moving BB& phone from Vodafone to SKY..thought it would have been simpler than this

fifib

was in contact with SKY few weeks back about my TV service and they mentioned an offer for BB and phone. am currently with vodafone so I rang vodafone after to see if they could offer me a similar price to save me switching. they couldnt give me same package but i said i would go away and think about their offer and i also asked them how do i go about moving to SKY if I do decide to go with their offer. was told i needed to give them 30 days notice. im out of contract with them so i asked why do i need to give notice but they said they still require notice.
week later I rang sky to check offer was still available, it was so i rang Vodafone to give my 30 days notice. they asked why I was cancelling and i said I was moving to SKY as it was cheaper. so the guy at vodafone put through the cancellation. straight after I rang SKY and signed up to their offer. gave them UAN etc and they said they would look after the rest and it should be a straight forward transition.
2 days later BB in house is gone. Rang sky to check when they would be kicking in and was told the request to take over the UAN was rejected cos Vodafone had deactivated the UAN. they told me I needed to ring Vodafone and find out why they did this.
Rang VF and was told they did it cos i requested it. i never requested they deactivate the line, I had told them I was giving my 30 days notice like they said they needed to move to SKY. they said there was nothing they could do at this point as the UAN was gone and would take 3 weeks to setup again.
SKY dont have the UAN to connect to so they have to put in request to set up the line which their saying will also take up to 3 weeks.

did VF do this on purpose when leaving them?
SKY told me afterwards that VF should not have needed any notice about leaving them, that SKY look after all this and put in the request to take over the line, is this correct?

emeldc

As far as I know if you were out of contract with VF, there was no need to ring them at all, SKY would have taken care of the change over. If it were me some manager in VF would be getting it with both barrels.

dobsdave

Eircom require 30 days also, even if you are out of contract.

TheDriver

Thought there is a switching code of practice once out of contract, new supplier deals with old one as long as its eircom reaeller i.em not upc

emeldc

dobsdave wrote: »

Eircom require 30 days also, even if you are out of contract.

I've switched several times over the years (out of contract) and never had to give notice. Have you got a link for that.

dotsman

I moved from Vodafone to Sky last year. Didn't have to give notice, didn't even contact Vodafone. Sky take care of all that. I think my service was down for about half an hour while they switched me.

loopymum

Eircom got their knuckles rapped by comreg recently for penalizing people moving.

As far as I know Vodafone are much better

muffler

dotsman wrote: »

I moved from Vodafone to Sky last year. Didn't have to give notice, didn't even contact Vodafone. Sky take care of all that. I think my service was down for about half an hour while they switched me.

Same as that. When signing up with Sky at the time I asked about the Vodafone cancellation situation and was told in no uncertain terms NOT to contact Vodafone.

Sherfin

Same as above. Never had to contact VF when changing.
Would be worth contacting Comreg, friend of mine had a problem with Eircom last year and got it sorted pretty quick when Comreg got involved

hughowen

They are all the same if you ask me. I moved from Vodafone to Eircom a year ago and got charged one months notice - cancellation, and told by Eircom that Vodafone should not have done that, and then when I changed from Eircom to Sky, Eircom charged me the one months notice - cancellation,

Sky do everything for you is right but when you tell them that they should have organised the one months notice they say its your own fault and get on to Eircom who say it's a legal charge.
I got on to Comreg who were as helpful as the providers and said the following

ComReg is currently involved in an investigation with Eircom in respect of the matter. Although it may not be a satisfactory outcome for you at this time, because the investigation has not yet concluded, ComReg is not in a position to provide advice in respect of the payment of any outstanding monies due to Eircom relating to this matter.

However, we have noted your issue and please be advised that any publically available information in respect of the investigation or related developments will be published on www.comreg.ie and www.askcomreg.ie

Also it is worth noting that it is up to the consumer to be aware of their own terms and conditions with the operator when switching providers.

So, it is basically don't change providers as you will end up problems and be on your own if they decide to charge you fees

Regards Hugh

emeldc

Note to self: If I ever switch providers again, cancel all direct debits and wait for a paper bill. If they charge a months notice and it's legal, then they have nothing to worry about. If it isn't, they won't get paid.

Morph the Cat

If you're out of contract, then there's no contract stating you have to give any notice.

circular flexing

Morph the Cat wrote: »

If you're out of contract, then there's no contract stating you have to give any notice.

So, if you're "out of contract" then you don't need to pay them for a service provided? :pac:

12 (or 18 or 24) months is only the minimum contract period, just because that has passed doesn't mean the contract ceases to exist.

Morph the Cat

circular flexing wrote: »

So, if you're "out of contract" then you don't need to pay them for a service provided? :pac:

Eh no. That's not even close to what I was saying - you made a huge illogical jump there. By law, you need to pay for goods & services provided.

But if you're out of contract, it means you're not bound by their T&Cs - like a specified notice period. You still need to pay your final bill; duh!

fifib

I filled out the enquiry form on askcomreg.ie yesterday but have heard nothing back since. didnt even get a confirmation email or anything. how long does it normally take them to respond?

Bepolite

If you are moving provider between Sky and Vodaphone do not under any circumstances cancel with the other provider, they will deactivate the UAN and it's nearly impossible to get the line back.

Eircom, vodafone and sky use the exact same lines and while Sky's hub is marginally better than the crap you get from Eircom and Voda, that's the only advantage other than one bill (why this is an advantage is beyond me) and Sky can be a bit cheaper in certain circumstances.

You are still dealing with Eircom (indirectly) if anything goes wrong and expect to be at the bottom of the queue.

The 30 day notice thing is gone by virtue of a recent comreg decision.

TL;DR? You only deal with the provider you're moving too.

Additional Info:

Sky can not find lines other than by UAN or address* if you live in a townland address e.g. Ballygobackwards, Ballygoforwards, Co. Galway there's no point even trying, unless you have AN ACTIVE UAN and phone line (e.g. you pay a bill each month/ 2 months)

*Addresses that meet the 'normal' criteria of 11 The Street, The Town Co. Kildare can be found but it takes Eircom an age to put them into the database for Sky et al to pull them out, hence the issues if the line gets cancelled.

I hope this clarifies for the OP and others. It's very simple if you get an agent that explains it and you listen to what being said, many agents working in call centres don't explain thing well but there is a massive element of punters not listening or not believing what they're being told.

Frankly until fibre is available to more than three houses in Dundrum I would go with (and am with) UPC for BB and Sky for TV. A bit of negotiation makes it just as cheap to have two providers, assuming UPC is available of course.

fifib

Bepolite wrote: »

If you are moving provider between Sky and Vodaphone do not under any circumstances cancel with the other provider, they will deactivate the UAN and it's nearly impossible to get the line back.

Eircom, vodafone and sky use the exact same lines and while Sky's hub is marginally better than the crap you get from Eircom and Voda, that's the only advantage other than one bill (why this is an advantage is beyond me) and Sky can be a bit cheaper in certain circumstances.

You are still dealing with Eircom (indirectly) if anything goes wrong and expect to be at the bottom of the queue.

The 30 day notice thing is gone by virtue of a recent comreg decision.

TL;DR? You only deal with the provider you're moving too.

Additional Info:

Sky can not find lines other than by UAN or address* if you live in a townland address e.g. Ballygobackwards, Ballygoforwards, Co. Galway there's no point even trying, unless you have AN ACTIVE UAN and phone line (e.g. you pay a bill each month/ 2 months)

*Addresses that meet the 'normal' criteria of 11 The Street, The Town Co. Kildare can be found but it takes Eircom an age to put them into the database for Sky et al to pull them out, hence the issues if the line gets cancelled.

I hope this clarifies for the OP and others. It's very simple if you get an agent that explains it and you listen to what being said, many agents working in call centres don't explain thing well but there is a massive element of punters not listening or not believing what they're being told.

Frankly until fibre is available to more than three houses in Dundrum I would go with (and am with) UPC for BB and Sky for TV. A bit of negotiation makes it just as cheap to have two providers, assuming UPC is available of course.

thanks for this information but a bit late for me now. My UAN has been cancelled and I was just following the instructions given by Vodafone by providing them with notice when I was moving to SKY.

waiting for a response back from Comreg and also waiting for a manager from Vodafone to ring me back on the matter

Bepolite

fifib wrote: »

thanks for this information but a bit late for me now. My UAN has been cancelled and I was just following the instructions given by Vodafone by providing them with notice when I was moving to SKY.

waiting for a response back from Comreg and also waiting for a manager from Vodafone to ring me back on the matter

I'm going to be blunt, I either don't understand or don't believe your OP, if I have this wrong I apologise in advance.

You indicate Sky told you - you needed to give 30 days notice. I find that a little hard to believe given all the 'we do everything' marketing pap, perhaps you could clarify?

The reason I ask is, if Sky has messed this up, go to them and ask for a resolution. If Vodafone did go to them. You need to exhaust that before the comreg can help you and frankly all they do is investigate (taking weeks if not months).

Eircom will be able to have you switched on all most immediately (as they're the ones complicating this) as will UPC if available.

Perhaps you could clarify OP, thanks.

fifib

Bepolite wrote: »

I'm going to be blunt, I either don't understand or don't believe your OP, if I have this wrong I apologise in advance.

You indicate Sky told you - you needed to give 30 days notice. I find that a little hard to believe given all the 'we do everything' marketing pap, perhaps you could clarify?

The reason I ask is, if Sky has messed this up, go to them and ask for a resolution. If Vodafone did go to them. You need to exhaust that before the comreg can help you and frankly all they do is investigate (taking weeks if not months).

Eircom will be able to have you switched on all most immediately (as they're the ones complicating this) as will UPC if available.

Perhaps you could clarify OP, thanks.

No I rang Vodafone to ask them could they give me a better price on my current BB & phone bundle and they could not offer me price as good as SKY so I asked Vodafone what do I have to do if I want to switch to SKY then and Vodafone told me they required 30 days notice. So I rang back a few days later and told them I wanted to give the notice they required as I was moving to SKY for BB & Phone...they cut me off altogether and UAN is now gone.

Bepolite

fifib wrote: »

No I rang Vodafone to ask them could they give me a better price on my current BB & phone bundle and they could not offer me price as good as SKY so I asked Vodafone what do I have to do if I want to switch to SKY then and Vodafone told me they required 30 days notice. So I rang back a few days later and told them I wanted to give the notice they required as I was moving to SKY for BB & Phone...they cut me off altogether and UAN is now gone.

Right I'd get on to Vodafone and get them to switch you back on (for free). It's possible it'll just take a manager in tech a day on the phone to Eircom.

Best of luck OP.

fifib

Bepolite wrote: »

I'm going to be blunt, I either don't understand or don't believe your OP, if I have this wrong I apologise in advance.

You indicate Sky told you - you needed to give 30 days notice. I find that a little hard to believe given all the 'we do everything' marketing pap, perhaps you could clarify?

The reason I ask is, if Sky has messed this up, go to them and ask for a resolution. If Vodafone did go to them. You need to exhaust that before the comreg can help you and frankly all they do is investigate (taking weeks if not months).

Eircom will be able to have you switched on all most immediately (as they're the ones complicating this) as will UPC if available.

Perhaps you could clarify OP, thanks.

UPC is not available in our area for BB
Are you saying Eircom can resolve this issue?If I contact them?

percy212

Same thing happened to me moving from digiweb to eircom. It took two months to resolve the issue. Eircom were very helpful and contacted comreg on my behalf. I did live in bally go backwater at the time which didn't help matters. Is it really neccessary for Providers to deactivate the uan. Smells like revenge to me. Its bloody annoying.

Bepolite

fifib wrote: »

UPC is not available in our area for BB
Are you saying Eircom can resolve this issue?If I contact them?

Resolve is such a strong word. Eircom will be able to sign you up for services with a 12 month contract. They're also the Muppets who take 2 - 6 months to put a line into the inactive database - hence why I say they are part of the problem.

muffler

fifib wrote: »

No I rang Vodafone to ask them could they give me a better price on my current BB & phone bundle and they could not offer me price as good as SKY so I asked Vodafone what do I have to do if I want to switch to SKY then and Vodafone told me they required 30 days notice. So I rang back a few days later and told them I wanted to give the notice they required as I was moving to SKY for BB & Phone...they cut me off altogether and UAN is now gone.

Someone in VF has made a massive balls up of this so. If you were required to give 30 days cancellation notice then your service should remain active for that 30 day period. I would call them again and insist on getting a cs manager.

emeldc

OP, all the calls with VF should have been recorded (for verification and training purposes ). Insist on a copy. I can feel the old blood pressure building here, must switch off.

Stinicker

I recently switched from Sky to Vodafone and it was an easy and simple process but at least now I have a broadband service again. Went from between 0.25 to 1mb on Sky to 7mb on Vodafone. Sky are the worst provider in the Irish market and their prices are low but its a fine thing throw the money in the fire when you are totally contended with an absolute crap service with slow speeds from 4pm to 1am and .5mb at weekends, biggest mistake I made was joining Sky broadband last year, Vodafone at least deliver a service now.

Bepolite

Stinicker wrote: »

I recently switched from Sky to Vodafone and it was an easy and simple process but at least now I have a broadband service again. Went from between 0.25 to 1mb on Sky to 7mb on Vodafone. Sky are the worst provider in the Irish market and their prices are low but its a fine thing throw the money in the fire when you are totally contended with an absolute crap service with slow speeds from 4pm to 1am and .5mb at weekends, biggest mistake I made was joining Sky broadband last year, Vodafone at least deliver a service now.

I'm open to correction but AFAIK there is absolutely no difference between Sky, Voda and Eircom's service; voda and sky just resell. Do either use their own servers?

Stinicker

Bepolite wrote: »

I'm open to correction but AFAIK there is absolutely no difference between Sky, Voda and Eircom's service; voda and sky just resell. Do either use their own servers?

There is a huge difference in that they must provide their own backhaul (usually wholesale from Eircom etc.) and in my case Sky was not providing enough bandwidth and I was completely restricted because there was never enough bandwidth and the contention ratio must have been massive (easily 50-70:1 I'd say) as I never went above 1.5mb any evening after 4pm and weekends it was 0.25mb to 0.5mb, only time I ever saw 7mb with Sky was between 1am to 7am and the moment I switched over to Vodafone I have 7mb rock solid since bar a few teething troubles the first 2 days.

Sky are an absolute joke and no-one should use them, they then refused to admit a fault but released me from contract because they said there is a problem but they didn't know what it was, even had to idiocy to send an Eircom engineer on two occasions trying to blame the internal wiring.

Sky are to landline what three are to mobile, Avoid!

Bepolite

At the risk of derailing the thread (sorry OP please say if I am), were you on one of their connect lines or (€50 a month) or Sky Broadband?

Thanks for the info.

fifib

so rang Vodafone twice yesterday after being "guaranteed" a callback within 2 hours. same spiel each time, manager is not available and I will email him directly to call you back in 2 hours...no call!
Rang again just now same story..callback in 2 hours!
how does anyone ever get to talk to a manager in this place?

muffler

fifib wrote: »

so rang Vodafone twice yesterday after being "guaranteed" a callback within 2 hours. same spiel each time, manager is not available and I will email him directly to call you back in 2 hours...no call!
Rang again just now same story..callback in 2 hours!
how does anyone ever get to talk to a manager in this place?

That is quite ridiculous. Correct me if Im wrong but I think cs number is free to call so if you have the time to spare just hang on.

What I would suggest is you call in again and you ask the rep to have it resolved while you're waiting (yes, thats possible). As you say you will be given the usual bout of dribble about this, that and the other. Ask the rep in no uncertain terms "can you personally sort this for me here and now". Depending on the response you will most likely have to tell them to "put you through to someone who can sort it".

Remind them that the calls are being recorded and you will have no hesitation in requesting a transcript of all calls made by you with the intention of bringing a formal complaint to Vodafone management and then COMREG.

Be nice, be patient but be forceful enough to get your message across to them. remember, you are the customer and you are the person who is paying money.

fifib

yea tried this. Told him I would prefer to hold on the line until the Manager is available than hang up and wait for a callback. Was told this was ridiculous as I would be on hold for 2 hours and I said im ok with this and was then told they could not let me hold on the line for 2 hours. if i didnt have a meeting in 15 mins I would have held on!
I have contacted comreg and I got a mail back to say they are looking into this.
I told the VF guy I was just talking to to let his manager know I want all recordings of my calls for comreg.

emeldc

fifib wrote: »

so rang Vodafone twice yesterday after being "guaranteed" a callback within 2 hours. same spiel each time, manager is not available and I will email him directly to call you back in 2 hours...no call!
Rang again just now same story..callback in 2 hours!
how does anyone ever get to talk to a manager in this place?

Ring again and tell them you're not getting off the line until you speak to someone in charge. If they cut you off, ring back. A pain, I know, but set aside an hour or two and persevere. You need to become a bigger nuisance to them than they are to you.

Edit: I see 'muffler' got there before me

fifib

emeldc wrote: »

Ring again and tell them you're not getting off the line until you speak to someone in charge. If they cut you off, ring back. A pain, I know, but set aside an hour or two and persevere. You need to become a bigger nuisance to them than they are to you.

I will do this in the afternoon when I have more time.

fifib

oh my god my head is melted with all this and the calls.
rang sky again to see could we proceed with the order though it would probably take few weeks. they said they couldnt set me up without the UAN as my address is too vague to pin point the exact line. they told me only other option was to ring eircom and request the ARD key. rang eircom and got nowhere. they wont give out the key anymore. they told me my current service provider will have it to contact them. but of course I would not need it if I signed up with then.
so I rang Vodafone again and was told they dont have it..surprise surprise. they told me SKY should be able to get it for me when signing me up! my head is spinning im going around in circles so much!!
I demanded to talk to an manager and low and behold was put through to a manager who apologiesed for the cock up but said there was nothing they could do except do the same thing SKY would be doing in setting me upw ith a new line and as its a rural address it would require an engineer to come out and pinpoint the line and all this could take up to 60 days. so fine I said its your mess you put it right but as soon as im up and running again Im moving to another service provider, any as long as not Vodafone! So she kicked that off...though I know I will never hear from them again!!
Rang sky back again to update them and see if they can reconnect me quicker. theyve basically said without the UAN or ARD key they cannot find my phone line and I will have to go back to Vodafone or sign up to Eircom!

are Vodafone, Eircom and Sky the only fixed line BB & home phone providers in Ireland? not a chance in hell will I stay with Vodafone. so looks like Eircom is my only option?

muffler

Why have you not got your UAN.? Its on all your bills

fifib

muffler wrote: »

Why have you not got your UAN.? Its on all your bills

If you read my first post i said Vodafone deactivated my UAN

emeldc

So they can flick a switch to turn you off but it takes 3 weeks to turn you back on even though you didn't ask to be turned off. I'm not buying that and you deserve a better explanation. I never thought I would tell someone to ring Joe Duffy but maybe you could mention going public in your next call to VF and see if it speeds things up a bit.

muffler

fifib wrote: »

If you read my first post i said Vodafone deactivated my UAN

Just read it there and I am really confused now.

UAN is short for Universal Account Number which is basically a reference number that stays with the phone line or house. Whatever about a phone line being deactivated a reference number cant be.

The other confusing part of your op is where you say "I rang SKY and signed up to their offer. gave them UAN etc" and further on you say "SKY dont have the UAN"

fifib

well it has been!
yes i gave sky my uan last Friday when switching over and when i rang back on Monday they said the order came back rejected as uan no longer exists.
it seems they put order in a takes ages to search for in eircoms db and over that weekend Vodafone had deactivated the uan so order rejected on skys side

fifib

not really sure where to turn now. do i just wait for VF to put line in place or sign up with eircom. dont see I've any other options?

Bepolite

muffler wrote: »

Just read it there and I am really confused now.

UAN is short for Universal Account Number which is basically a reference number that stays with the phone line or house. Whatever about a phone line being deactivated a reference number cant be.

The other confusing part of your op is where you say "I rang SKY and signed up to their offer. gave them UAN etc" and further on you say "SKY dont have the UAN"

Once the UAN goes in active there is no way Sky can pull it across. Vodaphone have messed this up but Eircom are just sitting there taking no part in resolving the situation because it means they lose customers. They know people just give in and do what I'm going to suggest:

OP if you need BB your only real option for a quick resolution is back to Eircom I'm afraid.

As for other options there's satellite - expensive, with low download limits but bloody quick, wifi/local schemes and mobile (avoid mobile). Other than that there is UPC (not available) everyone else uses some part of the Eircom infrastructure including the unbundled providers like SMART.

The COMREG has gone a long way to making switching easier, in my mind eircom are still taking the p!ss in relation to inactive lines, delayed BB orders and ARD keys. I highly recommend taking this further OP, I'm sorry to hear about your plight. You might get some joy by e-mailing someone higher up in Sky, have a search around to see how to do that.

fifib

oh muffler I could kiss you and the eircom guy I just spoke to!!

I just rang Eircom to enquiry why Vodafone were allowed to just deactivate my UAN like they had, if they were allowed to do this or not and I was also going to enquiry about their BB&phone packages and prices.
next thing I know the wonderful eircom guy is giving me the ARD key so Sky can set me up with BB & Phone now! havent gotten chance to ring SKY back with the key yet but Im delighted though I have such a pounding headache all morning from it all I just want to go home to bed! And I'm even happier to know I'll never have to listen to that stupid on hold music Vodafone play ever again.

Also got email from Comreg that I have to make formal complaint to Vodafone before they will intervene. I will take pleasure in it!

muffler

fifib wrote: »

oh muffler I could kiss you

If you're female then thats fine otherwise a pint will do

Seriously though Im delighted to hear that things have finally worked out for you
And do follow through with the complaint as it may make them sit up and take notice of their failings.