Problem with Sky - just a coincidence?

Amanda65

We have had the full Sky package (circa £45 pm) for several years and last month we had a phone call asking if we wanted extended warranty on our Sky box, which we politely declined. Since then however our reception has been !!!!!! and on a daily basis we lose channels due to a 'technical fault'.

Tonight my OH phoned Sky, went through a procedure with a techie only to find that 20 minutes later he lost the channels again - this time all the BBC channels and some but not all of the movie channels we subscribe to. He was put through to the 'even more technical' department and when at the end of that call the problem sstill wasn't solved was told that an engineer would have to come out at a cost of £65 to us!!!! He declined and said that as we didn't own the box and we paid £45 pm for a service we weren't getting that we shouldn't pay for the engineer. The techie said he couldn't comment and put my OH through to customer services who said that was all they could do and then cut him off!!!!! I am so livid and am going to cancel first thing tomorrow morning - just wondered if anyone else had problems with their reception just after turning down the extended warranty? Methinks it smells

richt71

You've got 2 options. Cancel your subscription. After 3 weeks of your month notice you'll get re-instalations call you and say how can they keep you. Explain you were a good customer on full package but your sky box was faulty and you thought it unfair to have to buy a new one. They'll probably give you a new box and some form of discount.
Alternatively you can email James Murdoch (CEO of sky) james.murdoch@bskyb.com and explain what's happened and say you are a very good customer but you're annoyed with the company etc. He usually will try to resolve it for you.

magyar

You might find this useful, it's an email I send only yesterday. Please feel free to take from it what you want. I wrote it to James Murdoch and also Paul Wilson (paul.wilson@bskyb.com) and I in fact got lots of it from the excellent DigitalSpy Sky+ forum.

Dear Mr Murdoch,

I have been a Sky user & supporter since the launch in 1998. I have
also greatly enjoyed the benefits of Sky+, recommending it to friends
who have also bought it.

I started experiencing a problem with the sound skipping and stuttering
on some recorded programs (mainly on Channel 4). Over the last few weeks
this has become much worse and most programs on Channel 4 are
unwatchable. In fact, Channel 4 now skips during live viewing.

My original unit developed a fault some months ago following a software
upgrade and was replaced with a re-conditioned Amstrad unit. I had a
look on the Internet & found this was a common problem since June with
Amstrad units. For information, I have (a) checked the dish and cabling
by replacing with an old Pace Digibox (non-Sky+); when I did this there
were no problems on live viewing, although obviously I could not check
playback, and (b) performed a full system rebuild on my Sky+ unit, which
made no difference. It can, therefore, only be a failure of the Amstrad
unit.

I would appreciate it if you could arrange to have my faulty box
replaced with a new Pace box.

I would much rather go down this route than have to threaten to cancel
etc. We very much enjoy and appreciate Sky & Sky+, but with this fault
we are now getting to the point where we are missing all our favourite
programs and I am not prepared to continue paying for a service I am, in
general, not receiving.

I would appreciate your help with this problem as I am frequently
reminded how important your customers are to you.

Astaroth

You do own the box.... with telewest/ NTL you rent it but Sky you own them outright.

I very much doubt their is any connection between declining the extended warranty and a fault developing as warranty is (or at least was) sold and handled by a 3rd party company on behalf of sky.

You really do have two choices, threaten to cancel and hope they do a free call out or you can buy a cheap replacement box yourself either new or second hand on ebay.

bikerqueen

warranties are dealt with by a "lovely" company called inkfish in brighton and have nothing really to do with sky at all.

magyar

I always think it's a curious relationship. You own the box, but it doesn't work without a subscription to Sky+ (even the things you've recorded won't play). Sky have played that one quite well; means they can charge for callouts even though the relationship is very much like a rental.

jellyang

I cancelled my Sky a month ago. Many of my friends had cancelled in the past few months too. Three different people I know were offered a deal to stay I was not. I have had no contact from them about re-instating my Sky.

I cancelled my DD after last payment went out , had so many companies take payments after I have cancelled services.

Today I had a ranting letter from them informing me they would invoicing me as I had cancelled my directdebit & a £4 admin charge would be apply. Then at the end of the letter it says 'By the way , if you have cancelled your Sky please ignore this letter!
What a waste of money & my time!

jonnym

bikerqueen wrote:

warranties are dealt with by a "lovely" company called inkfish in brighton and have nothing really to do with sky at all.

I think there are several of these companies popping up all over the place...I have been contacted by a few already...

magyar

magyar wrote:

You might find this useful, it's an email I send only yesterday. Please feel free to take from it what you want. I wrote it to James Murdoch and also Paul Wilson (paul.wilson@bskyb.com) and I in fact got lots of it from the excellent DigitalSpy Sky+ forum.

Dear Mr Murdoch,

I have been a Sky user & supporter since the launch in 1998. I have
also greatly enjoyed the benefits of Sky+, recommending it to friends
who have also bought it.

I started experiencing a problem with the sound skipping and stuttering
on some recorded programs (mainly on Channel 4). Over the last few weeks
this has become much worse and most programs on Channel 4 are
unwatchable. In fact, Channel 4 now skips during live viewing.

My original unit developed a fault some months ago following a software
upgrade and was replaced with a re-conditioned Amstrad unit. I had a
look on the Internet & found this was a common problem since June with
Amstrad units. For information, I have (a) checked the dish and cabling
by replacing with an old Pace Digibox (non-Sky+); when I did this there
were no problems on live viewing, although obviously I could not check
playback, and (b) performed a full system rebuild on my Sky+ unit, which
made no difference. It can, therefore, only be a failure of the Amstrad
unit.

I would appreciate it if you could arrange to have my faulty box
replaced with a new Pace box.

I would much rather go down this route than have to threaten to cancel
etc. We very much enjoy and appreciate Sky & Sky+, but with this fault
we are now getting to the point where we are missing all our favourite
programs and I am not prepared to continue paying for a service I am, in
general, not receiving.

I would appreciate your help with this problem as I am frequently
reminded how important your customers are to you.

For info, got the following reply:

Dear Mr Magyar,

Thank you for your e-mail addressed to James Murdoch which has been passed for my attention.

I was sorry to learn of the difficulties you have experienced with your Sky+ system.

May I advise that I have arranged for a senior engineer to attend your home on 2 December 2006. He will contact you prior to 09:30 on Saturday to advise an estimated time of arrival. Should this date be unsuitable please contact us on 08705 959595 and we can reschedule this for you. The Sky+ system will be replaced if required, unfortunately I am unable to guarantee that this will be with a Pace model.

We want all our customers to get the best service possible and should you require further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to help.

---

And the man turned up at 09.30 on the dot as agreed, twiddled with the dish to improve the signal slightly and left me a brand new Pace PVR3.

Have to say, I know it's not most people's experience, but Sky have dealt with this superbly - and all in two days flat. :T

moneytalks

Sky+

---

Hi
Sky are at their old tricks again.My sky+ box has a system fault,it will not record,pause or save programmes to personal planner.I have done all the fixes to no avail.Spoke to them today was told that as the box was out of warranty I would have to pay £65 for an engineer to come out and switch the box for another.I said this is a known software problem,she argued that it was only my box affected.I told her I would not pay as it is a software problem and up to them to fix it.

Here is some interesting reading
According to online news site The Register(https://www.theregister.co.uk), a recurring fault in the Sky+ system software causes recordings to fail "for no apparent reason".
"Although the problem has dragged on for two years, coming and going through various software updates, recent complaints from Sky+ customers have revealed an interesting development:

Customers whose digiboxes are still under warranty are told by Sky that the fault is known about and will be fixed with an automatic software update, downloaded by satellite. But customers whose digiboxes are out of warranty are told that it is a hardware fault and will require an engineer visit. This incurs a £65 call-out charge.

The discrepancy was confirmed this week by The Register. Calling twice as a customer whose digibox is still under warranty, we were told on both occasions that the problem is caused by a known software fault.

But calling twice as a customer whose digibox is out of warranty, both times we were told that it is a hardware fault and we would have to pay £65 for an engineer to fix it.

The bug eats up space on the digibox's hard disk and, even after the failed recording has been deleted, the disk space is lost

So its only my box that has this problem..

magyar

Yes, I had the same problem a few months ago - recordings would just fail. In the end it was over 50% of failed recordings.

Rang Sky and was told "this is not caused by our software upgrade" and "if we had a type fault then we would have had hundreds of people ringing up". Refused to pay £65, threatened to cancel and of course they ended up sending someone round for free.

He immediately said he'd been replacing hundreds of boxes for just this reason and "Customer Services have been told to deny it".

.... so whilst I have complimented Sky above, this was a shameful episode...