SKY...

I usually rave about how great my Sky subscription is...  And it is!  The selection of channels is great and the UI is awesome.  The only gripe I have is when it goes wrong...


You see, a couple of years ago, we got sky+ installed.  All was well until, one day it just stopped working.  We rang Sky, and they sent a bloke over 2 weeks later (!) who did absolutely nothing.  Fair enough; they didn't know that we needed a heights-specialist team.  Nevertheless, I was irritated by the wait.  I was even more irritated with the fact that I had to wait another week before the heights team showed up.  Anyway, the problem was solved by putting the dish up a pole, and all was well.  For a month.

By the way, even when they "fixed" the problem by adding a pole, they said that "ideally, the dish should be just under the apex of the roof of your house; they should've put it there in the first place so that that hedge over there didn't block it out when it got thicker in the Summer".  I guess they just couldn't be bothered to move it, then...


About 1 week out of warranty, which was also about 2 days after Sky asked me if I wanted to extend my warranty (which I refused), everything stopped working again.  After going through the reset-process for the umpteenth anger-making time (they insist you take the steps even if you just did them 5 minutes ago, which I hate, and then they do nothing), the out-sourced (read as "crap") team (on 08442411411) finally agreed to call someone out to me.  At a cost, of course.  They continued to charge me for my viewing as I waited for another MONTH for my HD upgrade to be ready so they could come and fit the thing.  (I insisted on an HD box as the call out charge for the sky+ box would have been the same as buying and installing an HD box for a new customer).  They also hung up on me when I asked to make a formal complaint about the procdures and lack of cooperation/politeness.  I was apalled, and ended up writing to james.murdoch@bskyb.com; an address I found hunting on forums...  His secretary called me back that very day, was very polite, and everything was finally sorted and compensation was given, so I was happy and stayed with sky.  I would've rather that it had been fine in the first place, though.


So, we're into Sky+HD warranty now.  *phew* No charges for call-outs = good.  We had some stormy weather a couple of weeks ago and our dish was blown out of alignment.  It's swivelled on the pole...  I called the heights team out (Custom Group - 08456125555), but they were so busy, we had to wait 2-and-a-bit weeks for them to finally arrive.  Kipperfrog worked from home (she says) to wait in for them, and despite promises of calling to arrange a time-slot the day before, they never bothered, even on the day.  Nice.


And guess what... one bloke, and he wasn't a heights specialist.  Day-off wasted.  Rearranged for Saturday when 08000512592 rang up.  Not this Saturday, next Saturday.


This really isn't good enough, Sky!  That's why this is now public.  I feel another complaint coming on...  Oh, and if they just tighten it on the pole again, it won't be just a complaint they'll be getting... (it's an idle threat, but I just wanted to say it, so don't anyone be offended and phone the police or anything; the worst they'll get in real life is £20 less a month when I leave, and maybe an anonymous turd through their letterbox...)

If you're from sky and you want me to remove your logo, just ask and it shall be done.


One last thing...  If you're Sky dish/box is busted and you live in a poor-signal area, http://www.tvcatchup.com/ is a great place to watch free, live UK TV without hassle.  And BBC iPlayer's pretty sweet, too.