SKY vs Virgin (Cable)

B

Ballydoyle

At the Start
Joined
Apr 24, 2005
Messages
596
Timeline:

Tuesday - 8am leave home (london) with working internet/phone
Wednesday - 8pm arrive home from liverpool to be told no i/p since Tuesday pm
Wednesday - 9pm call SKY to advise no i/p and advised fault due to works to upgrade network will be fixed by midnight
Thursday - 6am still no i/p so call SKY via mobile to be told i have to buy a corded phone before they will run a test on the line
Thursday - 8pm call SKY to run tests and finally advised that BT have to be called as they cant find a fault but the tests show there is one probably outside but after several discussions SKY agree to waive £150 BT engineer charges as the fault is outside my property. Engineer booked for 8am-1pm Saturday
Friday -6pm get home to find i/p working so call SKY who advise it will cost £150 as I didnt call before 1pm to cancel. Spend 1/2 hr on phone being told its my fault because I didnt call up and its irrelevant that I was at work and that BT probably fixed the problem and not their fault that if the fault was fixed BT didnt tell them so I have to pay up. (Writing complaint letter to see if I can get refund)

SO ........

Do I keep with SKY because they have the better channels or do I go with Virgin and risk cable connections? We were with NTL pre-SKY and their service was shite!

Hubby furious at SKY and wants to leave (BTW I pay the bill!) but doesnt want to go to Virgin as we had bad experience several years ago with cable.

HELP!!!
 
Was with Virgin ages ago....crap, Sky do the job however got hoodwinked by this "deal" to go back to Virgin.

Was told by seller specifically package includes ESPN free and Racing UK free aswell as ALL sky sports in HD!!

On installation I returned home to find all above points not true and got them to remove it without charge immediately...back with Sky and staying with Sky
 
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Im with virgin but will change. Everyone i know with sky is happy enough. Virgin's service can be awful and their indian call centre ....enough said
 
Its the devil you know I suppose - they are tied by BT re the charges but why should I pay for an engineer not to come out when they (BT) have already fixed the problem. And you cant get them to come out WITHOUT agreeing to the £150 charge.

My nan got done by this earlier this year - 91 and deaf so they said she agreed to the charge. If they had said the earth was made of jelly she would have agreed! Engineer comes out cant find a problem so they charge her. 2 days later same problem again - line cut off - different engineer comes out and finds problem in 5mins. No refund.
 
Sky's tv is slightly better, virgins broadband is vastly superior
I've found virgins customer service is better now than it was a few years ago, virgins tivo box is better than skys hd box, and has a lot more free content.
ATR is free as is ESPN (with the XL tv package) on Virgin.
Unless its changed recently there are more HD channels with Sky (although virgin don't charge for the HD pack) and th esports 'red button' didn't work when I had virgin.

If you do go to virgin, go through a site like topcashback, you can get cash back for about £150 usually
 
I've had to have cable in our block of flats, as the freeholder has failed to install a communal sat dish and won't let us put up the mini-carbuncles on the building. I had NTL until Virgin took over, and no problems to speak of that aren't fixed right away, Indian call centre or not. And that's a bundle: broadband, landline, and tv with ATR and previously RUK.

I'm moving next month to where the reverse will be the case: no cable, but satellite. Most people I know have not had any bad experiences with Sky, either, so at some point I'll have it installed for just the tv as I'm going to be using a Dongle for the laptop and a mobile only for phone. It'll be interesting!
 
Oh and as an aside, theres no way in hell I would have paid the £150, and that would have been enough to make me leave (and probably get my tv by a naughty route just to screw them over a bit more :) )
 
krizon said:
I'm moving next month to where the reverse will be the case: no cable, but satellite. Most people I know have not had any bad experiences with Sky, either, so at some point I'll have it installed for just the tv as I'm going to be using a Dongle for the laptop and a mobile only for phone. It'll be interesting!
Click to expand...
The move to Dale Farm is on, then?
 
Ive just gone from sky to virgin - no problems so far although the grumpiest man in the universe who came to fit it (and looked at me like I was some sort of alien when i told him i didnt want the second box fitted to the crap telly in my back room before insisiting he fitted it as it was part of the deal) didnt show me how to use any of it (which im pretty sure he shoudl have done?) nor did he show me any form of ID when he arrived,(not in a virgin van either, was very weird - and had it have been my mother seeing them in rather than me I think id have told her she was an idiot!!) and told me that i have to ring a number and speak to the tech guys to set up my new broadband thing.

no problems so far (though the "bonk" noise it makes when you press the tv changer is bloody annoying!!) but I dindt have many with sky either, think Im one of the more lucky ones !!

(oh - and topcashback its £62 back if you change)
 
Yes - bloody annoying practice it is, too! And there's supposed to be a simple 'how to install' procedure which failed for me (natch), requiring a lengthy walk-through over the phone, sending of signals, blah-blah, before discovering that the set-top box was crapped-out, and a new one needed. Two more days with only terrestrial tv until that arrived with a bloke. They also don't check that your broadband is functioning - that, too, turned into another endless fart-about as, of course, it didn't work first time. :(
 
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