SKY broadband problem
 

Been connected 5 days now. It cuts out intermittently in the early hours.
Supposed to be 2meg, currently pulling quarter of a meg.
SKY say the first 10 days it's computer controlled to adjust to my "settings"
Opportunity to bin the package expires after 8 days of receiving the router.
They assure me it will improve.

My 2 meg package comes free with the SKY talk and tv package I bought / entered into. If after this alleged 10 days my bb is still nearer to dialup speeds can I cite sale of goods act and bin the whole contract?
My line has been assessed by SKY and on paper they state it can support up to 3.5 megs.

Don't wait 10 days.

Call then NOW and say you'll be cancelling at day 7 if it's not delivering at least 2 meg, or if it drops out again. That you can do without involving lawyers or threats.

If they can't tweak it to make it work with the threat of losing the business, they aren't more likely to do so once the cooling-off period is over.

I'm on the same package, having had Ntlworld/ Virgin work reasonably reliably but slowly for a couple of years. I made the initial mistake of following Sky's advice that for an extra £5 per month I could get up to 8 Mbps. Turned out I couldn't connect at all for longer than a few seconds for about three weeks and exhausted all of their so-called technical help lines with no improvement. They sent me a new modem, which stayed connected a bit longer but got very hot.

I eventually got it working after a fashion by myself (I think the quality of the phone line was a factor, BT were working in our village). The speed was painfully slow at first but it did improve and now works at about 1.5 Mbps. It was obvious early on that I was never going to get more than 2 Mbps so I complained and got the contract changed back to the cheapest option.

If in doubt, ditch it and try someone else's service if the hassle of changing doesn't put you off.

That's the problem with these 'up to' packages. They are so dependant on distance from exchange, condition of the line and the dreaded 'contention ration'. However, during the training period the speed should gradually increase BUT when the kit in the exchange finds the conection becoming unstable it will drop the speed back. That's why you can't be sure what speed you are likely to achieve until the 10 days are up. Even then, the speed will vary dramatically depending on time of day (ie, how many other people are on line in your area).

X21
I might be totally 'off target' with this reply, my apologies if I am.
Is this your fist broadband package? if so, it might take a couple of weeks (it did with me with Orange) for BT to convert my line to ADSL

Just a thought.

No, its not my first. I was with Virgin before but we have now moved to an area not covered by them. I dont think distance from exchange is much of the problem because if I piggyback off my neighbour's BB I can get decent speeds. Dunno what provider they are with though.

I'm now pulling in just under a quarter of a meg download speed. Can I realistically expect significant improvement in the next 4 days?

Update
 

Just in case anybody else finds themselves in this situation...

Download speeds of 428kbps constant throughout the "10 day tuning phase".
No improvement on any day.
Several phonecalls to customer services. They tried suggesting they send me 3 new micro filters and a new router. I told them I had 3 already (and tried all) and was not prepared to fart about any longer. I would pull the whole contract if it was not remedied as I would consider it breach of contract.
They then escalated it to a customer something or other team and I got given a ticket number.
I phoned them last night with the full intention of arranging collection of my sky box and all it's accompanyments. I was then put through to somebody who "tweaked" my BB and told me it had been capped at 1meg (we have a 2 meg package and my line can support 3.5).

I am now averaging 2.3 meg download speed on a 2meg package (Sky basic).

Do they just 'test the water' and see if they can fob you off with crap until you complain?

In a word, yes