Faulty doorbell and useless customer service

[rich1068]

Just a bit of a rant before this lot gets chucked back in the box and written off as next to useless.

I took out Sky Protect with the bundled chime, doorbell etc earlier in the year but I didn't get the equipment set up until a few weeks ago. Mooching round the house and thought "I know what I'll do...!" So charged the doorbell, set up the chime, paired the doorbell, drilled holes in the wall outside, set up the indoor camera. All good. Then I realised that the doorbell wasn't recording events such as someone being detected or pressing the button. And this coupled with usually not receiving a notification of an event for a good 10 to 15 minutes after made me seriously question its use. Live view works but to be honest I don't spend all day watching the little screen on the off chance someone is at my door. Tried all the switching off, switching on, rebooting, uninstalling/reinstalling the app, la la la, no difference. Oh, it also doesn't like cold weather. Battery from 80%+ to zero overnight.

Nothing else for it, I'll contact customer service through the Sky Protect app. The doorbell is clearly faulty. I'm sure they will send another. The text conversation started 30th August and has involved multiple agents all asking the same questions, asking me to do the same things, promises of second tier support, me sending screenshots and repeating over and over the issue. I think the most irritating thing apart from nothing getting done is that I can wait hours for a reply and because I'm not contantly monitoring the app they then say "Well if there's nothing else we'll close this chat" like they've actually done something! 13th September I said I'm still waiting for an update, they say "Oh yes, I'll do that now" (??), 15th September "Let us know if there's anything else", 16th September "Closing this conversation". Great.

So unless someone can help me here it's going in the bin.

[LotusGreg]

Binned ours just under 4 weeks ago. That was after nearly a year of back and forth with the next to useless customer service. All the usual faults, battery, lack of notifications, night vision not switching on (or off) tablet not compatible(?) dropping connections to sensors, the list goes on. 

We had equipment exchanged, were paid compensation, and just to rub salt in the wound, when we said we would prefer to have just the insurance and forget the "smart tech" they quoted us a price that was over £90 a year more expensive!!

We now have a Ring doorbell/camera. Easy to install, battery lasts for ever (nearly 4 weeks now and still 59% charge) video playback is spot on, notified if someone approaches the door and again if they ring the doorbell. Compatible with Amazon Alexa (throughout the house) works fine on mobile and tablet. Subscription service for all recordings is £49.99 per annum and allows downloads and playback anytime.

I cannot understand how Sky can still promote their rubbish. They even have the ad with the giant and the beanstalk still - according to their own customer service, the distance between doorbell and router would make this impossible to work! It's a joke, and absolute farce and they should recall the lot and accept that they have been sold a load of rubbish by their supplier.

[rich1068]

Thanks for the reply @LotusGreg Does all sound very familiar. And the switching from night to day mode, mine has started doing this since my previous post! 

I've discussed this with my wife and though the kit doesn't do what it should we've decided to keep the doorbell up more as a deterrence than anything else. It lights up and looks like the real thing but it's just the modern equivalent of those dummy alarm boxes people used to fit on the outside of their houses.

And that bloody advert with the giant. Don't get me started on that! Me, fast forwarding through it, muttering to myself whenever I'm watching something on a Sky channel. 

I do hope people do their homework before signing up for this kit. I'm sure some have no bother but if it goes wrong you're on your own. Customer service clearly couldn't care less.