Trying to upgrade to sky+
Trying to upgrade to sky+
Author
Discussion

mr brightside

Original Poster:

1,797 posts

251 months

Friday 26th September 2008
quotequote all
I have been trying to upgrade to Sky+ from the standard box for the last week or so. Using the web site it totals £159 (£99 for the box and £60 for the installation).
Happy with that so proceed to pay and order. However at the last stage it then states that they cannot proceed with the order and I must call them.
So then you finally get through and the cost to upgrade now magically totals over £200.

It turns out they cannot provide the internet cost over the phone, even though they are the same company! I have tried to explain to them but they will not budge. They give no indication when the web site will be able to accept orders either.

If I was being suspicious I could say this was deliberate to extract more money, but surely that is against the law isn't it?

I suppose I could threaten to go to Virgin or something, but why should I have to do that when all I want to do is to pay their own advertised rate?

dave_s13

14,028 posts

298 months

Friday 26th September 2008
quotequote all
You can buy a Sky+ box, new LNB and a bit of cable off ebay for less than 90 quid.

Installation is dead easy, as is upgrading you account, which is free.

Dunno about the internet stuff though.

thebluebus

3,558 posts

246 months

Friday 26th September 2008
quotequote all
Introduce a friend, if you've got any.

Get plus box for nowt.

Then you only pay for the install.

JVaughan

6,025 posts

312 months

Friday 26th September 2008
quotequote all
call them and tell them you want to quit yoru subscription on unsatisfactory grounds.
the disconnects people have more power than the cust services.
tell them you want to orderonline but cannot.
alternativly, just cancel and take a new subscription in teh name of yoru wife / girlfrinds / mother.

and introduce them.
that way you both get £50 vouchers and a new box

grim_d

765 posts

219 months

Saturday 27th September 2008
quotequote all
dave_s13 said:
Installation is dead easy, as is upgrading you account, which is free.
Do you just phone them and tell them to upgrade it? dont they ask questions?

used to be extra a month did it not?

oobster

7,683 posts

240 months

Saturday 27th September 2008
quotequote all
It can take a few hours for them to switch on the + functionality but it's no longer £10 per month extra for Sky+

Agree with earlier poster - buy a box and install it yourself, or get a local indy to do it for you.

grim_d

765 posts

219 months

Saturday 27th September 2008
quotequote all
thats pretty sweet think i will hit up the ebay. i know what i need.

Sky HD still a tenner a month extra though can you set that up yourself too?

edit : i see the HD channels are still mince, so screw that, might set up multiroom though

Edited by grim_d on Saturday 27th September 19:27


Edited by grim_d on Saturday 27th September 19:30

grim_d

765 posts

219 months

Sunday 28th September 2008
quotequote all
£135 all in for a sky+ box with 2 remotes, a quad lnb with all the clips and cable, and an extra 20m of cable so i can put the old box in another room and sign up for multiroom.

could probably have done it for £110 but i went for what appears to be better cable/LNB.

I'll let you know how i get on when it comes through.

Markytop

637 posts

248 months

Sunday 28th September 2008
quotequote all
grim_d said:
£135 all in for a sky+ box with 2 remotes, a quad lnb with all the clips and cable, and an extra 20m of cable so i can put the old box in another room and sign up for multiroom.

could probably have done it for £110 but i went for what appears to be better cable/LNB.

I'll let you know how i get on when it comes through.
I'm looking to do the same soon - can you let me know who you got the package mentioned from as a quick search showed I can get the box and lnb for that price but the cable is all extra and soon adds a lot to the price if you want more than a couple of metres.

Silent1

19,762 posts

264 months

Sunday 28th September 2008
quotequote all
i fitted 30m of 'shotgun' cable, upgraded the LNB (and fitted it properly rolleyes) and bought one of the new PVR3 boxes, all for less than the cost of the sky cost and i got to choose the box i wanted.

grim_d

765 posts

219 months

Monday 6th October 2008
quotequote all
well i got my box today and upgraded my account.

-Good bits-

Wont miss programmes anymore (although i forgot to record fringe, doh, will have to catch the repeat on saturday)

Good to be able to pause TV

Optical audio out, that i like.

-bad bits-

Doesnt automatically cut adverts out of recorded shows (thought that was the half the point)

Theres a noticable delay between pressing a button on the remote and something happening on screen, sure i will get used to it but on my old box it was instant.

Even in standby mode the fan and harddrive are ON and it accesseses the harddrive every second or so, making the telltale clicking noise. This is not only annoying (as the box is at the bottom of my bed and i can imagine will be very annoying trying to sleep) but if i have to unplug it everynight i fear for corrupting data as it is obviously accessing somethings.

is there any way to "shut down" the box?


Captain Volvo

204 posts

228 months

Monday 6th October 2008
quotequote all
You tried pressing standby button I guess?

Mine is always on and it virtually silent - in lounge though so won't hear it in the night.

The Ben

1,623 posts

246 months

Monday 6th October 2008
quotequote all
I rang today to upgrade mine, he said it was £49 for the box and £30 installation fee, no higher line rental... so I agreed, gave them my card number he reale doff aload of crap blah blah blah.. then my signal went!!! doh! I waited 30 mins on the phone in the que couldnt be bothered to ring again... but thinking bout it, I have no idea if the money has come out of my account, but I was told that 21st of oct was the earliest it would be installed...

_Deano

7,414 posts

282 months

Monday 6th October 2008
quotequote all
grim_d said:
well i got my box today and upgraded my account.

-Good bits-

Wont miss programmes anymore (although i forgot to record fringe, doh, will have to catch the repeat on saturday)

Good to be able to pause TV

Optical audio out, that i like.

-bad bits-

Doesnt automatically cut adverts out of recorded shows (thought that was the half the point)

Theres a noticable delay between pressing a button on the remote and something happening on screen, sure i will get used to it but on my old box it was instant.

Even in standby mode the fan and harddrive are ON and it accesseses the harddrive every second or so, making the telltale clicking noise. This is not only annoying (as the box is at the bottom of my bed and i can imagine will be very annoying trying to sleep) but if i have to unplug it everynight i fear for corrupting data as it is obviously accessing somethings.

is there any way to "shut down" the box?
Lag is due to the slow hard drive that are installed in the boxes. You can change these though to a larger/quiter/less consuming drive, but it will invalidate your warrenty.

grim_d

765 posts

219 months

Monday 6th October 2008
quotequote all
yeah planning on upgrading the hard drive soon to a fast n quiet one, it really is silly.

Dogwatch

6,381 posts

251 months

Monday 6th October 2008
quotequote all
Sky+ never has had an Ad filter so sorry if you expected one, though has anyone made an effective one yet?

Part of the box problem could be outdated software. Might be worth ringing them (Remote>Services>phone numbers>Sky +) for an update. Takes quite a while to download though.

matc

4,737 posts

236 months

Monday 6th October 2008
quotequote all
The reason the harddive is always clicking etc. is because it records 60 minutes of whatever channel it is currently on, so you can rewind what you've been watching even though you've not set it too record. I think theres a way you can stop it recording constantly, that will probably shut it up.

anonymous-user

83 months

Tuesday 7th October 2008
quotequote all
grim_d said:
well i got my box today and upgraded my account.

-Good bits-

Wont miss programmes anymore (although i forgot to record fringe, doh, will have to catch the repeat on saturday)

Good to be able to pause TV

Optical audio out, that i like.

-bad bits-

Doesnt automatically cut adverts out of recorded shows (thought that was the half the point)

Theres a noticable delay between pressing a button on the remote and something happening on screen, sure i will get used to it but on my old box it was instant.

Even in standby mode the fan and harddrive are ON and it accesseses the harddrive every second or so, making the telltale clicking noise. This is not only annoying (as the box is at the bottom of my bed and i can imagine will be very annoying trying to sleep) but if i have to unplug it everynight i fear for corrupting data as it is obviously accessing somethings.

is there any way to "shut down" the box?
You will probably have "anytime" enabled. This is a service that downloads a load of bunkum to your hard drive when in standby that Sky thinks you would like to watch. It's mainly made up of programs you have to take the extra subscription packages out to watch, so is useless for the most part.

You need to go into the "Services" menu and then into "anytime" setup page and disable it.

Silent1

19,762 posts

264 months

Tuesday 7th October 2008
quotequote all
Keep Anytime running, everything on it is AD-free, i used it all the time. When you first install it, it's empty so it downloads 80gb of TV, once it's full it downloads far less and should be silent.

Silent1

19,762 posts

264 months

Tuesday 7th October 2008
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I thought it was odd too, we have ours in the drawing room and AV senders/recievers all over the house.