changing from Virgin Cable to Sky Phone

[MuswellMetro]

Just a rant

for months i had been trying to get a new BT line in to replace my Virgin cable phone and optical fibre broadband as just to expensive

sky offered to do it...free and broadband rent free for a year. BT wanted £80 up front and half price broadband

so chose Sky......ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

openreach engineer booked for Tuesday 8:00 to 10:00....several phone calls from 10;00 at 20p per minute...engineer arrived at 4:30 and said...oh you need a local loop, yes thats what i ordered a new telephone line to my house to replace the fibre optic cable....came back at 6:00, o someone will be back in the morning

Phone now dead as Virgin account closed by Sky on the basis i should have a BT/sky phone by then

8:00 another engineer arrives...oh you need a locla loop ,you have not got a line....deja vue....1:00 he comes back, yes gives my my phone ...dialing tone... bye bye all done

phone the wife, duaghter all done....two hours later, message on mobile,,,whty arent you asnering the phone.....i can phone out but not gey phone calls in....ahhh

phone sky, yes dont worry sir, we will get the engineeer back....appoinment 1:00 5th February.....12 days without a phone...compensation......you must be kidding .

 

[Suzi Q]

Plusnet, they're really good, can't fault them, inexpensive, good service.

 

[Black Comb]

Sky engineers are rubbish. Many sorry tales to tell. They subcon it all out to another firm (or did in the past).
Anyone used BT for satellite TV?

 

[Hombre]

BT used to be good for line changes at quarries etc. Disconnections were one department and Connections another. It was typical that a line change would be scheduled for the weekend and the Disconnections would be programmed to happen automatically on Friday night on the basis that most businesses worked office hours five days a week. The connections were lax enough to either do the job on time or schedule it for first thing Monday morning. Two business days screwed up for a quarry.

This used to happen time and time again as the BT left hand and the right hand operated independently and apparently didn't do much in the way of communication with each other. Their prime business of course . . .

All can safely be tarred with the one brush I suspect, but for different reasons in all probability.

 

[denise washington]

phone

try talk talk been with sky but talktalk are a lot cheaper and better

 

[Drew]

All can safely be tarred with the one brush I suspect, but for different reasons in all probability.

Well fundamentally the same reason actually.......

They run things for "them" and not for "you"....
Its convenient for "them" to switch off on Friday and on on Monday (but not for you)........

And don't get me started on "Customer Service Initiatives" such as "Automated Call Handling"...........

 

[victor meldrew]

Deja poo !,
I seem to recall experiencing this crap before
VM

 

[alanf]

sky offered to do it...free and broadband rent free for a year. BT wanted £80 up front and half price broadband

You are far from alone - I know that's no comfort. What I find the really annoying thing about these stories is that it's all driven by their business model.

Success for their management is new recruits. So they offer deals to transfer. But the pressure to cut costs yet still pay the amount they spend on advertising means they cut corners in installation, so lots of unhappy customers. So they leave on promise of something better from a.n.other corporation playing the same circular game. And see the same shoddy service that has been trimmed to price.

If someone offered the deals to existing customers there would be far less churn and they could actually do the installation job right. But they won't. The business model they all use is to milk existing customers to offer discounts to the recruits. Because success for their management is new recruits. So they offer deals to transfer.

See also the insurance industry and power utilities.

 

[beeboybee]

i have tried to leave virgin broadband, we called, we emailed, we called again, we sent letters no contact whatsoever from them i used the work phone to call them as i have yet to speak to a human, the record time on hold was 2h45min before i had to use the phone for something else...... the up shot is we have now moved out of the house cancelled our direct debit last week..... no doubt this will get there attention very quickly.

 

[madasafish]

i have tried to leave virgin broadband, we called, we emailed, we called again, we sent letters no contact whatsoever from them i used the work phone to call them as i have yet to speak to a human, the record time on hold was 2h45min before i had to use the phone for something else...... the up shot is we have now moved out of the house cancelled our direct debit last week..... no doubt this will get there attention very quickly.

Strangely enough I have never had any problems with contacting Virgin and found their Customer Service excellent.. (since 2004 anyway - it was pants earlier) .

It must be my good looks.. <cough>

 

[Luminos]

Deja poo !,
I seem to recall experiencing this crap before
VM

 

[Dishmop]

Strangely enough I have never had any problems with contacting Virgin and found their Customer Service excellent.. (since 2004 anyway - it was pants earlier) .

It must be my good looks.. <cough>

Same here..
Broadband only ever been off a couple of times and only for a few mins..
One day the phone wouldnt work properly but I managed to get hold of somebody, but it was a crossed line and I had to butt in but got cut off, but I did hear the other caller give his phone number and it was local to me. Got thro again and was told that they had not had any reported faults in my area..

Phoned next morning and spoke to a lady who asked me the number I was calling from...."are you sure, its not the number showing on my screen" she said. There was a crossed line.. In the end she said there was nothing wrong that she could see but would send an engineer out (three days later) to look at my phone but if he didnt find anything wrong I would be charged, cant remember how much. The following day the phone worked perfectly so I cancelled the engineer.. It pissed me off that one person told me that no faults had been reported and I had listened to somebody reporting a fault, and the other person was also telling me the same even tho it appeared I was calling from another number.

If you call them up and say you want to cancel whatever they supply you with they often offer you some kind of deal. I asked about cancelling the TV and was told that it was cheaper to keep it because it was part of a package...she didnt have to tell me that tho.. Later I got a half price installation deal on thier Tivo system.

They keep telling me that they are going to double the B/B speed. Dont know why tho.

 

[Swarm]

The only thing different about any of these SP's is their billing equipment. Your line is the same regardless whether you choose provider A or provider B and it's Openreach who work on the infrastructure to provide, maintain or repair.

It's a pain in the backside being piggy in the middle, each side blames the other, you the customer become more and more frustrated. Of course, with free market enterprise there is more choice and better prices .... They just didn't say what would happen when you have a problem.

I sympathise, but please don't blame the lowest rung of this particular ladder (the engineer) he has not created your problems, it's just his next job that he picked up.

 

[madasafish]

If you call them up and say you want to cancel whatever they supply you with they often offer you some kind of deal. I asked about cancelling the TV and was told that it was cheaper to keep it because it was part of a package...she didnt have to tell me that tho.. Later I got a half price installation deal on thier Tivo system.

They keep telling me that they are going to double the B/B speed. Dont know why tho.

I phone every 18 months or so - variable so it's not predictable - and threaten to leave. They then offer me a lower price. After haggling I renew...40% cheaper.


I also buy the DT newspaper on a prepaid voucher basis - standard is 30% off list price. I refuse to renew every 6 months, have a break of 2-3 weeks and then they phone me up and offer a better deal (currently under 50% of list price).



(I have to admit I am a miserable mean Scot who once worked in Purchasing)

 

[Dishmop]

Your line is the same regardless whether you choose provider A or provider B and it's Openreach who work on the infrastructure to provide, maintain or repair.

Not too sure it that is entirely correct inasmuch as the cable that I get my services thro is a dedicated cable as laid underground by Cable & Wireless and not an upgraded BT telephone line.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Not too sure it that is entirely correct inasmuch as the cable that I get my services thro is a dedicated cable as laid underground by Cable & Wireless and not an upgraded BT telephone line.

agree with you dishmop, Virgin has its own fibre optic network and does not share the BT/openreach wire system

, i had no copper loop phone line to my house, i had to get sky/Openreach to install a new copper wire system

still no broadband so using my iphone as a WiFi hotspot and G3

 

[Dishmop]

till no broadband so using my iphone as a WiFi hotspot and G3

please dont tell me you're lurking around outside MacDogalds.

 

[Swarm]

Not too sure it that is entirely correct inasmuch as the cable that I get my services thro is a dedicated cable as laid underground by Cable & Wireless and not an upgraded BT telephone line.

Quite true but then cable is a different entity and MM was not going to another cable company. Moving to Sky as OP considers and the various other SP's suggested involve a copper pair. If no pair to the house, it would need to be provided, hence the charge.