Switching from Sky to BT

[garreth64]

Has anyone done this recently, and what are your views of BT TV/Entertainment?

I had the dubious pleasure of cancelling Sky yesterday, and taking out a 12 month contract with BT.

I was paying Sky around £80 per month (Basic TV/Broadband/Phone) and have got the top BT package for £46. I don't really need the Ultra HD option as I haven't got a 4K TV, but it works out only £1 more per month and you get the newer 1TB Humax box. Also 4K downscaled to HD is meant to be slightly better from what I have read but will see.

You have to pay just over £80 for set-up and installation though (there is no self install option for the Ultra HD box which seems crazy), but I went through a cash back site and will get £60 cash back so this offsets most of the cost. You also currently qualify for a £125 Sainsbury's gift card once installed. This should save me a little under £500 over the next 12 months.

Biggest downside is that I lose the F1, but can still see half the races on BBC, and other sources are available. I've got less keen on it over the last few years anyway. Upside is that I will get BT Sport.

Other than that it includes 38MB unlimited infinity broadband, line rental and evening and weekend calls.

I'm hoping I won't miss Sky that much, as we do use our Kodi box a lot now for viewing.

Would be interested if anyone else has the BT Entertainment package though and views on it?

[garreth64]

Thanks. Apparently the latest Humax Youview box is a lot faster to use according to reviews such as this:

http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2015/revie...

Now TV is also an option for F1 I guess as well.

[garreth64]

sooty61 said:

Yes, just in the process of moving and it hasn't been plain sailing.

1. BT said they would transfer everything - I didn't need to do anything. WRONG - they cannot cancel your TV contract so now that is 3 weeks behind
2. The Sky BB/phone finished on 21/9 and the next bill was for 26/9-25/10. Sky said they would obviously not charge the BB/phone but would charge the TV with a small discount for the 5 days BB/phone. WRONG - Sky have charged me again for BB/phone when they are not providing it. Their response now is "that is the process - you get the money back at the end of October"
3. BT said they would include the basic TV package. WRONG - I have received nothing so I am now looking at a Freesat box to be able to record programmes. It's a shame I can;t recycle the Sky+ box but that seems impossible without re-entering into a contract with Sky
4. Thanks for the reminder - the offer included a Sainsburys voucher and I have not received anything
5. Sky and BT said there would be no loss of service of BB on switchover day. WRONG - when I woke up Sky had pulled the plug. BT did not come on line until the evening

So, not trouble free but reducing the bill from about £75 per month to £27.99 + calls (~£5). I will not get all the channels but I never watched them anyway and viewing has changed with Netflix/Amazon Prime anyway. I have also just discovered HD is broadcast on Freeview - Sky wanted to charge me to watch!

Anyone recommend a good PVR that is wife-friendly, reliable and quiet?

Sorry to hear of your woes.

1. BT shouldn't have said to you that they will transfer everything, as you say they can't cancel the TV. I did mine online and their website does tell you to contact your provider and cancel the TV, so that is why I called Sky.
2. I will watch out for this. Once I have paid my next bill I was tempted to cancel my DD and just pay them any small amount outstanding manually to avoid this.
3. If you ordered TV as well as broadband you should get a box that lets you pause and rewind, but to record you need the Entertainment plus package which I think is £10 from BT, or just get a freeview/freesat box as you say.
4. You need to remember to claim the voucher once you cut over, I'm not sure how yet, but I bet this catches a lot of people out. When I took out Sky Broadband there was an M&S Voucher offer but by the time I remembered they told me I should have claimed it and it was too late.
5. They shouldn't have told you this either, there is always an outage but it can be quite short, it sounds like you were out the whole day though.

Hope you get it all sorted.

[garreth64]

An update on my switch to BT.

First the good:

BT Hub 5 - arrived by courier last Wednesday - easy to set up.

Broadband - we were disconnected from Sky when we got up on Friday morning, and BT infinity came online about 12:30PM - Getting just over 40MB Down and 10 MB up so slightly faster than Sky initially.

BT TV - Engineer came out to install yesterday. Nice guy. I'd run all the cables in for him and it just needed plugging in and setting up. Waste of £40 quid and BT should really have a self install option.

The UHD box is great, faster and more responsive than my Sky HD box. Menu's seem simple to use and intuitive. Programmed my Harmony remote to use it. Picture quality initially seems good. Like it so far.

Now the bad:

Phone - Also disconnected early on Friday and as of Sunday eve still not working. No dial tone. When you call my number it goes through to a lady who now has my number instead of hers and doesnt know where her number has gone. We have both reported the issue to BT.

I had the hell of talking to some fkwit in mumbojumbostan yesterday after trying the web chat first (20 mins) and not getting anywhere. Tried to explain the problem - they won't fking listen or vary from their script. The call lasted 45 miserable minutes with highlights such as "I've tested the number and it is working sir" - 'no it isn't, it might be working but it is not ringing in my house', "can you unplug some cables, can you get a screwdriver and open your socket, blah, blah, blah" - 'no I can't, I just want an engineer to fix, it is a fault at your end'.

Asked to speak to a manager and wanted call escalated. "Manager is busy. Engineer can't come out until Wednesday. If it is found to be your fault we will charge you £129 etc etc" Ask for manager to call back. Promised call back between 2-4PM. 4 hours later no manger call back, fkwit calls back - "the Manager has escalated call and they are working on it straight away but it might not be fixed until Thursday". 'Why hasn't manager called me? I want to speak to him'. "Manager is busy, but call has been escalated" 'Aaaarrrggghhh, I'm losing the will to live'. I gave up in the end so their tactics probably worked!

So, all good when it works, but I'd forgotten how bad BT can be when it goes wrong. Problems happen, it is how you deal with them and respond that matters, so far they have proved to be as bad as I remember them to be before.