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- jobod's review
Picture courtesy of Peter.
| Customer Service | 4.7/10   |
|---|---|
| Features | 5.4/10 |
| Value for Money | 3.8/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 4.1/10 |
| Overall Rating | 4.4/10 |
By jobod
on 21st Jun 2006
| Time Service Used | Between 1 - 4 Weeks |
|---|---|
| Customer Service | 1/10 |
| Features | 1/10 |
| Value for money | 1/10 |
| Overall value | 1/10 |
 jobod's recommendation | |
The HD picture is stunning, on the few occasions that it works. When the sky is cloud-free and there is no wind, we get the great picture (how often is that in Manchester?). I reckon we have had 10 days where the picture was watchable, out of a total of 41. In this present heat wave we have about 40% quality signal which is OK, as we have a super television - the Panasonic TH-42PV500B.
Total lack of any continuity in the customer care department.
Recording facility unreliable.
Programmes freeze and stop half way then fail.
Engineers unreliable, and fail to do job promised. Always very polite though while they fail to do the job.
Sky sub-contract to a company called Cobra for their engineering work and if Cobra can think up a reason not to finish the job they will as apparently they get paid per visit. They are however totally charming and polite. They do Sky a disservice in my opinion.
Failed recordings, picture break-up and freezing, recording playback freezing (for hours), set-top box cut-out, lack of sound, distorted sound, a far worse product than my original 5 year-old box. Also, no auto-view feature, which could be frustrating, should any of the programmes actually ever be watchable. Add to this little lot to appalling customer service. I was promised a new satellite dish when I ordered the HD as I had experienced picture break-up and freezing with the old box, but nothing to the extent that I do with this new box. When the first engineer came for the installation he said that I would definitely need a new dish as there were trees in the neighbour's garden blocking the signal, but unfortunately he could not do the job as he wasn't insured for heights, and they would need the 'height team'. The height team arrived 10 days later and guess what? Suddenly there is nothing actually wrong with my dish or its position. They carried out the installation and after they left I immediately noticed the break-up and freezing etc. I phoned to complain and explained I had been promised a new dish which hadn't materialised, to be told that I hadn't been promised a new dish as this was not company policy. In other words I was a liar. I put this all in an e-mail, and I am awaiting an engineer who comes tomorrow. I will keep you posted. Sky need to clean up their customer service and stop charging their customers for services which don't work properly. As well as paying £300 for the Thomson box, I also pay £10 a month to rent the HD, and £10 a month for the recording facility.
Update 22 June 2006
It is glaringly obvious that the so called HD channels are not always broadcast in HD. I can tell this, even though the picture is breaking up and freezing all the time. Surely this is a breach of trade descriptions? Why does Sky treat its customers in this insulting way, as if it thinks we are morons? How does it dare charge for facilities it's advertising but not providing?
Update 6th July 2006
The Sky digital TV engineer arrived on the 22nd of June as promised, to re-site the dish, but guess what? He couldn't actually do the job because he wasn't in the special heights team. Fancy them sending someone who wasn't insured for heights. If you think this is beginning to sound like a joke, read on... The engineer very kindly agreed that the dish was wrongly positioned as there was no decent signal and no watchable picture, and he was very apologetic that he himself couldn't do it. In fact, he said that the original engineer had done such a poor job leaving me with a set-up which didn't work, and that really he should come out with a supervisor and put the job straight. He then got on the phone to Cobra (who Sky sub-contract to for the dish fitting), and he explained the situation and said the original (actually the 2nd) engineer would be out the next day. I had a call confirming this from the engineer in question, and we arranged the visit for Monday 26th June when I was not working. On Monday, guess what? No-one turned up. A call to the number of the engineer who had phoned on the 22nd resulted in a conversation with someone who had no idea that any appointment had been booked. So I had to start from scratch phoning Sky and telling them the whole pathetic story once again. An appointment was made for a special heights team engineer to attend on Wednesday 5th July (my next free day). They phoned at 9 to say what time they were coming, and they turned up only an hour late, stayed for an hour, but guess what? They didn't have the correct lashing kit to fit the dish to the chimney stack, which the previous engineers had agreed was the only place where the dish would receive a proper signal. They were very sympathetic with me, and they promised me they would return the next day at 3pm. That's today, and it's now 5pm, and I'm still waiting. I have spoken to a charming lady at Sky, both today and yesterday, who is promising to sort out the problem today. I will keep you posted.
Update 10th July 2006
I have now discovered how to get some continuity of customer service and since last Thursday 6th July have been speaking to a charming lady in London who is understanding sympathetic and apologetic, about time as I have just about reached screaming point...if this HD box was working I'd love it, I'm sure. However....
This is the 4th review I have written and the service still isn't working properly...the team who promised to turn up on Thursday 6th July with a bigger lashing kit failed to materialise, and failed to let me know. I told the whole story (getting very long and boring by now) to Ms.S the charming lady mentioned above and she assured me that I'd have an apology from the Head Guy at Cobra the next day and a definite day to do the work, which was to relocate the dish onto the chimney which was so large that an outsize lashing kit was needed. Finally, I thought, something is going to be done that Sky know about, Cobra know about, everyone knows what needs to be done, how could it go wrong?
On Monday 10th July I had a phone call from Cobra asking if everything had been carried out to my satisfaction (!) when I explained that no it hadn't yet, a visit from 2 'senior engineers' was promised later that day. Approximately 5 minutes after their arrival they asked me if I wanted the good news or the bad news. The bad news was that the Cobra engineers could not do this job as the building was too high (a quite ordinary Edwardian 3 storey town house). The good news was that I could pay someone privately to do the job!!!! I was absolutely speechless. The very first engineer (27th May) had told me that the dish needed to be on the chimney, and here we were after a total of 5 visits from Cobra and 2 failed attendances, telling me they couldn't do the job at all. And Sky have to pay Cobra per visit (see the comment above). Ms. S at Sky was very soothing and sympathetic and even listened to me rant and rave about how our viewing the Footie on Sunday had been ruined by break-up freezing and a new trick of the HD box to just give us the top left-hand corner of the picture blown up to full screen size, so we had a good view of the crowd and the players' hair and ears, but no feet or ball (desperate attempt to make you laugh).
It is impossible for me to fairly review the HD box without a proper signal. It is now perfectly obvious that although Sky's customer service at the standard level is hopelessly frustrating, once you get to speak to the team in London you are at least given a degree of continuity and respect. If I had spoken to them weeks ago I would put customer relations at 10. Independent installer coming tomorrow, keep you posted.....I have had the HD box 45 days now......
Important, please be aware that:
| Helpful | Unhelpful | Agree | Disagree |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total Respect: +2
Would you like to see a review that's not being listed?
Martin Waite
on 18th Sep 2006