Topic: Sky+ HD / Sky Q Thread

[Nobby Reserve]

I phoned them last night to say I was signing up for EE and they didn’t make any counter offer. Contract due to expire on Sunday and haven’t had any offer since 21 December when I phoned to put my notice in.

Have signed up for EE now and can’t complain with £99 for 500MB full fibre plus full works TV including a second box and Netflix plus six months of Apple TV. Pleased to have TNT Sports too for our Europa run in and what I presume will be multiple Saturday 12.30 kick offs  I also have a Fire Stick so may end up removing the Sports package which would shave something like £40 off my bill - think the flexibility EE is offering is v good.

I've had enough of their broadband.

We've been with them for broadband and TV for years, and never really had issues. But late Nov we started getting massive drop-offs on the broadband. When I checked, we were still getting over 100mbps to the premises, but down to 0.1mbps coming from the router. It was stopping not just things like Firesticks working, but also the second SkyQ box. First time, I powered it off and restarted. Worked... for about a week. Did 'the fix' again, this time it worked for 5 days, then 3 days, then 2.

They did a test and agreed the issue was the router, so sent me another. Didn't tell me there'd be a £9.99 p&p charge, mind, which has pissed me off. They also offered me a new discounted deal, which knocked broadband & tv (with add-ons) to the same price we'd been paying

Within a week of using the new router, the same problem. Powered it off & restarted... fine... for a week, and so on.

I've all but decided to move to Vodafone. My mobile's with them and they've offered a discount. A little cheaper for 500mbps (on their Pro package) than even the so-called discounted Sky broadband, where speed would fluctuate between 30mbps and 150mbps.

But I want to ideally keep Sky TV. It's just so convenient. I asked what discounts they could offer me to renew and the knobhead at the other end starts trying to sell me Sky Stream. I explain I want to stick with Q (even though I think it's shit and, in terms of functionality, worse than Sky+!! But I fear how much shittier Sky could make new things) and he clams up for a few seconds then offers me a derisory £2/month off - telling me it's the very best they can offer.

I'm going to have another crack at them tomorrow. But they just don't seem arsed.

One thing I did notice when I first called them in December is I got through to some [presumably] Indian call centre and they are woeful. I put the phone down because they couldn't understand what I was trying to explain. Called back later in the day on a different number and got an English person who understood perfectly and was really helpful. I just wish I could find this alternative number!!

[Claire.]

Have a look in the logs on the admin for the router and see what it's logging when you see it drop off and then ask for it to be escalated to someone who isn't reading off a script.

[Nobby Reserve]

Have a look in the logs on the admin for the router and see what it's logging when you see it drop off and then ask for it to be escalated to someone who isn't reading off a script.

That sounds interesting - how do I do that?

[Claire.]

on the bottom of the router there'll be a sticker with the admin url and the default login details, I don't have the residential router any more so can't tell you where exactly in the UI it is other than remembering it'll be under  'advanced'

[Nobby Reserve]

on the bottom of the router there'll be a sticker with the admin url and the default login details, I don't have the residential router any more so can't tell you where exactly in the UI it is other than remembering it'll be under  'advanced'

Thanks - I'll give it a go

[filopastry]

I gave up hope of getting any kind of decent pricing from them on TV, might just go with the virgin stream box for terrestrial (we don't have an aerial) and can add extras to it on a monthly flexible basis if needed. Farcical that Virgin are currently cheaper than Sky at present for Sky's own channels!

[Nobby Reserve]

I gave up hope of getting any kind of decent pricing from them on TV, might just go with the virgin stream box for terrestrial (we don't have an aerial) and can add extras to it on a monthly flexible basis if needed. Farcical that Virgin are currently cheaper than Sky at present for Sky's own channels!

I got through to another foreign callcentre grunt, who would only offer £6 off (£68). He did agree to refund the £9.95 p&p charge for the new router, but said £6 was the most he could offer off. I asked to speak to his manager. After blustering that he couldn't, he eventually did when I persisted.

His 'boss' then offered me just £2 off, telling me it was the most he could go to. I told him his colleague just offered me £6 off. He then said £5 off maximum.

At that point, I decided to cancel and to fuck with it all.

I asked him how I go about cancelling the contract totally and he told me he'd put me through to the cancellations department.

I got to speak to a lovely and really helpful Scottish lady called Pauline. I explained the whole backstory and she said she would raise an internal complaint because I'd been treated shockingly. Should never have been charged £9.95 because I pay for Sky Boost. Sky should have sent an engineer out when the new router didn't fix the problem. She doesn't blame me for switching the broadband.

She agreed to knock £20/month off the TV package - and credit a further £10 off my bill for the inconvenience.

I still think Sky are shite, and I'm still moving my Broadband, but I did renew the TV for 18 months.

[BOBSCOUSE]

So, moving house soon and Virgin (who I'm with currently) not available at the new property.

Need to be able to record stuff properly, not sure if we're able to put a dish up yet as waiting for a response.  Saw that BT Openreach is installed when we took a look around the place.

Main watching is football in UHD/HD and the usual apps, plus the missus and her soaps. 

What options should I be looking at please?  Is it possible to use Sky Q without a dish?

[Graeme]

BT TV is another option. Delivered over the Internet. Sky Q requires dish.

[Barefoot Doctor]

EE TV is decent so far. Can record (up to 600 hours I think) and can definitely record a few channels at once. Also does series link etc like Sky Q, and is integrated with the main entertainments apps with the exception of Disney+ (I'd also want YouTube and Spotify) but this isn't a dealbreaker as my actual TV has them built in anyway.

All the Sky content is delivered via Now TV, but it's built into the main TV guide so you don't have to open an app to watch Sky Sports Football, for example. And one plus over Sky, if you're on Netflix or another app you can still bring up the main home screen as an overlay, so you don't have to fully exit the app you're in to check something else out.

Additional box (which was free) is good too, albeit not linked to the main box so you can't access recordings on it which is a shame.

I think Sky is clearly better - just a much nicer interface IMO and I think Sky is much better at bringing shows to your attention so there's always a feeling that you're maybe missing a show you didn't know was on. But I'm paying less money than I was with Sky, and getting more for it (TNT Sports), plus I have the flexibility to cancel individual elements of the package on a monthly basis if I want (e.g. I'll save something like £40 a month over summer as I'll cancel the sports packages while the footy is off).

It's also entirely streaming based, but I've gone to 500MB so it's been flawless so far.

[jonnypb]

What options should I be looking at please?  Is it possible to use Sky Q without a dish?

Sky stream doesn't require a dish.  Not used it, so can't comment on how good it is.

[west_london_red]

I’m currently paying Sky £78 for the basic TV package, a second box, Netflix, superfast broadband (about 80 mb/s) and a home phone, I have been out of contact for a year and it’s due to go up to £104 in May FFS.

Would love to jump ship to Virgin Media but their offering on Indian channels isn’t as good and my burglar alarm is hooked up to the phone and if I change it to Virgin that needs to be redone due the fact their phones work in different ways (but I will have to change it by the end of next year when BT turn off the legacy phone network).

I think I’m going to have to call them up soon and tell them I’m leaving and see what they do.

[Hedley Lamarr]

Does anyone have Sky Glass ?  Just wondering whether the 55 inch set can be mounted with a standard vesa bracket (that's already up), it's a pretty sturdy one, it's had 65 and 70 inch sets mounted on it.