topic Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely... in Sky Stream

Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

horace — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 19:08:12 GMT

Long story short: Upgraded (not the right word, but hey...) from Q to Stream about a year ago. Nothing but trouble since then, but thought I'd finally found a way through the problems following some detective work by Eero support (who have been great) and a replacement puck from Sky (my customer service experience was beyond wretched, but that's for another thread).

Anyway, the replacement puck worked well for the first few weeks, but recently it has started behaving very strangely:

Turing the puck on using the remote usually (but not always) results in a delay of several minutes before the white power LED starts to flash. It then continues to flash for as much as six or seven minutes before the puck comes to life. I've tried power cycling it, several factory resets (Logging ni the all the apps again used to be a pain, but I can do it in my sleep now). Other issues include sound dropouts every two seconds (but only during ads - whaaat?), the puck powering itself off randomly (sometimes after only a few minutes use). Also, the white power LED is considerably dimmer than our other puck (I still have the power supply from the puck that was replaced and have tried that one without any improvement).

In all honesty, I;m pretty convinced the puck is faulty, but my experience in getting the previous one replaced was so unutterably horrible that I thought I'd just check for a second opinion before going down that rocky road again.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be very grateful.

As a final thought, can anyone suggest a route to follow in order to make a complaint to Sky - one they will take seriously? The standard method resulted in being ignored, multiple failures to follow up on promises of further contact, and finally my complaint being marked as 'resolved' without my agreement. Pretty poor, really. Is there a 'final boss' option?

Thanks!

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

horace — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 21:10:28 GMT

Once again, I find myself astonished that I cannot edit my post to correct typos.

Why, Sky, why?

Why should posters have to achieve some kind of numerical status to simply correct errors?

It's bizarre.

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

horace — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 14:36:20 GMT

Sky have agreed to replace the puck, so I should be up and running again soon.

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

Mark39 — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 14:55:16 GMT

FIngers crossed that this one does better. I can't comment on the issues you've had, which don't sound like a lot of fun, except for the dimness of the Puck's power LED That appears to be by design following a recent update. In my experience, the LED flashes brightly for a few seconds when the box is first turned on, then settles to an almost invisible dim, white. The same happens with the red power LED on the Glass TV as well.

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

horace — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 23:26:04 GMT

Thanks - new puck on course for delivery today, so we'll see...

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

Chodley — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 04:32:18 GMT

@horace wrote:
Once again, I find myself astonished that I cannot edit my post to correct typos.

Why, Sky, why?

Why should posters have to achieve some kind of numerical status to simply correct errors?

It's bizarre.

I imagine it's so that spammers can't come in, write one thing and then change it to make everyone feel silly.

it's a constant threat to our way of life.

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

Dazzasky — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:33:04 GMT

@horace wrote:
Once again, I find myself astonished that I cannot edit my post to correct typos.

Why, Sky, why?

Why should posters have to achieve some kind of numerical status to simply correct errors?

It's bizarre.

Hi @horace You need to be on level 3 before you can start editing your own posts and when you can you only have a short window to do so.

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

Chodley — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:56:46 GMT

@Dazzasky wrote:
@horace wrote:
Once again, I find myself astonished that I cannot edit my post to correct typos.

Why, Sky, why?

Why should posters have to achieve some kind of numerical status to simply correct errors?

It's bizarre.
level 3

I think that's the numerical status he was referring to.

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

BC1956 — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 08:33:36 GMT

I think this says alot!

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

Chodley — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 10:17:23 GMT

"a lot"

"alot" is not a word.

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

BC1956 — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 19:38:21 GMT

A lot

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

horace — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 22:18:42 GMT

Those reviews are not encouraging. Whilst I don't doubt that there are many people out there who have had no issues with Sky Stream, my experience has been pretty miserable - endless failures to connect to internet (via wifi and ethernet). 'Please wait for your programme to load', 'Don't waste any more of your life hoping this will ever work properly for you', 'It's not us, it's your internet provider/router', 'it's your settings' (no, it flippin' well isn't) etc etc.

On the plus side, the replacement puck appears to be working perfectly. It starts up at lightning speed and is very slick in operation. Having been through a few pucks now, I'm genuinely surprised by the level of sample variation. I'm just one individual user, but the difference between a 'good' puck and a 'bad' one is far more significant than it ought to be IMHO. I do wonder what the return rate due to hardware or firmware faults is.

I understand that there are lots of permutations of router firmware from various manufacturers, other foibles that are introduced by ISPs, issues with wifi networks that can often be difficult to diagnose - all that stuff. The bottom line, however, is that Nvidia's Shield TV and Amazon's Fire Stick (we own two of each of those) work fine in our house. It's very hard to know exactly what the problems with Sky Stream actually are, but it does appear that Sky need to spend some time making their hardware/software more widely compatible.

I've already had a pop at Sky's customer service. In truth, it's pretty good in many ways - my bills have always been right, the call centre staff are commendably consistent in their professionalism and courtesy, and the simple things are resolved quickly. The problem, in my experience, is the limited script that the customer service staff have to work from. If your issue takes them beyond the realms of their individual responsibility it can all fall apart very quickly. My first replacement puck delivery failed and was returned to Sky by DPD, but a system error resulted in the puck being stuck in an 'on the way back to Sky' loop. OK, says I, you know it's on the way back to you, so please send a replacement. Sadly, I had to endure nearly three weeks of 'Sorry, computer says no. Not until the system error is cleared'. Sigh.

I've resisted the temptation to cancel my subscription (the War and Peace nature of the support notes on my account would easily justify that option, I've no doubt) because Sky Stream really does have fantastic potential, not to mention that it has no real competition as far as I know.

Fingers crossed for an improved version of the puck, if that's what it will take.

Oh, and I've just noticed I've been promoted to Level 3, so correcting my shockingly careless typing finally becomes possible. You lucky, lucky people!

😁

Re: Sky Stream puck behaving very strangely...

horace — Fri, 02 May 2025 18:16:05 GMT

Further to my post above, I've timed the new puck a few times. It goes from standby to the menu screen (ready to go) in about 4 seconds! This is way, way quicker than any of the other pucks I've had, and about 3 times faster than the other puck we are using (in the lounge).

I've checked all the settings, fimware etc - identical.

Just had an email from Sky reminding me that I will be out of contract on 2nd June, and would I like to recontract for a further 2 years with a hefty price increase? Erm, no.

On this occasion, I really am prepared to walk away if I can't secure a good deal.

We'll see.