Sky fail update - August 17th 2010
- Ordered – early-mid March
- TV installed - 10 days before move in date (had to have first in order to have broadband to follow)
- Move in date - March 26th
- Broadband & landline service – never arrived, gave up and cancelled 8 weeks after service was due to commence
- Increase in money spent on broadband as Sky could not deliver - 300%
- Amount of weeks without all the channels I pay for – 3
- Amount of months without Sky plus – 5 and a half
- Calls made to Sky on premium rate telephone number from mobile – dozens (see no: 4)
Five months after moving in, nearly six months since ordering the service after learning Virgin was not available in my new place, I find out that the system is actually working fine.Sky plus has never worked or works haphazardly and seemingly only when I test it. It turns out I can’t have Sky Plus because I have a shared dish. There is no way around it.My problem is that no-one told me I was getting only part of the servicewhen I paid my hard earned cash for it back in March.The second issue is that I still have to pay the whole amount that everyone else pays,whilst getting half of the service.Today, someone actually called me back from an email technical enquiry. That’s how I find out but they insist on repeating MANY MANY times that DAS should have told me when I ordered from them. DAS are the engineers that installed, they are not Sky.No matter how many times I state I never ordered with DAS, I called Sky, indeed I never knew who they were until they turned up with a box, the Sky person keeps repeating ‘they’ should have told me. It’s like talking to a four year old who only hears what they want to hear.Even when the call is transferred to a ‘manager’, she repeats that I have to get a new box from DAS and do I want the number? Despite me telling them many times that the DAS engineers have come out twice (four times in total counting the attempted installs) and so I pretty much have them on speed dial.It’s beyond exasperation to make so many calls (7 in all over the loss of many of the channels for 3 weeks) only to be finally told during the 2nd (DAS) engineer’s visit that Sky Plus is not available to me because of the shared dish. I didn’t believe them; ‘why would someone sell me half a product and make me pay in full?’ I asked.Another thing, I was offered a free trial package in order to have free installation. I elected for ‘Sports’, they gave me movies. This was duly changed (another phone call).When I called up (another call) to cancel it, they offered me a free extension to July. When I called (again) to cancel in July, I told them I’d received a letter in the meantime offering a free upgrade to all Sky Sports channels “without paying a penny more”.I spoke with Martin at the time who said that’s fine; the sports channels will automatically be taken off at the due time.I checked with Shaun today, whilst I was on the phone, as my bill appeared to have gone up and he said, yes, they started charging when the initial trial finished. Confused? I just cancelled it, having to give one month’s notice to something I never asked for and now have to pay for; the usual Sky con is in full flow here.I love where I’m living but I will not be staying and when I go, I will certainly not be in this Cable-barren area. Or possibly this country. I maintain my mantra from mid 2008; the country’s gone to the dogs.