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Moving Sky to my new home was a nightmare

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I was a happy Sky customer for 18 months when I decided to move to new area and wanted to have my Sky moved with me to the new address.  This is when my nightmare started.  I moved on the 16th October 2009 and called home moving team the same day.  They promised that I will have everything sorted within 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks nothing happened.  I didn't get any of my services at the new place even though I was still paying for them.  To cut a long story short I haven't had TV for two and a half months and no broadband for nearly three months.  I've called Sky every day and spent nearly £200 on phone calls.  Each person I talked to told me something different and everyone kept transferring me to different departments or putting me on hold for ages (normally 10 -50 minutes on hold during each phone call).  I begged and I cried because I was so upset!  It felt as though they were just playing with me and I spent Christmas alone at home with no broadband, phone or even stupid TV!!!!

In mid January I decided to cancel my contract!  I though, OK right maybe the problem was with my account (what else could I think), so I asked my fiance to sign up with them on my behalf.  He did this and we were promised that everything will be sorted within 2 weeks.  We had a guy to install our TV on the 21st of January, but still hadn't received a router in the post so we had no broadband and no Sky Talk.

We kept calling them again every day and at first they told us 'You'll get your broadband within next 24 hours' Nothing happened so we called back and were told we have to wait another 48 hours.  A couple of days passed and the next date we were given was 17th February, then 24th February and the latest was 3rd of March!!!  Of course when we called back on the 3rd of March!  We were told 'definitely the 4th of March, oh wait wait... there is a mistake.  I see that your broadband and Sky Talk was installed at your address on 3rd of March 2009, but there's something wrong because it looks like someone else had the same phone number before you at this address.'

Making a phone call. Throughout all this we heard a variety of excuses including that they are stuck as BT is blocking their line somehow, or that one of the Sky employees didn't update my account properly.  Can you believe this?  It's almost unbelievable...  By the way, every time I wanted to talk to the manager of the person I was speaking to I was somehow suddenly disconnected.

Finally we decided enough was enough and called them to cancel our account and all the services.  They said that we can cancel our Sky Talk and broadband order on the phone as they haven't been even activated yet.  So we did.  We were transferred 4 times before someone was able to do it for us.  We were also told that if we want to cancel our TV services (and we are able to do that as all customers can leave them within 30 days since their tv was installed) we have to send letter to Livingston, West Lothian - we received 2 different addresses from different departments.

So to be on the safe side we have sent 2 registered letter to both places.  After few days we received letter that our Sky Talk was cancelled and then few days later we got a letter from their office saying that they are very unhappy that we want to cancel our Sky TV contract, but that they cannot do it for us.  And we have to stay with them for 12 months!!!

I ordered BT broadband same day we cancelled our Sky Talk and BT gave us an estimated date of 9th March.  We will end up paying £35 to BT (line rental + broadband) and then £20 to Sky for a TV service that we don't even want any more.  I'm so afraid that something will go wrong again and I really cannot stand being offline any longer.  I really don't want to fork out £125 pounds for new line and even if I wanted to I can't because we are renting and our landlady will not allow it.

I was offline for almost 5 months and was quite depressed with the whole thing which was their fault in the first place.  Lost lots of time, frayed nerves, hundreds of pounds in phone calls and paying for service I didn't even have. 


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Arturo

Arturo

This sounds so sadly familiar. I moved home on June 3rd, and as of today (Aug. 26th) I still have no phone and no broadband connection in my home, despite having given Sky notice as early as May 19th. They keep blaming BT Openreach for bungling their order (they sent engineers from the wrong telephone exchange, they say) but in the end it should be up to them to keep tabs on BT. I'm considering talking to a solicitor to see if I can claim compensation from all the stress and aggravation I am going through because of Sky's sloppy attitude...
26/08/13 Arturo
-4
Umair

Umair

Oh and despite the fact that they were quite happy to take over my existing phone number from BT. They can't move my phone number with me, even though I'm moving down the road in the same STD code area.
26/04/11 Umair
-24
Umair

Umair

Have just been on the phone to sky about moving my Phone,SkyTalk and Broadband to my new home. They are telling me it will take 6 weeks ! 10 days to cancel the contract and 30 days to install the new service ! Complete nightmare.

I only wish VirginMedia were in my area. Never had any problems with those guys (apart from teh cost).
26/04/11 Umair
-16
Tex

Tex

My daughter decided to change from virgin to sky because the bills were creeping up BIG MISTAKE! ALL her tv equipment was working fine before FIRST DIGITAL skys installer
company touched it. Sky worked for about ten mins after the engineer left then it crshed. So my daughter called sky to say it had gone down and they sent the same man back he tested the system and said it was broke, the HDMIport on the tv had gone so there was nothing he could do. So she rang sky and first digital to complain and so did I but got the the same answer as my daughter,they did send someone out to look at it twice but they both said the same the HDMI port wasent working and that it was my daughters fault because of the things connected to it. But after the install nothing was touched so if it worked before they touched it surely its their fault,but they wont have any of it its not fault and thats that they think. Has any one got any suggestions as to where to go from here please?
11/10/10 Tex
-14
zyklon

zyklon

I used to work for them. They are a bunch of crooks. The call centre I worked at was raided because staff were passoing on credit card details to crooks. THIS IS FACT not libel. You were told to goad people into swearing at you if they wanted to cancel their contract. That way you could hang up on them then they would have to phone again costing them even more money. DONT trust sky. I left after 2 mths. Couldnt put up with the sheisters.
19/09/10 zyklon
-9
davola

davola

I had to laugh reading this because 6 months ago I went through exactly the same thing. Gave sky 1 months notice of my moving date so they could activate the phoneline and broadband at new address, within an hour the phone and internet were not working at my old address even though I told them I wasn't moving for another month, to make matters worse 2 months after I had moved into new house I was still without phone or internet. Lucky for me there was already a dish at new house to I had my tv. Got fed up of different dates for activation so called virgin and was up and running within 2 days of the first phone call. If virgin's tv package wasn't so poor I would have fooked sky off completely but unfortunately we are all stuck with them if we want the decent channels. Sky also tried charging me for the phone and internet even though they had canceled it at.This led to me canceling the direct debit because trying to get money back from them is like getting blood out of a stone so they had to cheek to charge me 4 quid extra for not paying via direct debit!!! Needless to say a few choice words to customers service got me all the refunds I wanted including a free hd box and multiroom installation in the bedroom. Argue with the b@stards and you will win as long as you ask for a manager, dont bother with the script reading idiots that you initially get through to, they are totally inept and not capable of taking individual circumstances into account. Good luck to anyone planning on moving soon!!
31/07/10 davola
-14
rootytooty

rootytooty

Sky tv customer services is making me feel physically ill. Over the past few days I have had various communications with them about upgrading our sky tv package. First option offered was too expensive. I rang again the following day and was offered a cheaper option which I accepted. Advisor arranged for engineer to install new boxes and set up. Alarms rang when we received product info from sky and it was not the same as agreed on telephone. I rang them again and the employee said he'd had a look at our account and "if anything isn't right you can sort it out with the engineer". OK. Engineer rang last night to confirm details. He has wrong information. Spent over an hour last night on phone to sky trying to sort it out. Passed from one dept. to another and another and another and another. Wanted to end subscription as I feel I am being accused of lying. Reluctantly accepted another deal,purely because I didn't want to disappoint my daughter. E mailed sky a complaint this morning, no acknowledgement yet. I seriously do feel ill and stressed becaused of this.
26/07/10 rootytooty
-25
Robbie

Robbie

I have been experiancing the same. Exactly the same word for word. I informed them I was moving on 24th April and moved on the 29th April 2010. I am no further ahead and its the 12th July.

Unbelievable... I wiouldnt recomend Sky to anyone just because of their moving proceedures and lack of customer care...
13/07/10 Robbie
15
bestbillsaver.co.uk

bestbillsaver.co.uk

This kind of treatment makes my blood boil, these companies really don;t know how to look after their customers.
I too can sympathise with you on a similar situation when I moved home,but at last there is a company out there that DOES care and will do it;s utmost to accomodate any situation that may arise.You may not have even heard of them but this is a major UK plc company listed on the Ft index and guess what it's in LONDON not Mumbai or some other outbound place yes YOU can talk in english to an englishman/woman!!
If you are serious about 5 star service, value for money,,customer care then you really should take a look here:www.bestbillsaver.co.uk and see what REAL service is like!
I wish you well and if you get any more problems drop me an email and I will sort it out for you saving you money too!
Regard bestbillsaver.co.uk
22/05/10 bestbillsaver.co.uk
-19
HellovaBella

HellovaBella

At last I can get this off my chest! I totally agree with the comments regarding Sky's appaulling 'Customer Service'. I don't want to go to the ombudsman as I would like to put things behind me. I had awful problems when moving house, not helped particularly by BT either, but when I was promised compensation and sent in the necessary paperwork, they told me to basically sling my hook; I got slightly peeved! I decided to end my contract and they sent me on a major guilt trip asking me how it would make my son feel when he found out he wasn't having Sky any more??!! What was I going to do for tv?? (Like there is nothing else on the planet that might possibly interest me other than telly...) and why would I want to pay for 31 days notice when I could be offered 3 months for free by them!!!! Because I've had enough! They also majorly slagged off BT's BroadBand service saying I would always exceed my download limit when I moved to them and would get charged a fortune. I have installed a download manager and discovered that I've only used 10% of my limit in a week! What a bunch of cowboys.... Another company trying to take over the world by making you think they are doing you a favour!...... I feel better now. Time for a cuppa!
06/05/10 HellovaBella
-2
Eternal Optiomist

Eternal Optiomist

Seriously....come on people....a bit of positivety wont go a miss on this place! Your all so depressing....i know you have had issues with service providers and such but Ce la Vie! Find the bright side and look on it....if that fails...shine a torch in your eyes and pray to who ever that the batteries dont run out or you will be on moaning about that aswel!
11/04/10 Eternal Optiomist
-15
Dear me!

Dear me!

I ended up in a broadband scam and had to deal with the Talk Talk call centre and I know just what you mean about getting passed from pidgeon to post for over 20 minutes. In the end I put the phone down on them and never called back. Bunch of wallies!
22/03/10 Dear me!
-13
artuk

artuk

This is quite normal for Sky, although BT have messed up several times when I have moved they always give me compensation and sort things out quickly. I found Virgin the best deal for Broadband but always keep my phone line with BT then I am never stuck for an internet conenction when Virgin 'goes down'.
12/03/10 artuk
-15
Steve L

Steve L

I remember having trouble moving Sky BB many years ago. Like yourself I spent hours on the phone banging my head against the wall. Got sorted eventually a few weeks late.

An even better story is that sky set up two accounts for me when I got one box in my house. So I was getting billed by them twice monthly for 6 months, incurring bank charges and threatening phonecalls due to their screw up!
09/03/10 Steve L
-24
FRUSTRATED

FRUSTRATED

I know how you feel. I had a terrible problem with Carphone warehouse. I ended up writing to the Judge in The Sunday mail. the legal departments of the sunday papers are the way to go. The call centres are a boil on the backside of humanity and should be closed down. You can never get to speak to someone in authoarity,and they pass you from pillar to post and you end back where you started. so much for Progress!! I think we will get back to carrier pigeons. More reliable and less frustrating. You have my full sympathy,as I ended up at the doctor for sleeping pills and I was never so angry in my life. EVER!! Good luck and just take a deep breath. Everything turns full circle,and one day there will be no more call centres
09/03/10 FRUSTRATED
-15

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