O/T rant - SKY ARE ROBBING B*STARDS!

STP · Post by **STP** » 17 Mar 2008, 05:47

Sicko's.

whiskey · Post by **whiskey** » 17 Mar 2008, 05:57

Dont lose your rag Terry - simply chill for a bit and if you ring back and persist i promise you, you WILL get it fixed for nothing.

I had the exact same scenerio in December and i have a mulit-room package and i said put me through to cancellations upon hearing the 'engineer charge'

The cancellation department is there to stop you leaving and they will let you off with it.

Trust me, NTL (or virgin as they are now known) suck ass big time.

If you drop the line about being an electrical contractor who fits sky in all the new home contracts you do for Bovis they might even tie a ribbon around that new sky box.

DavidPayne · Post by **DavidPayne** » 17 Mar 2008, 05:59

I went through this a year or so ago.

It is always brought into sharper focus for me when I see England lose to Northern Ireland or similar and my money paying for Rio Ferdinand and his kith and kin to be rich, lazy, over-rated, pampered under achievers.

I just think, nah, you can stick it - I'm not paying for the product.

Setanta has been excellent since. Sky are arrogant and offer poor existing customer service. They're the original, NEW customer eager company.

Once they have you, they fornicate you at the drive through, to quote Joe Pesci.

The other thing that irked me was you pay for Sky Sports, primarily for boxing - every month, knowing they're spending all the money on Football - and then have the audacity to charge £15 to watch PPV of Hatton fighting ageing tomato can.

Could they not do a 50% discount for Sports subscribers.

BTW, I will not be paying for Hatton v Laszcano, who lost to Harris who was obliterated by Witter and who hasn't fought since 1896.

Pathetic match-up. Just fight Maglinaggi now if you must.

I hate Sky Sports. Leeches to a man.

DavidPayne · Post by **DavidPayne** » 17 Mar 2008, 06:06

The best offer I got was, any package 90% off for six months.

Numbnut that I am, was adamant I wouldn't pay a penny for Sky Sports, so took the family package for about 1.20 a month.

whiskey · Post by **whiskey** » 17 Mar 2008, 06:10

Mate,

There a tons of ways to watch these fights without a dish.

I dont mean sopcast either

STP · Post by **STP** » 17 Mar 2008, 06:15

Yeah you could just go to livefight.com, or something. Who knows

Wales · Post by **Wales** » 17 Mar 2008, 06:20

A mate of mine has multiroom, at 04:15 on the night Hatton fought Mayweather he decided enough was enough and he wanted to go to bed to watch the main event. When he got upstairs he realised his box office wasnt on, when he phoned he as told he'd have to pay another £15 tyo have the fight upstairs! Following a lengthy argument he too cancelled.

Punchy Joe · Post by **Punchy Joe** » 17 Mar 2008, 07:19

Dont get Sky to repair your dish, get a private guy from the paper, its cheaper, it mite just need realigning for aroound 30 quid. If its the box thats faulty get a second hand one off Ebay, or try a Eurovox box from ebay too............

if its the dish? You could also buy a new LNB dirt cheap, then buy a dirt cheap satfinder and fit it yourself.....trust me its piss easy, propbly need a ladder though.

http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/

Poncey · Post by **Poncey** » 17 Mar 2008, 07:29

If you get SKY you won't get cable, so your Missus will kill you for her missing Lost! Although Virgin 1 isn't looking bad for programming now.

I have a FV, and although the fights aren't live I get to see them the next day.

I know for a fact that SKY boxes are programmed to break after a certain period of time. If yours doesn't you're very lucky! It was on Watchdog a few years ago.

A mate of mine, who's an electronic's geek, found his fault and removed it before it could break the box.

Asterix · Post by **Asterix** » 17 Mar 2008, 07:43

G0mez wrote:Mate,

There a tons of ways to watch these fights without a dish.

I dont mean sopcast either

Any chance you could PM with the details, please, G0mez?

Poncey · Post by **Poncey** » 17 Mar 2008, 07:55

Asterix wrote:
G0mez wrote:Mate,

There a tons of ways to watch these fights without a dish.

I dont mean sopcast either
Any chance you could PM with the details, please, G0mez?

Get a satellite from Maplin, grab a Mexican or Chinese signal and Bobs becomes your Uncle.

sharpei_louis · Post by **sharpei_louis** » 17 Mar 2008, 08:01

Sounds old fashioned but put things in writing, write a letter.

Be blatant about how unhappy you are. Quote not only dates of all fixing work you've had to have, but also phone calls, durations on hold etc etc.
Leave it open at the end with a question: "what are Sky going to do about this?" Staple £5 note to the letter and quote in the letter that this is to assist with their admin as they're obviously incapable of producing an efficient reply; they are not allowed to take gratuities so it means they have to respond promptly to return your money.
Had a few problems with Sky and ended up getting a free Sky+ upgrade after doing this above. And got my £5 returned.

johnty1888 · Post by **johnty1888** » 17 Mar 2008, 08:08

I have a few mates who have something called a "eurovox". You can buy them on ebay and basically they give you every single channel around. All the sky channels, all the frankie vaughan channels, even the ppv footy etc. They work off your broadband cable. Its a one off payment and theres no monthly subscription or anything.Have a look on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2x-NEW-THE-BOX-SU ... dZViewItem

apologies if Im saying stuff thats a bit "naughty" here..............

REAL_DEAL · Post by **REAL_DEAL** » 17 Mar 2008, 08:09

I will get HD when domestic boxing goes HD. I hate new customers getting great deals while regular customers who have been with SKY for years paying rip off prices get charged rip off prices for HD.

I have read on digital Spy forums people have haggled HD for 199 and no installation price.

Phenomenal-Nutrition · Post by **Phenomenal-Nutrition** » 17 Mar 2008, 08:43

Call up and say you want to cancel, when they ask why tell them, and then they'll offer you free engineering fix

Instead of calling there 0870 and getting charged astronomically goto:

http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php - add this to your favourates

Also if you can get Virgin Cable they may have a package of Cable, Setanta, Phone and Broadband for around £30

Autobarn · Post by **Autobarn** » 17 Mar 2008, 08:53

Terry D wrote:I am cancelling Sky and it means I have to cancel Setanta. After years of paying for, and defending Sky, I am fooking them off.

My signal went down roughly 10-minutes before the fight on Saturday. Thought it was Setanta problems until the rest of the channels went. I watched Laing-Collins instead then got up the next day to start downloading and to phone Sky.

We went through the technical messing about and the guy got to the words Sky love to say: "We can charge you £60+ and send an engineer out". I explained to them that I have had Sky for near 10-years and that without fail either the box or dish breaks every 18-months and I have to pay for an engineer so I was not doing it again. The smart bastard offered me the insurance plan for my equipment.

I'd had enough but spent so long on hold waiting for the cancellation people I thought "fook it" and inquired about getting Sky+/HD. That way my box gets replaced. They told me as an existing customer I would pay £300 (engineer coming out again) for Sky+. Or, given the money I've coughed-up over nearly a decade, they could knock it down to £240. The generous bastards.

I don't mind paying for TV costs, I don't mins paying for fights or the odd football match but why pay for a service that is generally quite overpriced and is supported by parts that breakdown regularly? I asked them for the same digital box Rupert Murdoch uses (I imagine that is one that lasts), they refused, I'm cancelling as soon as I get home. They are dirty robbing bastards and I don't care how much boxing I miss.

I know for a fact that if I pay the engineer to come out my dish or box will fail within 18-months and I will be back to square one.

For now I will download the essential fights and miss the others. Anyone know of a non-robbing bastards alternative to Sky? If I was a non-Sky customer I would get Sky+ for far cheaper than as an upgrade. They are a bunch of pricks. Any suggestions?

Apologies for the rant. It always seems to happen at crucial times. Do they put mini-charges into the devices so they blow every 18-months?

I get the Virgin media package. You also get Eurosport. When I tried to get Sky, I found I could get ESPN Classic or whateveritis, but not Eurosport. So I've had Virgin (before that Telewest). Not many technical problems, but I have to say the customer service is poor if anything is wrong.

nickd · Post by **nickd** » 17 Mar 2008, 09:37

Bollocks, stop with the rumour mongering. I have had Sky for the last 14 years and never had a faulty box. I've had Sky, Sky Digital, Sky Plus and now Sky HD. Never had a problem. No way are Sky boxes designed to fail that's absolute bull.

observer1 · Post by **observer1** » 17 Mar 2008, 10:54

Forget Sky. They been ripping off customers long as i can remember..

For the kind of money you pay you expect an excellent service. Theirs is just average.

Not worth it. i must say the Sports channels are usually good, everything else is just a waste of Money

Goz · Post by **Goz** » 17 Mar 2008, 12:34

Hopefully I won't regret saying this but I haven't had any probs with my 2 year old Sky+ box.

Neither has my friend who has had it a year longer than me.

I strongly doubt they 'program' them to fail. That would be illegal surely, verging on fraud.

Poncey · Post by **Poncey** » 17 Mar 2008, 12:45

We started our SKY subscription in June 2006, then moved to another flat in December 2006. Due to trees outside the new flat, we were told by the SKY engineer that we wouldn't get a signal, so we cancelled.

SKY then forced us to pay from December 2006 to May 2007, £50 p/m.

Nice

lurkyshaka · Post by **lurkyshaka** » 17 Mar 2008, 12:50

Terry D wrote:I am cancelling Sky and it means I have to cancel Setanta. After years of paying for, and defending Sky, I am fooking them off.

My signal went down roughly 10-minutes before the fight on Saturday. Thought it was Setanta problems until the rest of the channels went. I watched Laing-Collins instead then got up the next day to start downloading and to phone Sky.

We went through the technical messing about and the guy got to the words Sky love to say: "We can charge you £60+ and send an engineer out". I explained to them that I have had Sky for near 10-years and that without fail either the box or dish breaks every 18-months and I have to pay for an engineer so I was not doing it again. The smart bastard offered me the insurance plan for my equipment.

I'd had enough but spent so long on hold waiting for the cancellation people I thought "fook it" and inquired about getting Sky+/HD. That way my box gets replaced. They told me as an existing customer I would pay £300 (engineer coming out again) for Sky+. Or, given the money I've coughed-up over nearly a decade, they could knock it down to £240. The generous bastards.

I don't mind paying for TV costs, I don't mins paying for fights or the odd football match but why pay for a service that is generally quite overpriced and is supported by parts that breakdown regularly? I asked them for the same digital box Rupert Murdoch uses (I imagine that is one that lasts), they refused, I'm cancelling as soon as I get home. They are dirty robbing bastards and I don't care how much boxing I miss.

I know for a fact that if I pay the engineer to come out my dish or box will fail within 18-months and I will be back to square one.

For now I will download the essential fights and miss the others. Anyone know of a non-robbing bastards alternative to Sky? If I was a non-Sky customer I would get Sky+ for far cheaper than as an upgrade. They are a bunch of pricks. Any suggestions?

Apologies for the rant. It always seems to happen at crucial times. Do they put mini-charges into the devices so they blow every 18-months?

Yeah SKY are robbers....they cold called me trying to sell insurance saying it should be considered saying "well you never know sir and it will cover against problems" etc.....I thought bollocks i pay enough already and didn't bother. A couple days later the signal goes down!!! Thats happened twice now!!!

They obviously pull a plug somewhere to 'punish' anyone who declines to pay them more money. But what are the alternatives?

sharpei_louis · Post by **sharpei_louis** » 17 Mar 2008, 12:51

No probs,

Customer Complaints (I added that part!!)
Sky
PO Box 43
Livingstone
EH54 7DD

If they're not helpful, which I am sure they will be, their head office is

BSkyB Plc,
Grant Way,
Isleworth,
Middlesex,
TW7 5QD

sharpei_louis · Post by **sharpei_louis** » 17 Mar 2008, 13:01

And just for my opinion, touch wood but personally I've had no problems with the box itself, but poor customer service, signal etc. They tried to charge us twice for installation even though a Sky feed was already fitted to our new house and all it entailed was attaching a box and pressing 'install' - which I could have managed (I'm not that technophobic!) Just wasn't having that. It'd amaze me if they did deliberately damage boxes though - I could imagine some localised smaller franchises doing that to ensure more custom, but not the group as a whole. I may be wrong in suggesting that most engineers are franchises of Sky, and that to get an independent one from the paper is generally as good.

I have heard a few people say that the customer retention dept is pretty good and they have given away 50% deals on long term contracts to customers coming to the end of theirs and wishing to cancel. This isn't my own experience (but I have applied the same principle to house and car insurance to good effect!!!)

I'd also suggest that if Sky try insisting you pay out your contract when it is circumstances out of your control dictating you can no longer get their service I'd refuse. Put it in writing that these circs are their fault, you will not pay for something you can't have and call their bluff and let them take you to court. In the unlikely event that they do, argue that you'd only be liable for the minimum fee of £7.50pcm or whatever it is and they'll soon realise it's not worth trying to sue you for £80.

Argue the toss with everyone, that's my motto! It all started when a 'fee-free' mortgage advisor tried to tap us for £300 when we didn't take his product! The whole world is out to rip you off.

Chambers2 · Post by **Chambers2** » 17 Mar 2008, 13:06

Terry D wrote:They've given me Sky+.

A few months down the line you will look back and see this was a life-changing day.

Sky+ is the absolute total and utter Dogs Bollocks, convenience at its best!

sharpei_louis · Post by **sharpei_louis** » 17 Mar 2008, 13:09

Know the feeling, some days you can coolly rip someone to shreds but others I just want to swear at people. I hate the 'I only work in the call centre' bit too - yeah sure you do, but you love it when you manage to have any kind of power whatsoever!!!

O/T rant - SKY ARE ROBBING B*STARDS!

Re: O/T rant - SKY ARE ROBBING B*STARDS!

Re: O/T rant - SKY ARE ROBBING B*STARDS!