Sky and telephone connection query

mutley74

I have Sky+ in two rooms (multi room) package just fitted.

Installer says i need both boxes to be connected to telephone line. He fitted the new HD box to the telephone line, But i told him i tend to keep our first sky+ box disconnected from phone. He said it should be connected otherwise Sky will add extra charges to our bill?
Is this correct?

Also i like to switch the TV, DVD and Sky box from the mains at night (energy saving) unless i need the box to record anything. By disconnecting the power at night does this affect the connection to phone line and Sky night phone checks?

michaelro

mutley74 wrote: »

I have Sky+ in two rooms (multi room) package just fitted.

Installer says i need both boxes to be connected to telephone line. He fitted the new HD box to the telephone line, But i told him i tend to keep our first sky+ box disconnected from phone. He said it should be connected otherwise Sky will add extra charges to our bill?
Is this correct?

Also i like to switch the TV, DVD and Sky box from the mains at night (energy saving) unless i need the box to record anything. By disconnecting the power at night does this affect the connection to phone line and Sky night phone checks?

I don't have ours connected (single box), but I think it's part of the t&c when you have multi-room that both boxes remain connected to a phone line at all times.

spike7451

mutley74 wrote: »

I have Sky+ in two rooms (multi room) package just fitted.

Installer says i need both boxes to be connected to telephone line. He fitted the new HD box to the telephone line, But i told him i tend to keep our first sky+ box disconnected from phone. He said it should be connected otherwise Sky will add extra charges to our bill?
Is this correct?

Also i like to switch the TV, DVD and Sky box from the mains at night (energy saving) unless i need the box to record anything. By disconnecting the power at night does this affect the connection to phone line and Sky night phone checks?

Yes,Both boxes need to be connected to the same phoneline at all times.Sky do a ring-back to the box every now & again to check.If the box isn't connected,then Sky will first send you warning letters.If the call-backs fail then they will cancel the £10 multi-room subscription & bill you the full price for the mirror package,they may even backdate the charges to when the ring-backs first failed.

It's not a good idea to turn the Sky boxes off at night as that is when Sky do most of the software updates & ring-backs.It also has an affect on the box itself as when you turn the power on,the box takes a while to start up,expecially so on the Sky+/HD boxes.

mutley74

spike7451 wrote: »

Yes,Both boxes need to be connected to the same phoneline at all times.Sky do a ring-back to the box every now & again to check.If the box isn't connected,then Sky will first send you warning letters.If the call-backs fail then they will cancel the £10 multi-room subscription & bill you the full price for the mirror package,they may even backdate the charges to when the ring-backs first failed.

It's not a good idea to turn the Sky boxes off at night as that is when Sky do most of the software updates & ring-backs.It also has an affect on the box itself as when you turn the power on,the box takes a while to start up,expecially so on the Sky+/HD boxes.

thanks for the info. Shame they run the boxes this way, as i like to turn off all appliances not used at night from the mains (safer and why waste electric on standby modes when not in use!)

debitcardmayhem

Not quite off topic, but what do you do if you don't have a phone line ??? Hypothetical question by me but I would like to know if any one does know. .....sounds like Jim in the Vicar of Dibley no no no no yes

Enterprise_1701C

If you don't have a phone line, Sky charge you a supplement each month, my OH can't recall how much but might be about £30.

debitcardmayhem

Jane_Blackford wrote: »

If you don't have a phone line, Sky charge you a supplement each month, my OH can't recall how much but might be about £30.

Thanks Jane (£30 per month is ludicrous though ) mind you they charge £10/month for the HD content ...... R Mu(rdo)ch the Aussie equivalent of M O'Really

whitegoods_engineer

I had the old sky digital box up until about 3 years ago and disconnected the phone plug as soon as the installer left. Never had a problem since.

Then 3 years ago, I had sky Plus fitted, and the installer fitted a bit to the satellite and he ran a phone socket through to the sky box. He fitted the plug into the phone socket, set it all up and left. I then pulled out the telephone plug and removed the socket and wiring which he had run through the house, up and over 2 doors and along the top of the skirting board into the lounge.

Again, I've not had a problem since.

Its a cheek for Sky to insist on occupying MY phone line for THEIR purposes. If they want me to have their box connected to a phone line, they can bloody well pay my phone line and rental. Otherwise they can sod off.

As I say, Just disconnect it from the phone line, there's NOTHING they can do about it and whoever said that they check your line is talking nonsense.

Fergie76

Do they not insist on it being connected to the phone line to stop people giving their mates the multi-room box?

whitegoods_engineer

I don't have multi-room, just the one box, and I'm getting shot of it in favour of freesat because I pay 20 per month for nothing but repeats of repeats.

spike7451

whitegoods_engineer wrote: »

I had the old sky digital box up until about 3 years ago and disconnected the phone plug as soon as the installer left. Never had a problem since.

Then 3 years ago, I had sky Plus fitted, and the installer fitted a bit to the satellite and he ran a phone socket through to the sky box. He fitted the plug into the phone socket, set it all up and left. I then pulled out the telephone plug and removed the socket and wiring which he had run through the house, up and over 2 doors and along the top of the skirting board into the lounge.

Again, I've not had a problem since.

Its a cheek for Sky to insist on occupying MY phone line for THEIR purposes. If they want me to have their box connected to a phone line, they can bloody well pay my phone line and rental. Otherwise they can sod off.

As I say, Just disconnect it from the phone line, there's NOTHING they can do about it and whoever said that they check your line is talking nonsense.

So as someone who has been in the telecommunications game since 1998,working for both NTL/VM as a Service Engineer & then for Sky,again as an Engineer I'm talking nonsense am I?

Sky perform a ringback on Multi-Room subscriptions mainly to ensure that both boxes are in the same house & one is not in your aunt Ethels house,and she's only paying a tenner a month instead of full price.

Sky aren't particularly bothered about single box households,What Sky WILL do if they don't get a ring back on Multi Room is what I said above.

Not only have I been out to service calls to solve issues when Sky have not received a call back on a Multi Room subscription,I have also received threatening letters from Sky for no ringbacks on my own Multi Room set up when the modem in my box in the bedroom went faulty & the ringbacks weren't made.

What Sky will do is they will send you a letter like the one below.which I got off the internet,they will then bill you full price for the second subscription &,if you do not pay or get it fixed,they will cut you off & possibly instruct debt collectors to recover the amount owed.