Sky Stream Puck Problems

[Snookiecrome]

I have been having problems with my Sky Stream Puck.  The picture breaks down, sound is poor, Playlist items disappear etc.  We have to unplug the puck when we experience this and it is ok after that.  I have phoned Sky twice now and 2 different people said they would send a new puck free of charge.  None have ever arrived so I phoned again today.  The woman I spoke to today said that we have not been sent a new puck as they are not free of charge.  She tried to make out that she was doing me a favour in what she was suggesting - that she send us another puck on loan which would mean increasing our subscription so it would be Whole Home because we would have 2 pucks, so in theory could watch all over the house.  Despite the fact that the first puck is faulty so we wouldn't use it anymore and we only have one tv in the house, in the lounge.  She had initially said we could buy a new puck for £50 but felt that the special offer she was suggesting would save us money - which it wouldn't in the long run.  Is there a way we can just buy a new puck without having to increase our monthly subscription to include something we don't want?  Thanks.

[BenJoBanjo]

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@Snookiecrome wrote:

I have been having problems with my Sky Stream Puck.  The picture breaks down, sound is poor, Playlist items disappear etc.  We have to unplug the puck when we experience this and it is ok after that.  I have phoned Sky twice now and 2 different people said they would send a new puck free of charge.  None have ever arrived so I phoned again today.  The woman I spoke to today said that we have not been sent a new puck as they are not free of charge.  She tried to make out that she was doing me a favour in what she was suggesting - that she send us another puck on loan which would mean increasing our subscription so it would be Whole Home because we would have 2 pucks, so in theory could watch all over the house.  Despite the fact that the first puck is faulty so we wouldn't use it anymore and we only have one tv in the house, in the lounge.  She had initially said we could buy a new puck for £50 but felt that the special offer she was suggesting would save us money - which it wouldn't in the long run.  Is there a way we can just buy a new puck without having to increase our monthly subscription to include something we don't want?  Thanks.

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How long have you been a Sky Stream customer? If you signed up between October 2022 and February 2023 then any puck you received during that period is owned by you - you purchased it. If you signed up after February 2023 then all pucks are loaned to you for the duration of your streaming TV subscription. If your puck is owned by you then it is now out of warranty and Sky have the right to charge you a £39.95 activation fee for the loan of a new puck for as long as you continue your streaming TV subscription. 

If you do not own your puck and signed up after February 2023 then Sky should replace your puck free of charge, otherwise they are charging you for a service you cannot use. 

You do not need to pay the extra monthly Whole Home subscription if you only intend to use one puck in your household. 

[Snookiecrome]

I was told that the puck is now ours as we have been Stream customers so long.  The woman on the phone never said that I could pay the £39.95 activation fee if we had a new puck on loan, which I would have been prepared to do.  At first she said we could buy a new puck for £50.00, which I was happy to do.  She then decided to change our subscription to Whole Home and loan us a puck as we, in her words, would now have 2 pucks, even though the old one was going in the bin as soon as the new one arrived.  The monthly cost in time would have come to more than the £50.00 she quoted for us to 'buy' a new puck.  I told her no thanks we would just use the old one.

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@Snookiecrome wrote:

I was told that the puck is now ours as we have been Stream customers so long.  The woman on the phone never said that I could pay the £39.95 activation fee if we had a new puck on loan, which I would have been prepared to do.  At first she said we could buy a new puck for £50.00, which I was happy to do.  She then decided to change our subscription to Whole Home and loan us a puck as we, in her words, would now have 2 pucks, even though the old one was going in the bin as soon as the new one arrived.  The monthly cost in time would have come to more than the £50.00 she quoted for us to 'buy' a new puck.  I told her no thanks we would just use the old one.

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@Snookiecrome Can you confirm when it was that you signed up to Sky Stream?

I'm not sure where the £50 came from, if you have a customer-owned puck i would expected them to offer to replace the puck for the standard £39.95 activation fee.

[Snookiecrome]

We signed up January 2023.  No she never offered the new puck with activation option.

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@Snookiecrome wrote:

We signed up January 2023.  No she never offered the new puck with activation option.

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Ok then you do certainly own the existing puck unfortunately.

Perhaps try calling again and hope you get through to someone a bit more helpful. I can't see a reason you can't just get a new stream puck, paying the £39.95 fee and then just removing your broken puck from your Sky account and setting up the new one, that would remove the need for any type of Whole Home pack as well.

[BenJoBanjo]

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@Snookiecrome wrote:

We signed up January 2023.  No she never offered the new puck with activation option.

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So you do have a customer owned puck then. 

If I were you I would ring Sky again and explain that your customer owned puck is not functioning. If they won't loan you a new one for just the £39.95 activation fee then just ask to cancel your service because you cannot use it without a puck.

This should prompt them into seeing sense and loaning you a new puck.

Sadly many of Sky's internal subscription terms are needlessly over-complicated, to such an extent that many staff have no clue how the service functions and have to go by what the computer in front of them tells them. A bit of common sense from an adviser with half a brain will hopefully be able to sort it out.  

[Snookiecrome]

Thank you I will try that tomorrow.