# SKY TV complaint



## stuffit (12 Dec 2005)

I had an appointment for a SKy engineer to install Sky+ on Saturday.
The guy never showed. 

I had an inkling that something might be wrong when I didn't get a confirmation call the day before or on the Saturday morning. So I spent most of Saturday afternoon on the phone to Sky trying to get an answer as to whether the engineer was coming.

I was told that yes I was due a visit by the engineer and that he was bound to come as they always do. He and was probably running late and it could be 6.00 in the evening before he might arrive. 
All they could do is send a reminder to the local Sky installation branch reminding them that I was due a visit.

As a result I spent the whole day at home. I couldn't go to the shop, walk the dog etc. 


I've now rung to make a new appointment and have been told the next available date is 9th January - 4 weeks from today!! 

That fact the Sky have cocked up already means nothing. 
I'm not given priority treatment. There are no special procedures to deal with missed appointments. I have to rejoin the bottom of the waiting list. 


The Sky operative says there is no customer service department to put me through to. Instead I've been give the correspondence address of the Subscription Services Dept in West Lothian. ie Scotland
I'm told that they do not have an email address and are are only contactable by snail mail.


Is this typical of the type of service I should expect from Sky? 

Is there anyone I can ring in Sky to sort this out?
Does anyone have any suggestions as how I might speed up the installation process? 


Thanks 


Ste


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## whackin (12 Dec 2005)

Sky+ technicians are overburdened at the moment becasue a recent dsoftware update which arrives via phone line, left some weird bug that they can't yet fix, and consequently many of the boxes are getting calls.

I'd say you'll just have to be patient.


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## GreatDane (13 Dec 2005)

Phone them and tell them you want to cancel the order, see if that gets you some sort of satisfaction .. often, people manage to get either a bump in the pecking order, or a couple of months half price etc.

Sky CS used to be the best, but they have fallen behind a bit in recent times ... something a lot of successful companies sadly suffer from, but that's not excusing it ... give 'em hell 

Cheers


G>
[broken link removed]


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## markowitzman (13 Dec 2005)

Garrettod is that an advert at the end of your post or is it in relation to the thread?


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## Mr Flapjack (13 Dec 2005)

Had similar (distressing) problems trying to get a sky technician out to the house. Two saturdays and a wednesday we had no-shows. When the technicial finally arrived, he couldn't sort out my multi-room and sky plus as he came with only one card. To make things absolutely unbelievable, he couldn't ensure that all our channels were working correctly because our account was blocked due to the fact that we hadn't paid a bill in 3 months. The reason we hadn't paid a bill in three months was that we hadn't been installed. The poor women on the other end of the phone in Sky caught me at my boiling point - after 45 minutes of holding on top of this. So, I get re-connected and find out that a good few of my channels are fecked due to signal problems - an issue that the installer would have been able to sort had my feckin account been activated in the first place!!! At this stage, I was so angry, I was contemplating returning to NTL (although, not that angry!). So, I call up Sky again to complain that I can't get a number of channels, I can't order a box-office movie (this is a result of having not paid the bill for three months - once your disconnected, you can't get a box office for 3 months), I needed to order my Sky+ viewing card and finally, I wanted to arrange for a visit by the very reliable and punctual sky engineers. After speaking to my 3rd representative of the day (a sat), I finally got the above items addressed: She told me the engineer would have to fix my satelite dish to sort out the missing channels, she was sending an e-mail to re-activate my account so as I can order box-office, she was sending out my sky+ card (she got alot of abuse over this one) and finally, she told me she would ring me the following day with an appointment date for the engineer. This fun-filled day was last saturday and as of today, I've received no phonecall. My Sky card arrived yesterday. I got a letter to say my engineer was calling out next Sat and I still cannot get box-office!!!So, have I any advice on this? Yes! CAll the engineers before they are to arrive and give them every contact number you have and ensure they have all the sky cards they need to install what you have ordered! Then call sky and ensure your account is activated. Make sure you can view all your channels before the engineer leaves. Oh, and another thing, make sure your favourites work once you have powered off your box.... mine don't!!!


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## slave1 (14 Dec 2005)

my sky installation was similar, they missed their day, got it arranged for the following week and after whinging to customer care my installation charges were dropped
I'd barter for some credit on your account, they should cough up a months free rental


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## Nuis (14 Dec 2005)

My problem is my father filled out the form, they took their installation cost (€100) by DD.  Engineer never arrived to fit system after arranging 3 appointments.  My father rang to cancel installation but has never got his installation fee back.  This is all happened over 12 months ago.  I am now trying to chase it up for him but getting no where.  No replys to my emails.  CS were to ring me back twice but did not.  Don't know what direction to go now.  Any advice out there.


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## Ash (14 Dec 2005)

Today I got the second of two cold calls from Sky in Glasgow selling Sky digital packages and promising installation in time for Christmas.  After reading the contributions above, I'm glad I wasn't talked into it!
€10.75 for the first four months, €21.50 thereafter payable by direct debit; contract for one year.
As far as I made out, this includes digital box; 35 stations plus access to 100 free to air channels.  If Sky cancelled after 12 months, you can keep the digibox and access to these 100 free channels.
They addressed me by name but I forgot to ask how they'd accessed my name and number.  I hate all these cold calls and high pressure selling.
We only have TV by aerial; no cable or other such.  What do you think of the deal offered by Sky?  I guess it's all fine when things are going well but murder when things go arong, as described in posts above.
Who needs more TV anyway!


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## Tubbs (15 Dec 2005)

After being totally exhausted with all the problems that come with Chorus I ordered Sky on 24th Nov. Still not connected now. 

Engineer was booked for 10th Dec.

Get a call the night before from engineer asking if we have a sky card. We told him no we hadn't received the card. He said he would ring us back. 
No call back from him.

Phone Sky and they now say the earliest that it can be installed is 30th Dec. After fecking Christmas !

I foolishly thought that no company could be as inept as Chorus but here I am again.  I feel like cancelling Sky before I have it. But what are the alternatives ?


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## Speedwell (19 Dec 2005)

The name of the Customer Services Manager for Sky is Caroline Connor.

Her email address is skydigital@bskyb.com

Put as subject: FAO Caroline Connor

Hopefully you wil get a response.


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## etel (19 Dec 2005)

Mail the boss directly   james.murdoch@bskyb. co . uk or @bskyb.com


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## ZEGAR (20 Dec 2005)

Good idea ETEL..I alway find that going straight to the top gets things moving quickly..


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## joel (20 Dec 2005)

Hi,
Had the same problem still I couldn't get thr. the customer support line . I spent almost 1 hr to to speak to the guys to find out the reason why the installation didn't go ahead as mentioned in their letter, but no reason given.....

Anybody has any good or bad expericen with Broadworks (broadworks.ie) cable. I am thinking to cancel the SKY installation .


-Joel


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## Leo (20 Dec 2005)

€49.50 a month to add 4 sports/movies channels is a shocking price! You only get 17 channels for your €20 a month as well.
Leo


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## CCOVICH (20 Dec 2005)

joel said:
			
		

> Anybody has any good or bad expericen with Broadworks (broadworks.ie) cable. I am thinking to cancel the SKY installation .
> 
> 
> -Joel


 
Do a search of this site for 'Broadworks' and you'll get my rant that I don't intend to repeat here. The issues mentioned are still relevant, although we are now getting Sky Sports on Friday (around 1 year after it was promised). €19.50 for the first three months is ok, but €39 per month thereafter is not, and hopefully we will be able to get NTL at that stage. No movies for our development yet.

If I could get Sky, I think I would, over any other cable or satellite service.  Have you considered arranging installation yourself?  (might be more expensive)


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## Sarah (22 Dec 2005)

Same thing happened us...booked 3 installations and for each one we were cancelled..after a huge long wait over the phone and being passed from billy to jack i basically was quite rude(ashamed to admit) to the call staff and persisted that i was holding to speak to a manager...after a while i got through and gave it socks about the level of customer service, being on hold for that long each time, the time i had to take off work, the inconvience of sitting in each day, my phone bill, and the lame excuses i was given for the engineers not showing...aperantly they broke down each time according to one sky caller and another told me he ran out of time, i complained that we were not notified and at one stage i was told to wait till 9.00 in the evening as he may still show up...dunno what he would have done at that time of night unless he brought flood lights with him to put up the dish!! Anyway, could go on forever, i complained that bad and told him it was in their best interests business and money wise to get me installed ASAP and they could bump someone else off the list for all i cared as i had been cancelled on that many times now it was my turn!! I told him by wors of mouth alone many people would not get sky installed if this was their level of service they were providing and in a jokeingly manner said i was that frustrated i wanted to call the radio stations...all in all it worked...another install was booked for a week after that on a sat and i called on the thur and fri to make sure and when the engineer came out he said that the guy who was supposed to do it that day had "broke down!" and he rang to cancell our install again but sky dispatched another engineer out saying we were VIPs!!!! and couldnt be cancelled!!! It pays to complain..even if it is just to get what you paid for!


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## stoney1 (22 Dec 2005)

Sky Customer care is terrible.  The length of time waiting for someone to answer is extraordinary but even taking all that into account they are in no way as bad as Chorus because you dont have to ring them too often


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## joel (10 Jan 2006)

Hi,
My rebooking also didn't go ahead as schedulerd since I didn't receive the viewing card. When called the customer service few days before the installation I was told that Installer will bring the viewing card with him. 

I believe these things happening because of lack of competition and not enough consumer right!!! I know I won't be able to sue the sky TV  for not doing the installation on scheduled date but is there any other action I can take against SKY as a consumer ? on what basis?

-Joel


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## mayflower (19 Nov 2009)

Sorry I know I'm dragging up a thread that is almost 4 years old but Sky have just done the same to me today...and just wanted to vent that I'm so annoyed!!

I received a letter over a month ago that an engineer would be calling out today, I rang them to confirm a time this morning and she told me that the job was booked for 1st Dec. When I queried this, she looked on the system in more detail and the job had been "amended" yesterday due to a booking error.

My mobile number is on the booking so they should have had no trouble contacting me but I never received anything from them and if it wasn't for the fact that I rang them this morning I would still be sitting here waiting.

Now I have to take another day off work for this engineer to arrive (if he even comes next time).

They are so big that they don't care how they treat their customers, really having second thoughts about using their services now.

How can companies get away with treating their customers like this?


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## jpd (23 Nov 2009)

mayflower said:


> How can companies get away with treating their customers like this?



Lack of competition - why bother when there is no competition or if the competition is not available in your area


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