Nightmare Experience Ordering Sky Stream | Am I the Only One?

[p4dn4]

I'm at my wit's end with Sky and genuinely questioning why I'm practically begging them to take over £1,000/year from me. Has anyone else had this level of chaos trying to get Sky Stream set up?

Here's what's happened so far:

Thursday afternoon: Ordered Sky Stream around 2pm, well before the 9pm cut-off for next-day delivery. Sky Go (which is supposed to work whilst you wait for the puck) throws up an error message. I thought fine, it'll probably sort itself tomorrow.

Friday midday: No DPD notification whatsoever (and their app is brilliant at telling you when something's coming). Called Sky customer service. The adviser reassured me she could see my package was out for delivery and that Sky Go just needed a bit more time to activate. Not to worry though, the puck would definitely arrive today.

Friday 5pm: Called back. Different adviser, completely different story. Now apparently they can't track packages. When I challenged him about his colleague saying the complete opposite that morning, he said "sometimes" they can't see it and this was one of those times. He then dropped the term "ghost order" on me. For no apparent reason, the information sometimes doesn't reach the courier, no delivery gets made, and they have to manually cancel the order so I can start again from scratch. Absolutely mental.

Whilst on the call, I asked about getting Sky Go working in the meantime. Turns out it's only for existing Sky customers; despite their website clearly suggesting otherwise. The adviser even admitted the website "isn't clear" and that he understood my frustration. Brilliant.

Can we just acknowledge the sheer incompetence here? 

Europe's most expensive pay TV provider is apparently running on a tech stack where successful ordering might genuinely be down to chance, whilst simultaneously advertising features on their website that don't actually work for new customers. Misleading advertising?

And this doesn't even cover the 2 day nightmare I had before placing the order. I've got an old account on file with my address, but because I haven't used it in two years and the card number for account access doesn't match (even though I've updated the card details on the old account), I was stuck in an endless loop. 4 separate calls to sales, countless attempts on the website, all to try and give them my money.

So, what now?

• Has anyone else experienced "ghost orders" or similar chaos?
• What should I realistically expect at this point?
• Any tips for actually getting this sorted without losing the will to live?

Genuinely feels like I'm begging Sky to let me pay them. Madness.

[2muchTV · Accepted solution]

@p4dn4 So what now?

Good question.

A suggestion... try Now  TV for a month... yes it will cost you, but hear (read)  me out.

If you like Now TV, you might use the cooling off period to ditch Stream.

I have been using Sky Stream since it was introduced (2022)  and it has worked flawlessley. The Stream UHD picture is stunning on my OLED ,  but I have cancelled it for Now TV. 

I prefer Now TV for its

• price
• flexibility to cancel,
• app works on Roku, Firestick, Apple TV et al
• no physical box
• short term offers
• contract is managed totally online- so no time wasting phone calls blah blah blah
• Now app (similar to Sky Go)
• payment via credit card not just direct debit- so I get Avios points for my annual free flights on AmEx 
• 4K picture quality is as good as Stream (at least to my eyes)
• Ultra Boost is a cheaper more flexible Stream Whole Home equivalent (which I use at hotels when travelling for work in UK)

I subscribed to Now TV for a couple of months alongside Stream,  and it just convinced me to ditch Stream asap. 

With Now,  I pay £31 (£20 sports + £5 Entertainment + £6 Ultra Boost) I can watch on upto 4 TVs around the house in 4K UHD.  Stream cost is £54.19 including UHD but only on 1 TV.

When the football or F1 season is over, I will drop sports from my  Now subscription and restart (probably at full price for 1 month when it resumes, but immediately cancel and wait for the app to say, please stay for £X for X months.

Sky Stream has a number of  features over and above Now e.g. playlists, Sky UI but I can live without them.

[Fothergill1]

Hi @2muchTV with your NOW sport subscription do you have to watch the soprt live or is there a playlist feature so you can watch it later?

[2muchTV]

@Fothergill1 good question 🤔

Currently abroad so I cannot check... stand to be corrected, but I believe Now has to be watched live. 

There is a 3 minute highlight feature for the football after a game has  finished

Now TV is not as fully featured as Stream.

My son loves F1 and the F1 channel is there so the channel  caters for his catch up stuff (albeit not immediately but according to the TV schedule).  

[Fothergill1]

Hi @2muchTV Thanks for the info and I hope you are enjoying your trip.  F1 is my main interest and I recently decided to subscribe to the Sky F1 channel for the remainder of the season on a £20 monthly rolling contract.  After seeing your post I was thinking that £20pm for the whole Sports package on NOW TV might be a better option.  If there is no catchup option I'll have to give it some thought but the fallback option is always the Ch4 highlights if I miss the actual race.

[p4dn4]

@2muchTV : Thanks for your suggestion and insight. 

I've subscribed to NOW and will test it in the next few days before ditching Sky (if I ever receive the Sky puck!)