topic Re: Another Sky rip off in Sky Q

Another Sky rip off

Lgoona — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 16:01:41 GMT

Been a loyal customer for 16 years taken the increases and not being looked after like new customers. I have the full package and broadband.

Want UHD that I have on my TV with Prime/Netflix etc to be told I have a basic Q box and have to pay £99 to upgrade the box!! I can't have Sky Stream or Glass as the broadband supplied by sky isn't good enough (which is free with them) I have called retentions as in so fed up to be told there is nothing they can do. So for £99 they are happy to lose 16 years of business at over £100 a month. Shocking customer loyalty service

Re: Another Sky rip off

PandJ2020 — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 16:07:22 GMT

Yup, everyone has to pay to upgrade the capabilities of their box. £99 is the going rate.

Re: Another Sky rip off

Lgoona — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 16:09:05 GMT

So even though I pay top dollar the equipment provided is sub standard and I can't use stream or glass as the broadband they supply isn't good enough to run it? It's insane

Re: Another Sky rip off

daveNOS — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 16:29:35 GMT

@Lgoona wrote:
So even though I pay top dollar the equipment provided is sub standard and I can't use stream or glass as the broadband they supply isn't good enough to run it? It's insane

@Lgoona The equipment supplied isn't sub standard, just like most equipment nowadays there are different versions and if you want one that supplies all content you have to pay for that.

When it comes to broadband thats a little different as its out of Sky's hands as to what they can supply, they can only offfer the speeds that the infastructure provided by Openreach can supply.

Re: Another Sky rip off

PandJ2020 — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 17:22:35 GMT

@Lgoona wrote:
So even though I pay top dollar the equipment provided is sub standard and I can't use stream or glass as the broadband they supply isn't good enough to run it? It's insane

Perhaps it's insane but if you want a UHD/HDR box then you'll have to pay the £99. (More insane that you don't actually own it either!)

Re: Another Sky rip off

TimmyBGood — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 17:29:00 GMT

@Lgoona wrote:

So even though I pay top dollar the equipment provided is sub standard

The default main Sky Q box since late 2019 has been capable of UHD/HDR. Prior to then, all 2TB models could do UHD but the cheaper 1TB could not.

and I can't use stream or glass as the broadband they supply isn't good enough to run it?

If you are on a copper connection too far from the fibre cabinet to work for Glass/Stream then no other Openreach ISP could supply anything better.

Re: Another Sky rip off

Lgoona — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 18:18:25 GMT

Exactly, pay £100 for it but you don't own it.....if you are a sky platinum VIP it should be a factor imo

Re: Another Sky rip off

Daniel0210 — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 18:31:02 GMT

@Lgoona

VIP status has no relevance in these circumstances.

Re: Another Sky rip off

cuke — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 09:51:40 GMT

@Lgoona wrote:
Exactly, pay £100 for it but you don't own it.....if you are a sky platinum VIP it should be a factor imo

Financially you are better off not owning it as the cost to purchase a replacement SkyQ box if it fails is much greater.

Re: Another Sky rip off

Roger17 — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:36:35 GMT

@Lgoona Its just another one of skys ways of making money, Pay for HD, Pay for UHD, pay for multiroom, and if you want HDR and been with Q from the start that will be £99 thank you. It wouldnt be too bad if the base package was cheap, but thats no longer the case. I recently left after 25 years and do not miss it one bit, there are so many legal alternatives out there without having to sign up with Sky, Virgin or any of the other bundle providers.

Re: Another Sky rip off

Mister_Dalek — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:45:52 GMT

@Lgoona

If your current box is faulty in any way then you can ask for it to be replaced free of charge.

Whilst you are supposed to get a like for like replacement, this is frequently not the case. You may end up with a UHD/HDR capable box. This happened to me when I had Q - I got a shiny new v3 box free of charge. No upgrade fee necessary.

Re: Another Sky rip off

TimmyBGood — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 11:15:14 GMT

@Roger17 wrote:

Its just another one of skys ways of making money,

Which is actually the point of being in business, of course, otherwise Comcast stockholders would be rightfully upset...

Re: Another Sky rip off

Roger17 — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 12:38:11 GMT

@TimmyBGood I didn't say Sky was not in business to make money, its the way they do it. I was unhappy with the constant price rises and little add ons for very little value and the non transpancery of thier pricing structure. The same programing can be got at a fraction of the cost legally for what Sky charge, , if you and are prepard to pay that price thats up to you. As time goes on and Skys non sport content reduces, and they lose exclusive rights to HBO in the UK next year, they will have very little to offer apart fom a bundled package that can be got in parts elsewhere for a lot less. I suppose its a bit like booking a holiday yourself or taking a package, if you are prepared to put everything together yourself you save alot of money if you are not you pay the going rate. My monthly bill has reduced from £150 with Sky including 70MB Broadband to £45 including 500MB Fibre with no in contract price rises. Perhaps £105 a month is nothing to you but it certainly is to me.

Re: Another Sky rip off

JFFF — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 17:14:37 GMT

I just cancelled after 16 years they want me to pay almost double the price that they are offering new customers- no customer loyalty

Re: Another Sky rip off

Daniel0210 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 17:28:16 GMT

@JFFF

Better discounts are offered to new customers as an incentive for them to join. Most providers now do this. You'll have probably benefited from such offers in the past.

As you have now chosen to leave and go with another provider then in 18/24 months you'll be in the same position with that provider and if you want you'll be able to return to Sky as a new customer and gain whatever benefits are available at that time.

Re: Another Sky rip off

oj01 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 17:28:17 GMT

@JFFF wrote:
I just cancelled after 16 years they want me to pay almost double the price that they are offering new customers- no customer loyalty

Pretty sure that the current new customer discount isn't anywhere approaching 50%.

Re: Another Sky rip off

DaveDrizen — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:19:53 GMT

I agree it's right ripoff that Sky give you a subscription add on for uhd pictures and you box is not capable of producing uhd. And when you ask for one they say you got to £99 to give you one.

Re: Another Sky rip off

Laing1 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:45:53 GMT

@DaveDrizen wrote:

I agree it's right ripoff that Sky give you a subscription add on for uhd pictures and you box is not capable of producing uhd. And when you ask for one they say you got to £99 to give you one.

@DaveDrizen thats very unusual as Sky don't normally allow you to add the UHD subscription if you have a non-UHD box in fact there have been reports of Sky not allowing customers to take out a UHD subscription due to Sky thinking they have a non UHD box . Normally this turns out to be because a customer has had a replacement box which is UHD capable but Skys system has not been updated.

Sky have alway charged to upgrade the box to a UHD version

Re: Another Sky rip off

DaveDrizen — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 19:46:29 GMT

In my situation I origanaly had a non uhd SkyQ box one with a sprate power supply. How ever this box when faulty and replaced with latest box at the time with one with a built power unit and uhd. This was done without extra charge so I can watch uhd as I was given the add on as pare of my presents package. But if you are unlucky to have old box that not capablt of uhd Sky will charge for just swooping it over and it still on loan. To me something there sound extremely fishier and very sharp practice.

Re: Another Sky rip off

nigea99 — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 20:10:15 GMT

@DaveDrizen wrote:

In my situation I origanaly had a non uhd SkyQ box one with a sprate power supply. How ever this box when faulty and replaced with latest box at the time with one with a built power unit and uhd. This was done without extra charge so I can watch uhd as I was given the add on as pare of my presents package. But if you are unlucky to have old box that not capablt of uhd Sky will charge for just swooping it over and it still on loan. To me something there sound extremely fishier and very sharp practice.

@DaveDrizen if you originally had a box with a separate power supply then you had a UHD/HDR capable box - there is only one type of box with the separate power supply (a 2TB UHD/HDR capable box - hardware version 32B1xxx - often known here as V2 boxes)