Sky is worst provider I have ever come across

DebtHater

Hi all,

I am writing this with the hope it may help others who may come into this situation with Sky.

I will backtrack 4 years firstly. I contacted them as a new customer, they agreed a date to come out. That date came and went with no engineer turning up, so I called to complain and we rearranged a date. The engineer turned up, knocked on the door and refused to install the dish because it was "too high" - bearing in mind it was just a standard house! So the whole idea got binned, we got our refund for the box we bought, not happy customers at all!

We moved house 2 years ago and contacted Sky to get Sky+ installed. The engineer came out and he established we had a communual dish (as we were in a block of apartments) - all good, as the apartments had TV plates already in the walls with Sky connections on them, so all he had to do is connect the box up and we were away. How wrong could we be? He ended up taking the TV plate to bits, cutting wires and hacking away at them, put it all back together again and then when the Sky wasnt working, he tried to walk out and drive off. I told him I was refusing to accept that he had finished the job, and made him stay to repair the damage he had done to my wiring. He couldnt put it right, so his supervisor had to pop down the next day to put it all right. For all this messing about, we got a refund on the box plus £100 on the bill, which I saw as satisfactory. Although, due to the engineer hacking away at the wires, we werent able to get the second feed into the apartment, so the Sky+ feature didnt work (We could get Sky, but couldnt pause/record/watch one record another etc)

We have just moved again 2 years later. I contacted Sky to get the home move sorted, they said it cost £60 which I was OK with, so long as they did a good job. Now bearing in mind I told them in December, its now 2 months later, we still have not got a working phone line or broadband (as we have a bundle deal with them)

The engineer missed the appointment, so we had to wait a further week for another appointment, for which he was an hour late out of the time slot. No phone call or nothing to let us know he was running late. However, the engineer himself was fine and sorted out the Sky dish straight away, after complaining that it was too high. What is it with Sky engineers trying to get out of installing, by saying its too high? When its a standard house?

However, the phone line and broadband move has gone badly wrong.
I have made £40 worth of calls on my mobile phone to Sky's 0844 number, and still we havent really got anywhere. The only thing that I got response from was emailing a Jeremy Darroch (the chief executive) - I had a telephone call the next morning from someone saying he worked directly below Jeremy and was on the case of sorting it out. And to be fair, he has kept his word. Our phone line is now progressing, although it is still in the hands of BT Wholesale. Our broadband is also getting there. But why should you resort to emailing the chief executive to get something done?

And dont get me started on the Sky TV upgrade service. I wanted to upgrade to the Sky Sports, took them 3 and a half weeks to do it. "Technical problems" with my account were to blame. 7 phone calls later and I still hadnt got anywhere, but they were billing me for it!

Sky have compensated me for all this hassle, but whats the point of being with them still if they cant provide me with what I want? I'm not in contract, so I can just go. Not sure why I havent already to be fair.
Sky have compensated my phone call costs (£40) and have put £130 on the bill to cover the large bill I had last month (what with the £60 home move charge) and the phone line and broadband I have been charged for but havent received.

Watch this space - 2 months and 4 days and counting. Sky say it should only be another 2-3 days, lets wait and see shall we!

truthman007

Virgin Media also one of the worst in my experience. Better we will give a chance to another one. Somehow they are running the system, don't know when it will collapse.

Darksun

I had similar experiences with Sky. We can't use Sky+ properly, which is fair enough because there's a genuine technical restriction as we later discovered (not enough LNBs on our communal dish, so everyone can only get one feed, meaning you can't record a channel while watching it), however, this was never pointed out on ordering and when the install engineer was questioned about it he said it wouldn't be a problem and would start working properly later.

Our Phone and Broadband took over 2 months to get up and running, they didn't give us an install date for ages and we had to keep chasing them on the phone, never were given a straight answer. Plus, they put us on the wrong internet package, we ordered the 40GB download limit, they put us on unlimited. When we asked to change we were told there was a minimum contract of 1 year, so we couldn't change, even though it was their mistake :mad:. Since we ordered online there's no way to prove otherwise.

We have written complaint letters but never received a reply. On the other hand, we've had no issues with VM, but unfortunately they weren't availiable in the area where we moved to. Frankly, we watch so little TV these days that it feels like a waste having Sky at all, so we'll be cancelling it once the contract is up.

lincroft1710

Phone rang yesterday, picked it up, guy with Indian accent asked :

"Are you having problems with your Skybox"

I truthfully replied :

"I don't have Sky"

He seemed quite shocked by this and said "Oh, sorry"

bluecatblue

i have sky, i have had it for 10 years, i recently brought a new tv from tesco and got a free HD box, they came ontime two days after i rang them, and they moved my old sky + box upstairs all free of charge, i must be one of the only happy customers!

(also the quality of the HD box is not very good, keeps freezing and will not turn on, i now have a replacement even though the first box was only a month old but they did give me the movies free for two months)

ses6jwg

Call, cancel, buy Freeview+ box, never have to deal with it again and be better off.

ckerrd

ses6jwg wrote: »

Call, cancel, buy Freeview+ box, never have to deal with it again and be better off.

I would love to do that but as I cannot get any decent digital signal though my aerial it is not an option.

Oh and the programmes I want to watch are not on Freeview so that is a bit annoying too.

ckerrd

truthman007 wrote: »

Virgin Media also one of the worst in my experience. Better we will give a chance to another one. Somehow they are running the system, don't know when it will collapse.

What does the above mean?

DebtHater

So, have got an update on this.

I had a letter telling me that I owed Sky -£43.21. Yes, thats right. minus £43.21. I have credit still on my bill of £43.21 but they are sending me letters demanding that amount be paid "within 10 days to stop suspension of your service"

So I telephoned Sky and asked to be put through with the Account Manager that I have been dealing with - he wasnt available but spoke to a line manager instead. I was told the letter they sent out was a "system generated" letter, surely the computer can tell who owes money and who doesnt?

Basically, I was told that my phone line and broadband order would be complete by 8th Feb. Its now the 10th Feb and Sky still dont have control of my phone line, BT still have control. Meaning its going to be at least another 10 days+ before we get broadband.

The ironic thing is, when I spoke to BT they told me they could get my broadband activated on this line within 24 hours. Work that out!

MickMun

My experiences with sky have been very positive!

This weekend just past we weren't getting a dialing tone on our phone but were still receiving internet. Phoned them on monday morning, they called me back straight away as I was having to use my mobile for the call. Within 5 mins they had detected a fault on the line and within 3 hours they had sent someone out to fix the fault and everything was working again!

Have to say I was very impressed with the turn around speed!

Maybe its just me being lucky though!

DebtHater

So I still havent got a working service, 1 week after the promised date.

I have had to email Mr Darroch again, hopefully this will get things rolling again:

"Dear Mr Darroch,

I am writing this email to yet again complain about the service I have received from Sky. I wrote to you on the 27th Jan to complain about the fact that I haven't yet got a working telephone line and broadband.

As of 28th Feb, I have been dealing with someone from your Customer Relations Team, who has been giving me regular updates regarding my account.

I now, as of 14th Feb, have a working phone line, although it is still in the control of BT. I have been promised by your relations team that I would have phone line and broadband by 8th Feb, and that I would get a phone call on the 8th to confirm this had been done.

As of today, I have not received any calls back about the order progress and I still have NO BROADBAND. I also chased this up 2 days ago and was told by a line manager that she would call me back, she also promised she would do this. However, I am now used to Sky breaking their promises on a regular basis! This is a disgusting way to treat your customers!

In my last email, I indicated to you that if I was not satisfied with your reply, then I would be taking Sky to the regulators Oteleo. If I do not receive a reply from yourself regarding this issue, then I will not hesitate to deal with this with Oteleo. I will also consider taking Sky to court for not only breaking the contract I had with you but also leaving me without working Broadband for this long, which has damaged my business!

I have now also been receiving demanding letters for payment that I do not owe you. I complained to Customer services about this and was told this was due to "computer error"

I look forward to your reply. I have included my previous email below. If I do not hear from you within a reasonable amount of time, I will instruct my solicitor, Lester Aldridge LLP, to start legal proceedings."

Spoke to them on the phone again today, someone else who has made more promises.

I would love to see how Sky deal with a County Court Claim made against them, see how quickly things move then.