Sky Broadband - worth doing?

Sulli

I am currently with Tiscali (!!!!!!) who are absolutely dire customer service wise, but not too many connection problems. Their billing has also caused us major problems - faith in them gone, going to cancel b4 12 months.
We have Sky, and we can get their broadband which on the face of it is cheaper than anyone else. The one I was looking at is £5 p/m - 8mb d/l where available, pretty good usage limit, and £20 connection. That saves me £8 p/m on Tiscali, which includes the weekend calls if they ever activate it - they haven't in 6 months!
I have read a couple of concerning things re Sky's ability to provide this, but maybe just teething problems - anyone got any info or experience with Sky Broadband?

timberflake

I firmly believe you get what you pay for in this life, and by that reasoning Sky Broadband is something to stay well clear of!! Oh and also because I know of people that have signed up and waited weeks without being connected, and when they try to phone the "customer support" they've been left waiting 2 hours, only to be told someone would phone them back which of course never happens!! Not a good sign when your tied into a 12 month contract!!!

thinkbroadband.com is a great site, they have forums with sections for all isp's including sky, why not scoot over and take a look, I'm sure that will help you make your decision!! Whilst your over there, check out the IDNet section........HAPPINESS ONLINE! Quick overview on IDNet for you:

1. Rock solid connection
2. Customer service that answers phones within a couple of rings with people on the end that you get to know on a first name basis
3. Total honesty when things go wrong (as things do in life!)
4. Monthly contract so you can move on if your not happy
5. Packages starting @ £17.99

Hope that helps!

Emmylou_2

DO NOT GO WITH SKY.

They make Tiscali look like a professional, well-run company.

We first indicated our intent to have sky when we rang to arrange that we were moving house at the start of September. The guy came to fit the dish but couldn't do the internet (this was now mid-September). We rang Sky who said they had no record of us registering. We re-registered and were told we'd hear something within a fortnight.

As we hadn't, we rang Sky at the beginning of October, only to be told they had no record of us registering We re-re-registered - and this time we got a confirmation letter and then a letter saying that an engineer would be calling on 18 November to install us :T

So...our Tiscali connection was taken away on 17 November and the engineer turned up at a god-awful unearthly hour for a Saturday morning (9 a.m.!) He started the installation and then ... nothing. He rang the office because he wasn't able to connect us. They said that it was because we hadn't been activated and that would take up to 7 days. The engineer left. We called sky to complain. They got the engineer back (even though he couldn't do anything) to leave all the equipment so that we could complete the installation ourselves when we had been activated.

We ring a week later because still no connection and get told that it's a problem with BT Openreach. We cheat and call BTO ourselves (we managed to get the number when we were having problems previously) to be told that they had passed a problem back to Sky for resolution.

We have now called every other day since 24 November and still no broadband. Sky have the rudest "customer service" staff I've ever encountered - and apparently all I can do is wait because they'll deal with it in their own time.

I'm calling them again today (now that it has been over a month since the engineer's visit and still no broadband) and if I don't get the results I want (which means anything other than "you have to wait") then I'm going to cancel my TV and phone subscriptions which I have with them. According to the girl I spoke to last week, they don't care if I do that. I bet the TV department will!!!

dang

My mate has had nothing but trouble with his sky broadband, maybe they should stick to what they are good at...

... whatever that maybe ;-)

nickmack

As others have said, with Broadband, it's nearly always better to go with a proper ISP and not a freebie utilities company. You don't need to look very hard to see countless customers complaining about Sky Broadband, TalkTalk Broadband etc. These services seem to be ok when they're working, but god help you if you ever have a problem.

payless

Had it ( free option- well £40 activation ) added as a backup

Was given a confirmed start date 8/9/06

still no service

well at least I the router DG834GT seems good ( needed to change firmware to allow usage with other provider)

espresso

payless wrote:

Had it ( free option- well £40 activation ) added as a backup

Was given a confirmed start date 8/9/06

still no service

well at least I the router DG834GT seems good ( needed to change firmware to allow usage with other provider)

Is this on a second phone line?

payless

Yeah... sorry if did not make that clear ( for various reasons I need 2 landlines ) so this was for a backup only - if like happened last week TT had problems at my exchange

lady_noluck

I've finally decided to switch my broadband from plusnet to Sky seeing as they're offering it to me for free but am I doing the right thing? Is Sky broadband any good?

Thanks in advance!! :kisses3:

timberflake

In a nutshell, no! There have been lots of instances of people waiting months to acually get connected (and may still be waiting!), the free router not working, having to spend 2 hours in the queue on the phone to technical support and when they finally get through to someone being told someone will call them back (which of course never happens!) or that they have no record of them ordering BB!!

My golden rule, especially when it comes to BB (I've been with lots of ips before settling into a very happy place) is that you get what you pay for. Its free for a reason, whilst I've not tried it I've heard the horror stories. You may think your making the right move and financially you probably are, however I'd be willing to bet you would spend a lot of time pulling you hair out! I'm not saying EVERYONE has problems, just a high percentage!

Can I suggest you follow the following link, its a forum with all isp's where users visit to vent their frustrations or gloat at how happy they are!!

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/

Check out the Sky BB forum, I'm sure it will back my comments up! Its generally accepted that IDNet and Zen are the best providers so you may want to check them out too.

jdta09

I've got Sky and it's great. I rang up one Sunday to see if I could register my interest, having heard at the start that there was a long waiting list, and they answered the phone before it even rang and set me up there and then, I had the modem three days later and was up and running within 9 days of the original call and have had absolutely no problems at all. I am on the mid package which gives me 40Gb a month download which must be enough for any normal person.

Tim.