Those reviews are not encouraging. Whilst I don't doubt that there are many people out there who have had no issues with Sky Stream, my experience has been pretty miserable - endless failures to connect to internet (via wifi and ethernet). 'Please wait for your programme to load', 'Don't waste any more of your life hoping this will ever work properly for you', 'It's not us, it's your internet provider/router', 'it's your settings' (no, it flippin' well isn't) etc etc.
On the plus side, the replacement puck appears to be working perfectly. It starts up at lightning speed and is very slick in operation. Having been through a few pucks now, I'm genuinely surprised by the level of sample variation. I'm just one individual user, but the difference between a 'good' puck and a 'bad' one is far more significant than it ought to be IMHO. I do wonder what the return rate due to hardware or firmware faults is.
I understand that there are lots of permutations of router firmware from various manufacturers, other foibles that are introduced by ISPs, issues with wifi networks that can often be difficult to diagnose - all that stuff. The bottom line, however, is that Nvidia's Shield TV and Amazon's Fire Stick (we own two of each of those) work fine in our house. It's very hard to know exactly what the problems with Sky Stream actually are, but it does appear that Sky need to spend some time making their hardware/software more widely compatible.
I've already had a pop at Sky's customer service. In truth, it's pretty good in many ways - my bills have always been right, the call centre staff are commendably consistent in their professionalism and courtesy, and the simple things are resolved quickly. The problem, in my experience, is the limited script that the customer service staff have to work from. If your issue takes them beyond the realms of their individual responsibility it can all fall apart very quickly. My first replacement puck delivery failed and was returned to Sky by DPD, but a system error resulted in the puck being stuck in an 'on the way back to Sky' loop. OK, says I, you know it's on the way back to you, so please send a replacement. Sadly, I had to endure nearly three weeks of 'Sorry, computer says no. Not until the system error is cleared'. Sigh.
I've resisted the temptation to cancel my subscription (the War and Peace nature of the support notes on my account would easily justify that option, I've no doubt) because Sky Stream really does have fantastic potential, not to mention that it has no real competition as far as I know.
Fingers crossed for an improved version of the puck, if that's what it will take.
Oh, and I've just noticed I've been promoted to Level 3, so correcting my shockingly careless typing finally becomes possible. You lucky, lucky people!
😁
