New to Sky - why i would never renew

[keesh911]

Hi All

Just thought i would give anyone living in a shared property a head up about sky and there terrible service.

I live in a massive old building split in to loads of flats. Built about 3 years ago, very new and had all mod cons. One being sky HD through out the building. I decided to go with sky for everything, phone, tv and broadband.

Had my sky hd installed and it worked for a total 1 DAY.

Since the first day i get error 25 all the time, error recording and just no signal. I check the status and its signal 2 not locking. However after a hour its working fine, and then the next day down again. Very strange, sky suggest its the signal so its the satellite. I then call the property management company and they have said no other sky customer in the building has the issue. If they were to send a engineer out then i would be liable for £100 charge.

Call sky they want £75 for an engineer to come out. Don't forget just had sky installed paid £40 as well.

Anyway wont bore you with the middle 2 months of contacting sky and my management company about who's fault it is.

So as of today i have paid out £ 40 installation and £140 in bills, grand total of £180. I have Sky HD that sometimes works fully, but about 70% of recording fails. I received my latest bill and lost the plot, spent 2 hours searching forums and websites and found contact email address that get you to the top. So i did that last night and guess what 10am call came from some lady saying she had sorted the issue and i needed to call sky to book a engineer. VERY HAPPY AT THIS POINT : )

Called sky and bam!! sorry you will have to pay for this engineer cost if the problem is external to your property. Back to square 1, tried my hardest to convince them sky had sorted it, but got no where.

So now here i am, just emailed my second email to sky, and contacted ofcom. decided i want a full refund, either a working sky or no sky please.

Thought i would share this with house sharers. I'm not saying dont have sky but just make sure you cover your self. To be honest i cant see how i could have done this different, only if when the install took place it failed but it didn't. Day 1 my sky was excellent! From customer service experience and how i have been treated i wont ever recommend sky, or ever have it again. Had virgin for 2 years before hand they were awesome, couldn't have them in my new flat though

[Scubbie]

From what I have read on this forum about shared Satellite dishes, your connection to the dish is down to the owners of the building to fix, not Sky.

A few members have found that their 2nd feeds were not correctly connected to a junction box, for example, when they have taken it upon themselves to fix the problem.

If you are able to, then I'd suggest that you do this.

Sky are unable to access the dish itself. You really do need to take up the issue with the property management company or have a look yourself.

[keesh911]

Sorry when i referred to sky i meant a 3rd party company that represent sky in our building. They look after the dish connections and all things sky. I understand that it is down to the building possibly but the fact i have to take a hit on a engineer charge if isn't and vice versa is crazy. I have only just had it installed. You don't buy a tv get it home it fails to work then have to pay for it to be repaired! ( slightly off the point ).

Plus i paid £40 installation I'm sure by law that means the system must fully work. Surely a contract between myself and sky.

I pay good money for this service and i am not getting involved in repairing it.

[dms05]

You have a complex problem. Sky (the content supplier) supply a very stable and robust signal to the UK and any problems are usually down to the installation of the dish/wiring.

Your flat is in a building where the internal distribution of the Sky service is down to a third party under contract to the Management Company. This third party may (or may not) have installed the original distribution wiring throughout the building.

So the problems are down to the Management Company and their contractor. I'm afraid you might find your T&C's with the Management Company basically say they can charge you whatever they want for whatever service you need - not very friendly or helpful. But if you are the only one with the problem then you can't do a lot except hope they can resolve your position.

I think you need to confirm that your system is supposed to support 2 satellite feeds (not just two outlets) into each apartment. If they say it's one feed with two outlets then you don't have a system capable of recording one programme whilst watching a second live.

I can see your problems and understand your reaction but it really is down to the Management Company to sort his out and as they probably don't even understand your problem they aren't in a strong position to insist the third party contractor delivers the service (assuming they are supposed to supply two feeds to each apartment).

As you say - it's a warning to others who may consider buying Sky through a third party in a large block of flats.

Hope you can sort it all out.

[Isitme]

I then call the property management company and they have said no other sky customer in the building has the issue.

Maybe you should knock a few doors and find out if they are being truthful. The may be saying that to everyone who complains.

At first glance it looks like this was the usual problem in flats of only having one feed, but if you get a signal on your 2nd input from time to time, that would not seem to be the case. It could be something as simple as a loose connection somewhere.

[Old_nick]

I'm at a loss to know what keesh911 expects Sky to do, when Sky don't supply, maintain or own the dishes and amplifiers used in the flats ? If you buy a new petrol car and put diesel in it, do you think you can sue the car manufacturers ?

[Kenedin]

You should ask around and see if anyone else has the same problem, especially people on the ground floor, or furthest away from the dish. There may be significant signal loss because of distance, poor quality cabling, or lack of amplification from the multiswitch.

[Scubbie]

If you buy a new petrol car and put diesel in it, do you think you can sue the car manufacturers ?

Yes! The nozzles are different, that's why the unleaded nozzle is quite narrow compared to the diesel one.

On the other hand, if it is the PO Van, and they've put Petrol in their Diesel tank, then do have a laugh. It's cost them around £900 to fix it, provided that they didn't drive off.

[MartinP]

If you want help you must provide the following information, please:-
1. Digibox make and model number from the label.
2. Does it work when you set it to "Single Input" mode?
3. Does it work when connected to a friend's LNB connections?

[Peepeegav]

Your box will beunder warranty as sky did not install the dish or cables then they are not responsable for those. And thats about it. If you do receive your viewing through a single feed then the 2nd input either has a break in the cable, water is getting in to it or is a loose connection again this would be your building managements issue to resolve sadly sky will not be able to help resolve this issue.