite an innocent mistake which has caused the problem, but Sky do not help with their attitude to their customers.

[Mark_G]

Well, I tried to speak to customer relations, but to no avail, called the 0207 number I found on this site but was advised that they can't put me through anymore and advised o go through customer services. on the 0844 number. I'm already £25 over my mobile call allowance as a result of having to contact them on non-geographic numbers, this is driving me nuts

I visited the offices yesterday and was promised a call back within 2 hours but this did not happen. I think I may have go down again today and refuse to leave reception until someone speaks to me, seems like my only option as I have no other way to contact them without having to wait for them to get back to me (which in my experience doesn't even happen).

[Mark_G]

Quick update, got nowhere by phoning Sky again, "systems are down" apparently, asked for a callback from customer relations and advised that this could take up to 72 hours

In the meantime called Otelo and explained the situation, they said they could help but only if I had escalated the complaint to the highest level first. As Sky don't even seem to understand what the problem is, I'm not sure this will help, but the lady i spoke to at Otelo seemed to think it was a fairly cut and dried problem and explained that I should send a letter to their Livingston office and wait ten working days for a reply before they could intervene. So until then no line or BB and however long it takes to resolve after the ten day period is up. Very frustrating.

[Isitme]

I should send a letter to their Livingston office

It may pay you to cross the Bridge and camp in their reception until they do something. Maybe an email to the 'Judge' would get something moving. Law & consumer advice, legal help - The Sunday Mail

[Mark_G]

Sent an email to Jeremy Darroch, fed up with dealing with incompetent customer services, I know he won't read it personally, but hopefully something will happen as a result. I'll let you know how it goes.