Don't get Sky!!

[bigstu]

I have just come off the phone to Sky and the guy on the other end of the phone was sooo rude! I haven't been so annoyed in a long time! He refused to give me his full name and he would just give me his first name and when I asked to speak to someone about his attitude he hung up on me :brickwall :brickwall :brickwall

so i am spreading the word - DON'T GET SKY!!!!!

[Liam_c]

Virgin media + is the way forward.

[Jay]

Swings and roundabouts to be honest. I had nothing but problems with Telewest and the attitude of the staff I dealt with but have had no problems with Sky. The worst I ever dealt with was British Gas. The customer service people were either arrogant uselss gits or so run down they were telling me to complain about the way things were run there.

[stu in nottingham]

I use Virgin Media (formerly NTL, formerly Diamond Cable) for my ISP.

I was a little disconcerted to read this report today:


Virgin Media Will be the First UK ISP to Disconnect Illegal File-Sharers

(http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9373/Virgin+Media+Will+be+the+First+UK+ISP+to+Disconnec t+Illegal+File-Sharers)

[andyhibs]

Virgin media + is the way forward.
hope alright saying this :cool: tell virgin media that you are changing to sky and they will give you a vip package:cool:

[Little Miss Perfect]

Virgin Media are a nightmare, i had no service at all for nearly 4 days at the weekend, i was put through to call centres in India which was a nightmare alone,then i spoke to some wee eejit in Glasgow who was patrionising as hell, I was told to keep checking the service status line which is supposed to be updated hourly,but when i tried that it hadn't been updated for 7 hours :brickwall
I've only been with Virgin for 1 year and thankfully they don't supply the area i'm moving too in a few months so i'll ditch them,as i've had so much hassle with them and their customer service stinks.

[Brando7]

I use Virgin Media (formerly NTL, formerly Diamond Cable) for my ISP.

I was a little disconcerted to read this report today:


Virgin Media Will be the First UK ISP to Disconnect Illegal File-Sharers

(http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9373/Virgin+Media+Will+be+the+First+UK+ISP+to+Disconnec t+Illegal+File-Sharers)

I'm glad i'm moving to sky soon :greengrin

[Bad Martini]

I'm glad i'm moving to sky soon :greengrin

You wont be .... just as bad as Telewest ever were :brickwall:brickwall:brickwall

They are ALL useless :agree:

[Mike777]

I stupidly went with BT dont think i will ever take them up on there "deals" again

[bigstu]

I wouldn't have the internet through Sky if I didn't have tv with them. This guy annoyed me so much earlier i'd stop paying for Sky if they weren't providing me with great entertainment through the EPL & CL! They are too dominant in the tv market so i'm glad to hear that Virgin & Setanta are having a go at them, hopefully it will force Sky to treat their customers with more respect!

[HibsMax]

To be honest, this thread could have been titled, "Don't get <insert almost any service-oriented company here>!!" ;) I'm not being sarcastic but my experiences have taught me that there are more crappy customer support people than great ones. The majority of them are probably just OK.

Do you guys have TiVo over there? Doesn't really matter but they provide a service like Sky does, but it's a different service. Anyway, I had two TiVo boxes in my house and I wanted to cancel ONE of them since it hadn't been plugged in for several months. I couldn't cancel online, I HAD to call. It took me 2 transfers and just about 1 hour of my time to cancel the box. The last woman I spoke to kept giving me a sales pitch and when I told her to stop with the sales pitch she just said she wasn't trying to sell me anything. But it still took me a loooooong time to get her to actually do it. I told her that I had been on the phone for about an hour and I wanted my service canceled so I could get to work and she told me that I couldn't speak to her like that?!?! Not many, if any, of you know me personally but I can tell you that I have the patience of a chopping block and I very rarely raise my voice to anyone, including her, so that just dumbfounded me even more.

I have several other example of idiots on the phone but I'm sure you all do to so I won't bore you further. ;)

[SlickShoes]

I wouldn't have the internet through Sky if I didn't have tv with them. This guy annoyed me so much earlier i'd stop paying for Sky if they weren't providing me with great entertainment through the EPL & CL! They are too dominant in the tv market so i'm glad to hear that Virgin & Setanta are having a go at them, hopefully it will force Sky to treat their customers with more respect!


sounds like you had what i had with "3" yesterday trying to cancel the phone contract i have for the Mrs. The guy was demanding to talk to her, asking if we had fell out, saying he was going to call her mobile and hang up on me, and trying to sell me everything. All i wanted to do was cancel my account and i had to actually shout at him to get him to do it and i have never had to do this ever but he was excessive and annoying nosey and patronising.

[SlickShoes]

To be honest, this thread could have been titled, "Don't get <insert almost any service-oriented company here>!!" ;) I'm not being sarcastic but my experiences have taught me that there are more crappy customer support people than great ones. The majority of them are probably just OK.

Do you guys have TiVo over there? Doesn't really matter but they provide a service like Sky does, but it's a different service. Anyway, I had two TiVo boxes in my house and I wanted to cancel ONE of them since it hadn't been plugged in for several months. I couldn't cancel online, I HAD to call. It took me 2 transfers and just about 1 hour of my time to cancel the box. The last woman I spoke to kept giving me a sales pitch and when I told her to stop with the sales pitch she just said she wasn't trying to sell me anything. But it still took me a loooooong time to get her to actually do it. I told her that I had been on the phone for about an hour and I wanted my service canceled so I could get to work and she told me that I couldn't speak to her like that?!?! Not many, if any, of you know me personally but I can tell you that I have the patience of a chopping block and I very rarely raise my voice to anyone, including her, so that just dumbfounded me even more.

I have several other example of idiots on the phone but I'm sure you all do to so I won't bore you further. ;)

Just read that and sounds like what i got yesterday with 3 that i typed up there!

Another thing was the automated service wouldnt let me speak to someone until i selected YES to do a survey everytime i selected NO it cut me off!

[bigstu]

sounds like you had what i had with "3" yesterday trying to cancel the phone contract i have for the Mrs. The guy was demanding to talk to her, asking if we had fell out, saying he was going to call her mobile and hang up on me, and trying to sell me everything. All i wanted to do was cancel my account and i had to actually shout at him to get him to do it and i have never had to do this ever but he was excessive and annoying nosey and patronising.

exactly the same!

annoyingly nosey - when we were talking about usage limit, he said "what do you use the internet for" & i said "i don't download a lot of stuff" & he replied "that's not what i asked you, i asked you what you use the internet for, so exactly what do you use it for", i was thinking 'what the f*** has it got to do with you'! :brickwall

Patronising - he kept treating me like an idiot, like when i got the terms 'usage limit' & 'download limit' mixed up he said something along the lines of "let me explain this slowly to you, there is a difference between a download limit & a usage limit" :brickwall

Rude - the conversation started with me saying "hi, can i please downgrade my internet package" & him replying "no" & then there was silence, he didn't even have the courtesy to explain why. I assume he was expecting me to say bye & hang up after he had said one word!! I had to drag that out of him & it's because i have a 12 month contract & that means you can't downgrade even if you aren't getting what you are paying for.

I agree with someone above though, you can get bad customer service from any company.

[Judas Iscariot]

Virgin Media are PASH!!


Sky FTW :agree:

[MyJo]

Virgin Media are absolutely awful for thier customer service and have been ever since they were telewest, very very rarely did i ever have a conversation with them that didn't infuriate me and when we cancelled with them when moving house it resulted in three months of threatening us with legal action and instructing bailiffs to recover a debt from us that didnt exsit.

Sky on the other hand have been superb since i joined them 4 months ago :agree:

Buying the services was a doddle, the guy i spoke to in the sales centre was brilliant as we were in a brand new built house and didnt even have a phoneline so he checked the details of someone else in our street that had already signed up to tell me that i would only get 2mb broadband and advised me not to waste £10 a month on the top package that i wanted.

I had problems setting up the wireless router and the customer support got it sorted in one phonecall.

We bought new furniture and wanted the sky box put in another position but didnt have enough cable, they had an engineer out to us the next day to reroute the system to where we wanted it without problems.

My telly has started flickering recently and i discovered that the Thomson Sky+ box i have is incompatible with Samsung LCD tv's and thats the problem....called customer support yesterday and explained the situation, they were more than happy to help and we have another engineer coming out tomorrow to replace the box with a different make to resolve it.

Yes, sometimes i have to speak to someone in an Indian call centre and say my postcode 7 times but i've never had bad service from them.

'mon the sky :greengrin

[Zeberdee]

There's certain ways to deal with these people which usually ensures you get good customer service. Unfortunately you probably only learn these if you actually work in a call centre for a period of time.

Ive got greats deals and service from Scottish Hydro, British gas homecare, Sky, Setanta, o2, elephant and prestige insurence over the last few months.

Be nice but assertive is the easiest way to explain it and dont get rilled up under any circumstances. any one else who's worked in a call centre agree?

[jakki]

I have been with Telewest now Virgin Media for about 15 years. As I have a forest between my bungalow and the signal from Sky, I cannot get Sky and have to put up with cable. Every 6 months or so, I phone up with a complaint, usually picture freezing and tell them that I could get a better deal from Sky. I have had 6 months half price subscriptions, 1 month free phone calls(I was never off the phone to family and friends in America, Canada and Australia for that month hardly slept a wink lol)etc...They don't want to lose a good paying customer:greengrin

The package I am on now is Virgin xl with Sky Movies,Sky Sports, Sentanta, Telephone and Broadband for £47 a month inc VAT which I think is a no bad deal.

Tomorrow, I'm going to phone up and try to get the better + box and another box in the bedroom, my complaint will still be frequent lose of sound and I want to prove that its not my TV and can only prove it happens on my bedroom TV at the same time. The secret is to be calm and have the solution to your problem ready and also a good long history with them :greengrin

[Jay]

There's certain ways to deal with these people which usually ensures you get good customer service. Unfortunately you probably only learn these if you actually work in a call centre for a period of time.

Ive got greats deals and service from Scottish Hydro, British gas homecare, Sky, Setanta, o2, elephant and prestige insurence over the last few months.

Be nice but assertive is the easiest way to explain it and dont get rilled up under any circumstances. any one else who's worked in a call centre agree?

I think thats good advice but you still get some numptys. A few years back when we were with Telewest we lost Nickelodeon without warning. My kids watched it a lot so I phoned to see why it was gone and if I could get another package including it again. I got a lovely woman on the phone who told me telewest had fallen out with Nickelodeon and it wouldn't be coming back and if I didn't like it I could go elsewhere! I was really taken aback at her attitude as I hadn't said anything in any manner to get her on her high horse! I did tell her to stick it up her backside and I would go to Sky after that though! 30 days notice was promptly given and I haven't had any bother from Sky. We still have Broadband and phone with Virgin but I would love to change. we dont have a BT line though and it would cost us a fortune to get one put in so we are kinda stuck just now.

[PC Stamp]

There's certain ways to deal with these people which usually ensures you get good customer service. Unfortunately you probably only learn these if you actually work in a call centre for a period of time.

Ive got greats deals and service from Scottish Hydro, British gas homecare, Sky, Setanta, o2, elephant and prestige insurence over the last few months.

Be nice but assertive is the easiest way to explain it and dont get rilled up under any circumstances. any one else who's worked in a call centre agree?

Never worked in a call centre but a little bit of forethought would tell you that a good number of the calls these people take are likely to be from irate customers. Now when someone comes on ranting and raving at you it doesn't exactly motivate you to help them much when it's not actually yopur fault in the first place and you are there as a point of contact initially!

However if you go on and explain your problem calmly and rationally they are usually so surprised that their ears are getting a break that they'll do all they can for you to avoid taking a calll from another moaner!

[jakki]

I think thats good advice but you still get some numptys. A few years back when we were with Telewest we lost Nickelodeon without warning. My kids watched it a lot so I phoned to see why it was gone and if I could get another package including it again. I got a lovely woman on the phone who told me telewest had fallen out with Nickelodeon and it wouldn't be coming back and if I didn't like it I could go elsewhere! I was really taken aback at her attitude as I hadn't said anything in any manner to get her on her high horse! I did tell her to stick it up her backside and I would go to Sky after that though! 30 days notice was promptly given and I haven't had any bother from Sky. We still have Broadband and phone with Virgin but I would love to change. we dont have a BT line though and it would cost us a fortune to get one put in so we are kinda stuck just now.

I too lost Nickelodeon which my grandchildren watched when I babysat and they gave me the Disney Channel and Disney Movie Channel at no extra cost. If you get a More Than My Jobs Worth agent, get back the next day and tell the new agent that you were so so disappointed with the conversation. They will normally give you a good deal:thumbsup:

Get back to Virgin, explain that you would like all the bills from one provider and what would be the cost, explaining that you will be doing a comparison with Sky. Do not let them know that you do not have a BT line.

Keep calm and tell them that you thought it would be cheaper. Don't accept the 1st price offered.

Good luck- You've nothing to lose

[jamesg]

Just moved into a new flat and was debating on who to go with and decided on sky cause the house was built with the sky sockets and a dish that serves the whole stair anyway arranged to get the tv through them but was gonna hold back with internet to see if i could get a good deal elsewhere, although its a new build bt still wanted 125 pounds to come out and connect me even though the flat has new bt sockets, **** that me says i'll phone sky and cancel and just go with telewest when sky tels me there policy is to pay you back the 125 that bt charge you,great methinks so i gets it all done and ask sky for the 125 which they say i have to also get the phone through them and internet to qualify for the refund, no problem i think cause reading an advert in paper says they will give me internet and phone and basic tv for bout 16 a month, a ****ing steal me thinks till they tell me i cant get that deal cause its not available in my area,**** sake i live in edinbra i says when will it be available, when bt update she saysso it was gonna cost me bout 40 bucks a month which was not to bad and i was going to go ahead with it till tiscali told me they would give me the lot and a better phone package and internet package with the same tv i'm watching now for a massive 24.99 a month, nae prizes for guessing who i'm with now, and its not bad i tell you.

ps for the poster who cant get the sky package cause its to expensive for bt to come out as long as you get all sky packages they pay you back cash you pay bt.(fingers are sore now, some story haha)

[jamesg]

Forgot to add that you still need a bt connection for tiscali but unlike sky you dont pay bt anything cause tiscali take over the line so its a one of payment every month that stays the same unless yir a bam and use yir house phone to call mobiles, and on another thought i had sky tv for a good month before bt connected me up so what happened to the story u need bt landline to get sky tv?

[jakki]

I feel that with all the call centres, if you're lucky enough not to get one who has not made their daily/weekly sign up/keep with us critier , the skys the limit.Keep phoning up til you get a good deal
:greengrin

[SlickShoes]

Forgot to add that you still need a bt connection for tiscali but unlike sky you dont pay bt anything cause tiscali take over the line so its a one of payment every month that stays the same unless yir a bam and use yir house phone to call mobiles, and on another thought i had sky tv for a good month before bt connected me up so what happened to the story u need bt landline to get sky tv?

Tiscali are a horror show, you should read up about them before joining up!

They billed me for a year after i ended my contract with them and i even moved house and they were threatening legal action. Horrible company, awful service, awful product. I could go into more detail about them but it would turn into a total rant, it was a saga that lasted far too long!

[MyJo]

There's certain ways to deal with these people which usually ensures you get good customer service. Unfortunately you probably only learn these if you actually work in a call centre for a period of time.

Ive got greats deals and service from Scottish Hydro, British gas homecare, Sky, Setanta, o2, elephant and prestige insurence over the last few months.

Be nice but assertive is the easiest way to explain it and dont get rilled up under any circumstances. any one else who's worked in a call centre agree?

Spot on :agree:

Working on the telephone myself i can tell you for a fact that talking to the person on the other end of the phone like a bit of crap gets you absolutely nowhere...in fact its probably likely to make the person your speaking to even more stubborn.

Be calm and assertive and you'll get a resonable professional response most of the time, if your complaining about something dont talk to the person like its all thier fault because they dont care, your just a voice on the end of the phone that probably wont get them again if your 'accidentially' cut off. start by explaining the situation rather than launching into a rant and you'll find that most of the people on the phones are sympathetic to your problem because hey they are humans too.


Forgot to add that you still need a bt connection for tiscali but unlike sky you dont pay bt anything cause tiscali take over the line so its a one of payment every month that stays the same unless yir a bam and use yir house phone to call mobiles, and on another thought i had sky tv for a good month before bt connected me up so what happened to the story u need bt landline to get sky tv?

You dont need a BT line to get Sky TV installed with just a normal box......however no phoneline means no interactive services and no pay-per-view etc but it can still be done.

However if you are having Sky+ or HD installed it MUST have a phoneline to work properly :nerd:


I feel that with all the call centres, if you're lucky enough not to get one who has not made their daily/weekly sign up/keep with us critier , the skys the limit.Keep phoning up til you get a good deal
:greengrin

:agree: your best bet is to skip the customer service people and ask for customer relations, these people have a 'customer budget' with which to work to to keep you as a paying customer so your always likely to get a discount if your a decent paying customer with a reasonable greivance.

[IWasThere2016]

Virgin Media are PASH!!


Sky FTW :agree:

:agree: SKY's the nuts!