Sky charges for repairs to non-faulty digiboxes

net1

British Sky Broadcasting has denied accusations that the company tried to profit from a known software fault in its digital video recorders, after customers were charged £65 for engineers to visit their homes.

A recurring fault in the Sky+ system software causes recordings to fail for no apparent reason. The bug eats up space on the digibox's hard disk and, even after the failed recording has been deleted, the disk space is lost.

Although the problem has dragged on for two years, coming and going through various software updates, recent complaints from Sky+ customers have revealed an interesting development:

Customers whose digiboxes are still under warranty are told by Sky that the fault is known about and will be fixed with an automatic software update, downloaded by satellite. But customers whose digiboxes are out of warranty are told that it is a hardware fault and will require an engineer visit. This incurs a £65 call-out charge.



But calling twice as a customer whose digibox is out of warranty, both times we were told that it is a hardware fault and we would have to pay £65 for an engineer to fix it.

Refunds and retraining

Sky has so far been unable to explain the discrepancy in advice being given to customers, but a spokeswoman stressed that the company was "absolutely not" trying to profit by charging for unnecessary call-outs.

"We have had complaints from a small percentage of customers and we have confirmed that it is a software fault," the spokeswoman explained.

"We will review engineer call-outs on a case-by-case basis and although we can't make any promises with regard to refunds, some customers would receive a refund if the engineer was unable to fix the problem."

The spokeswoman acknowledged that "retraining" of some call centre staff may be necessary to ensure that customers are offered appropriate advice in future, regardless of whether or not their digiboxes are still under warranty.

Never miss a thing

This recording fault has been a long-term thorn in the side of Sky and thousands of customers who subscribe to the £10 per month Sky+ service.

Why the fault cannot be fixed permanently is a mystery, and some Sky+ users have come to dread the automatic software updates, knowing that the problem may re-appear at any time.

When the bug first struck, customers were infuriated by Sky insisting that there was nothing wrong. An extemporary campaign organised on an internet discussion forum resulted in a flood of complaints to Sky, but the company continued to deny the fault and denied receiving any complaints.

Concerns were heightened when it was discovered that a hidden menu option had been added to the engineer's menu on the Sky+ interface. "Planner Rebuild" seemed to serve no purpose other than to correct for the lost disk space caused by the recording bug. Rather than crushing the bug once and for all, it appeared that Sky had decided to simply work around it.

Much to the dismay and some ironic amusement of Sky+ users, the "Planner Rebuild" feature was a failure and has not solved the problem it was meant to fix.

Sky+ adverts infamously boasted that subscribers would "never miss a thing", a claim which has lead to Sky paying compensation to customers affected by the recording bug. The "never miss a thing" line does not appear in the latest round of advertising.

rolfw

Frightening, they seem to think that they can pull the wool over subscribers' eyes with these technical problems, not just the Sky + boxes either.

Rolf If you enjoy our site, you can help support it by wearing our unique branded merchandise, you can do this by clicking on my baseball cap, making a direct donation with Paypal by clicking on the Donation button below, or using our site supporting advertisers, to do this, click on the central image below. Follow us on Twitter, click on the twitter image.

BGonaSTICK

Amazing story. Gobsmacked.

Topper

Amazing..... not really just typical of the arrogance displayed by multi national companies. I'll bet they even give training courses to staff on how to lie to customers without losing any sleep at night. I know used to work for a multinational company and even 25 years ago we had to tell white lies to cover things up. Now they are more brazen about it.

War does not determine who is right, it determines who is left!

Formerly toppervte33h
whose six pack has turned into a keg

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Freddie Flintoff is back

Striker10

They're basically full of XXXX and if there was any competition in this country, even just a donkey with a 'gift' i'd rather view that then give these thieves anymore money.

RedDevil_UK

that story doesnt suprise me one bit at all....

i had sky for 7 years before it went digital, they came and installed a new dish and box... i paid £40 for
1 week later i had no picture, so i rang and complained they made an appointment for an engineer to call out a week later.
after having no picture for a week, the day of the engineer coming arrived..... he didnt!!! (and i had a day off work) so i rang sky they said he HAD been i said NO he hasnt ive been in all day waiting.

i made another appointment (another week) and the same time told them to put my account on hold as i dont want to pay for a blank screen, the lady was very nice and said she would also backdate it a week, great i thought.

before the engineer came we had a bill from sky?? full amount, i rang and asked if my account was on freeze they said no!! i explained the situation and told them i was waiting for an engineer, she said i would HAVE to pay the bill GRrrrr. i asked again to freeze the account till its sorted...

had another day off work to wait in for the engineer... guess what? he never bloody turned up again!!!
another phone call this time im really pissed off!!! i tell the woman, look either sort this out or you can stick this system up your arse!! i aint paying nothing till its sorted, and slammed the phone down (also felt good by the way).

i heard nothing for 3 weeks, i had actually given up on them by now anyway. then one night i get a phone call from sky asking why i hadnt rang them?? i said why should i? they said cos i have had a message on my screen for 2 weeks telling me to phone this number....
hahahah i said, your right i do have a message on my screen but it says NO SIGNAL.... again i had to explain what happened, she said we will send an engineer round, i said oh no you wont.... you can come and get your gear i dont want it. she said why? i said cos it dont bloody work!!!, eventually she said would send someone round.

6 months later box and dish went in the back of the bin waggon.....

i then got a nasty letter and taken to court for breach of contract... i lost and had to pay £120 plus legal fees of £35....I HATE SKY!!!!!!!

in court they say i was in breach of contract for not seeing the 12 months out that i signed for, i said they was in breach of contract for not supplying the channels i asked for..... no matter they didnt care. by the way they never once asked what happened to the equipment either??

if Ruperts reading this... come round to my house, i want to beat you badly and feed you to my dogs!!!!!! you bastid.

BGonaSTICK

Can't interest you in a subscription then?

RedDevil_UK

no ill stick to my Dreambox and watch it for free thanks

BGonaSTICK

Must say that I hate them too, and I've never even met them!

Actually, I did have them fit my free kit, and paid them the extra installation fee not to subscribe. The bloke spent about half an hour trying various F connectors, as "they're really tricky and cause us endless problems" or something like that.

Also, once he'd bolted the dish to my wall, he found he couldn't see Astra 2 and had to move it. More repair work for me to do.
I've worked for more than one global company, but never one that has so many black marks against its name. Everyone knows the tactics that some of these companies use, but these guys take the biscuit.

zansi

Seem's a "nice little earner" for Sky when software "upgrades" are sent, as a variety of digiboxes seem unable to cope, in particular Panasonic 30 and 31 models which have allsorts of problems now! The Pana 30 used to be the "Rolls Royce" of digiboxes but now is reduced to a un-reliable offering by new software sent by Sky.

I would be interested to know how many call outs were made by Sky and charged for this problem which was of their making.

zansi

net1

Being an ASA I get my for FREE.
LOL

rolfw

Being an A.R.S.E, I watch mine through my neighbour's window.

Rolf If you enjoy our site, you can help support it by wearing our unique branded merchandise, you can do this by clicking on my baseball cap, making a direct donation with Paypal by clicking on the Donation button below, or using our site supporting advertisers, to do this, click on the central image below. Follow us on Twitter, click on the twitter image.