Sky Installation Help Please

jacquij123

Hi,
I have finally convinced my husband to get Sky but having just received the first lot of paperwork I'm a bit worried. It says that you need to have it connected to a phone line. The only one we have is in the hall, next door to the room we will have the Sky box in and it already has a phone and a modem plugged into it. I'm going to be in big trouble if they arrive on Friday and say it can't be done or it's going to cost this much extra. Can someone please advise if this is likely to happen.
Thanks

Avoriaz

Don’t worry, just have an telephone extension cable handy that will reach from the nearest phone socket to where the Sky box is going to be installed. Borrow or buy one if you don’t already have one. They only cost a few pounds.

The Sky box needs to phone Sky as part of the installation process. Once installation is complete, the phone line is theoretically required so that your box can communicate with Sky and report things like pay per view (ppv) orders etc. But it is quite easy just to connect an extension cable if and when you ever want to order a ppv programme.

Just tell the Sky installer that you will leave the extension cable permanently connected. He probably won’t argue. If he does, tell him politely that it is your home, your money and you will choose how you connect Sky to the phone. He might offer to install a phone extension for you at a price. Frankly, unless you particularly want it done, don’t bother with the extra cost. I have had Sky for 4 years without a phone line permanently installed. I just use an extension when I need to order something. I rarely buy ppv so a year can go by without me connecting Sky to the phone.

In theory, Sky expects you to have the phone line permanently installed. In practice they only insist on it for multi room installations. This is so that they can check that discounted multi room installations are at the same address and on the same phone number and not just a cheap way of a friend getting Sky.

Sky monitor multi room installations and request a call back about every month from multi room boxes. If they don’t get a call back they investigate. They don’t bother with single systems as you are not getting a discount.

All software updates etc are sent via the satellite so if you never connect the phone you will not miss out on these.

A word of warning. If you order a lot of ppv programmes but do not connect the phone for a long time, you will eventually get a bill for all the ppvs. Make sure you have the cash put aside if Sky don’t bill you for a long time. Alternatively you may find you can’t order a ppv unless you connect the phone.

In summary, for a single Sky box, an telephone extension cable works just fine and it does not need to be connected permanantly.

lee634

Dont bother to go and buy an extension, the sky installer will do this for you as part of the installation

jacquij123

Thankyou all so much for your advice especially Avoriaz for the very comprehensive answer.

Moneymaker

Comprehensive? But I directed you to a whole book!

Avoriaz

Moneymaker wrote:

Comprehensive? But I directed you to a whole book!

All she had to do was read my post, 60 seconds tops, and she was sorted.

With your answer she had to follow the link, fill in a form, wait up to an hour, log onto her email, download and then wade through a whole book.

Avoriaz wins hands down for convenience.:p

No offence, your link is very useful too.

Moneymaker

True.... but think how much MORE Jacqui will know than the average Sky installer after reading the book!

missile

jacquij123 wrote:

Thankyou all so much for your advice especially Avoriaz for the very comprehensive answer.

Maybe comprehensive, but misleading.

It is part of the agreement that box is connected to a phone line for 12 months. They do check and will contact you to remind you, then threaten you - or at least they did with me. I did not have multi-room

I suggest you let the engineer connect to your nearest socket, they do it for free.

You can make up a box with bits from Maplin which you plug into the phone socket this fools the test signal into thinking phone line is attached.

Avoriaz

missile wrote:

Maybe comprehensive, but misleading.

It is part of the agreement that box is connected to a phone line for 12 months. They do check and will contact you to remind you, then threaten you - or at least they did with me. I did not have multi-room...

That is why I said “Just tell the Sky installer that you will leave the extension cable permanently connected”.

I am surprised Sky contacted you and amazed that they threatened you. Multiroom yes, they really will chase you hard but not single box installations.

Technically you are breaching the contract but Sky really cannot do much about it. If they query it, respond “Yes, we did have difficulties with our phone line” or, “one of the children removed the telephone plug and we did not notice” or anything similar.

Even if Sky know you don’t have the telephone permanently installed, what on earth are they going to do?

Cut off your service and lose a customer? No

Take you to court for breach of contract? No

Send someone round to check on you? No

They might try and encourage or persuade you to they are not going to force you.

In four years I have never heard from Sky once and I hardly ever plug the phone in. Of course the contractual obligation is for the first year only.

I’m not trying to encourage anyone to cheat Sky, I am just pointing out the realities of the matter as far as I see them.

Sky want the phone line installed for various reasons: monitoring your viewing and selling you stuff etc. I don’t particularly want them snooping on me, nor do I want to buy anything more from them but above all I didn’t want the inconvenience and expense of a permanent phone line.

If there was a convenient socket in place I would probably leave Sky plugged in.:D