SKY TV/Broadband "Service."

My basic issue isn't with the product, my issue is with the sheer impossibility of making contact with SKY from abroad. I cannot get them by 1. Phone, 2. webchat, 3 Twitter, 4. email. It also seems they go out of their way to AVOID speaking with existing customers, or offering their best products and fees to existing customers, and favor new customers with better prices and a facility to engage via webchat. My ancillary point is that they are foolishly chasing new clients whilst losing paying existing clients, and this is a bad business practice for both SKY and the customer, with no winners on either side ultimately. I won't reward this behavior by staying - I'm voting with my feet. If other companies are as bad I will leave them in due course. I have had a fairly good previous experience with VIRGIN, so they are, at the moment, the preferred option, and they are cheaper with a faster BB speed - we'll see how this works out. I. likewise, don't fancy a return to the prices of the 80's, but again, that not an either sum game, I genuinely think there's room for a middle ground. We don't have to pick between a glider and Concorde, there's surely a middle path.
 
I don’t mean to be provocative, but why should a domestic service provider go out of its way facilitate contact from overseas?
 
Gordon Gekko said:
I don’t mean to be provocative, but why should a domestic service provider go out of its way facilitate contact from overseas?
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I don't live overseas, I just happen to be abroad at the moment. In the modern world this isn't unusual (leaving aside the pandemic) and shouldn't normally cause a problem. Any modern business I have dealings with have some level of access as they comprehend this. SKY no longer provide access via email, Twitter, the boards.ie SKY forum or webchat. These aren't available to people at home or abroad, yet webchat is available to new customers.
 
But the fact is we are almost 9 months into a global pandemic with most people still working from home.

I’d say the Sky subscriber calling from abroad about his or her service back in Ireland is pretty low on their list of priorities.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
But the fact is we are almost 9 months into a global pandemic with most people still working from home.

I’d say the Sky subscriber calling from abroad about his or her service back in Ireland is pretty low on their list of priorities.
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The inability to call from abroad is one thing, and fairly minor in the scheme of things. The larger issue is a lack of availability with points of access. Not everyone wants or can use phones, they may, for a variety of reasons want to communicate in other ways. A fully functional service should accommodate this. Customer care is about communicating -many modern businesses use chat, and SKY in fact do use chat - just not for existing customers. so in this sense, existing customers are less well treated and served, which is part of my broader point that it makes more sense economically to favour existing clients above new ones.
 

Actually, I'm sorry, your point about the LNB for Sky Q is correct - if it's not a dual band/hybrid LNB, then it'll need to be replaced (although thankfully, they don't cost much these days, of it does and to be switched).
 
I help other people with their technical issues. I think Sky's support service, once you get hold of them, is extremely professional. However I personally would never use them for one reason: I don't want to put money in Rupert Murdoch's pocket. I also don't read his newspapers. Same reason - no issue with the publication quality, but I'm not giving him my money, if I can avoid it, because I think he has been a malign influence on many lives.
 
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MrEarl said:
if it's not a dual band/hybrid LNB, then it'll need to be replaced (although thankfully, they don't cost much these days, of it does and to be switched).
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If you are going to replace the LNB, and need to integrate an aerial for terrestrial take a look at these. Connect a terrestrial aerial to the 5th connector then at the box feed the existing connector into a splitter, and connect the outputs of that to the satellite and terrestrial inputs and you're set, no need to run an extra cable into the house!

You can use those splitter/ combiners at the LNB also if you want to use your existing LNB.
 

Got my follow up phone call on Friday evening just to check that everything was resolved. 5 star service by Sky
 
SBarrett said:
Got my follow up phone call on Friday evening just to check that everything was resolved. 5 star service by Sky
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I can only wish this was my experience. An hour on hold last week - no meaningful contact, I simply had to hang up. Finally got a link to a webchat via Twitter. It felt like I was been given the third secret of Fatima. An hour and a half on hold all in yesterday, my text was basically ignored and then told they had to transfer me to someone else, who were closing in an hour and a half, and if they didn't pick up the message, they would be in touch after 9am this morning. You really wouldn't credit this. Needless to say, still waiting. SKY say the only way I can cancel my contract is if I speak to their 'Loyalty Team' (sic) but then make it next or near impossible to speak to them. Is this a coincidence?
 
Update: Just to mention, after several unsuccessful attempts to contact SKY and to get them to acknowledge messages, I have made a formal complaint. The crux of the complaint is the impossibility (bar giving up several hours of my life waiting in the web chat vortex) of engaging meaningfully with SKY to resolve my problem and this is directly caused by an inability (contractual or otherwise) to simply switch providers without reference to the existing supplier, as can be done with a host of other services from banking to insurance. And, as a further point, a new customer may get the same service I have for almost 30 Euros cheaper. This dual pricing is in itself unfair.

In essence, I want to leave SKY to go to a competitor. SKY, having placed several obstacles in my way to communicating with them at all, finally told me that after waiting 1:30 mins and connecting to a REP, that he wouldn't be able to cancel my account, and that I must now speak to someone in their loyalty team. It wa then 4:15 pm, he then informs me that he'll put me on hold for them, (via webchat), and to bear in mind that they close at 5:30pm (1:15 mins time) and if they don't get to me, they'll be in touch after 9am the following day. I did not succeed in getting through to anyone and no one called me back since.

I have now told SKY formally that I will be leaving and to take an email as notification (they require 31 days notice). Also, that I have no intention of holding another minute trying to connect with them. I have informed them that I will cancel the DD and they may send a box to collect their equipment, and furthermore, that I would no stay with SKY if they offered their services for free. I copied JD Buckely the MD of SKY Ireland, COMREG and Eamon Ryan, Minister for Communications.

I further raised the fact that I can move my mobile phone, my insurances, my electricity or gas without needing to contact the existing provider, and it is high time this also applied to TV/Broadband, I'm not sure what the legislation around this is, but it seems that the 'hold' if there is one, for SKY or any other similar service, is the requirement on the customer to contact them first. I will not, under normal circumstances, break an obligation - it was why I went to the trouble to contact them in the first place, but this situation is totally unacceptable, If COMREG hasn't got powers to protect the customer, then they should have. I also raised the point that for people who for whatever reason like disability cannot use the phone, then it seems SKY has trapped them in a catch 22 altogether.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of this, and particularly, will the government act to protect the consumer.
 
Thanks for this Leo. I'm a complete newbie, would I be better getting someone to do this for me? This looks complicated. I think I answered my own question!!
 
Update: SKY, in response to a formal complaint, replied partially and casually from someone using their first name and not title and ignoring some central points, including copying me with their complaints procedures. COMREG, having said they would reply, didn't, but are now (on foot of a copy of an email I sent to SKY today), looking for more details on account numbers etc.

In the meantime, SKY, without advising me, increased the monthly debit. I assume SKY are legally required to post increases in charges, but does anyone know if this is the case? I can't imagine they can do this willy-nilly.
 
horusd said:
In the meantime, SKY, without advising me, increased the monthly debit. I assume SKY are legally required to post increases in charges, but does anyone know if this is the case? I can't imagine they can do this willy-nilly.
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No, they can't do it willy-nilly. You have to be pre-notified of any changes to direct debit amounts.
Have the increased it more than the amount that they notified you at the start of the contract?
 
RedOnion said:
No, they can't do it willy-nilly. You have to be pre-notified of any changes to direct debit amounts.
Have the increased it more than the amount that they notified you at the start of the contract?
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I negotiated a cheaper rate last year and I suspect that that contract simply expired and they are reverting to the 'original price.' I accept this may be legal - I find it unpleasant they didn't tell me this would be the situation going forward. However, since then they have increased it again by a relatively nominal amount again without notification. I certainly was never pre-notified of any changes to DD amounts in either instance.
 
horusd said:
I accept this may be legal - I find it unpleasant they didn't tell me this would be the situation going forward.
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Unfortunately it's common and perfectly legal across monthly priced utilities. E.g. '45 per month for 12 months, and 60 per month thereafter'. The 'follow on' price is notified up front, so no further communication is required for the DD.
 
thanks @RedOnion . I'll take the first one on the chin, I kinda get that. But the second increase might be a different matter. It's small, but as SKY have put me thru the wringer in terms of service I'll fight for it and then leave. One thing is sure, I'll never be back to SKY.
 
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