Issues with ITV

[Psych67]

@me+in+gloucester Thank you so much for yout update. I don't normally watch BBC much but will check in a few minutes (my elderly mother is sleeping in that room at the minute:). I'm going to email my managing agent right now with the issue you described, because they said their engineer will take a look tomorrow. Thank you so much for this. I live in a block of flats and so we share a communal dish. It's all so frustrating. 

[nigea99]

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@me+in+gloucester wrote:

I'm the OP and my issue was resolved with a faulty cable on one of the polarities. Sky channels have horizonatal and vertical feeds from the dish and the one feeding ITV was faulty. So there is a chance this might be your issue. Can you see BBC News as I also lost this channel. 

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Many thanks for this update @me+in+gloucester, I am glad yours was resolved.

@Psych67  just to let you know SKY HD works differently to SKY Q and does not use a separate cable for different polarites so this will not be your specific issue

BTW @Psych67 I know it won't really help you but should you wish to complain about the false information you have received from SKY regarding ITV and your SKY HD box then you can see this page:

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/how-to-make-a-complaint 

(Personally I think they should be advised that staff are giving incorrect information but the decision is yours) 

Fingers crossed that your Managing Agent can get the support team to investigate & sort your feed

[Psych67]

@nigea99 Thank you:). Will update here once I hear back from my managing agent after their engineer has investigated on their end. 🙏 

[Psych67]

@nigea99 Sorry-I meant to reply to this part of your reply re-making a complaint: I did actually submit a complaint and have received at least *five* replies from 5 different Sky reps. The latest states:

Thank you for your email.

On having accessed your Sky Account I see that you have Sky +HD Box.

However the mentioned channels are no longer available on Sky +HD as per the new update.

I would like to keep you informed that in order to view the mentioned channels ,you would have to upgrade your TV Services .

 If you wish to upgrade your TV Services do reply to my email with a preferred date ad time in order to call and assist .

Based on what so many of you have advised (and on what I can *see* for myself on my TV)-these Sky channels *are* still available with my Sky + HD box. They are talking absolute rubbish. Specifically, I do still get Channel 103 (ITV) *but* it is frequently pixelated and "broken" in colour/picture, but this lasts seconds and then goes back to being OK. 

I, too, am inclined to believe that they are providing false information but making a complaint doesn't seem to get anywhere further as the people who reply to the complaints emails are the ones providing this information. 🙄  I do wonder if there is an Ombudsman to escalate this to, and if so, to which one?

I can't recall which one of you said what, but one of the recent posts I read made mention of how older people might not want or be able to use Sky streaming services, etc. or other services they seem to be forcing on us.  I don't consider myself "old" but I *am* late 50's and am very happy with my Sky +HD box and don't want to have to get used to a new service, i.e., streaming. To be clear, I am not eligible for a Sky Q box because I live in a communal block of flats. Sky have already made that perfectly clear. 🙄

[Psych67]

@nigea99 Sorry-I meant to say re your reply:

BTW @Psych67 I know it won't really help you but should you wish to complain about the false information you have received from SKY regarding ITV and your SKY HD box then you can see this page:

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/how-to-make-a-complaint 

(Personally I think they should be advised that staff are giving incorrect information but the decision is yours) 

I *am* concerned, given it is the this complaints team who *are* providing me with this "false" information-that they may well do something on their end to ensure that I *can't* any longer watch ITV....one of the other posters  suggested that Sky may be doing something in the backend to ensure that some of our Sky + HD Boxes no longer work as normal-I wonder if they do have this capability, and would not want to make things worse for me. For now, the channel is watchable-it's just very pixelated at times, and then reverts to normal. Surely there has to be a UK based Complaints team-it seems like all of the people who did reply to me are off shore and quite "junior" based on the similarities of their replies to my "complaint".

I am essentially saying that I do not think my complaint went to anybody senior or with authority of any kind.   

[nigea99]

hi @Psych67 

I am really sorry that the complaints team have continued to advise that the channels are not compatible with SKY + HD boxes.

There  clearly seems to be confusion with the old SKY + SD only boxes and SKY + HD boxes that non techie staff just don't understand. 

We have raised this elsewhere but I am concerned that such confusion will continue

It, obviously, does not help that, even though the SKY +HD boxes are able to view the channels (with an OK feed) and SKY still allow subscriptions, the boxes themselves are no longer  supported.

I do not believe that SKY will do anything to prevent SKY +HD boxes from accessing channels - ITTV after all is a Free to Air channel that Freesat boxes & TVs can also decode. I guess in the future they may cease providing subscriptions but that would loose them money as there are still many customers with SKY HD boxes

All we can do is give the best advice we can and point out when we believe SKY are giving information incorrectly and to raise our concerns with the teams that support the community here

In the meantime I do hope the your housing management TV distribution support  can find the cause of your poor signal for ITV  

[Psych67]

@nigea99 Thank you so much for the thoughtful and supportive reply. Don't get me wrong-I am finding this forum incredily useful, but the Sky team are another story altogether:). Just to be clear-I had also spoken to the Technical team (the supposed technical team) at Sky yesterday, and she, too reiterated the same thing....Sky +HD boxes no compatible with ITV anymore. 🙄

When you say "We have raised this elsewhere but I am concerned that such confusion will continue"-are you and others here in contact with Sky, or do you mean you've raised it elsewhere on this forum? 

You *are* right-Sky do still allow subscriptions for the Sky + HD boxes and no longer offer support for them, and they are also trying very hard to get customers to upgrade. I refused to upgrade to Streaming, and so they offered to reduce my monthly cost for the package I currently have, though they did lock me in for another 18 months. 🙄

I'll of course update you here if I get anything back from my managing agent that is worthy of an update-they may or may not find anything wrong with the communal dish. 

I wish you all a really good weekend in the meantime:). And thank you for all of your support this far! 😊

[KevNewMedia]

Hi @Psych67 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention and thank you, @nigea99 , for flagging.

I'm really sorry about your experience and can confirm that we will be reaching out to the teams to explain that ITV will not be removed from Sky+HD boxes.

[Psych67]

@KevNewMedia Many thanks for your reply. I'd like to paste two of the numerous  emails that the Sky team have sent me in response to a complaint I raised in response to the lengthy phone calls I had with them yesterday and the previous day. I am happy to send you my case reference # separately if it will be of any use. It genuinely seems that the people responsible for responding to complaints submitted via the website contact form do not have sufficient knowledge and their sole job or intention (along with those who answer the phones at Sky) is to get customers like me to upgrade, or sign up to a new contract-which is what I did yesterday. I will say one thing for certain: if I can no longer view ITV (Channel 103) and if it remains "broken/pixelated" I will be changing providers, because it is utterly ridiculous that I should not be able to view ITV any longer just because I have a Sky + HD box. 

I'll be off line for much of today and tomorrow but will obviously check messages here at my first opportunity and will continue to update:). Thanks again for replying to my message and for all of your support @nigea99.

Reply #1

Thank you for your email.

On having accessed your Sky Account I see that you have Sky +HD Box.

However the mentioned channels are no longer available on Sky +HD as per the new update.

I would like to keep you informed that in order to view the mentioned channels ,you would have to upgrade your TV Services .

 If you wish to upgrade your TV Services do reply to my email with a preferred date ad time in order to call and assist .

Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Service Team on ____ between 9am to 8pm, where one of my colleague will be happy to assist you.

and: 

Reply #2

Thank you for your e-mail about your Sky TV Service.

I apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.

Having accessed to your Sky Account, I see that you have Sky TV subscription (Sky Signature, Sky Cinema) on your Sky Q +HD Box.   

I wish to inform you that Sky+HD Boxes no longer support apps like ITV. I request you to upgrade to Sky Q or Sky Stream, to view the channels.

Please note that we no longer manufacture the Sky+HD Boxes, as a result we do not have a option to book an engineer visit or send an replacement box.

If you are still unable to do so, I request you to upgrade your box by contacting our Customer Service Team on ____ between 9am to 8pm, where one of our advisors will be happy to help.

[Mark39]

@Psych67 I imagine steps will be taken to make sure all advisers are aware of the correct position with regard to ITV, which is as Sky has posted here.

The pixelation you're seeing could not be related to this in any event. There's a fault with your communal system, and has nothing to do with the broadcast signal which would affect all Sky+HD users. We already know from posts by other Sky+HD users that they're continuing to receive the ITV channels without problem.

[KevNewMedia]

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@Psych67 wrote:

@KevNewMedia Many thanks for your reply. I'd like to paste two of the numerous  emails that the Sky team have sent me in response to a complaint I raised in response to the lengthy phone calls I had with them yesterday and the previous day. I am happy to send you my case reference # separately if it will be of any use. It genuinely seems that the people responsible for responding to complaints submitted via the website contact form do not have sufficient knowledge and their sole job or intention (along with those who answer the phones at Sky) is to get customers like me to upgrade, or sign up to a new contract-which is what I did yesterday. I will say one thing for certain: if I can no longer view ITV (Channel 103) and if it remains "broken/pixelated" I will be changing providers, because it is utterly ridiculous that I should not be able to view ITV any longer just because I have a Sky + HD box. 

I'll be off line for much of today and tomorrow but will obviously check messages here at my first opportunity and will continue to update:). Thanks again for replying to my message and for all of your support @nigea99.

Reply #1

Thank you for your email.

On having accessed your Sky Account I see that you have Sky +HD Box.

However the mentioned channels are no longer available on Sky +HD as per the new update.

I would like to keep you informed that in order to view the mentioned channels ,you would have to upgrade your TV Services .

 If you wish to upgrade your TV Services do reply to my email with a preferred date ad time in order to call and assist .

Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Service Team on ____ between 9am to 8pm, where one of my colleague will be happy to assist you.

and: 

Reply #2

Thank you for your e-mail about your Sky TV Service.

I apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.

Having accessed to your Sky Account, I see that you have Sky TV subscription (Sky Signature, Sky Cinema) on your Sky Q +HD Box.   

I wish to inform you that Sky+HD Boxes no longer support apps like ITV. I request you to upgrade to Sky Q or Sky Stream, to view the channels.

Please note that we no longer manufacture the Sky+HD Boxes, as a result we do not have a option to book an engineer visit or send an replacement box.

If you are still unable to do so, I request you to upgrade your box by contacting our Customer Service Team on ____ between 9am to 8pm, where one of our advisors will be happy to help.

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We don't have access to your Sky account in the Community to take the reference number; thank you for the offer. Be assured, I've raised the problem with the team supporting these changes, and they will be reaching out to my colleagues.

You've been advised correctly, we can no longer service your Sky+HD system. You would need to reach out to a 3rd party company to investigate the issue and repair as necessary. Just so that you know, you have a cooling-off period for the new contract that you signed up to as well 👍

[Psych67]

@KevNewMedia Thank you for your reply. I understand that I have been advised correctly re-they will no longer service my Sky + HD box, but I believe that the following are examples of incorrect advice:

Reply #1

However the mentioned channels are no longer available on Sky +HD as per the new update.

and: 

Reply #2

I wish to inform you that Sky+HD Boxes no longer support apps like ITV. 

Would you not agree? 

We don't have access to your Sky account in the Community to take the reference number; thank you for the offer. Be assured, I've raised the problem with the team supporting these changes, and they will be reaching out to my colleagues.

You've been advised correctly, we can no longer service your Sky+HD system. You would need to reach out to a 3rd party company to investigate the issue and repair as necessary. Just so that you know, you have a cooling-off period for the new contract that you signed up to as well 👍

[Psych67]

@Mark39 Thank you for this. I am hoping that my managing agent's engineer will be identify some fault/issue with the communal dish. I will of course update over the coming few days:). Many thanks!

[Psych67]

@Mark39 Apologies for the typo...that should have read "will be able to identify...". 

[nigea99]

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@Psych67 wrote:

@KevNewMedia Thank you for your reply. I understand that I have been advised correctly re-they will no longer service my Sky + HD box, but I believe that the following are examples of incorrect advice:

Reply #1

However the mentioned channels are no longer available on Sky +HD as per the new update.

and: 

Reply #2

I wish to inform you that Sky+HD Boxes no longer support apps like ITV. 

Would you not agree? 

We don't have access to your Sky account in the Community to take the reference number; thank you for the offer. Be assured, I've raised the problem with the team supporting these changes, and they will be reaching out to my colleagues.

You've been advised correctly, we can no longer service your Sky+HD system. You would need to reach out to a 3rd party company to investigate the issue and repair as necessary. Just so that you know, you have a cooling-off period for the new contract that you signed up to as well 👍

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@Psych67  regarding the 2nd response - I think here there may be confusion over ITV the Satellite channel and ITVX the app - the latter - being an app - of course is not supported on the SKY HD platform