Warning About Sky and Routers

[audioslim]

Originally Posted by HSNetwork

Hello and welcome,

Without wanting to come across im harping on about the same thing or attempting to start and arguement, I simply cannot see the justification why there should be a charge for a bit of equipment that a person is being forced to use in order to obtain the service.

I still think if this is the angle that sky are taking then a person should have the freedom to use their own equipment and simply be given the details in order to do this.

Otherwise all thats being done really is stealing (or this is my pov anyway).

It's certainly ripe for challenging that's for sure.

Does anybody know the price for a replacement router, if you do manager to get through to the right people.
If it's anywhere above RRP of a router of similiar spec by the same company then you have got Sky by the short and curlys as that is price fixing I'm afraid.

Slim

[gernot]

Question : How did you get your Belkin to work without your user name and password.

[James67]

Originally Posted by audioslim

Does anybody know the price for a replacement router, if you do manager to get through to the right people.
If it's anywhere above RRP of a router of similiar spec by the same company then you have got Sky by the short and curlys as that is price fixing I'm afraid.

Price fixing is where two supposedly competing companies collude to offer a product at a higher price than market forces would otherwise have set. For example, if someone at Shell phones up someone at BP and says, "If you raise your petrol prices by 5p a litre, then we'll do the same," that would be illegal. If on the other hand, Shell just decided to double its petrol prices, that would be perfectly legal.

Sky are entitled to charge whatever they like for a replacement router. Because the router is essential to the provision of the service, there might be a possible claim that the cost of the replacement router is effectively part of the cost of the service. Adding the cost of the router in effect constitutes a price rise of more than 10% - the level at which you can ask for the contract to be cancelled without penalty, as set out in the terms and condition. But then, you'll only be charged for a replacement if you've been with Sky for more than 12 months, so you'd be able to cancel the service anyway.

Ultimately, the only real restriction on what Sky can charges its customers is what the market place can sustain.

[ononotagain]

Originally Posted by James67

Sky are entitled to charge whatever they like for a replacement router. Because the router is essential to the provision of the service,

But if they take the stupid restriction of only using Sky routers out of the equation then that (essential) part is redundant and anyone could pick up a capable router for pennies nowadays.

[James67]

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. You did see the full stop between the words "router" and "Because", didn't you? The text you quoted makes it look like I was claim that Sky could charge whatever it like because it has its customer by the short and curlies, which isn't what I was saying at all.

Any retailer is entitled to charge anything they like for an item, provided they haven't colluded with their supposed competitors to maintain an artificially high price. That's the law.

However, if Sky were to charge for a replacement router, it probably could be claimed that under the terms and conditions, the cost of the router was part of the cost of the product, and thus would constitute a price rise of more than 10%, which entitles the customer, according to the terms and conditions, to terminate the contract without prejudice.

[jurasic]

Hi guys.I joined sky broadband from BT, last Feb.It took over 6 weeks to get me online.The main problem was my exchange was not man enough to give me 7mbps,let alone 16mbps.In the end sky capped me at 3mbps which is what i am on now.
In the 6weeks of wrangling trying to get connected i recieved a spare Netgear router from Sky (Which i now will keep safe.) after reading this report.
I also have ripped my password and login from the router and have connected with a Cable&wireless router with no probs.The trouble with the Netgear router was that the speed was all over the place.So i have just flashed the router with the latest firmware and Guess what?, a constant 3mbps no probs.

So a word of advise to any newcomers,READ THESE MESSAGES and you just might save yourselves a lot of hassle.
Jurasic.

[Simon]

Similar story to the original poster..

Having had Sky broadband for approx 1 year now with very little cause for complaint I have to say a recent call to Sky support was cause for concern!

For a few weeks now my router as been making a weird buzzing noise. Unplugging and rebooting clears the buzzing but it usually returns after a day or so.

On Sunday I called Sky support and explained the problem to be told my router was a few days out of warranty and was informed they could'nt replace it free of charge. So I asked if it was ok to go buy a new router and could they supply me my username password? Now I've known these login details for a long time, but the Sky agent said they didn't have access to this information as they are set by the manufacturer prior despatch. So I asked could I buy a new router from Sky only to be told no we don't sell them they are provided on ordering Sky broadband!!

So it would seem if your router develops a fault outside the 1yr warranty your stuffed as Sky say you must use the router they provide. It would seem the only course of action is to cancel Sky and re-order which is nothing short of madness!

Whoever wrote the T&C's must have been half asleep at the time.

[worcesterman47]

hi all. i have been reading this thread & found it very interesting..but as a total newcomer to sky ( transferred a few days ago ) what interests me is the use of "password & username" are these different to my username & password that i use for instance to access my email .as thats the only username & password i have...does the router use a different password & username then ? as people have been saying that they cannot get theres from sky for instance when router fails etc..i am only asking as i would like to be prepared in the event of a router failure in the future ( best to be prepared ) many thanks in advance