Moved house - no broadband for 6 weeks !

[pooley91]

So here's my story....

Got a moving date of the 15th June so rang Sky at the beginning of June to tell them I was moving.

"SKY: Would you like an engineer to come out and setup your TV ?"
"ME: Well yes please" (normally I wouldn't bother but the house has been empty for 3 years so wanted to make sure everything was in working order).
"SKY: Ok - we can get an engineer out to you on the 16th"
"ME: Brilliant - means the kids won;t be pestering me 'cos the can't watch The Wizards Of Zack and Cody something or other"
"SKY: Ok, now your Sky Talk/Broadband connection....... the earliest we can get that sorted for you is 26th June"
"ME: 26th June !!! That's 11 days after I've moved in"
"SKY: I do apologise - we book the appointments with BT Openreach and that's the earliest available date"
"ME: Oh well - I suppose that will have to do then"

Got a knock on the door on the 26th June and looked out the window to see a BT Openreach van. Ooohh at last I can get on t'internet !!

"ME: Am I glad to see you?"
"BT MAN: Don't get excited - there's nothing I can do"
"ME: What ?"
"BT MAN: The Mosborough Exchange that you are connected to is closed due to the discovery of Asbestos. It's been closed for a week and I don't know when it will be open again"
"ME: Whoopee - so what does that mean for me in practical terms?"
"BT MAN: well I'll check your sockets at this end and when the Exchange is accessible again, we'll go connect you up"

I got a call from Sky on friday last week to tell me that the Exchange is indeed now open but here's the killer....... BT have given me a slot on the 31st July !!!! Had a rant at the Sky rep (I know it's not his fault the Exchange has Asbestos - but I can't rant at BT !!), and at least they re going to credit me with the amount I spent on a 3G dongle. He said they'd escalate it and call me today.

Not had a call yet - but that's nothing new. Whenever Sky say they will call me, they don't and I have to end up chasing them !!

Anyone else had any similar issues ? Anything else I can do to force the issue ?

Mike

[tenar]

no you cant force the timing but would contact for getting your costs on dongle but usually this would be left until your new line is up and running would give provisioning dept a call see if date could be forwarded but this controlled by availability of bt engineers and if your in London area this will be unlikely

[Scubbie]

If your exchange was made inaccessible due to asbestos, then HSE would have prevented anyone from accessing the building and work would have pilled up for the whole area.

Unfortunately there is a manpower issue from what I have heard. BTO's engineers are currently working hard to repair all the flood damage across the country. This means that the roll out of Fibre in many exchanges has been delayed as the engineers have been redeployed. It also means that unfortunately there is unlikely to be any spare engineers to pull in to help the regular staff in your exchange.

This is outside Sky's control and all the ISPs will have identical issues in your area.

The 3G dongle refund is one that several members have had success with. Just to cover your rear end, do get it confirmed. Note the date, time and who confirmed it for you too. Keep all the receipts, including the cost of the dongle and any top ups.

[pooley91]

Thanks for the updates guys.

Yes I know it was outside of Skys control and I understand the seriousness of asbestos - one fibre can be fatal !

To be honest I didn't link the resourcing issue to the flooding but now that you mention it - that makes sense.

However it seems there may be a happy ending after all. Sky have already credited my account with the cost of the dongle and a top-up, and to top that all off - they called me at 7:45pm to say that a BT engineer will be with me on thursday morning to get me up and running - hurrah !!!

[Scubbie]

That is an excellent result. Roll on Thursday.