Managing Expectations
Jonathan Sheppard is disappointed to say the least in Sky's customer service. If you can call it that.
3 Nov 2011, 18:50
Sky Broadband
If only the same was true of Sky broadband. Perhaps it's my own fault. I should have realised that living in a rural location I wouldn't get good broadband. But that isn't the problem. I'm not concerned about the speed. I'm getting more and more frustrated about not having any broadband at all, and dealing with a customer services operation that seem to know nothing about either customers or indeed service.
The whole saga started when I ordered a TV, telephone and broadband for the house we recently moved in to. Right on time came a very helpful chap who installed our dish and got us up and running. The next day the phone line went live, and in the post came the broadband router.
Lovely I thought. It shouldn't be long until I can use the internet. Oh no. What they initially failed to tell me was that they don't put in the order for your broadband until they have completed your phone line order. A bit disappointed, but I understood the reasoning, and was given a date 2 weeks after ordering my package for broadband to go live.
November the 1st arrives - the day I get my broadband. I get back from work and guess what. Broadband isn't working, so decide to call them the next morning. A 30 minute call later they suggest it could be a router problem but I will need to be at home.
A second call that evening, and I am literally forced to do all sorts of tests such as swapping filters and screwing the plate off the master socket (even though it is clear this isn't the problem) before I am told that it looks like broadband hasn't actually been activated. I am promised a call back an hour later.
Guess what. Expectations not managed again, and I have to call back after ten, only to be told that my case has apparently been sent to another team, giving them 72 hours for them to do something, during which time they will not let me speak to that team. I politely pointed out surely I could speak to them now. Oh no, but if I do not get a call withing 72 hours then I have to call and only then can I speak to the.
So essentially it feels like they are giving themselves some time in the hope the situation will sort itself out.
Perhaps more frustrating than anything is the companies twitter account @skyhd. When you point out you are getting absolutely nowhere fast they respond with 'helpful' comments like 'I'm sure they will sort the problem out'. Are you? I'm not - or at least not in a very timely fashion. When you ask if they can get someone to call you they suggest twitter is not a secure platform and so can't discuss specific accounts.
Funny how many FTSE companies us DM on twitter to engage with customers when they have issues. So I am left being able to communicate with a company not providing a service I am now getting billed for via twitter, who will not do anything. If I call they suggest they have a 72 hour time frame, but steadfastly refuse to let me know what actually will be done in those 72 hours, and because I work, and will need to be at home if and when they call, my time slot is between 9:00pm and midnight. Superb.
So in order to manage my expectations I am resigned to having no internet connection for the next month, resigned to having to be on the phone to Sky as soon as I get in the door at 8:00pm every evening for a couple of hours, and resigned to the fact that each night I will be taken through the script of checking broadband filters, master sockets and other tedious things.
Anything else will surely be a bonus.
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I ordered some books from Amazon last Thursday, with "one day" shipping which apparently meant 3 of the 4 books would arrive on the Saturday - only one making it within the one day claimed. On Sunday morning - the 30th - Amazon sent an email saying they were still confidence it would arrive by the 29th...
Back when I switched the office line to BeThere, I rather resented having to go through the call centre checklist of rebooting before the agent finally escalated the ticket to someone who could cycle the DSLAM linecard, even though I had sync, but I suppose I can understand.
The hard one to understand? BT getting confused between "change tariff" to ...." and "disconnect this line". Internally, certain tariff changes are provisioned as a "cease and reprovide" operation (essentially, on paper they end the old service then start delivering the same thing in a new form) - somehow, the request was processed as an actual cease. disabling the line and triggering a flood of penalty charges for early termination.
To cap it all, the (BT) broadband was still working at that point - but I was told it was still "too late" to stop that service being cut off several days later! Getting the existing socket reconnected was a whole new world of pain, too, including them sending an engineer to the building next door to "install the new line" since they now had the address wrong.
03/11/2011 20:07My experience entirely. Eventually, after their engineers missed three appointments running, having required me to take three unpaid half days off. I wrote to Jeremy Darroch and am taking them to the Adjudicator. Their service is terrible (and, mind you, so was the ISP from whom I transferred in hope).
03/11/2011 21:21Ministers talk of rural broadband and how it can help boost the economy. I'd just like some broadband full stop.
The latest is that I have been told the 72 hour window is the period in which they may....yes may START to look into the problem. Who, when a problem is escalated gives themselves 72 hours before they will start to possibly do anything.
Of course their somewhat unhelpful twitter account (not tha fault of the pooe staff operating it) often sends you links as to how you can raise complaints.
Come on guys. I live in an area that struggles to get GPRS(let alone 3G), and have no broadband....sending me a link is hardly helpful!
I have to say I have never come across a worse set up for customer services. All companies have problems that can impact on their customers. Sky palpably fail in dealing with theirs.So Nov 4th soon approaches and situation still nowhere near resolved.
03/11/2011 22:36You do hear some horror stories aboit Sky CS.
They are currently in my bad books as they STILL only have their Sky Go app only available on iphone, despite the impression in their ads that all mobile platfgorms can get Sky Go.
04/11/2011 11:15