PeteT

Ordered Sky at the weekend and arranged for the engineer to come and install it today.Took the day off work. Sky say they will phone 'before 9am' to let you know roughly when they will arrive. They didn't. I phoned them at 9.15, they put me on hold, they tell me that the engineers are making the calls now, you will hear from them soon. At 10.05 I get a call from the engineers, they aren't coming today, some of them are off sick

What do you think my chances are of getting compensation from Sky? Should I make a fuss about it now or wait until after Saturday when hopefully the engineer will have been to install my kit? Don't want to **** the firm off and get a ****ty install job.

Or maybe I'm just being a grumpy sod and I should forget all about it.

oobster

I'd wait till after they have installed, then phone up & they will probably give you a couple of months subscription for free.

little-ginge

SKY are poo at installation, customer service and just about everything..

I arranged for my other half to have it installed for Christmas last year as part of his pressie. I had already had it installed at my place a few weeks earlier and had a few problems getting it done. After my experience, I kinda knew what was required so when booking I asked for a 'special heights team' as the dish had to be attached to his chimney.

The day came, my other half took the day off and the guy turned up, complete with ladder on the roof of his van. 'Sorry, mate, can't do it - I'm not insured for heights.. I did ask SKY why he had ladders if this was the case... and they couldnt come up with a fitting excuse...

I phoned SKY - and after sitting in the queue, got through and explained the situation. They said that the request for a special heights team had not be put on the computer and that they would need to rebook it... but they couldnt offer an appointment until in the New Year!! Not very good I said as we had taken the day off, booked it in plenty of time for a christmas installation, had specifically asked for the right team...... asked for compo or at least a reduction in the first months subs and they said a big fat NO.

At least you were told they would ring b4 9am.. we had to have them out last week as the dish wasnt receiving a signal. After sitting in their phone queue for 45mins, were told that the engineer would phone the night before he came. 10pm and no call, so I phoned them... another 35 minutes in the queue to be told that we had been given the wrong info and that they phoned on the morning....


and then when it had been done, the stupid ******* hadnt reactivated the premium channels ( sports, movies etc) so yet another phone call at the weekend to get it resolved...finally!

I'd give them a try, but you'll probably find that you will sit in their queue for nearly an hour to be told 'sod off'...

Dr Hu

Sky have got to have **THE** worst service in the world - they are without compare....

I waited in for 3 days (having time off work) for them not to bother coming!!

They are a bunch of incompetents - I sent several very complaining letters to SKY and never heard a dicky bird back........

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

If you want sky installed reliably, properly, neatly, on your own terms with more efforts made at getting an "engineer" (I spit at that word) on your doorstep at the arranged times.

The only way is

a) Find a good independent aerial/satalite specialist who deal in sky. If you arrange fitting and subscription via them, you are the fitters customer...not sky's (well, in terms of fitting and supply etc.)

or b) Buy your own box/equipment off ebay and fit it yourself and all you need is from sky is to subscribe and get them to send you a new card.

OllyK

If you want SKY installed do not go to SKY. Go to a local independant. Had mine done that way. Dish attached to the chimney, cabling through in to the loft to a distribution box. Left me the Sky box and enough cable (100m drum) to run from the distribution box to all the places in the house that I want TV sockets. I'm wiring them in as each room is re-wired for electrics. Cracking job.

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

Great, then at the first sign of Wet/Dry/windy/foggy/sunny/humid weather the fecking thing will freeze and lock up

Don't get me started on this one again... I';m on the edge I tell ya

OllyK

Nope - mine has been there for 12 months (still not connected to the phone line) and working a treat. Slight hic-up with the SKY+ not freeing up space when deleting programs, but in to the engineers menu and do a reformat and it's been as good as gold since. Just need to get round to dumping a bigger HD in it now.

As a side note, if you are getting a lot of lock ups then it could well be that your box is getting to hot. Make sure it is not sandwiched between other HI-Fi kit and make sure it has plenty of ventilation. If it's in a cabinet, consider fitting a couple of 12V PC fans to the back!!

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

you may have just hit the nail on the head! It is wedged into a cabinet with a DVD player and a video player (Remember those?) and it does seem to get a bit hot in there sometimes.

I tried all the powering off, holding the card in my left hand and hopping for a minute routine that they suggest (or is it just me?) and that makes bugger all difference.

You are a STAR

OllyK

6311 posts and somebody finally found something I said useful!!

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

Thats not a good ratio is it

OllyK

Dr Hu

yup - SKY boxes are notorious for getting too hot

my first PACE box fried its tuner due to heat - that opened up another whole can of worms to get it fixed via SKY's Service Callout

Service **** Up more like

Independants are the way to go from now on...

mart360

and in the biggest two fingers they could point at you, to really prove how lousy there customer service is!!!

if yopu abuse a service representitive, they have the right to teminate your contract..

so basically it a case of,, were a monopoly,, if you dont like it tough... if we give crap service tough... and should you loose your rag when on the phone at our crap service... tough.. and weve terminated your account to boot...


they obvoiuosly have the same spin guru,s as NL...

M

little-ginge

is that the voice of experience??????????

mart360

no its in there new t&c,s!!!

Mart

but yes two calls to resolve problems have had p poor response or help

all spin, all promises, but no delivery so to speak

M

PeteT

Oh well, the Sky engineer turned up as promised today and .......couldn't get a line of sight signal to the sattellite, so tough. He was actually very good and tried everything to get a signal but the 'view' is blocked by 3 sycamore trees over 100 yards away. There's no Freeview round here 'cos we live in the country and therefore don't count, and guess where they've chosen to turn off the analogue signal first? That's right Cumbria, where I live!!

john_s

iTrader: (1)

Never mind, there's always the sheep

John.

Lucky Man

Sky have only one objective this year ie before Dec31 to get 8 million subscribers. This will trigger massive ( Some 7 figure bonuses ) for retailers and Management.
All other key performance indicators are not even being measured at the moment..

I work for one of these retailers who should recieve a 7 figure bonus and believe me the pressure is on big style, its pure profit for the company ie no cost.It drops straight to the bottom line..

PeteT

Well, they could have had one more if they had put the bloody sattellite a bit further up in the sky!!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Hmmm, that's a problem. Did he try a larger dish and an elevating pole to extend it higher up - or was he afraid of heights?

The problem is the above extra work doesn't come under their clause of "standard installation" A minidish is just barely adequate for recieving signals under all conditions as it is, unless it is 100% spot on. Larger dishes have alot more flexibility when it comes to poor signals. But this will need an independent satelite installer to advise you best. So maybe all hope is not lost, but unfortunately it will cost you.

Flatcapdriver

I've got two problems with different systems. The first concerns Sky + which won't allow you to watch another channel if you are recording, although the TV in the other room still works.

The other system goes blank when it rains. Any ideas?

OllyK

Are you running multi room as well as Sky+? Has it always done this?

The blank screen sould like a poor signal / dish alignment - have you checked signal strength etc in the rain?

Flatcapdriver

Olly - System One is Sky+ with additional telly in another room which doesn't allow you to watch another channel when recording on the Sky+ unit, although the other telly (without Sky+) isn't affected. You can view the programme you are recording but changing to another channel comes up with a message along the lines of "no satellite signal being received" or similar. Its only happened since we moved but as there are so many wires at the back I can't figure it out.

System Two is normal Sky and I don't know how to check the signal strength in the rain - sounds like a recipe for electrocution?

OllyK

Sky+ requires input from 2 LNB's to work (2 coax cables). Sounds like you have only 1 connected.

The second, you can access the singal strength option from the sky menus. Can't rememer the exact option, but if you go in to the settings with the remote and look for "set-up" or similar, in there somewhere will be a page that shows a little bar showing signal strength. If that's low(ish) and gets worse if it's raining then you may need to have the dish tweaked.

Flatcapdriver

I don't remember having two coaxial cables in the last place. Do you mean tow cables going into the box or two into the television?

Having the dish tweaked? Adjust slightly or moved?

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

PeteT

I'm in Cumbria and can get a Freeview signal.....about 3 miles East of Carlisle with the ariel pointing in a southerly direction.

Midlife.....

OllyK

2 Cables in to the box, on the box the are labelled Sat1 and Sat2 IIRC. Essentially a SKY+ box has 2 tuners in it so you can view / record 2 channels at once. It also therefore needs to signal feeds to do this.

You sat signal is not very "strong" so it can easily be disrupted. We used to have problems in the summer with leaves on trees - killed the signal dead. Rain will degrade the signal and if your dish is badly aligned or partially obscured then this could be the straw that breaks the camel's back so to speak. Moved / Adjusted will depend on you individual circumstance. I would say if it has always done it, or there are trees in the way and it's worse in the summer then you may need it moved, if it has started recently / since fitting then it is more likey to be adjustment. That's IMO, you'd need to get an engineer or somebody who knows what they're doing round to get it checked out.