On demand download failure Sky+ on 2 boxes

[Shut-ins]

@Thirly I have had it since 1990.. haha.those old analog sky boxes were good!! 

I still don't want to upgrade as yet.  They won't acknowledge this failing download fault and it's not fair. I pay 29odd each month..that's too much really, but if it's all working ok, I'm happy. If they upgraded for free I might consider it..

[Mark39]

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@thegfb wrote:

@Mark39I did that, and just saw multiple threads of people posting problems so I'm not sure what your point is

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I wasn't making a point. I was making a suggestion. I've had a cursory look and don't see any threads in the first 3 pages reporting the same issue.

[Kayelaina]

Sadly currently the issue is with Sky + hd boxes and Sky seem to be loarh to  admit there is an issue. I have had contact with 4 different people who refuse to listen but just tell me it is my ISP which we have already ruled out. Just telling me I am the only customer reporting the problem which I know is not true!

[Thirly]

@Shut-insThis is getting very off topic but, yes our original sky box had just 8 channels and only 4 were "sky" channels - the others were German/Dutch (like RTL and Veronique. Not my taste but they kept my husband quiet late at night!!! It later became 16 channels with movies and sport. My husband used to constantly have the sky box open so he could turn screws inside that tweaked each channel when the picture went bad - which it did, frequently. Also had to lean out the window many a time to brush snow off the dish! Though the picture had snow on it all year round! In 1990 we also got BSB squarial - but not for long. It was far superior while it lasted.

When we bought our first sky box it was from Currys and we were the first ever people in our (very large) city to have sky installed (by Currys). On the same note, in c1977 I worked at Currys and sold the first ever VHS VCR sold at that store! Made a nice change from Avocado coloured fridges and washing machines. Explaining VCR to pensioners in 1977 was a bit like explaining Sky Q to me now.

[Steve0001]

@Mark39 @thegfb @TimmyBGood 

It is confusing. This SkyQ thread is 43 pages long and contains complaints about downloading and having to upgrade etc etc. https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-Q/New-Sky-q-box-saying-to-upgrade-subscription/td-p/3653154/page/43 There are other SkyQ threads that do not instill confidence. I understand that no one starts positive threads.

My points (no need to respond, just FYI, venting etc):

1. Last year I received two emails offering free SkyQ which I ignored. Today, several hours after my complaint email, I received another free upgrade offer. However, @TimmyBGood , your comments on cost re mini box/multi-screen are concerning as we are in a two bed flat, one TV. I am ' Sky VIP' (oooh) but not interested in getting stuck later with higher sub costs and certainly not an upgrade demand on day one via the box.

2. My Sky+ box has suddenly stopped working at the same time as other people on this thread and no doubt other customers whom haven't reported have the same problem (see @emteepeeess ). Various types of obselescence are a thing, planned or otherwise.

3. I pay for content. I don't need excessive 'bells and whistles' that are not used. As long as the hardware works and Sky get their money for the content then why aren't Sky trying to sort this out? Does running Sky+ on the backend cost them so much that they have to push customers onto SkyQ?

4. Can Sky guarantee that SkyQ will sort this download issue out? If they can then they must know what the problem is with the Sky+ boxes.Tell us.

I will await the response to my online complaint. I do, however, foresee myself leaving Sky (joined 1994, full viewing package, few months off in the middle) unless this is sorted or explained. I would welcome Sky admitting they want everyone off Sky+ and that we have six months to switch. Honesty helps but what appears to be subtle nudging is really annoying.

[Shut-ins]

@Thirly Lovely to hear your very similar good old days. experiences. yes RTL .hubby also liked their different programmes.   Times were a lot different then  and the customer had phonecalls answered and dealt with professionally.

I hope you adapt to sky Q .maybe post on hear how you get on..

Fingers crossed that Sky gets our old sky+ downloads fixed soon, but I don't hold out much hope.

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@Thirly wrote:

@Shut-insThis is getting very off topic but, yes our original sky box had just 8 channels and only 4 were "sky" channels - the others were German/Dutch (like RTL and Veronique. Not my taste but they kept my husband quiet late at night!!! It later became 16 channels with movies and sport. My husband used to constantly have the sky box open so he could turn screws inside that tweaked each channel when the picture went bad - which it did, frequently. Also had to lean out the window many a time to brush snow off the dish! Though the picture had snow on it all year round! In 1990 we also got BSB squarial - but not for long. It was far superior while it lasted.

When we bought our first sky box it was from Currys and we were the first ever people in our (very large) city to have sky installed (by Currys). On the same note, in c1977 I worked at Currys and sold the first ever VHS VCR sold at that store! Made a nice change from Avocado coloured fridges and washing machines. Explaining VCR to pensioners in 1977 was a bit like explaining Sky Q to me now.

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[Kayelaina]

Good luck @Steve0001 I hope you get a better response as the standard seems to be there is no issue at their end check your ISP!

[emteepeeess]

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@Thirly wrote:

While I don't mean for this to sound like an advert or mean to be rude to anyone, if you are just being stubborn for the sake of it (as I was), 

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I don't anyone is being "stubborn" - there's a problem with a service that we pay for, it seems that the provider doesn't care or doesn't know how to fix it or doesn't want to fix it - possibly for commercial reasons, but without any sense of transparency about what's going on.

I don't want Sky-Q, at least at the moment, because I have programmes on the Sky+ box that I watch - and I don't want to be pushed into getting a service I don't want (although 4k capability is attractive). I've seen Sky-Q at a friend's house and, because of the way I watch, it just wouldn't suit me. Nothing stubborn.

But I'm sure this problem will push people to Sky-Q.

[emteepeeess]

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@oj01 wrote:

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ch ISP is it?  This isn't insignificant: there are ongoing issues with some cellular broadband provision, for example.

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@TimmyBGood The customers suffering from this issue seem to come from various ISP's including at least one who has Sky Broadband. 

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Indeed - I'm Plusnet - my neighbour is Sky - another is BT and another two are Talk Talk. One has FTTP, the others FTTC. And monitoring the network activity here, it looks like the initial contact with the server works, but you're then handed off to another (I assume a CDN) which simply refuses the connection - although I stress it's very difficult to interpret the traffic 100% reliably.

[Thirly]

@emteepeeess  It seems strange that you decided that I was having a go at you and calling you "stubborn". You seem to be very defensive. Why did you feel the comment was aimed at you? You say you are "not willing to be pushed into something you don't want".  Who exactly is pushing you or forcing you? 

I didn't say people who have this issue were being stubborn. It is a very annoying situation and it shouldn't be happening. I also did not say people were being stubborn if they had good reasons for sticking with Sky+HD. I suggested that if anyone was sticking to their guns but had no real reason to do so other than to make a stand against Sky, they might want to do as I did and take a look at Sky Q .You, on the other hand, say you are not being stubborn and have good reasons for staying with Sky+HD, therefore the comment never applied to you. And, if you don't like the word "stubborn", try the terms "sticking to your guns against all odds" or "not willing to move on when the situation is becoming hopeless".

In my case, my Sky+HD box currently has about 100 programs which were either being kept for rewatching or they have not yet been watched. But I checked out what is available on Catch Up and On Demand on Sky Q (and Sky Go which I have on my PC) and I also looked at what is continuously being repeated on many channels and I feel I'll lose very little, mostly only films that I wanted to keep - but they are bound to be re-aired somewhere at some point. I'd be interested to know what recordings you have that cannot be got again immediately - or sometime soon when Dave repeats it!? I suppose sport and recordings of live events would certanly come into that catyegory, but what else? I'm just curious - not intending to be argumentative.

Maybe tomorrow we'll wake up and find the downloads are working again but I doubt I will regret moving on. It has to happen eventually anyway. But for now I will switch off my Windows 98 PC because I refuse to be forced into upgrading, and I'll light my candles because I refuse to be pushed into using electricity. Subborn? Me? Never!

Damn, I've run out of matches again.

[Steve0001]

FYI, i received the response below to my complaint. It may just be a standard response to keep me quiet! However, as per the email, I will wait a bit longer and see what happens. I would still encourage others to complain, outlining the info given by other users in this thread (i.e. all the ISP checks, router reset, Sky+ box reset, different ISPs affected, SkyGo works etc etc). Emphasis below is mine.

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I understand from your email that you are facing issue with your On Demand where you are facing issue with the downloads and recordings.

I’m sorry to hear that your previous experience with us was unsatisfactory, and I apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.

I appreciate that you took the time to highlight this to us. Please be assured, we value you as a customer and assure you that your feedback has been taken into consideration. We will also implement this feedback to improve the service we provide.

Please be informed, there is an know issue occurred on the on demand download and recordings and our relevant team are currently aware of the issue and working on it to get the issue fixed at the earliest. Therefore, I request you to wait until then further update.

I appreciate your understanding in this matter.

I hope this information has helped with your enquiry. If you require any further assistance, you can reply to my email.

Kind regards

Ajay

Sky Help Centre

[monkeynuts1952]

I had basically the same reply yesterday. How long are we supposed to wait for and how can they send us those replies whilst still telling other customers with the same problem that there's no issue their end and to take it up with their ISP?

Feels very much like being fobbed off!

[emteepeeess]

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@Thirly wrote:

It seems strange that you decided that I was having a go at you and calling you "stubborn". You seem to be very defensive. Why did you feel the comment was aimed at you? You say you are "not willing to be pushed into something you don't want".  Who exactly is pushing you or forcing you? 

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Well, you did say "While I don't mean for this to sound like an advert or mean to be rude to anyone, if you are just being stubborn for the sake of it (as I was), it may be worth you having another look." 

A lot of what you're saying is straw-man arguments - and it also seems that your viewing habits are different to those of others, and you appear happy to move. That's fine.

The reason why some of us keep programmes are because they are not repeated - I have several from 12 years ago which will never be repeated but which I occasionally watch.

If Sky would allow Sky+ boxes to continue to play these, or at least copy in original quality (which I know can't really happen for contractual reasons), I suspect many would move to Q.

And you mention Windows - imagine that one day you turned on your computer and found that, due to a bug, you had a whole pile of copy-protected PDFs of books that you could no longer access or find anywhere else (I've got half a dozen such PDFs which I use for research).

You could upgrade Windows to a version that would allow you to read copy-protected PDFs, but you couldn't copy your existing documents across.

Imagine there was no notice and no recognition from Microsoft that there was a problem, and that they claimed it was your own computer to blame and suggested the solution would be to update Windows - I think people would have right to be angry.

Okay - not a perfect analogy, but one which represents the position that some of us are in.

[emteepeeess]

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@Steve0001 wrote:

Please be informed, there is an know issue occurred on the on demand download and recordings and our relevant team are currently aware of the issue and working on it to get the issue fixed at the earliest. Therefore, I request you to wait until then further update.

I don't have the email to hand, but I had a response which was basically the same tone, but didn't have any acknowledgement of there being a probem, and asking for details of my Sky box.

I sent that information, but haven't had a response.

I don't see why they wouldn't make a public statement that there's a problem affecting some users.

[Kayelaina]

I have just received the below after repling to their email yesterday to advise it was not my ISP and outlining all the issues again and telling them to check the forum if they did not think others were affected.

"I understand you are having issue with your downloads on your Sky + Box  due to which you are unable to utilize full service. I also see that you have checked the with our Sky Community and got to know that the issue is with all Sky Customer with Sky + Box.

Please accept my apology for the inconvenience caused to you as you are unable to download contents on your Sky + Box.

I would like to inform you that there is a known issue with the downloading programmes / movies from our Catch Up and On Demand services, faced by customers and our expert team is working the issue and expected to be resolved at the earliest."