Good advice Janet, but in nearly nine months trying to get the tag removed off of my BT line Sky would not give me a fax number. The fax numbers I found did not connect, so every letter was sent recorded delivery. They still ignored it!!!!!!

@ DAN92

As it has been over twelve weeks, well over 12 weeks, you can contact Otelo to make a complaint. They are very helpful. You must have details and copies of correspondence, phone calls and e-mails to back up your complaint also. You can find their phone number on their web site. If it was not for getting them involved with my problem I would still have the Sky tag on my line.

 

Dan,

I think that if you don't get your problem sorted via the skyuser site, you should tell Sky that the 12 month lock-in period in the contract only applies if they (Sky) are not in breach of their contractual obligations, which they CERTAINLY are in your and your girlfriend's situation.  Try terminating the contract anyway citing this as your justification, and combine it with a threat to sue them for damages for your wasted expenses etc in chasing non-existent internet access since last November - a nice formal letter faxed to their customer service fax number giving all the details of their hopeless service might do the trick - that is certainly what we will do if the thing isn't resolved soon, though I must say I agree with the message yesterday which suspects strongly that the fault lies with BT trying to make life impossibly difficult for other service providers hooking into their lines!

Janet

Hi,

You need to check out http://www.skyuser.co.uk/ (the unofficial sky site) all your answers will be answered. Trust me you wont need to a engineer to come out, People on this site a very kind and knowledgeable. You'll find alot of useful info. 

Hope that helps.

Another rant about skybb. My girlfreind got SkyBB at her house in november. Since then its never worked. We need a sky engineer to come down and sort out our problem with
skybb, we've tried countless times to phone them for technical support
but to no avail. Its been over 6 months and it hasnt worked once. When
the engineer comes down, if it doesnt work I will destroy the box, we've had enough. Weve tried cancelling the service only to get a reply saying shes in a 12 month contract. I hope she doesnt have to sit for a further 6 months until its run out. We're so angry with them that next phone call will be a very nasty one.

 

How can we get an engineer to come down to us as sson as possible?

 

Dan 

Hi Janet,

 

I am not the m ost knowledgeable person, so I am just adding my bit of guessing here.

As you can see from my first post ab ove, I am now connected and in spite of some disconnections, things are fine now. The nightmare was the three month from ordering to get connected.

We ordered Sky BB and the next day we recieved confirmation and such. But then after two days, Sky wrote again that there was going to be a delay because BT still had to do something in the exchange so that Sky could then do their part (I am in LLU). From then on it was a mess, I contacted Sky, threaten with legal action too, and Ofcom, Otelo, and the Scarlet Pimpernel. Sky kept telling me BT needed to sort the lines first.

I contacted BT and they said 1) Could not give me any answer, contact Sky. 2) Will check the lines. 3) Lines are fine. and so on. Several people from BT responded and each had a different answer that did not answer much. One of them mentioned Openreach as the responsible, but as far as I know Openreach is BT as well. I wrote to Openreach and they said contact Sky.

Now, when doing some checking about BB availability in this area, the results for my home were 10 times slower or so than my friend who lives a few blocks away. As it happens it seems that although we are in the same exchange, the lines coming to our neighb ourhood, which is sort of separate from the rest are a different block and had always some kind of trouble. Some neighbors say BT has to do a refurbishing or something round here.

Now from the above I sort of guess that at least to some extent Sky was write. BT was the culprit. Ofcom?laws/regulations have forced BT to open their exchenges via LLU to third parties companies offering BB so that companies using LLU (like Sky) no longer have to buy wholesale from BT at whatever prices BT wanted. This is the reason why Sky can have cheaper or even free BB now.

Would it be any wonder if BT actually do whatever they can to mess up the process for third party companies? I would not be surprised if this would be the case that has affected so many customers trying to get Sky or other LLU companies. With the vast experience BT has in telecomubnications they probably can mess a real lot without being discovered.

Just guessing here.

JC

The latest on my Sky broadband nightmare saga is that Sky are now going to send us a new router in case that's the problem - still get no internet light illuminated whichever phone socket we try, despite having perfect phone reception and despite BT wholesale assuring Sky that there is no fault on the broadband line (we are apparently "offline" sky customers, ie sky gets their broadband connection via BT).  So maybe this will solve it - if only we could actually get someone from Sky and someone from BT to MEET at our house and sort the damn thing out!!

I have to say that I did seem to get a slightly more efficient response from Sky (a half-way intelligent bloke actually called us) after sending them an email packed out with legal language and threats to sue (I'm an academic lawyer and my other half's a barrister, as I pointed out to them in the email!!) and mentioned otelo too.

Finally, one weird thing - someone may know the answer - almost invariably any disruption to our internet access in the past, and our recent total lack of any internet access for nearly a fortnight, has coincided with WET WEATHER.  Does anyone know whether the BT broadband connection might be susceptible to rain????  Has anyone else experienced this????

Janet x

Hi Derek, i also have a tag on my line from sky, they have issued me with a mac code will that allow bt to take over my broadband connection? Or has sky still got to remove the tag from there end?

Wow, I hope you don't get fired for your honesty! Thanks mate, I will not be getting Sky Broadband now, even though I was considering it and the prices are cheap!

Well good evening fellas, i have come up with my own conclusion as i dont wish to have to battle, wait or even let it take over my life as i know these things can.

So these are my options i feel

1. i ring bt and cancell my line, Why they ask? becouse they cant supply me with my requirements

Anzwer: they will either say bye bye or, get the tag removed or offer me a new number (which means new line)

2. i cancell my sky tv subscrition of £50 a month and tell them why. see if that helps.

3. I get rid of both sky and bt and go on to virgin media which i can get not requiring a bt phone line. not a bad package too. hd tv, 2 meg broadband (i dont down load a lot) and phone all for £47 a month which i half what im paying now.

NTL/virgin media what they like ???????

Yes, Yes, Yes.........I'm Free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry Chok don't mean to rub it in but it's been nearly 9 months. It's only since I worked my way up to contacting Otelo and followed their advice, of course just adding into my letters to Sky BB that I had contacted Otelo, that I got some results. Up to then Sky BB had ignored all my e-mails, letters and calls. Then after contacting Otelo I actually received a letter from Sky BB, they do send them out! I had never seen one. Saying that it did tell me that the tag was to be removed and it never happened!  Contacted Otelo again. Two days later I received a phone call, yes a phone call from Sky BB. They do know how to use the phones up in Livingstone. I was told that the Tag was be removed on the 10th May being free to use on the 11th May. Then to my shock I received a call from Sky BB last night at 7pm to inform me that my line was free of the Tag. I was in shock I had to have a drink, well any excuse will do. Not that I don't trust Sky BB, I don't, I called BT Wholesale this morning and It was confirmed 'I'M FREE'.

Ok it's a bit light hearted but these buggers have given me so much grief and nobody cares. You have got to contact everyone that matters, even a few that don't. Anyone that you think can help you,call them, bother them, interupt their dinner, make yourself heard otherwise the buggers will walk all over us.

God I feel better for that.

Hi there everybody.I would like to thank everyone who replied to me.Unfortunately I don't know who Consumer Direct are and have never heard of them before but I would be very greatful if someone could tell me in what order I should do things especially about my telephone bill because that to me is astronomica.However I would like to thank you all because it was due to finding this forum that I decided that I wasn't going to wait until they finally decided to shift and to get dial up until they do.It isn't right or fair and I still fully intend to fight them and may even take them to court if all else fails because I did cancel my broadband before I got my equipment and luckily this has been refunded with no problems.I couldn't believe how long some of you have had to wait and reading all of of your posts was like reading my own life.They have said the exact same things to me and my partner over ad over again.I spoke to a scottish operator on Sun and he was soooo rude and told me this was all my own fault as I could not make up my mind.I told him I had only cancelled once and been lied to so many times and told different dates and asked him which story was the truth.He abruptly said he was telling me the truth and that I should believe him when he said the line will be free 11 days from that day which was 17th May and yet low and behold then he changed the story to the line wll be clear on 11th May and when I challenged him as to why the story had changed,he told me he had spoken to a supervisor.I just gave up at this point.I actually was furious and couldn't take any more.Then my partner rang again and was told a cease had def been put on the line and that the line would be clear on 18th May.He said ok then can I get that in writing and they said they could never guarantee a date just to cover themselves obviously.The claim has now been escalated 3 times and our line is still blocked.I really don't know what to do and most of all I can't believe they are getting away with all of this.If all of us in here have suffered,you just imagine how many more out there are going through the same thing.Cheers again.Will keep you posted.

Hi Janet

There are many stressed out Sky customers on our site - you may want to check out the other threads to see what they say, (especially Sky Anyone got it yet?).

Your other option is to visit skyuser.co.uk - they seem to have a good steer on what to do.

You may also want to consider speaking to Consumer Direct or Otelo who could give you sound advice as to what to do next.

Cheers

Jason

This is my first posting, but I had to let my stress out somewhere!  We swapped from BT to Sky Broadband last month, and never have we regretted anything quite this much.  It took ages to deliver etc etc, but cutting to the current hideous situation: we spent money getting a computer expert to make it work with our existing wireless router and it did for a while - then last Wednesday it simply stopped working: whenever we try and connect to the internet it displays the standard error message.  Getting through to Sky is a nightmare, but when you do speak to someone with half a brain they say it is a problem with the line and thus the fault of BT-wholesale; BT-wholesale on the other hand (after the same rigmarole trying unsuccessfully to speak to someone who isn't in a call-centre) say the line is perfect and we must chase our internet provider... aaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!

Needless to say, I am at work trying to sort this out and emailing you chaps because we can't, er, use the internet at home.  Hubby and I both work from home frequently, kids need the internet for homework etc, and we are on the verge of divorce cos hubby switched from BT without consulting me!!

Has anyone had a similar experience and got it resolved, or cancelled without penalty because of Sky's default?  If so, WHO DO I HAVE TO SPEAK TO???

Best wishes

Janet

I have SKY BB (MID) now and I am getting a nice 6 Mb which is more than double I was getting with Newnet and I am saving 20 bucks a month.

Now, the process to get it was absolutely awfully awuful! It took three months to get connected, and the first week of service was choppy, disconnections, fluctuations and the like. However, nos things are pretty much stabilized and getting a steady speed.

 So I am now happy with it.

JC

PS: From what I read in several forums, a big deal of the problems is caused by BT actually. Is it any wonder that BT might actually mess up things if they can so that other providers would have trouble? Since you have to deal with your provider customer service and not with BT, if the problems are located at BT's end then you are sort of stuck I guess.

Thanks for your helpful comments Brian - there is nothing more valuable than someone who has been through it already.