SkyQ mini’s so poor so do I move to stream or leave ?

[Qispoor]

Hi community. Advice please I have been a sky customer for 17 years and I am now getting very frustrated with the sky Q minis  . For many years we have had problems with the mini boxes dropping their connections. But it's got a lot worse lately 
I was with Sky broadband ( 16 years ) until earlier this year - moved to the highest level of community fibre to cover our house needs and also  because sky couldn't offer fibre . I am also with sky mobile but that will change soon as the signals are poorer than other providers 

I have a had numerous calls with sky technicians and their customer service about my sky Q mini box issue over the years    . I have had engineer visits and used sky boosters around the house  . This year,  because of these problems and at their proposal,  I even hard wired  all our sky boxes via Ethernet .  And yet no configuration seems to be straight forward and work . I continue to have to reset the mini boxes again and again but still they go down . It's a shambolic result for a premium price from a company that I used to give 10 out of 10 for 

The main box works the minis just always struggle 

I have had community fibre round to test their install ( within 2 days of calling ) and its  all good and I can see that no other system has a problem  ( PS 5, I phones , lap tops etc ) all maintain a strong connection but not sky q  .

I do have a sky "premium"  engineer coming round this week ( 10 days booking time ) to see if they can address the issue as the others cannot.  And like other forums I get different advice from different engineers 

I have read the forums,  reset the sky boxes based on Ethernet connections , removed Eco mode, rebooted again and again  etc but still the problems occur . 

sky recognise the problems we are having and  I have even offered sky a positive proposal for going forward such as they moving me to Stream..  but they would rather sell me Glass - ( I don't need it as my TVs are perfectly good thank you ) and even  if I was to move to stream sky  want to charge me an additional £39.99 for each  puck plus more for the stream service than Q .  
this is not a way to treat a sky VIP  customer of 17 years 

so  my question to the community is "would you move to Sky Streamor a different provider altogether if you were in my situation. ???
i am definitely not getting value for money from Sky and I am not happy with the level of customer service I am receiving today plus I am spending far too much of my valuable time chasing sky to deliver a expected level of service that I pay for 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Qispoor wrote:

 and even  if I was to move to stream sky  want to charge me an additional £39.99 for each  puck  

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That's the same for all migration from Q to Stream.

It's unusual for Q Mini boxes not to be stable on ethernet (as long as their WiFi is switched off) if the network topology is correct.

[the+47th+Depdiver]

Word for word my problem, convo with the less than assistant yesterday.

There seems no resolve, if I dump everything and move to pucks my bills go up (really?) The minis are absolutely useless. They have admitted the data connection, supplied by them, is poor and offered a 'get out of contract free' card. I need a complete re-write, so will be looking around.

[the+47th+Depdiver]

The obvious choice is Virgin, their deal for the whole package, all streaming, is considerably better. Doubt that I can post a link!

[stereohaven]

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@Qispoor wrote:

...so  my question to the community is "would you move to Sky Streamor a different provider altogether if you were in my situation. ???

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I would move to Sky Stream, albeit I would wait until nearer the end of my Q contract to negotiate the move.

I can't comment on VM offerings currently personally, other than to say, they are still the only ultrafast broadband provider in our area and having used their services once, I will never, ever go back. 

I don't speak for Sky, I can't comment on your service experience so far, but here is what I know as a Sky Q customer of many years with FTTC broadband, currently via EE:

• The speed of your overall broadband connection is irrelevant with Q in most cases
• Sky Q minis rely on a private 5ghz mesh network created by the main Q box to connect to, everything is fed through it as a central hub
• The Q hardware and networking components are approaching 10 years old at this point 
• My set up with BT as ISP, Smart Hub 2 via Ethernet to main Q box and 2.4ghz switched off on all Q boxes worked like a dream 
• Having been moved to EE and their Smart Hub Plus router, the same set up worked briefly but now either the hub or Q is causing a lock up and fan spinning issue most mornings that requires a hard reset - both providers say they cannot recreate the issue
• Sky Stream is built from the ground up as a streaming platform and connects directly to Sky to receive content, not relying on a central hub like Q in the home
• If you have an Ethernet connection or nice clean WiFi, it should (in theory), work more efficiently than a 10 year old Q mini

I have a similar dilemma to you in that, Q is not working as it should, but no one seems to want to take ownership (and I do think it is an EE issue as the hub is the only change).

I have solid discounts on Q that I would lose by moving to Glass or Stream but there are features with Sky OS that would probably better suit us and the way we consume content as a family these days.

Lastly, I'm a picture snob with an equally ageing LG OLED (2016) and Glass is still a step down in picture quality despite being much newer, but literally no one cares in our house apart from me. 😢

If you don't want to change then the only option really is to work through your Q setup and network top to bottom to see if you can rebuild stability.

• Reset every box
• Connect the main Q box via Ethernet and turn off 2.4ghz
• Make sure the 5ghz band from your router and Q box are as far apart as possible 
• Reconnect mini boxes nearest first
• If using Ethernet, turn off all WiFi on mini boxes
• If using WPS, turn off 2.4ghz
• Once connected, run refresh apps and software updates 
• Cross fingers and test

Decisions, decisions, good luck 👍

[the+47th+Depdiver]

Agree 100% we replaced all our tvs, so Sky Glass not an option. 

[Qispoor · Accepted solution]

Thanks all.  I moved from Q to stream . I left Sky and went to Currys as a new customer  to get my sky TV contracts  rather than direct  via sky. It was cheaper via Currys as a new starter  than what as a loyal customer  sky could offer me. Bonkers !! But  I now have sky in more rooms than before  - as I  can have more pucks than Q. Boxes  I also changed my broadband to Community Fibre and  everything is working perfectly now so a happy camper . 

[stereohaven]

Note to self, check the date of a thread/post before replying! 🤣

Glad you are sorted 👍

[the+47th+Depdiver]

Not at all, Steve, updates on old threads are always useful, thanks