ex Be moved to Sky = problems start!

I'm a Be guy who got the swap over last night to Sky.

While everything went smoothly with the actual router settings changes, and even I noticed the speed was slightly higher than usual. This morning I was woke up with constant ringing on my phones (i.e. 1 ring never stops). It was a tele-marketer. I thought "ok that's odd". Went and had breakfast. Again constant phone ring, again another tele-marketer. I started to think Sky had messed up the connections and boom another constant phone ring, and boom another tele-marketer!

Also looking back at my irc logs it looks like I've been disconnected each time the phone rings.

I'm going to report a fault.

I had flawless service on Be for the many years I was with them. It's actually amazing the difference between a good and bad company, using the same system and setup. The only difference is the people installing/updating the equipment.

Its also knocking me offline too.

Edited by bowdon (Tue 01-Apr-14 10:33:18)

Have they changed your phone # by any chance? Have you received calls from peeps you know?

Dial 1470 17070 and check that 'this circuit' is your circuit.

No I haven't changed my number or anything. Just waited for Sky to take over the Be line, which happened at about 4:30pm on the 31st of March. Since then whenever someone calls the house the phone does one continuous ring and my net connection drops.

I called Sky up and spoke to the first and second line support. We got down to doing some tests and he said he sees the fault and he's sending out an engineer tomorrow, 2nd of April between 1pm to 6pm.

So hopefully the matter will be resolved. I hope its an openreach engineer that comes out then I can pick his brains about a few questions I have about fibre installation.

An update:

2 BT (maybe openreach?) engineers turned up. One seemed to be training the younger of the 2. When I described the issue they had an idea right away what it was i.e. something to do with some technology in the phone exchange not working properly. They unplugged the phones and connected a handheld machine to the line and it did a constant beeping noise, which I'm assuming is similar to what happens with the phone continuous ring. This confirmed the first thoughts on what happened.

These 2 then said they weren't qualified enough to enter the phone exchange and that they would pass it up to their senior people who can go in and look at it. I asked when this would happen? They said "tomorrow". So I'll see on the 3rd if the phone is back to normal.

This experience as marred and otherwise easy transfer from Be to Sky. I must say that everyone I've spoken to so far as been well mannered and helpful. I just hope this issue gets fixed soon.

Then soon it'll be ready for me to make my jump to fibre, with all that that entails!

Update2:

Well the phone ring didnt get corrected yesterday.

I noticed that I only get knocked offline when someone is calling me and the ringer is involved. When I called out I didnt get knocked off.

Well this morning at just gone 7am the phone did its continuous ring. I picked it up thinking someone was calling me and it said this is a BT line check. So I put the phone down. I assume they did another check about 10 minutes after but the ring didnt go on for that long that time so I didnt have time to pick it up.

Now the situation is my phone line is dead. No dial tone... and to top it all off my net speed as dropped to half its usual speed.

I think I read somewhere that this happens when the phone part isnt connected?

This Be to Sky move as been a nightmare. It's more frustrating because its probably an easy issue to sort out in the exchange but there to be a lack of knowledge with these engineers. Apparently they as Sky engineers supposed to be dealing with it.

If this line and speed situation isn't rectified by this afternoon then I'm considering making a complaint. I'm a disabled person and the phone and Internet are my main source of social interaction. This situation is a complete balls-up so far.

Does anyone have any advice on how best to proceed? I currently pay line rental to BT, calls to TalkTalk and now Sky for broadband.

Forget broadband issues and get BT, as you pay them for your line, to sort the voice side of things. Hopefully that will sort out your bb.

The issues you are having are with the voice side of things so you need to speak with talktalk or BT. Sky can send out broadband engineers but these guys won't sort out the ringing etc that's going on. This will be what's causing the slow broadband... So this needs fixing.

Once you get the landline fixed the broadband should work fine. You'll have to get sky to re run line training once the lines fixed though as it's likely the line will be fixed at a slower speed due to the fault. Line training will fix that, it's called DLM.

Once the lines back to normal ring sky and ask them to re run DLM. That will take 10 days maximum to get you back to full speeds provided you don't disconnect your router. That's fairly easy.

So for now ring up I think BT and get them to fix the voice side of things. That's their liability. You don't pay sky for the voice side of things. This will need fixing to get the broadband back to normal.

Ringing sky you'll (probably) keep getting engineers who aren't trained to fix the voice side as sky don't provide the voice. Tbh it may be easier to get everything under one roof with one provider eventually as they can then take care of everything.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Fri 04-Apr-14 14:01:21)

Great minds think alike, some are just 20 minutes quicker!

Thanks guys..

Yea it kinda annoys me that the 2 openreach engineers came to my house and attached their monitor to the test socket and got the constant beeping, which was doing like the phone was doing. They said, "yea,.. its at the exchange". Then they tried to pass it off as sky's problem.

Maybe they got confused or something thinking I had my phone with sky. I pay line rental to bt, voice calls to talktalk and now broadband to sky.

It sounds like those 2 openreach engineers should have gone to the exchange and fixed this.

There is currently an open fault listed on my number on the bt fault line checker. I presume its one sky have opened up for me. Sky said it can take up to 72 hours, and that they

It seems there are quite a few people with similar problems during the Be to Sky migration. Phone cut off and/or net connection down.

There is a hidden area on a forum (not this site) that ex Be people are complaining since going to Sky.

Does anyone know if Sky have their own engineers? Someone said that all the engineers are openreach. But when the 2 openreach engineers arrived at my house when this happened (I think they thought I had my phone service with Sky) they said they saw the fault at the exchange but they couldnt touch Sky's equipment. So they would report it and I had to wait for Sky to send people there.

My big question is why are Sky tampering with my voice phone line?

Also I've noticed I've been charged half the price I was quoted in the Be to Sky transfer letter. I do wonder if they added me on another service during this as that would take the offer price down.

Very odd.

The phone line will not have been moved, but it is possible in moving the broadband wiring from the Be hardware to the Sky hardware (which are in two locked cages that open reach cannot access) that something went wrong.

Not all open reach engineers are qualified to do jumper work in the exchange, so they may report diagnosis and then open reach will check in the exchange, and if issue looks to be on the provider side push back to them

Thanks.. that makes sense.

I've got a feeling that Sky have some how mixed up my broadband only account, with my parents Sky TV account and changed something.

When moving from Be to Sky I was offered the broadband at £17.50. However my first bill notification looks to be £8.84 , which under Skys billing logic i.e. start off at a low price then for each other service you don't take they bump the price up. So it's like they think I'm using another service when I'm not.

There is currently a fault logged on the BT site that Sky added on for me. I don't have the account number so I can't see the update on it.

Hoping this is sorted for monday. I have no phone at all now. Not had a phone since they last tested the line for the constant bell ring.

Ok I managed to get in to the fault report, where they are trying to say the fault is in my property.. when openreach engineers have already tested the line from my connection and know the fault is in the exchange.

Its like the keystone cops!

I am wondering if it's the cable at the back of your master socket. I had this previously and it caused no line and broadband speed to half. Just one cable came loose at the back of the master socket. That said it does seem much more likely to be in the exchange. It's complicated with it being with so many different providers knowing who to speak to but hang in there...

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sat 05-Apr-14 22:49:17)

Thanks mate.

I ended up calling BT this morning and had to do the line check stuff. The woman on the phone actually said the line is dead at BT's end. So they will be sending an engineer out on wednesday to sort it out.

Though I'm at half my normal speed, Sky's DLM seems to have kicked in and my connection as stayed up since. So I guess I'll have to wait for wednesday.

It think the thing most likely to be wrong is the new Sky DSLAM ties you have been connected through. Since it all clearly went wrong when the migration happened, and that's all that changed.

As Mr.S said, not all Openreach staff are trained to work in exchanges, and lees still H4 trained to work on the ties between the MDF (main distribution frame) and the HDF (handover distribution frame). Sky will want the fault to be proved back to the HDF before agreeing to new ties being issued.

Could it also be that the engineers who visited were Kellys or Quinn, not actual BT. I've seen reports that these two subcontractors aren't allowed exchange access?

If this continues after wednesday, I wonder what the situation would be if I ordered fibre and took BT's phone package too. I'm assuming my phone line would have to be moved again and Internet.. so if it was just the transfer that caused these problems. I wonder if my phone would suddenly go back to normal during the process?

Anyways, I'm hoping fingers crossed all goes well on wednesday. The worst part so far is when the engineer confirmed the fault was at the exchange and they left to go and sort it. That's when the bad stuff happens.

By how things went down after the first engineers appeared at my house and at that point confirmed a BR fault (continuous bell ring) at the exchange, they said they would send it to the next level and Sky would sort it out the next day. Nothing happened the next day. But the morning after someone was doing a line test in the early hours, around 7am. Two tests. Since then the line as been dead. So from what that engineer said its likely Sky did the test and messed it up even more. The line as since been confirmed dead by BT when they attempted to do a line check (the first line check had worked when I just had the bell ring issue).

Also my first bill from Sky is nearly half the price is should have been. So it looks like they think I'm using more services than I actually am. It makes me wonder if they assumed I had the phone part with them, started to move the line then stopped. Since then problems.

I planned to have super fast net connection and currently I'm on half my speed! grr RIP Be

In reply to a post by bowdon:

Does anyone know if Sky have their own engineers?

Sky use Alcatel-Lucent to look after their network. That's who they were blaming on their help forums when there were delays upgrading the backhaul at my local exchange a while back.

Edited by simon194 (Tue 08-Apr-14 21:54:18)

Update:

BTO engineer came out. A well-mannered chap. He detected that the line was disconnected.

He put some device on the line that would beep and tell him how long the line was to the break. He kept it on while he went to go find it. Apparently its in a cabinet, well just down the line, further than he can go. He said there is some kind of crack in the line that means its earthing out. He's wrote the report up and identified it, so he said all the local guys have to do here is actually carry the job out. It's a simple job.

He said it'll either be done today or definately tomorrow. So, I'll update if anything further happens. It just seems odd that the migration at the exchange happened that it caused all these problems. Oh well.

Ok, so BTO have isolated the problem. They restored the dial tone, and have said the fault appears to be with Sky's equipment in the exchange. So they have wrote a report to request Sky send a replacement then they can fit it.

The 2 BTO engineers were great today. They both worked hard on isolating the problem. One even isolated a second problem at a cabinet somewhere along the line, and past the reports to the local BTO guys in the exchange.

In this case its Sky that's messed up. I think they have messed up a lot by the special forum on Sky's Help Forums, and by the looks of it, I'm not the only one in this situation. There is talk of approaching Ofcom.

Minor Update: The line and broadband seem very unstable.

BTO engineer called again and Sky have released the spares in the exchanged and allowed him to replace the bad part.. so far its ok again.. Fingers crossed!

Edited by bowdon (Wed 09-Apr-14 13:41:45)

Probably coincidental but a friend of mine recently went from Sky ADSL to Sky Fibre and lost his voice service on day of activation for 3 days, apparently a bad connection at the cabinet.

Yea, thats what happened to me. On the day of the migration the phone started acting odd by continuous ringing and knocking me offline.

Had an BTO engineer came out, isolated the issue and they said it seemed to be Sky's equipment. This engineer didn't report it to Sky, and after a few tests the phone line ended up dead and half the net speed.

Phoned Sky then BT (because they have my line rental), and arranged for this visit. The fault reporter initially was still saying it was in my property, even though it wasn't. Anyways the engineer who turned up today seemed to make a write up about an earthed line just outside of his reach. But he had identified it and added all the details to it, for the local BTO people to just do the job. Then local BTO people got the line back up, speed went back up.. but they called to check if it was ok and back to the long continuous ring. So he went back in to the exchange and said he found the problem on Sky's equipment. But he would need to request permission from Sky to replace it. 10 minutes later he called back saying they had given him permission and he had now changed it. So now all is working good.

So it WAS Sky's equipment that started all this. I think the cabinet line was kinda a side issue. My speed as improved since this as been done. The exchange part with the continuous phone ring started during the Sky migration.

I wonder if Sky need to run some kind of checks of their equipment. It's only going to be them that get a bad reputation if they don't do something.

Well it seems it was too good to be true. Lost phone and net access from monday afternoon. Lodged a fault with bt. They traced it to the exchange. They give me thursday 5pm till its fixed. I cant help but think this is another issue with this sky setup. Ive NEVER had no phone service or breaks in internet to this extent before.

Im hoping it gets fixed tomorrow. If not can i still go ahead and order bt fibre and get bt to sort it during that process?

I know this will not help you specifically, but, I have been with SKY for a number of years and have not had any problems at all, that I can remember. Been on their ADSLx and also currently on the FTTC service.

It does look like there is something wrong with your specific service (port/line connected too) and hope this is fixed soon.

Still off the phone/net. It was supposed to be fixed today. I called bt and they are now saying it wont be fixed until 22nd becauss of easter!?

Im looking at net alternatives. Looking a mifi / dongles.

I came back online on the day they said. But they wanted to send an engineer out today.

He arrived. He solved most of my problems. He ended up putting me on to a new cable line.

Only problem he couldnt fix was the bell ringer. He said the part in the exchange that rings the bell is on the isp's equipment, even if you don't have your phone line with the isp. This also backs up another engineer I had spoken to previously who said the same and managed to replace the faulty part, only for that to go down too.

Going to start the ball rolling with ordering BT Fibre tomorrow. What a balls up Sky have done.

Sky is the only isp that ive found more people dont like the service than like it.

In reply to a post by bowdon:

Sky is the only isp that ive found more people dont like the service than like it.

Sky had around 5 million mostly satisfied customers before they swallowed O2/BE and the complaints started. Sky will have around 5 million mostly satisfied customers afterwards, too.

I've seen one or two complaints about BT Infinity tbh.

You do realise that BT Openreach carry out the work for Sky so it could well be that they have done a shoddy job to start with so even if you had moved to another ISP and the same engineer from BT Openreach did the migration you could have still had all of these issues?

In reply to a post by bowdon:

Sky is the only isp that ive found more people dont like the service than like it.

Try virgin media in a congested area