New Sky Customer - not happy

JulesF · 17/02/14 - 15:25

I'm moving to a non-cable area on 25 February, so am having to cancel my Virgin account and have set up a new Sky account. TV services being set up on 26 February - no problems there. However, to my horror, I've been told that my broadband and phone line cannot be installed until 20 March! This is a nightmare for me, as I need to access my emails at home for work. I'm told that this is down to BT Openreach, not Sky and therefore Sky cannot help me to improve this ridiculous time frame. However, I'm also told that customers cannot contact BT Openreach directly, only through Sky, so my question is, where do I go from here? Who can help me out? It seems absurd, as the current occupiers already have all the Sky services in place. I'm not asking for new lines to be installed etc.

Is it always like this? If I have a fault, will I have to wait a month to get it sorted? I've been a Sky customer for all of four days and already I'm very unhappy.

chenks · 17/02/14 - 15:38

what you have been told is correct.
Openreach obviously don't have any free "new install" slots until that date.

based on the current floodings etc i would assume they are all busy dealing with faults.

faults have a higher priority than new installs.

scarymary555 · 22/02/14 - 07:49

Same here........am having to wait a month thanks to OpenReach. I have literaly moved 'around the corner' but can't get Virgin (on a brand new estate...why not??). They've conneccted the TV but I'm having to wait until 3rd March for Broadband/Phone, forgive me but is the 21st century?!??

powar · 09/03/14 - 11:22

scarymary555 wrote: »

Same here........am having to wait a month thanks to OpenReach. I have literaly moved 'around the corner' but can't get Virgin (on a brand new estate...why not??). They've conneccted the TV but I'm having to wait until 3rd March for Broadband/Phone, forgive me but is the 21st century?!??

What has the century got to do with lead times? Your in a queue like the rest of us, giving the flood damage the country has had other people and jobs are takin priority. Unbelievable!!!

simon194 · 10/03/14 - 01:20

I had to wait 6 months to have a new line installed when I moved because there weren't any spare lines available. It was either wait or pay £20K to have a new line direct from the exchange.

madnes · 10/03/14 - 09:30

Mobile Broadband not an option?
Dongles are quite cheap and includes free credit,

CTD101 · 10/03/14 - 09:38

madnes wrote: »

Mobile Broadband not an option?
Dongles are quite cheap and includes free credit,

Sky do issue free 30 day mobile dongles to those who are unhappy with their wait times. Unfortunately Sky are hamstrung by BT Openreach availability when it comes to BB

omnidirectional · 10/03/14 - 11:13

When I moved a couple of years ago the BT line was installed within a week but it took about a month in total to get Sky Broadband moved to the new line. I ended up buying a 3 dongle and Sky knocked some money off my next bill. The dongle proved to be much faster than ADSL and still comes in handy.

zaax · 10/03/14 - 11:26

Its because BT Openreach is owned by BT but does not make a big profit so there is no investment in new technolgy.

20th, your lucky I had to wait 18 weeks. First there was a tag on it, then a fault. I used the local pub and a very slow dongle - sitting in a cold converatory not the best.

Jesse Pinkman · 10/03/14 - 18:06

When I moved on 10th Dec 2012, I moved the Sky I had to the new house but had to wait till Jan 16th for Mr Openreach's sub-contractor to show up and get it all up and running.

I brought one of those mobile USB dongles just to surf web pages to stop me going mad. That cost me £40!

Jesse Pinkman · 10/03/14 - 18:19

CTD101 wrote: »

Sky do issue free 30 day mobile dongles to those who are unhappy with their wait times. Unfortunately Sky are hamstrung by BT Openreach availability when it comes to BB

They never offered me one! >:(

Simon_More · 10/03/14 - 19:25

I live opposite an open reach depot. Not seen a van in ages. Was told they all been sent down South to help with the repairs. I did see two Kelly communications vans. The guys said they were doing routine maintenance. I relay a lot on these guys coming my chippy lol.

racey43 · 11/03/14 - 17:56

It would be exactly the same wait time with another broadband provider such as Plusnet.
The wait is down to BT not Sky.
I recently moved and had a similar wait time. I made do with a dongle which was extremely slow and limited downloads. It was better then nothing though.

[Deleted User] · 14/03/14 - 21:58

I'm also a new Sky broadband customer and am NOT happy. Having moved from a Virgin Media area where I had 100mb Cable. The best I could get here with Sky was 'upto' 16mb. After running a few speed tests, it appears that 'upto' 16mb really means about 4mb. Is this normal?

chenks · 14/03/14 - 22:06

*Joe* wrote: »

I'm also a new Sky broadband customer and am NOT happy. Having moved from a Virgin Media area where I had 100mb Cable. The best I could get here with Sky was 'upto' 16mb. After running a few speed tests, it appears that 'upto' 16mb really means about 4mb. Is this normal?

you would have been advised the likely connection speed at the point of ordering.
it is normal if you are some distance away from the exchange and your line is of poor quality.

you would get the same speed no matter which ADSL ISP you used.

izanami · 14/03/14 - 22:23

If you connection is significantly lower than the estimate then you should get in touch with them.

You should also give it a few days from activation for your connection to stabilise.

[Deleted User] · 14/03/14 - 22:53

My original estimate when I signed up was 8-10mb. Tests peak between 3-4mb. I was only connected today, so will give it a few days and then give them a call.

Thanks for the advice

omnidirectional · 15/03/14 - 11:17

*Joe* wrote: »

My original estimate when I signed up was 8-10mb. Tests peak between 3-4mb. I was only connected today, so will give it a few days and then give them a call.

Thanks for the advice

You should notice the speed increase over the next 10 days, up to the maximum your line can support. Try not to restart the router during this time as it may be classed as a dropped connection..

F2kSel · 17/03/14 - 16:18

Didn't I read it somewhere that if you don't take up any Sky offers and are switched automatically that there is no training period.

davews · 17/03/14 - 18:56

I certainly did not have a training period and started straight away at my normal 9Mbs (switched last November from O2 automatically, broadband only). I suspect it varies from exchange to exchange depending what hardware is used - in some cases they may well have used the existing O2 hardware. Nothing has been officially stated, only that 'for the first 10 days your line will be in the training period and you will start around 4Mbs'. Maybe, maybe not.

F2kSel · 26/03/14 - 16:24

Another pain for me is that SKY seem to want to take my Sky TV and Broadband payments from the same account I would rather it remain separate, they also are now taking a month in advance for Broadband so that's like extra £12 for them. Add to that they say I can't have an On Demand Box, I think it's because O2 Router isn't compatible I'm feeling a bit short changed here.

pipkin · 11/04/14 - 18:14

We are currently experiencing similar problems. We moved 5 weeks ago to a brand new house. An engineer turned up a few weeks ago took one look at the cable hanging out of our wall & said he couldnt do it. He took the manhole up on the street & said that there no cables down there to link to our property. Sky told us that the work was scheduled to be completed by 9th April, we have not seen any engineers doing any cabling work. I rang Sky & they said the work should be done by Monday in time for our Broadband to be installed.

A neighbour has received a text today to say that he will be updated on the situation by the end of April. Its so frustrating, there is no one to complain to & no way of getting updates or timeframes.

I know its a first world problem, but we feel so disconnected & is costing us money to but extra data for our mobiles & dongles for the laptop. Im gutted to read its took some people 6 months to get connected

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