Absolute Disaster! - A WARNING

Well I am off to a terrible start with Sky. I got my MAC code from F2S on the 2nd January and promptly tried to register for Sky online. After 3 failed attempts with a "sorry there has been an error" I decided to phone up. The guy was very helpful and said he could see I had tried online and could put the order through manually.

I hadnt heard anything on the Broadband side (the TV had been installed a week later) so I thought I would give them a call. The guy said things are going through and I should hear towards the end of the week.

So, yesterday (18th Jan) I called for an update. I was a little surprised to hear that my MAC code was incorrect. I asked him to read it back and it appears they had put an O instead of a 0. OK, this is a simple mistake you would think, but it gets much worse. Apparently, the MAC was rejected on the 4th January and no-one had bothered to let me know. To make matters worse, they then decided to cancel my order all together. Now that is what I call customer service.

I asked to be put through to a supervisor, but the call-centre trainee I had got through to said he couldnt. After I insisted, he decided it would be easier to put the phone down rather than deal with a difficult situation.

I called back and actually got through to someone who was a little more sympathetic (Gareth), but he could only apologise and say the order was in Pending Cancellation and could take UPTO A WEEK to cancel off completely. At which point, I would have to start from scratch with the order.

I only took Sky TV so I could save a few quid on my broadband, but now I will have to pay for my F2S connection AND Sky TV until they finally manage to sort themselves out. It is also likely that by the time they have managed to cancel my order, the MAC code will have expired anyway.

I work for a Zen Platinum business partner so I am well aware of how a good ISP is run - unfortunately I made the mistake of trying to save a few quid. I think the moral of the story is "you get what you pay for".

i feeel soory for you,but theres going to be mistakes madehere and there and unfortunately its happened to you,i could only advise u to be (try)patient and stick it out,its worth t in the end imo.try asking for a free month or something for our troubles you never know...good luck.

I did ask for a free month and Gareth said I would have to speak to CS, but they "usually will do this kind of thing". I am waiting for them to call to say it has been cancelled off - what is the experience of people waiting for calls back from Sky? Should I just nag them everyday?

Hi,

With SKY yes ring everyday.

Callbacks are terrible.

Always get names and extension numbers of who you speak to.

You could always ring through to cancellations and tell them to cancel everything, Phone & TV, they will then ask you the problem, tell them with the info above and they should offer you 3 months free TV (standard tactic) during this time, your BB should be on and nothing lost but a little time.

Sky people respond better to facts rather than ranting especially complaints, get them to feel sorry for you and you are quids in.

i got 2 call backs cause of a mac prob but was out both times so i just rang them up twice a day for 3 days...stick with it ....

Your story is another long line of issues which Sky has had.

Don't want to sink your hopes but it can take much longer than 1 week to cancel an order off Sky's system. See below, it could be months - rather than weeks.

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=sky&Number=2802076&page=&view=&sb=&o=

Best advice keep hounding them.

Oh great - now you tell me!!! should I stick it out or jump ship now?

MY issues have got bigger this time another problem ordering and they are blaming it on BT, it has been sent to order management and i need to call back Wednesday.

First signed up on the 4th of December :/

For now wait and see, you might be ok.

If it starts to turn in to weeks, possibly sign up elsewhere for a reasonable price and then come back in the Summer or late Spring and retry. Things might have straightened themselves out.

If anything the offers from Sky can only get better as time progresses, as they will want to tie as (as many as they can get) their existing/new subscribers into a new 12 month contract as they add new services e.g. Sky Digital / Broadband / Phone, etc.

Edited by helpmeplease (Fri 19-Jan-07 18:14:26)

Hey andylong,
I got EXCATLY the same problem going from F2S of Sky, my issue is dating back since the 2nd of November! My MAC failed upto 5 times and F2S insisted they had giving me the correct MAC. After a long conversation to SKY I was advised to cancel F2S, which I did. Went through the first part of December with no internet hoping my MAC would work this time round. Once again my MAC had failed, so I spent another 30mins on the phone to F2S about cancelling my internet and Sky blaming them for the MAC failing. I don't know what happened but I found out someone at F2S had reversed my cancellation without tell me 3 days after I cancelled it!!
So for the 6th time I was given a MAC from F2S to pass onto Sky, I was given a new activation date of 27/12/07 and up until that date I rang Sky everyday to make sure the MAC hadn't failed. To my surprise the MAC went through, I had a great sign of happiness and I thought my problems were now over�.but they wasn't�
27/12/07 came setup my sky router ready to connect and what do you know, it wasn't connecting but yet I could still connect to F2S?!?!!? So again I was back on the phone to Sky asking if my internet had been activated. According to them it was, there was no problems and I should give it 3 days for the line to sync.
3 days past, still couldn't connect to Sky but could to F2S. So I gave F2S a call, according to them they have had no contact from Sky that they could cease their connection on my line and I was still one of their customers. After abit of an argument I was told to ring the BT Tag Team, give them a call and they said I was connect with Sky and I should call F2S again to sort it out with them.
After 5 calls to Sky and F2S getting nowhere with either of them I got fed up and rang Ofcom. Ofcom said to cancel my F2S again, wait for the cancellation date to pass by and ring Sky again so they couldn't send me back to F2S about the problem.
On the 31/12/07 I started getting high pinch noises on my phone line and crackling which in the end led to my phone line dying on me completely with not even a dial tone. Phoning from work I had 2 BT engineers come to my house and investigate the problem. Also mentioned the problem I was having moving from F2S to Sky. So one of the engineers went down to my local exchange to have a check. Got a call back 4 hours later from the engineer telling me who ever installed the Sky equipment never did it properly which was causing all the problems between Sky, F2S and my phone line dying.
Last week (12/01/07) my phone line got fully repaired and all the noise had gone, so FINALLY I got my Sky router, connected it and YEH!!!! it connected and my home page come up!.......for one minute. Then my router lost its connection, reconnected then lost it again after one minute, this kept on happening. Called up Sky explaining my problem, did all their rebooting, computer router etc, ran a Sky test to reveal Error Code 300! Was told they have to sent my ticket to tech support tier 3 and I should get a call back within 48 to 5 days! And its now 19/01/07 and I haven't had no call back from Sky. So when I get home tonight you can guess what I am going to do. I am going to give Sky 5 more days to sort out this problem, if not I'm going elsewhere. Oh and through out all this, I had a massive phone bill, got billed �49.99 by F2S AND �16.25 from Sky which I WILL be claiming back from them.

At the end of the day Sky's ordering system is awful.

They are currently using from my experience with them on Sky Connect, two systems.

1. BT eCO handling all of BT Wholesale orders for things such as Connect & maybe LLU services (not sure).

2. Their awful ordering system, which is getting things stuck e.g. Work in progress or Pending Cancellation.

They are getting in to a mess, as they are having to cross reference both systems to find out what is actually going on, as the their own ordering system isn't always reflecting the correct status of the order.

The ordering system needs to be thrown in the bin and start again or find the clitch in the workflow of the system & fix it.

Edited by helpmeplease (Fri 19-Jan-07 18:23:48)

The actual system ( software ) sky use for ordering , billing etc is terrible , half time it never worked when i worked there and is prone to crash etc , be careful if u decide to cancel sky tho if u have a 12 month contract with the sky tv itself or you have to pay up remainded of the months if iremeber correctly. Some people have problems so dont , luck of the draw sadly.

In same boat, up to 30 days I was told, my order is currently in Cancel Pending department since 6th Jan.

There is a number which I was given to ring direct to check on the progress, will post it later as it is at home at moment. I am ringing once a week for progress.

The last time I spoke with someone who seemed to know what he was on about was that there were 2 systems (if you get put into both, then you are really unfortunate as it can take much longer than 30 days). Apparently I am not on both systems so should get it sorted withing 30 days but we shall see.

About 80% of customers who get put into Cancel Pending get it sorted out within 30 days, the other 20% can take much longer according to him as I asked him will it be sorted out within 30 days.

Currently still with PIPEX though.

Possibly they are referring to Sky's own system and BT's.

I think its time people started to write on mass to the CEO of SKY yes or no ?

BBC Watchdog programe ?

This is the number I was told to ring to check on whether I was still in cancel pending if that's of any help: 08700 2489300

Also, just got my phone bill for December which was a lot more than usual and guess what it was my phonecall to Sky Customer Services when I placed my order for Sky initially (an order which in the end, didn't go through, I found out in January).
On 15 December when I placed the order, I was on the phone for 30 minutes to 08705 515515 ordering Sky Broadband which cost me 2 quid (doesn't time fly when you are having fun).
Oh well, will be claiming that back whenever I get out of Cancel Pending department.
Dread to think how much my January bill is going to cost, the amount of times I rang Sky Customer Services.

Yes, if they don't get things sorted out soon, I will be trying to escalate it beyond Customer Services.

In reply to:

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the amount of times I rang Sky Customer Services

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I always use the 0800 number.

Thanks for this.


I have contacted them again today and got a really helpful guy who was quite honest about the situation. Apparently the cancellation system is waiting for the order to go live and of course the order will never go live because it has been cancelled. Catch 22 eh???

I joined Sky TV simply because I was paying �20 to F2S and �8 to Top-Up-TV and could save a few pounds a month by getting the Broadband and TV through Sky. I am now having to pay �20 to F2S and �15 to Sky for the TV so I am actually out of pocket until they sort this cancellation out.

What would be the reaction be if I told Sky CS that I want to cancel the TV because of this?

"
What would be the reaction be if I told Sky CS that I want to cancel the TV because of this?"

If it helps they accepted mine straight away and cancelled it - no bluffing them they mean business

Under Sky terms & conditions, I believe you have 4 weeks to cancel the Sky TV/Broadband package (from the day you begin to receive service). This possibly is tied into the Credit & Consumers Act.

Can't be sure, but I think that's the situation with most services/products e.g. BT and so on.

If your outside of the 4 weeks, you might need to consult Citizens Advice as technically Sky have done no wrong. They have provided you a TV service which your recieving.

The only mistake Sky have made is that they are unable to provide BB for you at the present moment. The BB product is after all an add on product to your existing TV service, unless you signed up to 'See, Speak & Surf'.

If you had signed up to their package regarding the 'See, Speak & Surf', and they couldn't provide BB - then you have a full right after 4 weeks to cancel the product as they have broken contract & have not fairly advertised the product to you.

Good luck, anyway with the outcome. I'm not sure on all of my facts, but I think the 4 week rule stands. You probably need to persistantly chase them, that you have been mis-sold the product.

Edited by helpmeplease (Fri 26-Jan-07 13:03:27)

Sorry I should have made it clearer.

When I was been messed around by Sky, I cancelled in temper, rather than try and sort it out or offer me anything to stay, they cancelled.

I have since had all my issues sorted out by Sky and am quite happy with them now.

If you sign up to Sky BB you have 8 days from connection to cancel if you are unhappy.

Someone asked a question re threatening to cancel to see if it bucks them up, my answer was aimed at that, just to show they call your bluff. Seriously Sky is like a PC you just have to have it.

Rang 08700 2489300 again and am still in pending cancel (was put in there on 5th Jan).
As long as my PIPEX connection stays live, I am not too p**d off although slightly.

Just realised it can be up to 30 working days from when the order is put into Cancel Pending according to the guy (not just 30 days) so I will probably will be in there until mid-February at least.
Oh well, will ring them next week again to check.

What a laugh.

What excuse can there be for an order pending cancel they have either requested it or not ?

Who knows how these great minds work in Sky and BT?

I can only place a new order once it gets out of the Pending Cancel system which can take up to 30 working days (and I never even cancelled my original order, their stupid systems (or people) did).

Is technology not supposed to make things easier?
How can it take up to 6 weeks for my order to get out of their cancellation system(s) and how can they blooming well cancel it to begin with?

An Update.........



They have just cancelled my order and I have (foolishly some would say) resubmitted. Through no fault of my own and due to Sky's incompetence, I have had to pay for Sky TV (which I only got for the cheap broadband) and my existing ISP (�20 to F2S).


I am agreived that I have had to fork out another �20.00 activation fee and think that Sky should as an act of good will waive this. I called customer services and they said there is nothing they can do and I should right in. Does anyone have a number for a department that I can call who may have the authority to refund my �20? I know its not a lot of money, but its the principal of the thing im unhappy with.