Massive delays fixing line problem !

[paulmxxx]

We've been on Sky Talk for a few years, no real problems, but in early August we started having a lot of noise on the home phone line, making it unusable most of the time, and dramatically slowing down the sky broadband connection too, down from the usual 3mb to 0.2mb or just not connecting.

Called sky talk (from my mobile and at some expense) a few times starting in early August, and they eventually advised that there was a problem with the line external to the property, and that BT Openzone would need to deal with and were dealing with it. I was told it needed roadworks doing locally to replace some cabling.

I have been told on no less than three occasions by sky talk that BT were applying to the local council for permission to close the road locally and do the work, and that it would happen on the next Sunday. Never did happen on any of those occasions.

The noise on the line got a little bit less bad for a short while, but still not good, and last few days the problem has been back really bad, this morning the phone won't make any calls out at all, and broadband for the last week or so has been very bad again at around 0.2 to 0.7mb.

I called sky talk again yesterday and they contacted BT while I was on the line (I managed to use the home line on this occasion !) and was told that BT are requesting permission from the local council, still, and the work should be done by December !!! Unbelievable !!!

According to sky talk there is no escalation process I can pursue and, very strangely, there is no complaints department or process either !!! Unbelievable !!! Challenging the lack of a compaints department or process I was eventually given a general office postal address but no department or individuals name to which to address it, and no reference number for the case either, all of which seems very odd to me and makes me think it would waste yet more of my time and patience writing there, especially if there is no process for my letter to go through ! Who would read it, the cleaning lady, the md, who knows !

Now the core problem may well be with BT, or it's contractors, or the local council, I don't know, but I pay sky for my line rental and broadband and they need to be pursuing this for me but appear not to be doing anything and are just accepting that I can go for five months, or more, who knows, with phone and broadband that is largely unusable for most of the time that I am paying them to provide.

On checking with the sky person yesterday that I wasn't going to be charged for the services that I am not able to use throughout this, I was told that I was in fact being charged and they could not credit me for loss of service until the problem was finally resolved, some time in the future !!!

So thanks very much Sky, great customer service, NOT, on several grounds:-

1. Doing nothing to get the problem fixed any time soon.
2. Not keeping me updated with information at any stage, requiring me to have to call repeatedly (usually on my mobile at
premium rates) to find out what is going on.
3. Continuing to charge me for services I'm not getting, over an extended period of time.
4. Having, apparently, no customer complaints department or process !!!
5. Having, apparently, no escalation process internally within Sky, or with BT on my behalf, to provide basic services to
paying customers in a reasonable time.

Maybe I've said it before in this post, but this whole saga is totally unbelievable, and massively dissapointing to a sky customer of many years standing.

Paul

[drt1710]

I had a problem a couple of years ago very similar to yours, Bt needing to do roadworks etc, it was dragging on for so long and I was beginning to think nothing was happening, so I contacted my local Mp who was extremely helpful. He knew a local Bt manager who he got in contact with, who in turn contacted me directly to explain what was going to happen. Within 2 weeks the road was dug up, new cable laid, a phone call from Bt to say that the fault had been fixed and huge apologies from them. Might be worth a try. Good luck, I know how frustrating it can be.

[User05]

Seen many cases like this where road/dig work has to be authorised. It's unfortunate, but completely out of the hands of Sky.

A complaint to Openreach will do nothing bar them stating that it is a 'MBORC' - matter beyond our reasonable control.