Help needed! £90 for sky + multi room

Cmrs_2

Hello there I have sky plus in my lounge with a normal sky box multi room in a bedroom. I pay £90 pm which I never used to pay. When talking to sky on the phone I was told it is because I don't have a phone line in them. When I had the plus box installed the engernier said we only needed it connected for a year.

They say this means I have to pay two full subscriptions rather than one and a multi room.

I know plenty of people with no phone lines who have a multi room and pay half of what I'm paying on the same package.

They told me if I get phone lines put to both boxes my cost will go down but my phone box is a long way away from my room.

When I asked if I did this what will happen about all the extra funds I have been paying they said its not their policy to refund money nor take it off future bills.

Where do I stand

spike7451

The reason you need both boxes connected to the phone is so Sky can see both of them are in the same house,so the dish monkey was telling part porkies to you in that you only need to leave the box connected to the phone for the first year IF you only have one box.Two or more & they have to be connected to the same fixed operationa phone line for the duration of the contract.It's in the T&C's for multiroom.
Now you should have been sent a warning letter when the ringbacks were failing in order for you to have a chance to rectify the situation or book a service call to fit a extension to the other box.However it's part of the Sky dish monkeys job to fit the extension line for Multi Room,a lot of the service calls I got at Sky were to fit extensions that the original installer didn't fit.As when Sky+ came out,multi room was the majority of the work we did & Sky's installers,mainly contractors over here,were paid by the job,by not fitting the extension,they can save,say 20 minutes per job,then they can squeeze in another job & make more money...
If this letter was sent it would show up in the 'Correspondance' tab in Sky's SMS,Chordiant.I would ask for copies of these to be sent out & then argue that you didn't recieve these letters so,and I'm not a financial expert here,the direct debit guarentee might apply as IIRC,companies are obliged to inform you if your payments go up.


You would have recieved a letter like this;



BTW,if the phone is too far for a wired extension,you could try homeplugs.

DebbieR

When I got multiroom installed the sky engineer actually suggested using homeplugs. I bought these wireless ethernet adapters
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-PA211KIT-200Mbps-Powerline-Ethernet/dp/B004INVKP4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349107129&sr=8-1

and these wireless phone jacks

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RTX-WIRELESS-PHONEJACK-Wireless-Phone/dp/B000NJQHL4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1349134134&sr=1-1

and they work a treat, much better than running wires up the stairs etc.

plantation_2

You can also look use wireless phone jacks to help create sockets in rooms where they are needed. Search Amazon for RTX Wireless Phone Jack

spike7451

DebbieR wrote: »

When I got multiroom installed the sky engineer actually suggested using homeplugs. I bought these
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-PA211KIT-200Mbps-Powerline-Ethernet/dp/B004INVKP4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349107129&sr=8-1

and they work a treat, much better than running wires up the stairs etc.

Yup....another popular service call was to replace the splitter plug that goes into the phone point as it's been smashed to bits by the hoover!

techspec

I've just had sky installed (one room only) - and was under the impression it had to be plugged into my phone line for a year.

But the Sky Engineer said not. Is that the case?

TadleyBaggie

Single box installations don't appear to be "policed", however multiroom installations are. Saying that my second box hasn't been connected to a working phone line for several months and I've not had the warning yet.

[Deleted User]

techspec wrote: »

I've just had sky installed (one room only) - and was under the impression it had to be plugged into my phone line for a year.

It's still part of your contract that you do so. However, it's a throwback to the old "interactive" possibilities which Sky were exploring. The box will still attempt a "callback" to Sky about once a month, but for one box only I can't see Sky taking any sanctions.

[Deleted User]

TadleyBaggie wrote: »

my second box hasn't been connected to a working phone line for several months and I've not had the warning yet.

It's only a matter of time...

macman

techspec wrote: »

I've just had sky installed (one room only) - and was under the impression it had to be plugged into my phone line for a year.

But the Sky Engineer said not. Is that the case?

The installer (Sky don't have engineers) was simply trying to save himself some time. Contractually yes, it must be connected, but there is no sanction if it isn't (except if you have Multiroom).

techspec

Thanks all - i don't know why he didn't just connect it. It was the main reason i chose the room i did - for the telephone socket.

He did say though that only multi-room needs a phone line.

I have just bought the wirless on demand dongle - to connect to the net - so maybe it will connect via that anyway.