Sky dish engineers not being honest

[Morrow]

My sister in law had an unbelievable run in with a Sky engineer recently. Bottom line he told her a **bleep** and bull story about leaves on a tree blocking the signal to the dish, when in fact the problem was with the LNB which was only receiving one half of the channels.

However this has got me thinking that these guys are being let go as more and more people are choosing to go with Sky Stream instead of the totally useless SkyQ. He made some ridiculous comment about not being able to download/record programmes which showed his complete ignorance of how Sky Stream actually works. Obviously he did not want her to change over.

We are putting aside several hours on Monday to try and cancel her SkyQ subscription. Wish us luck!

[PeteRG41]

I stand to be corrected, but it's pretty well known that trees (especially wet leaves) can affect satellite signals.  Trimming the tree or moving the dish are the most common ways of correcting this problem.  Asking for the satellite to be moved so it's not behind the tree might be an option.

Different channels are broadcast with different frequencies, so are affected by signal loss to varying degrees.  A simple Google search for "Sky satellite frequencies" will show this.  This would explain why some channels work and others don't.

And as far as I know Sky Stream is (as indicated by the name) a streaming service and doesn't have the ability to download or record content.  You can playlist and queue content, but not download it.

[Mark39]

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@PeteRG41 wrote:

I stand to be corrected, but it's pretty well known that trees (especially wet leaves) can affect satellite signals.

And as far as I know Sky Stream is (as indicated by the name) a streaming service and doesn't have the ability to download or record content.  You can playlist and queue content, but not download it.

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Absolutely right @PeteRG41 

[Morrow]

[Removed] If the signal is blocked, then all the channels would be affected. 

And why would she want to download stuff when she could just stream it on demand, as we do. My original point is still valid. [Removed]

Moderator notes: removed inappropriate remarks

[Ronj]

What facts are you using to describe SKYQ as totally useless then ?

[Morrow]

I presume you may be one of these sky engineers I mentioned in my initial post. Clearly the criticism is hitting home.

[Invisiblename]

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@Morrow wrote:

I presume you may be one of these sky engineers I mentioned in my initial post. Clearly the criticism is hitting home.

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We are all fellow customers on here, and most of what the others have said or questioned is correct: leaves on trees can partially or totally block the signal, and Sky Stream cannot record. Oh and I don't find Sky Q useless at all!

[nigea99]

hi @Morrow 

Just to let you know if it was approx half the channels  then rather than an LNB fault (although it could have been) it is more likely to have been a connection or cable problem with one of the cables. We hear about this type of problem much more than any LNB failures.

With the wideband feed from the LNB to SKY Q  each cable carries the different polarised channels (i.e. one for the channels on the vertically polarised transponders & the other horizontal) so a fault in one of the cables or it's connections would result in loss of approx half the channels 

Thus with a loss of approx half the channels this is the first thing we suggest customers check as often it is just a loose connection

[PandJ2020]

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@PeteRG41 wrote:

 Asking for the satellite to be moved so it's not behind the tree might be an option.

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I think it's easier to move the dish?

[Invisiblename]

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@PandJ2020 wrote:

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@PeteRG41 wrote:

 Asking for the satellite to be moved so it's not behind the tree might be an option.

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I think it's easier to move the dish?

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🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Ronj]

Bit paranoid mate, Afraid not, just a retired chap asking why you said the proven technology of SKYQ was useless.

[Anonymous]

@Morrow I remember one occasion our then neighbours blocked our Sky Q signal after putting scaffolding up on their house. We had no Q service for a few days.

My mum had to have her dish repositioned due to signal interference from an overgrowing hedge from the housing estate next to her. She couldn't cut the hedge as it wasn't hers.

Signal interference can happen with Q. Even something like a heavy rain shower can stop Q from working for a period or snow. Had that happen a few times. 

I now have Glass due to not being able to have Q installed in my rental property but this took has its own issues with it relying on broadband to operate. If my ISP has issues then it goes down!

[Morrow]

Well here in Ireland a couple of weeks ago (and parts of UK) SkyQ went down for best part of 12 hours. 

We had just taken delivery of the Sky stream box that same day so we we were happy. The poor octogenarian mother in law had no SkyQ tv and was in a right meltdown.

My point remains, why are the engineers not encouraging customers to switch. Turkeys and Christmas I guess!

[Morrow]

We switched the cables around and hey presto the original channels went but the missing ones appeared, so faulty lnb?

[Godfrey]

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@Morrow wrote:

We switched the cables around and hey presto the original channels went but the missing ones appeared, so faulty lnb?

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If you switched the coaxial cables around at the LNB, then, what you describe suggests that one of the coaxial cables was faulty, not the LNB.

Godfrey.