WTF? Sky woes

old.user4556

Has a sexy sister. I am also a Bodhi wannabee.
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I got Sky installed last February. Due to the height of the flat, Sky chose to use a third party installer instead of their own engineers. Apart from a few teething issues, it was installed and has been (mostly) working fine.

The strong winds have blown the dish out of alignment and now the signal quality is poor along with the signal strength being half what it was.

"No problem, it's under warranty" - or so I thought. I called Sky this morning to arrange an engineer visit when I was told "you're under warranty, there is no charge". Then they proceeded to advise "oh wait a minute, the install was done by a third party, this will be charged to you". I advised that my contract was with Sky and that Sky chose to use a third party, not me and that they would need to arrange it between them as I was still under warranty.

I couldn't care less who fitted it; I ordered Sky from ..er.. Sky. They argued "unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about this, it's between you and the third party". My strategy of being firm and polite was wasted, so I just cut the conversation short and asked to a) raise a formal complaint that this was unacceptable b) ask to speak to a manager / supervisor (currently waiting on a call back :rolleyes:).

Thoughts?
 

Gumbo

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Say that Freesat was looking more and more attractive to you anyway.
 

rynnor

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Stand your ground - your completely correct that your contract is with them and if they do nothing they will be in breach of it. Its irrelevant to you who they used.
 

Raven

Happy Shopper Ray Mears
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Tell them you will fuck them off if they don't fix it. You will be out of contract and free to do what you like in 2 months time.
 

old.user4556

Has a sexy sister. I am also a Bodhi wannabee.
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Shocker, the manager never called.

I've written a complaint letter with timelines / names and that I want to Sky to contact the third party installer and arrange an engineer.
 

Soazak

Part of the furniture
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Mar 12, 2004
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Bin them when your contract is up in Feb, Sky are useless.

I've just dropped them for Virgin's TiVo box which is pretty impressive, though doubt you could get that in a flat.
 

Zenith.UK

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The problem is that Sky know they've got many people by the balls.
If you want digital TV in some places, you have the choice of Freeview, Freesat or Sky. Virgin isn't an option around here.

I've had a similar problem in the past. There is a quick way to escalate your problem within Sky and that's to state your case to their CEO, Jeremy Darroch. His email address is jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com
Email that address with your name, account number, a brief description of the problem and why you're contacting his office. Also state what steps you would like to see to correct this issue. I bet good money you'll get someone emailing you and/or calling you back about it with positive action. In my case I was given a year of HD for free (£120 worth) as well as the changes I requested to my account.

Try it. You're likely to get action much faster than if you go through their regular complaints procedure.
 

Aoami

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I had a problem with sky player recently and tried to get it sorted on their live chat service. Thw bloke i was talking to told me again and again that it wasnt possible to fix my problem but i knew it was so kept going with him. Whilst i was chatting to him i phoned tech support who fixed my issue within two minutes. Awful service from the indian call center i was talking to, spoke to the girll in scotland and the problem was sorted instantly. Swings and roundabouts.
 

Gwadien

Uneducated Northern Cretin
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You tried threatening to leave? - Do that, then try and milk it for everything it's worth.
 

Wazzerphuk

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We have an annoying problem where the secondary cable that leads from the shared area to our flat doesn't work, which means we can't record/watch different things etc.

Causes so many problems with the box not having the second input. :( No way of fixing it without ripping out the cable from behind all the flat walls, so that's not gonna happen. :)
 

soze

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If you are within your year you can not scare them with leaving. Have you spoken to the third party and made sure there is a charge? We have had similar issues with printers before that had been repaired by a third party and we had to take up warranty issues with them about repairs. If they do say they are going to charge then that's really shitty from Sky and just inform them that they will lose your custom as soon as the contract is up.
 

old.user4556

Has a sexy sister. I am also a Bodhi wannabee.
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The problem is that Sky know they've got many people by the balls.
If you want digital TV in some places, you have the choice of Freeview, Freesat or Sky. Virgin isn't an option around here.

I've had a similar problem in the past. There is a quick way to escalate your problem within Sky and that's to state your case to their CEO, Jeremy Darroch. His email address is jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com
Email that address with your name, account number, a brief description of the problem and why you're contacting his office. Also state what steps you would like to see to correct this issue. I bet good money you'll get someone emailing you and/or calling you back about it with positive action. In my case I was given a year of HD for free (£120 worth) as well as the changes I requested to my account.

Try it. You're likely to get action much faster than if you go through their regular complaints procedure.

Already in the process of drafting a letter to him :).
 

Scouse

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If you've entered into a contract with Sky then it's their problem.

I'd be tempted to tell them you're cancelling your direct debit with them because they've failed to live up to their contract. Installation was arranged through Sky, by Sky, so it's their problem...
 

Tom

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If you are within your year you can not scare them with leaving.

I wouldn't count on that. Sky signed a contract to supply a service. They're no longer supplying that service and are therefore in breach of said contract.

If the third party was arranged and paid for by Sky, then G has no contract with that third party. So Sky's problem, and unless they sort it G is entirely correct to fuck them off.
 

rynnor

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I wouldn't count on that. Sky signed a contract to supply a service. They're no longer supplying that service and are therefore in breach of said contract.

If the third party was arranged and paid for by Sky, then G has no contract with that third party. So Sky's problem, and unless they sort it G is entirely correct to fuck them off.

Tom is right - if Sky breach the contract by not honoring the warranty then the contract would be voidable at Big Gs discretion - thats the theory - you need to read the fine print and see what the exact terms of the warranty are though.
 

old.user4556

Has a sexy sister. I am also a Bodhi wannabee.
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I chose not to write to the CEO, instead a friend of mine who works at Sky forwarded on my email to their Customer Care team.

They couldn't have been more helpful, they did all they could to get hold of the third party without success, so contacted another satellite installer to come and fix the dish this coming Saturday. They're also covering the cost and apologised profusely for the suggestion that it would not have been covered as it's under warranty. The cost of repair is £114.

Now, what wangle for this inconvenience?
 

Tom

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My NTL phone line has been very noisy recently because the box on the wall outside isn't sealed against water. A man came and fixed it.

Yes, it was inconvenient, but it didn't cost me anything, so why would I expect anything? If I'd suffered a loss of service that'd be different.
 

Scouse

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I would have thought that they should at least have offered you a couple of free months for putting you through the hassle, but well done :)
 

Raven

Happy Shopper Ray Mears
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I got 3 months free out of NTL because they fucked me about, that was a several years ago mind.
 

old.user4556

Has a sexy sister. I am also a Bodhi wannabee.
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My NTL phone line has been very noisy recently because the box on the wall outside isn't sealed against water. A man came and fixed it.

Yes, it was inconvenient, but it didn't cost me anything, so why would I expect anything? If I'd suffered a loss of service that'd be different.

I'm under warranty, I had to complain, I had to go and look for a third party on their behalf because "they're not allowed to use the external web" and my Sky has been effectively buggered for 9 days now (11 days come Saturday).

I'd expect some sort of goodwill for the trouble, a month's free Sky for example.
 

Wazzerphuk

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Yeah just phone the billing department and tell them you've been told to speak to them about a goodwill gesture since you've been paying for a service you haven't been receiving.

Had to do that a few times when I was with Virgin.
 

old.user4556

Has a sexy sister. I am also a Bodhi wannabee.
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No sign of an engineer this morning, i was told he would phone between 8:30am and 9am to arrange.

No call.

*sigh*

Phoned them up, no records on their system of anyone arranged to come and do the work.

*double facepalm sigh*

Oh well, back to Sky.
 

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