In reply to a post by Saltank:

I did say I want an expedited install, because of several underlying issues (the fact that it was originally supposed to be installed on the 28th being not only one!) and I suspect after I repeat my reasons several times they'll understand it's becoming urgent. VM is pulling the plug (after intense negotiations) today and the prospect of not having internet at home will not only be stressful but will cut me off from my family, who rely on me to communicate with them and it's actually a matter of medical urgency now, so I really do hope Sky sees some sense and gets this done asap.

Broadband is as essential now as gas and electricity, and not being able to supply such a rather basic thing (and come on, we know it's easy once they get around to it) in over 3 weeks is dire indeed.

I was told it will "take 24 hours for BT OR to return to us after we update the notes asking for confirmation that the line is working". So, Sky will only look at the calendar on Monday at the earlier to book the installation engineer if BTOR replies with a "yes the line is working" on their extremely crummy IT system.

Why are you even bothering to waste any more time with these clowns?

Place an order to get the voice side of the line transferred to BT or better yet Primus Telecom and place a FTTC order with someone who knows how to do their job.

You've made it clear how reliant you are on your internet connection. If it is a critical service Sky are absolutely and totally not the correct ISP for you. I've been with them twice in the past and both times were the most excruciatingly painful experiences with an ISP I've ever had the displeasure of having.

Things will go wrong with your internet connection in the future.

Sky won't know how to fix it.

You will pull your hair and teeth out and bang your head against a brick wall to the point of injury.

Go with a decent ISP like ADSL 24 or IDNet. Yes, it's 2-3 times the price.

It's worth it.

Cancel the Sky DD with your bank and raise a formal written complaint.

If my experiences are anything to go the complaint will be ignored and you'll need to take it to OTELO.

Sky don't report to credit reference agencies so don't get intimidated by red letters whilst you wait for OTELO to resolve the complaint and get the account closed fee free.

Edited by deleted (Sat 15-Dec-12 09:38:29)

Otelo is now Ombudsman Services. Note, (as always with them and CICAS), the need for a deadlock letter or eight weeks following an impasse before they can intervene.

Sky don't report to credit reference agencies ....

?
I find that hard to believe. Do they state this in some legally binding format? Do they instead refer payment defaulters to debt-collection agencies, who do? Do they take payment defaulters to court, with the risk of costs and a CCJ?

Edit - I see you've added rather a lot while I was typing my queries .

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 15-Dec-12 09:48:48)

In reply to a post by MHC:

Sky will claim it is not possible or there is no such thing.

Sky are pretty good at that kind of thing, its usually BT that deny all knowledge.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

They might have taken your money, but you've still only ordered a residential product, at residential prices, with residential SLA's.

If you have a true need to *never* be out of touch, you need to plan for it, and expect to pay for it. Backup connections would be part of the plan (2nd phone lines, 2nd modems or routers with dual WANs, or a 3G PAYG dongle). Paying for better SLA responses would be part of the plan too.

Similarly, any plan to change provider would have to be done expecting a failure at some point - or at least allowing for it. That would require you to plan, perhaps, to install a second line temporarily, or have a 3G backup available.

If you aren't willing to pay the extra that is necessary to guarantee availability (and your £50 hasn't bought that), then you have to accept the risk that things can go wrong, and will stay wrong for as long as a domestic SLA allows.

I did have my back up, which I managed to cancel through much pain and suffering (VM 100Mbit which wasn't fit for purpose was shut off last night)!

I'm in a bind because I don't know what will happen if I cancel this Sky Fibre order and try to go with another provider, if it gets pushed back even further than 7th January it will make matters even worse. So as I see it I'm kind of stuck with Sky?

Whilst I think there is a valid point in SLA's I do think thats not an excuse for having no standards and a cop out for openreach/isps. My view is the original installation failed and that is below the standards of what you should expect, I also have a view that any install date after an order should at the most be within 4 weeks. £50 is still not 0 so you have paid for service which failed, from where I sit your options are.

1 - stick with sky but pressure them daily for an expidited install and/or install refund.
2 - cancel, order BT and ask them for expidited if the install date is bad (I did this and ended up with quite a fast install).
3 - cancel and order with some other isp and try expidited install route.
4 - cancel and order with some other isp and just accept a normal install date, almost certianly I think this will be after your current install date.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

Whilst I think there is a valid point in SLA's I do think thats not an excuse for having no standards and a cop out for openreach/isps. My view is the original installation failed and that is below the standards of what you should expect, I also have a view that any install date after an order should at the most be within 4 weeks. £50 is still not 0 so you have paid for service which failed, from where I sit your options are.

1 - stick with sky but pressure them daily for an expidited install and/or install refund.
2 - cancel, order BT and ask them for expidited if the install date is bad (I did this and ended up with quite a fast install).
3 - cancel and order with some other isp and try expidited install route.
4 - cancel and order with some other isp and just accept a normal install date, almost certianly I think this will be after your current install date.

Thanks for making the list, it's helpful to organise it that way, as I'm still a bit too stressed to see things clearly.

I have paid £100 install and £70 excl VAT for Business Priotiy Fibre with IDNet since May 2011 at the office, and the installation troubles were still extremely unreasonable. Luckily we were able to cope, barely, with 3Mbit ADSL2+ at the time, but I wouldn't say they pulled all the stops possible to get it done soon, that's why I don't see any benefit in cancelling my current order with Sky.

I picked Sky because of unlimited downloads and no throttling, etc., which I think is very important these days as more and more ISP's impose ridiculous restrictions. The office IDNet FTTC has recently been upped to 500GB and this is fine for the work we do around here (we were always close to hitting the previous 250GB cap).
For home it may not be enough considering I'm always downloading stuff on Steam and Netflix. I think I did just over 500GB in November, but that was probably a bit too high initially as I moved in from 4Mbit DSL.

So far I am thinking first option, with some hassling of the Sky team. It is indeed very unreasonable that they failed to install on the 28th and now it's almost three weeks!

I want to know if there's a way of persuading them to send out an engineer for an emergency - they managed to do so on the 29th to get the phone line working, why can't they do the same now? I can't take no for an answer since I know it can be done. I ordered Sky Fibre on the 14th of November, so it's now been an entire month that I'm waiting!

A letter to the CEO perhaps?

Edited by Saltank (Sat 15-Dec-12 13:32:44)

I've sent you a PM - look for the flashing envelope at the top to the left of 'Forum Index', PM's are not notified to you by default - another backward feature.

In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

... look for the flashing envelope at the top to the left of 'Forum Index', PM's are not notified to you by default - another backward feature.

Notification by email is easily enabled in My Home though.

You really get what you pay for with Sky. Great when it works, but if there is a hiccup you are borked. I would not touch them for free.

DrT

In reply to a post by DrTeeth:

You really get what you pay for with Sky. Great when it works, but if there is a hiccup you are borked. I would not touch them for free.

DrT

I've shared the same opinion of Virgin Media up until I had to subscribe for Sky TV one year ago. I was generally pleased by their service and was hoping to get the same thing from them with regards to broadband.

Thanks for your advice, R0NSKI, fortunately I check the forum quite often to I can see PM's just fine.