Consumer Advice: Sky Broadband
Are you looking for a new telephone and broadband provider in the UK? Well, my friend, let me offer you some advice!
Stay the hell away from Sky.
Sky does not understand the concept of customer service, and will attempt to make YOU do all the legwork to resolve problems of their own creation. They will constantly resort to ridiculous advice to try and throw you off, and to keep you down.
On Monday, I received two text messages out of the blue. These messages informed me that my new service provider would be taking over supply of voice and broadband… That very day. Needless to say, I was rather annoyed. I hadn’t requested any change of supplier. I’m moving in a month, why the hell would I lock myself into a new contract?
So, I called Sky customer services to resolve it. I explained that I had received these messages. The sky rep confirmed that a new provider was indeed coming in. I asked how that could have happened. She explained that I must have authorised the other ISP to do so. I told her that I had never been contacted about this, and that they had to stop the process now to prevent my service from being cut off. She said that Sky couldn’t do that, and that I would have to contact the new service provider to do so. I grumbled, and asked who the ISP was. She said that they didn’t have enough information to be able to tell me. I asked her what would happen now.
She told me to phone around the different ISPs to find out which one was taking over.
There are over 50 ISPs providing broadband services in the UK alone.
I had to pause for a bit after such an idiotic and insulting suggestion. I asked why Sky would not do this, considering that it was not my fault. She said that it wasn’t Sky’s responsibility to find out who the new ISP was, seeing as how I must have authorised them. I explained, once more, that I had not, and that Sky had a duty to protect my contract with them by checking with me anything that would alter the supply of service.
She told me that the only thing I could do, if I didn’t want to phone round the ISPs, was to write to the complaints department.
And so, I sent off an email to the complaints department explaining my problem, requesting a reversal of the switching process, and explaining why the advice I was given was impractical and insulting. More than the stated target time of 72 hours had elapsed before I received a response.
Unfortunately, the complaints department could not help, and I would have to contact customer services.
This is why I will never deal with Sky again. The sheer incompetence of their staff and their inability to provide a positive customer experience, coupled with their unwillingness to adapt to new markets, their lack of respect for new groups of customers and the very, very poor quality of service my family and friends back in Glasgow have been experiencing, have all added up to paint a very specific portrait indeed.
Sky wants your money. Sky doesn’t care about you. Sky will try and get away with doing as little as possible.
So, my friends, if you are currently with Sky for broadband or talk, just be aware that you might have your service disconnected at any time for no real reason! I would recommend looking elsewhere for decent customer service, as you will not find it within the halls of Sky. You will, instead, be told to fix it yourself, and they will attempt to absolve themselves of any responsibility.
I am strongly considering contacting the ombudsman over the ridiculous treatment I have received.
Also in the news; My computer was acting a bit weird today – I’m hoping I managed to fix it, but just in case it fails more catastrophically, I might have to put up some placeholder comics. I have four pages of Ludwig and Lucia that would hold me for a couple of weeks while I got it sorted, but hopefully it won’t come to that!
Right, cheerio for now everyone! Have a good weekend, and I’ll see you all on Monday!
M.
Dunno if you’re any closer to sorting this mess with your broadband but I’ve heard similar problems whilst I worked for a different service provider in their Sales Compliance department. In my case it was more often that there had been a difficulty taking the service so both were still active, particularly when taking over from Sky. Anyway, I was wondering. Have you recently bought a new phone contract from Carphone Warehouse? If so your line may have gone to Talk Talk as they used to be the same company and a mobile with Talk Talk also requires you to buy the landline which quite a few people don’t realise. If not, I think there’s a number you can dial on your landline and it tells you what provider your number is with…only problem is I can’t remember the number. Google might help with that though lol. Hope things get sorted for your soon and hope I’ve been of some help to you
Cheers for the insider knowledge! I meant to respond to this earlier, actually… As it turns out, the chap in the flat in the other block got his address wrong, and Sky had just kinda ploughed ahead using my address and connection details instead of his. Fortunately, the dude I called from the letter that actually came through to inform me of the cancellation was very helpful indeed, and sorted it out.
Don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before, considering that every year about this time (students and recent graduates moving in) I start receiving mail intended for that flat. I should really tell them to inform their agency…
I never did realise that a mobile contract with the Carphone Warehouse also required a landline lease. That sounds like some dodgy business practice right there… I’m with Virgin mobile, have been since time immemorial. Every year when the marketing team calls up to offer me a deal for remaining with them, they comment on the fact that I’ve been with them so long they actually don’t have records of WHEN I started.
Ugh I know how you feel. Customer service is what makes the company and what people want AND help the company itself thrive. I live in the USA…but if Sky dares to come, I’ll be sure to avoid it like the plague.
“Sky”, ‘SkyNet’, see a similarity?