DNS, HDR and losing the will to live...

[Chodley]

Sure. Done

[Lisa-P1987]

Thanks for escalating, however our chat is still active and open with @Craigv9.

There has been engagement on both sides within the last 2 hours. 

[Chodley]

@Lisa-P1987 oh weird. Maybe he lost track of the chat popup earlier

[Craigv9]

Very long story short...

Sky TV and broadband customer. Left Sky broadband at the start of October. Their speeds are abysmal and I'm a rural customer. A rural broadband provider stepped in with gigabit broadband...happy days

From day one of that broadband service, Sky's on demand downloads have had a near 50% failure rate ('failed: remote server problem')

Searching these forums revealed the very specific problem and very specific solution...all my issues, failure rates, error messages ALL matched the lroblem and solution presented

Sky has 2 servers upon which they store their on demand content....like some other broadband providers, it appears my ISP is only 'whitelisted' (allowed access) to one of them...hence the 50% failure rate on downloads...

The solution? Sky simply ticks a box somewhere and allows my ISP access to the other server...

Except, talking to customer services is like lobotomising yourself using a brick wall. They wanted to send an engineer out. I told them that was pointless. I linked them to the forum post. I gave them the solution. They clearly dont understand it or care

The engineer came out. I showed him the problem and solution. He said his visit was pointless and that my ISP needed to be whitelisted...we agreed on that!

A complaint has now been lodged because I was promised a solution with 72 hours...that's not happened. 

I've even been put to work by Sky...doing daily downloads, logging times, dates and failure messages and sending them in. Not sure why, as customer services today confirmed nothing is being done with them?!

Customer services obviously know nothing of 'whitelists' and don't get past the 'turn it on and off again' flowchart

Their suggestion this morning was for ME to trawl the forums, find the poster who provided the solution and ask them which Sky person / department resolved the issue for them because customer services can't resolve it 'and don't know who to contact'?!?

I understand Sky have just lost £200m and I can see why. Their 'get up and go' has got up and gone. There's no creativity, thinking outside the box, nor professional curiosity. No one I've spoken to since being 'escalated' has even asked who my ISP is?!? No one can confirm or deny that my ISP is or isn't whitelisted. Someone has stated this isn't the issue? How do they know? They are refusing to speak to my ISP (my ISP told me this, not Sky, obviously)

The whole thing is baffling. I'm locked in to a 12 month contract, but rang this morning and gave 1 months notice. Sky have said they won't hold me to my contract due to the unresolved issue and seems very happy to leave it at that

I have made a complaint. I will refer the matter to Ofcom. I understand not maintaining an up to date whitelist is a serious matter, it's seen as anti competitive as it forces you to stay or return to Sky if you want the service they are denying your new ISP

I guess my question is kinda simple

If the problem is known (it is)

And the solution is known (it is)

Why won't Sky fix this?

Have I just been unlucky by being blocked at ground level or is this a genuine attempt to block competition?

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but I cannot fathom why they wouldn't action the solution that's available to them?

Does anyone know anyone at Sky that actually sorts out these issues? A hands on tech guy, so I can go round customer services and deal with someone who can get this sorted?

It's kind of a matter of principle now because it leaves me wondering how many other customers Sky are blocking. I'm sure Ofcom will look in to that

All very strange and frustrating!

[lettice]

Often the solution we have seen for others with a similar problem is to escalate this to our Messaging team, who can investigate for you.

Who is your new ISP by the way to help others going forward?

So, I've escalated this to Sky and they should be in touch with you soon about it.
Look out for a message from Sky on your email and Sky Community private messages.
Look out for the blue chat bubble within your Sky community.
More about an escalation here;

[Lisa-P1987]

Hi there, we have an active chat with this customer at the moment. The issue is not as simple as the other GEO location/Whitelisting. 

We are actively investigating this, 

[PandJ2020]

<deleted> as being investigated 

[TimmyBGood]

I'd observe that no sensible organisation lets frontline support anywhere near something as fundamental as whitelists: what there should be is an internal escalation path from CS to netops where something like that is suspected.

[Craigv9]

Unfortunately I do not believe Sky are being transparent re this issue:

The problem is explicitly outlined in their community forums, as are the symptoms, including a near 50% failure rate for on-demand downloads and a specific error message 'Failed remote server problem'

These are the EXACT symptoms I am experiencing as well as the fact that they coincide to the EXACT DAY that I switched services to a different ISP (Kloud9, btw...another symptom of the whitelisting issue...)

Despite this, Sky are maintaining this is NOT the issue?!?

If Sky are adamant this is not the issues why will they not confirm that my ISP Kloud9 IS whitelisted to access their 2 on demand servers?

Additionally, why did the engineer who they sent out confirm that the failing to whitelist WAS the issue?

It might be a simple left hand / right hand issue, but it also leads me to wonder, given Sky's precarious financial situation, if the failure to whitelist is an attempt to retain customers by denying alternative ISPs access to their servers...that's why Ofcom has rules, which regardless of their motivation, it appears Sky are contravening in failing to update and maintsin their whitelist

I cannot believe, whatever the issue is, that it can the fixed in a timely manner

[Craigv9]

• I agree. But, customer services should have a list of people they can refer to in the evnt of tech issues...asking the cistoner to do thr research is not a great business model...

[TimmyBGood]

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@Craigv9 wrote:

given Sky's precarious financial situation

---

By revenue Sky UK is a ten billion pound subcomponent of a much larger US corporation: realistically the £200 million gone astray in the 2023 financial report will barely register.  Peacock alone loses the NBC division of Comcast ten time than much.

[Chodley]

Sky do not have just 2 servers for on-demand content, there will be dozens of them, if not hundreds, being spun up and shut down dynamically as demand changes.

It's possible there's an issue with some content delivery network element or a load balancer or something here.

[Craigv9]

No. I didn't lose track. Sky are pretending to be 'actively' working on this issue.

The fact is they aren't. I've told them the solution. They are ignoring it

I've asked repeatedly for them to confirm that my ISP is whitelisted for access to their on demand services and they refuse to do so

They KNOW what the problem is. They also KNOW what the solution is. They don't want to whitelist competitors ISPs because they are concerned they will lose Sky broadband customers if they do

It's anti competitive and a breach of Ofcom regs

Sky has no interest in resolving this issue as can be seen from the multiple unresolved threads with this IDENTICAL issue

I have given Sky notice. As have others. Sky don't care.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Craigv9 wrote:

 They don't want to whitelist competitors ISPs because they are concerned they will lose Sky broadband customers if they do

It's anti competitive and a breach of Ofcom regs

Are you really suggesting the number of subscription television customers who are using tiny ISPs would make financial sense for Sky to attempt to rig the market and risk the wrath of assorted regulators?

While it's entirely legitimate to complain about lack of adequate support response, claiming it's a conspiracy isn't particularly helpful.

[Chodley]

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@Craigv9 wrote:

No. I didn't lose track. Sky are pretending to be 'actively' working on this issue.

The fact is they aren't. I've told them the solution. They are ignoring it

I've asked repeatedly for them to confirm that my ISP is whitelisted for access to their on demand services and they refuse to do so

They KNOW what the problem is. They also KNOW what the solution is. They don't want to whitelist competitors ISPs because they are concerned they will lose Sky broadband customers if they do

It's anti competitive and a breach of Ofcom regs

Sky has no interest in resolving this issue as can be seen from the multiple unresolved threads with this IDENTICAL issue

I have given Sky notice. As have others. Sky don't care.

---

You've told them what you think the solution is

which makes little to no technical sense to me.