SKY’S THE LIMIT
Some time ago we upgraded our Sky broadband to high speed fibre, and somehow got a new package on the TV contract. This involved a couple of bundles we weren’t watching. We were spending too much on something we weren’t even using.
Decision time!
Time went on and life got busy and in the way, and I didn’t get around to sorting this out until this past week.
Trying to sort things out online
I spent a long time one day earlier this week trying to sort this out online. It appears to be really easy to add bundles to your contract – just click a button, but trying to remove stuff is another matter. There is no quick solution. Eventually in the depths of the website I was able to find an electronic chat thingy, which really didn’t help much, and then they said they would pass me on to a real agent on the chat. I was warned there was a long wait, and this proved to be over half an hour. Then a message came up that the office was now closed. I was really annoyed.
Contact is no contact
Next day, I decided to phone them. Again, not easy to find a phone number. Increasingly these days on company websites, when it says “Contact us,” it doesn’t mean you can engage one to one with a real person, or even send an email. It just takes you to lengthy multiple choice questions. The reason you want to contact them is that your problem is more complicated and you need to talk to someone, so this is a fruitless exercise. Eventually I managed to find a phone number.
Real people do exist, if you can find them!
I spent the whole afternoon and part of the evening talking to real people, being passed back and forth, each spelling out different options at different prices. I could feel myself sinking into a kind of quicksand over this. Each one was helpful in their own way but the information was extremely complicated, and they each quoted me different prices because they weren’t factoring in this or that particular aspect.
Different options
He offered me the option to remove the packages I didn’t want, and I was happy to go with that, at a lower price than what we were currently paying. Then he offered me something completely different – a new TV which completely replaced the Sky boxes and satellite dish. This TV contained everything within itself and everything would run on the Internet rather than by satellite. The price kept coming down, which was very good news. There were separate prices for high speed broadband and TV (which we already had), and the new TV contract which was considerably cheaper, and with other channels and apps thrown in. Our smart TV was now pretty old, and I understood that technology has moved on greatly since we got it. I decided to go for this option.
In-credit-able!
Never once during these conversations was I told that the 48-month contract was actually a credit agreement, which was paying for the actual TV over that period. I assumed that it was similar to the previous Sky box system, where the equipment remained the property of Sky and we were in effect renting it.
I had finally agreed to go with this new system and they said they had to do a credit check. I didn’t understand why they would need to do this and they said it was part of the system. They did it, and said that the credit checking company had come up with something on my credit score, and they were not prepared to go ahead. I was still not told that I would be buying the TV on credit, even when they said that I could get round this problem by paying them several hundred pounds in one go! This came as a shock. They gave me the number of the credit checking company that they were dealing with and told me to find out what the problem was. I couldn’t understand why there would be a problem because I had not bought anything on credit for many years so my record should be clean.
The next day I phoned them, and they told me I could set up a free account which would give me access to my record without the bells and whistles that came with a paid account. I was given a link to set this up. This involved answering various questions about my identity etc. I got to the end, and clicked the final button to complete the setup, and it failed. I tried several times without success.
Identity crisis!
I phoned them again and reported the problem. They said they would require further documentary evidence of my identity, which included a “live” photo of me (done through their web page and my laptop’s camera), a utility bill proving my address, and a photo ID – either a passport, driving licence or European (I think) identity card. I do not have any of these documents, so I submitted my disabled blue badge which has photo ID, and it was rejected.
Discrimination
I spoke to them again and told them the problem. They simply kept reiterating that those were the only three photo IDs they would accept. I told them this was rank discrimination against what must be a large section of the population – elderly, disabled, housebound people who never travelled abroad, and didn’t drive. I also pointed out that photo IDs are not obligatory under the law of the land – when governments have attempted to introduce them, they have been rejected on the grounds of invasion of privacy. We had identity cards in time of war, but not since then. I asked if they could not make an exception for people like myself and they said no. There was therefore no way that I could proceed with completing the opening of an account with them, so I abandoned the attempt in high dudgeon.
Back to Sky again
It was now office closing time and there was nothing I could do until the following morning. I phoned Sky again and reported the problem and they said there was nothing they could do. The credit agreement couldn’t go through while there was a black mark (of unknown origin) on my credit record, and if the credit people wouldn’t do anything, there was no way forward. After all that work, time and hassle, and a very frayed temper on my part, I was prepared to chuck the whole thing out and consider that past couple of days a complete waste of time; I would simply ask them to remove the bundles I didn’t want (as I’d originallly intended), accept a higher price than what we’d eventually settled on, but lower than what I had been paying to date, and call it that. I told them that I thought it was wrong that I had to jump through all these ridiculous hoops – I have been a Sky customer for just one month short of 25 years and surely my loyalty to the company must count for something. I couldn’t understand the need for this credit check in the first place. It was only then that it was explained about how we were purchasing the TV. Not great communication on their part…
A solution to the problem
They then suggested that a way round this would be to start a new account with them in my husband’s name. I told them I did all the money stuff in our household and he wouldn’t want to be involved with that, but they said as long as he agreed verbally with them on the phone that he was happy to hand over the management of it to me, we could proceed. He was out at the time and did not return till after the office was closed, so I agreed to phone again in the morning.
We both spoke to them and they proceeded to open an account for him. They did the credit check on him, and it came back clean – phew! That was a relief. He was to take over the whole thing, including the broadband and phone.
Another major problem raises its head!
We were almost there, when they remarked almost as a throw-away afterthought, “You will have to change your phone number for the landline.” This was a complete bombshell. My hubby cannot carry on with his activities if we change the number – although he is retired, he is extremely busy still, and has many calls on his time and a very complex and extended set of contacts, with many phone calls coming in each day. We told them that keeping our landline number was non-negotiable, and if they were not prepared to accommodate us in this matter, we would have to cancel the whole thing. Back to square one again. By this time I was surprised I had any hair left…
Problem solved!
The agent asked us to hold the line while he checked with his superior. He came back after a few minutes and suggested that my hubby took on only the TV contract, and the phone and internet contract would remain with me. This way the number could remain the same. This was the answer to the problem, and we agreed to go ahead with that, so we now have two contracts with Sky!
The new TV arrives
The order for the new TV was put through, and it arrived today. In the meantime I set up my hubby’s online account on Sky’s website, and he will forward any emails he receives from them. My mobile number is connected with the account. In any conversation I have with them, I just have to give his “verbal password” to identify the account and all should be well.
After they had installed the TV for us, they contacted the office to inform them this was done. This has activated the account and cancelled the old one. In the next few days they will send me some packaging so I can return the various Sky boxes back to them (the satellite dish can remain). The first thing I did after this was to phone our landline to make sure it was still working, and it was, so that was OK. No doubt after the weekend we shall be receiving further emails with confirmatory details of our contracts.
Further setting up and familiarisation
After the TV had been installed, I tried to connect our ancient 5.1 surround sound system, without success. No SCART socket on the TV, of course, but on the old TV I had used a SCART-to-HDMI adaptor. This did not work. The amplifier I have been using also doubles as a DVD player which I haven’t used for years – as far as I can recall it no longer works. The machine was merely acting as an amplifier between the speakers and the TV. I have been doing some research into HDMI amplifiers, and there are many different ones to choose from, all without the speakers included, which is fine, because our speakers are wired around the room and are fine. I have left a couple of questions on the Amazon pages about them, to make sure they would be suitable, and I await further information. If it turns out that our old surround sound system is not going to work, we can live with the TV’s own built in sound which really isn’t bad, but I would prefer the surround sound which is excellent. We shall see.
I am still finding my way around the various menus etc. on the TV. It’s very different from the old Sky box system and there are fewer buttons on the remote; to do certain things you have to click your way through various on-screen menus which is a bit of a bore but no doubt I shall get used to it.
Conclusion
The result of all this is that we are paying considerably less than before; we have a brand new, up-to-date and beautiful TV (which we don’t own but are paying for on credit – not something I’m desperately keen about!) and a simpler system. We will no longer be having Sky’s multi-room set-up as we haven’t been watching the TV in Mum’s flat for ages, so why pay for it? My hubby has an old CRT TV in his study with a regular aerial on which he can watch Freeview channels and he also has a video cassette player and DVD player attached, and he is very happy with that setup. He is not technical and leaves all that side of things to me.
So, we have got to the end of this journey but my goodness what an uphill journey it was to get there!
