Puck unreliable, is it me!

[SteveWac]

I joined sky last December, received 2 pucks with the flat grey power plug. Both are connected via ethernet cables, broadband is 500mb fibre.

1 seems to be okay, although always starts with "please wait..." I have to press the home button on the remote to get to the home screen. Although today I lost signal on BBC one a few times!!

The other one played up big time, frozen on start up, needed a power reset most times, dropped sound randomly during playback of TV channel.  I phoned sky who replaced this one, I got one with a bigger black plug which is annoying as this plug does not fit under TV cabinet.  This one is sluggish, pauses during scrolling down EPG, Amazon prime takes ages to start.  If I press the home button whilst Amazon is trying to load, everything is really slow, like the puck is using all is CPU to try and load Amazon prime.  Every time I switch it on in the morning I get a black screen, I have to switch it off and back on again using the remote before I get the home screen.  Sometimes this does not work and I have to pull the power plug out the back of the puck.

Getting a bit fed up with stream now, it seems unreliable, the UI seems to be in beta, lots of idiosyncrasies.  I've been using Freeview up to now for years without any issues at all, it just worked everyday without fault on my TV.

Do I need to call sky again to get this one swapped again, or is there something I can do to improve performance? 

Thanks

[lettice]

@SteveWac 

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.

Note: Escalation conversations automatically close if there is no response within 48 hours.
More about an escalation here;
https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Did-you-know/My-post-has-been-escalated/ba-p/3711147#M1014

[SteveWac]

Thanks, hopefully they suggest a fix or replace the replacement puck, hopefully with one with a flat grey plug. 

I phoned sky about the plug after the replacement arrived. They asked me to take photos of the different plugs and they sent it to their tech people as the agent did not know plugs were different, he said I should hear back within 7 days, 3 weeks later still radio silence.

[Jason-]

Good Morning @lettice, thanks for flagging this with us. We'll send @SteveWac an invite now and we can help get things sorted for them 👍🏻

Thanks, Jason-

[Angel_Aka]

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@SteveWac wrote:

Thanks, hopefully they suggest a fix or replace the replacement puck, hopefully with one with a flat grey plug. 

I phoned sky about the plug after the replacement arrived. They asked me to take photos of the different plugs and they sent it to their tech people as the agent did not know plugs were different, he said I should hear back within 7 days, 3 weeks later still radio silence.

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The pucks with the larger black plugs are the v1 pucks, available since Sky Stream launched. The ones with the flat grey plugs are the v1B pucks which have slightly improved processing power. They aren't differentiated by Sky though - a customer can be sent either puck as they both essentially do the same thing, just one can do it slightly better/faster/smoother than the other. 

[SteveWac]

Replacement puck arrived today, same large black plug as previous one which is a real pain, and more annoyingly this one must of been returned and refurbished before as it's got scratches on the top of it and power cable is not held in a bundle with white paper like the new ones are.

Not great service so far, I've only had sky for 4 months.

Is this normal?

[Angel_Aka]

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@SteveWac wrote:

Replacement puck arrived today, same large black plug as previous one which is a real pain, and more annoyingly this one must of been returned and refurbished before as it's got scratches on the top of it and power cable is not held in a bundle with white paper like the new ones are.

Not great service so far, I've only had sky for 4 months.

Is this normal?

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Sadly, yes. 
It's worth noting that with Sky (and other TV service providers) you're paying for the service, not the hardware. 
Sky commonly refurbish pucks when returned by customers & then send them out again. Some are in better condition than others. It's more important that it actually works though, rather than its cosmetic condition. 

[SteveWac]

I understand what you are staying, but I'm still not impressed. I received two "new" pucks with small grey plugs in December when I joined sky.  Now I have a second hand refurbished puck with scratches, this is now on show (as I can't put this one under the TV as the plug is too big).

The cost will go up by 12% next month, I just want a new replacement puck that is the same type of puck I had when I joined, not much to ask really is it?

[SteveWac]

Let's see what this puck is like a guess, hopefully it will work without any issues. Fingers crossed.

[Angel_Aka]

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@SteveWac wrote:

I understand what you are staying, but I'm still not impressed. I received two "new" pucks with small grey plugs in December when I joined sky.  Now I have a second hand refurbished puck with scratches, this is now on show (as I can't put this one under the TV as the plug is too big).

The cost will go up by 12% next month, I just want a new replacement puck that is the same type of puck I had when I joined, not much to ask really is it?

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I wasn't impressed either. That's why I quit Stream & use NOWTV for Sky content on an Apple TV 4K box which I own and have full control over. It's been perfect (and cheaper) for me.