Communal SKY dish!

ShaunInLeeds

Hi All,

Wondered if anyone has any advice on the issue I'm having I'm currently day 17 without SKY and I'm paying for it!!

I live in a block of apartments and had SKY here before. I cancelled it in March, then 2 weeks ago as there was a good deal I decided to rejoin them.

Everything was set up over the phone, however I was getting no signal on the SKY box. I took it to my mates house and cables and tested it there, it worked fine.

I called my letting agent and told them about the issue. They said they had no other reports of a problem but would get a contractor to come have a look as it could be specific to my flat.

I got a call from a lady at the aerial company on the Monday to arrange a timeslot. As they might need access to the flat, I agreed to a Friday slot (day I finish early from work).

Friday came and I got a call from the same lady to say the engineer was running late as he had a job to go to in Bolton but was still going to come. 2 hours later and still waiting at the flat the engineer called to say he was behind and wouldn't be able to come afterall.

As I had the next Tuesday off work as annual leave and I would be in the flat anyway I asked if he could attend on Tuesday instead. He said yes no problem and would book it in.

Tuesday came and he didn't bother to turn up. I contacted them and was told it was never booked in!

I contacted my letting agent to complain and I got another call from the lady at the aerial company to tell me they would come on Friday.....again. This time the letting agent had arranged for him to have a spare key to have access to the flat without me needing to be there.

The second Friday came and at half 4 I got a call from the same engineer to say that he was in Scarborough but on his way!. He asked if the concierge was still there, as he would need to arrange access to the top floor to gain access to the dish.
As I told him the Friday before the concierge goes home at 4 on a Friday and I don't know about any access it should have already been dealt with between him and the letting agent!

Despite being messed about 3 times at this point, I agreed he could come Monday (today). He said no problem, I asked, would he book it in, he said 100% and would even come first thing to do it.

Well guess what, 4 times i've been let down now, he didn't come today and I still have no SKY signal!

I'm going to contact my letting agent tomorrow as this has gone on for long enough now it's getting beyond a joke.

I want a different contractor to come out and fix this as clearly the one they asked to come don't know what the hell they are doing and are a complete let down.

I know I probably need to dig out my contract or at least get a copy of it, but where do I stand in respect to paying for SKY services I've not used or could possibly use!? I don't see the letting agent paying for it, but it's their contractor which is delaying getting it fixed in the first place!

I can't exactly refuse to pay SKY their money or they'd be after me for non payment in a shot.

This is so frustrating.
Just feel like cancelling the whole thing, which I can't anyway.

wealdroam

So you signed up to Sky.

Sky have not managed to supply the service.

What do Sky have to say about this?
Surely it is Sky's responsibility to liaise with the letting agent and anyone else.

I don't understand your last sentence.
Why can't you cancel the service that has never been provided?

tomtontom

With communal dishes responsibility for the dish etc remains with the property manager. Sky provide the box if required, but the infrastructure is not their responsibility.

paddedjohn

Has another tennent unplugged your cables from the dish to use for themselves?

Kingsd316

paddedjohn wrote: »

Has another tennent unplugged your cables from the dish to use for themselves?

This would be my first port of call, when I had a communal dish someone did exactly this to feed a 3rd signal into the bedroom (each flat had 2 feeds in the front room) - It left me scratching my head for ages when recordings would fail as my second feed wasn't getting a signal.

Secondly do you have anything that looks remotely like the below in a cupboard which could have accidentally been turned off?

martinsurrey

ShaunInLeeds wrote: »

Hi All
...
I took it to my mates house and cables and tested it there, it worked fine.
...

wealdroam wrote: »

So you signed up to Sky.

Sky have not managed to supply the service.

What do Sky have to say about this?
Surely it is Sky's responsibility to liaise with the letting agent and anyone else.

I don't understand your last sentence.
Why can't you cancel the service that has never been provided?

They have provided it, he's taken it another dish and used it, it just doesnt work in his own house, through no fault of Sky.

Sky have provided everything they are liable to provide, its the OP's responsibility to ensure that the equipment in his building is up to scratch.

lammy82

If you haven't already spoken to Sky I would call them immediately and ask them to either

• allow you to cancel your contract (despite being just slightly over the cooling-off period), or
• Allow you to suspend your services temporarily

If you explain the situation and make it clear to them that you understand it's not their fault, and ask nicely, they may be able to give you some breathing space while you get the dish sorted out. They may even backdate this to the start of your contract. So at least you're not paying for services you can't use.

Once you are able to view the free channels (e.g. BBC1) through your Sky box then you know everything is working and could then re-activate your services.