Sky customers grumble over broadband

Julia Day
Friday September 15, 2006
MediaGuardian.co.uk


BSkyB's newly launched broadband internet service is causing consternation among some customers who have encountered a variety of glitches.
Complaints range from customers who registered weeks ago and have still heard nothing, to those who are connected to the "Max" 16Mb speed package but have a very slow service, and others whose broadband boxes have died after just a few days' use.

Hundreds of disgruntled customers have taken to posting their complaints on internet user websites, such as Digital Spy and Sky User, and have been joined by people who claim to be Sky customer services staff posting anonymously.


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One Sky User forum member, "unregistered ex-BT", wrote: "To anyone thinking of moving to Sky. Read the threads on here and the internet and DON'T BOTHER. They haven't got a clue what's going on and as of now I'm a paid Sky TV member and Sky broadband member and I have no broadband and no answers.
"So if you want no broadband, pathetic support, snail like investigations into it all, different answers from all the call centre workers, lies, long phone calls ... then hey, join Sky. But if you think your current service from your ISP is acceptable then stay where you are because Sky are absolutely useless."

A Digital Spy forum user, "sqareeyes", said: "FYI, there is a major problem with the hardware SKY have installed at the exchanges. This information came from a SKY rep who admitted this to my son who has been trying for weeks to get his SKY broadband connection working. He could not confirm when this will be fixed, but it will be weeks or possibly months before they do anything about it ... My advice to anyone who is thinking of getting SKY broadband and hasn't done so yet is WAIT!"

Another Digital Spy user, "Anonymouse91", complained: "Just got connected but have got really slow speeds. I'm signed up to the Max package which is 16Mb but the router is connected to Sky at around 7Mb and a speed test reports it is around 2-4Mb."

One user, whose broadband box failed entirely less than two weeks after installation, was told by the helpline that another box would be sent, and that there had been many calls of a similar nature.

Many Sky customers are complaining about poor customer service, much slower internet connections speeds than advertised and mix-ups in getting broadband activated via BT phone lines, with BT and Sky both blaming each other.

Sky launched its broadband service this month for customers who are already signed up to its television service.

Customers could register their interest ahead of the launch in one of three broadband packages - free 2Mb speed/2Gb usage cap; 5 a month 8Mb/40GB cap; and 10 a month 16Mb/unlimited usage.

Earlier this week Sky suspended its film download service and blocked access to some broadband sports clips because of a software security breach, while it waits for Microsoft to upgrade its protection against the hacking software FairUse4WM, which allows users to pirate content.

Almost three-quarters of the UK's internet users are on high-speed broadband connections, according to a recent study by the Office for National Statistics. The country has 10m households using broadband, outstripping the number of old-fashioned dial-up connections by three to one.

A Sky spokesman said: "We launched Sky Broadband to give great value, fast speeds and innovative features to Sky customers. Thousands of customers are already up and running.

"At this early stage, we're listening closely to feedback and continually refining service and operations as we do in all areas of our business.

"We think Sky Broadband will grow to become enjoyed by millions of people and we thank customers for comments and recommendations that help us to create an exciting broadband experience."

To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857

If you are writing a comment for

Cheers chaps.

GF.

GF,
I use AOL, and have for about 2 years. No idea what speed I get, or should get but I have had no real problems with it. I leave both my pc and router on 24/7 and my router has failed twice in that time.
BT told me my line could not support broadband, but AOL said they'd give it a go and it has worked fine. The only issue I have had is that i bought a belkin router and when I do get any small problem and phone the help lines, AOL and Belkin refuse to support each other and therefore just blame each other. Aol says they cannot advise if I use a belkin and Belkin say they cannot advise if I am on AOL!!
Other than that -no probs - and if AOL are now offering their own router, that problem is solved.
Alan

I use BT and their equipment and I never have any problems, the speed is always fast and the equipment is reliable.

Seems to me you get what you pay for.

Grab a bargain, grab an underperfoming system.

Pentium 1 processor???

It has done well to stay working till now but there is your problem.

P1 indicates an old system and a small hard drive, you may have padded out the memory, you may have increased the capacity of the hard drive, but essentiually you are running the equivelent of a sinclair spectrum to your P1 when new, you cant update a motherboard that houses the p1.

Please consider spending a few bob to come into the 21st century and then buy the top of the range for what you would use it for.

The slowing down no doubt improves currently when you restart?

I see that as memory being used up, including virtual memory, evenually it'll freeze if you do nothing about it and you will have to restart by turning off the power, and doing a scan disc every time that happens.

Not desireable, just imagine that happening when you are trying to buy or sell urgently.

It could cost you much more than a new computer.

Think about it.

Many thanks to the last 2 posters. It looks like I need a new service provider and a new system at home. Thankfully my business is equipped with top of the range PCs.

Some excelent points made.

cheers GF.

Subject Sky Broadband - A Workers View
Posted by madskyworker (newbie)
Posted on Tue 03-Oct-06 23:47:03

Hello there, I was recommended this site via the vnunet forums, so here's how it is...

First things first, I would like to point out that I am a member of Sky Broadband order status, which if you call 08705 515515 () and then press option 2, option 1, you may be lucky to speak to me or some of my disgruntled colleagues. Unfortunately I won't give you my name from fear of the company, but if you get in to a heated debate about the state of Sky it could be me.

Secondly, I'd like to shed some truth from the perspective of an irate member of staff. What I plan to include in this complaint is 100% fact and of my own opinion, I'm not going to sugar coat anything to try and boost anyones opinions of Sky. Hopefully this will allow those of you considering to get the product, an idea of what's going on, and those of you who are waiting for it, some light shed on a grim matter.

Anyways, let us go back to the beginning...

Pre-Registration

I myself, have not been an employee of Sky for much more than 2 months, so a lot of issues had occurred before I'd even started there. If you'd all like to cast your minds back to the hazy days of August '06, I will begin. This is the month Sky began to roll out their broadband advertising via TV and publications. At this point, the actual networks (which were originally ran by Easynet) were still in a stage of last minute tweaking, so many people in my workplace underwent the pre-registration process.

Essentially, this process would be to just take some customer details, and then have a small pack of information sent out to them. TWO problems with this, by doing this on the website, a poorly written website I might add, many customers were under the impression that they had actually registered for the service, rather than register their interest. Secondly, the packs which were promised, never actually arrived at their locations. Even now, and this is the beginning of October, customers are still calling asking where their regestration packs are or why has no one ever contacted them. Our answer is something along the lines of 'Errrm'. In all honesty, none of us have an idea what happened, who the requests for packs were sent to and if anyone actually recieved anything, ever.

Initial Activation

So the end of August arrived, a lovely time indeed. Many of us had just undergone our training for Sky Broadband Provisioning, this included lot's of information on Sky Talk, and Sky HD, which in hindsight, even the top bollock of Sky said 'We have no idea why we trained you all for that as it proved utterly pointless and money consuming'. Ah, awesome, at least we got paid for a few weeks of nothing though. So began our actual jobs however when we plunged in to it with the most fleeting knowledge of the systems, systems we later realised are completely useless.

For those of you who don't know, at the time, Sky Order Status was broken down in to two teams, Inbound calls (aka complaints in our eyes) and Provisioning (liaison with BT). I applied for the job to do Provisioning. The role of this basically being, checking the status of orders, resubmitting orders, following up orders etc. Basically, if anything went wrong with the order we would sort it out.

Inbounds job would be direct contact with the customer, telling customers the status of orders and activation dates and chasing up the routers that Sky were going to give for FREE to each customer. Right...

What a fiasco...

Us in Provisioning, dropped in to the job with no idea what's happening. Backed up by a web based piece of software to control orders and another piece of software (Chordiant) which Sky use everywhere but looks like it was designed by an AS Level computing student. Hugely unstable, and seemed to lack contact with our other software. It's like being left in a cage of tigers with a bar of soap for a weapon. Generally it was smooth running though, not entirely sure how, this was until Inbound took a sudden turn.

With the increased call volume (exceeding 7,000 customers ringing multiple times a day) and an extreme amount of irate customers, many people upped and left, leaving us in the proverbial ****.

Also, we seemed to be lacking routers to send out, you know, the pretty important part of the deal. A manifest to track said routers was created, this seemed to be missing all the routers of customers that still required them. This situation was starting to get out of hand, and no resolution could be given to the customers. As an apology from Sky, many customers were given a free months subscription or reimbursed on their TV package, but this didnt still make up for the fact that some customers still had no broadband for over a month, some even two.

The Next Stage

With many members of staff walking out the door (I believe 25 in one week) and an increasing call volume, many of us from provisioning were moved on to inbound calling repeatedly, again this is where things start getting worse. Basically plunged in to another job with no real training or anything we were told to take calls from customers. If during September you spoke to an English call centre and the agent had no idea what to do about your problem, apologies, but please, blame management.

Coupled with pretty much no help from management and no shouting or screaming getting us anywhere, led to a very depressed workplace which couldn't really off any resolutions to customers who called.

Left to our own devices, a method of getting routers sent out to customers was designed and seemed to work pretty well, at the moment, if you are waiting for a router to be sent out and you've been messed around, this system is still in place. A system which basically involves emailing someone, who emails someone else and then hopefully everything works out. Generally, it does however it's not too reassuring to colleagues or customers.

'Corporate Sabotage'

The main problem many customers find is that they will contact our call centre asking what's happening with their order. Generally our answer is 'The order is in a state of PFO (Progressing Firm Order)' which is fine. The reason for this usually stems back to BT, which is where all kind of fun and games begin.

For those of you that don't know, Sky purchased Easynet who also ran UK Online. Easynet own equipment and rent space in BT's exchanges. However, all broadband connections are undertaken by BT engineers. Often the orders are in delay as there are currently 70,000 orders progressing through the network, far more than BT or Sky had anticipated, but we also believe that BT aren't being overly cooperative as at the end of the day, we're major competition. But that might just be a rumour. However, whenever we spoke to BT Openreach, BT's own call centre to help us track problems, we found that one question, asked to four agents would pose four different answers. Not helpful to us, definately not helpful to you if you're waiting for your line to go live. BT then also requested that we stopped calling Openreach and orders would pretty much be 'done when they're done' so to speak. Currently this is being investigated further, I also believe OFCOM maybe involved very soon.

Admittedly, from a company perspective, this is absoloute ******** to here, but I would ask if customers would please bear with us when we say 'There's a delay at the exchange', we're not lying and it is completely out of our hands.

Another problem we've come across is that if you live in certain areas, you may be affected by faulty BT Telephone Exchanges. This is even worse, in technical terms, it'll be fixed when it's fixed so the orders will be done when they're done. BT seem to be unwilling to give us any sort of time frame, which of course, we then can't relay this to a customer. It's one massive nightmare that will really only be sorted when BT get their [censored] in gear. For example, if you live in Twickenham and its surrounding areas (the LWKNE exchange), sorry, but when/if you get broadband from us, it will actually be an act of God.

The Present

Things are starting to get back on track. People still aren't happy as they're being forced in to jobs, i.e. inbound, with no real explanation. It's still not the greatest place to work but things are starting to right themselves. As I write this 49,918 orders have completed, that's gone up 200 in the last few minutes. 21,144 orders are in progress, likely to go live within the next few days. However, 1,402 orders are still in delay, and it's these orders keeping us up at night. Until now I've tried to remain calm and unbiased, but now I'd like to rant.

Management here sucks. Their decisions they make impede the progress of orders and generally they know less than people who earn less than them, how is that justifiable? While I write this, a member of management is belittling a colleague for no real reason, purely because the colleague is trying to help a customer more than is deemed acceptable by the team managers.

Currently management have broken down our teams in to small groups, which they feel will get more tasks done with a quicker turnaround. In reality,it's builing up tension between colleagues who are now classed as 'elite' and those who are 'bog standard' along with also slowing down the backlog of work. Router chase up processes are terrible and aren't fool proof and our actual systems to process and track orders are nothing more than a glorified Post-It Note.

The main call centre in Scotland are renowned for being [censored] who mess up orders that are almost complete after two months and I believe many of their staff are having system privileges removed. A prime example of them messing something up was the case of Mrs X, who when speaking to a rather rude agent said 'If you talk to me like that, I'm going to cancel my order' her husband then said 'Cancel the lot' in the background. The agent then cancelled the order, in it's final stages, after two months of delay. Prrrriiiick. It's safe to say this customer is completely mortified after speaking to her for nearly an hour.

The Indian call centre might as well not exist. Having the hardest accents to understand it's a nightmare to work with. And this is Tier 1 Tech Support, how the hell can they solve anything, it's absoloutely ******* ridiculous. Rumour is, they have just been transferring unrelated calls to my department, just because they can't be arsed, or something along those lines.

If I'm honest, don't go with Sky, go with NTL, and if you can avoid all of them go to Vispa or someone like that, at least there you might be given some idea of a turnaround.

Any questions, feel free to ask, I'd quite like to hear what gripes anyone may have.

More at http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=unhappiness&Number=2688214

Sky announces plans to enter mobile sector
Sky is set to add a range of mobile voice and data services to its customer offering for the first time following agreement of a new partnership with Telefónica UK.

Under the terms of the multi-year deal, Telefónica UK will give Sky wholesale access to 2G, 3G and 4G services over its popular nationwide network. Leveraging its market-leading capabilities in customer service and innovation, Sky plans to launch its first mobile telephony services to customers in 2016.

Sky's move into the mobile sector builds on its success as the UK's fastest-growing home communications business. Just seven years after launch, Sky has grown organically to number 2 in the home broadband market attracting more than 5 million customers with its offer of better choice and value. Sky has also established itself as the UK's most popular triple-play provider with almost 40% of its customer base now taking all three of TV, telephony and broadband.

In addition, Sky has developed Europe's leading mobile TV service in Sky Go. With 5.7 million registered users, Sky Go meets customers' growing demand to watch content across multiple devices in and out of the home, offering a choice of up 70 live channels and a wide range of content On Demand, whenever and wherever customers want it.

Telefónica UK has an established track record in successful wholesale partnerships, supporting some of the UK's leading MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) including the number 1 player Tesco Mobile. TelefónicaUK's strong network credentials have helped its O2-branded service enjoy industry-leading customer satisfaction and are underpinned by a unique commitment to 98% 4G coverage by 2017.

Sky Sports wins live Premier League rights
Sky has strengthened its position as the home of sport and unrivalled choice for sports fans by winning the UK rights to 126 live Premier League matches a season from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

In a successful outcome to the Premier League's tender process, Sky Sports was awarded five packs of live rights. Sky will pay £1,392 million per annum for each of the three years of the new agreement, representing an 83% increase over the cost of the existing contract.

The new deal ensures that Sky Sports will be the only place to follow the biggest matches and stories throughout the Premier League season. Viewers will be able to rely on Sky Sports to bring them three times as many live matches as any other broadcaster, including the best match picks and the most-watched slots in the schedule. By securing the rights to matches on Friday evenings for the first time, Sky Sports will also bring viewers an entirely new way to start the weekend with live Premier League football.

The expanded schedule of live Premier League matches will be a key part of the unrivalled breadth of coverage offered by Sky Sports across seven channels. After 25 rights deals in 2014, and a new agreement for live rights to The Open golf championship from 2017, Sky has secured long-term visibility over its market-leading rights portfolio and future costs.

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Neutral 928.25 1,170.00 980.00 Downgrades

Numis Add 928.25 982.00 982.00 Retains

Barclays Capital Overweight 928.25 - 975.00 Reiterates

Kepler Cheuvreux Hold 928.25 - 975.00 Reiterates

Liberum Capital Sell 928.25 850.00 530.00 Reiterates

Westhouse Securities Neutral 928.25 930.00 930.00 Reiterates

Citigroup Buy 928.25 1,075.00 1,075.00 Reiterates

JP Morgan Cazenove Neutral 928.25 - - Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Hold 928.25 1,000.00 950.00 Reiterates

Berenberg Sell 928.25 784.00 784.00 Reiterates

Looks like my Sky subs are going to be going up anytime soon. :-(

Yes, it certainly looks that way.
Pubs pay £1200 per month for Sky and might be a case of many more using Viacom or other foreign systems if their subs go up, again having a knock-on effect for domestic users.

Isn't ITV #1 content owner

StockMarketWire.com
Sky (SKY) has hiked its FY pretax profit by 48% to £1.52bn on revenue up 34% to £9.99bn. FY dividend was 32.8p, up 3%.

CEO Jeremy Darrochcommented:
"The past 12 months have been an outstanding period of growth for Sky. We've successfully completed a deal that has transformed the size and scale of opportunity for the business whilst delivering an excellent financial and operational performance as more customers chose Sky and took more of our products.

"It's clear that the steps we have taken to broaden out our business are paying off. By distributing our content over multiple platforms and launching new products and services, we are now able to offer something for every household.

"The strength of the customer response is evident in our results: across the group, we added almost one million new customers over the year, 45% more than the prior year. Our operating momentum delivered a 5% increase in revenues which combined with a relentless focus on costs to achieve an 18% increase in operating profit. This was an excellent performance in a year of such change for the business.

"The UK and Ireland, where our strategy is most progressed, put in a particularly strong performance. We passed the 12-million customer milestone with the highest growth in 11 years; we surpassed 38 million paid-for subscription products; and we delivered the lowest churn in 11 years. This is the direct result of the investments we've made in connected services and quality content with more than 7 million customers now connected.

"Germany and Italy also posted strong performances. Germany delivered its highest-ever customer growth, while Italy maintained its subscriber base in a tough market. Both businesses also achieved significantly increased customer loyalty, thanks to continued investment in the customer experience.

"This has been a big year on screen. Across the portfolio, we've secured a series of big rights deals and made exciting progress in our push into original content. Crime drama Fortitude and Italian political drama 1992 became the first of our home-grown dramas to launch simultaneously across all five territories and there's much to look forward to. We're taking another step up in 2016 with a string of new commissioned dramas, including crime drama, The Last Panthers, coming this autumn, and The Young Pope, a major new co-production with HBO and Canal+. Both show the scale of our ambition as we build a new European powerhouse for TV content.

"Looking ahead, we see an expanded opportunity for growth by serving the market broadly with multiple products and services. The investments we have made have given us a strong platform on which to build and we have a clear set of plans to deliver long-term growth and returns for our shareholders."

Highlights included:
Excellent financial performance
· 5% increase in group revenue to £11,283 million

· 18% increase in operating profit to £1,400 million

· 3% increase in full year dividend per share

Growing customer demand and loyalty
· 973,000 new customer additions, 45% more than prior year

· 4.6 million new paid-for subscription products

· Stand-out performance on churn: under 10% in each market

Strong performance across all five territories
· Highest organic customer growth for 11 years in UK and Ireland to pass 12-million milestone

· Highest-ever customer growth in Germany and Austria

· Italy held customer base stable after three years of negative growth

Building for the future

· Growing momentum in entertainment: 35 original dramas planned in the next three years

· Scaling new businesses: revenues from Sky Store, AdSmart and Sky Vision up 122%

· Good progress with bringing the three Skys together: integration working well

StockMarketWire.com
Sky has made a strong start to year in Q1 with a 6% rise in group revenue to GBP2.8bn, and a 10% rise in operating profit to GBP375m.

In the UK and Ireland, Sky's investments in content and connected services helped to deliver customer growth of 77,000, up over 50% year on year and the highest rate of Q1 customer growth for four years.

"We also added 759,000 paid-for products, including 43,000 new TV additions and 133,000 new broadband additions, growth of 77% year on year. Churn of 9.8% was down 110 basis points year on year, our lowest Q1 level for 11 years," the company said.

"Revenue was up 7% to £2,003 million (2015: £1,869 million) which drove a 20% increase in profit to £358 million (2015: £299 million) helped by our strong focus on costs.

"In Germany and Austria, we added 94,000 new customers. Total product growth was 236,000, including another strong quarter of Sky Premium HD, and churn was down 40 basis points year on year to 9.0%, aided by the impact of 24-month contracts.

Revenue was up 11% to £336 million (2015: £304 million) whilst we recorded a loss of £8 million (2015: profit of £8 million) as the result of increased Bundesliga and Champions League costs and the change in amortisation profile.

"Italy delivered a resilient performance against a challenging economic backdrop, and the loss of the Champions League rights on a platform that is more sports-focused.

"In the quarter, we had a loss of 37,000 customers with products down 58,000, largely driven by a one-time increase in HD subscribers in the prior year as we unbundled the HD product.

"We saw another good performance on churn which remained at 10.0%. Revenue was down 4% to £454 million (2015: £474 million) largely due to lower customer numbers, although down only 3% on an underlying basis excluding the impact of the discontinuation of programme sales to Mediaset Premium and advertising revenues from the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Profit was down £8 million year on year to £25 million (2015: £33 million)."

CEO Jeremy Darroch said:
"We have made a strong start to the year with customers responding well to the quality and breadth of our content, products and services.

"As we continue to place customers right at the heart of our business, we are focused on offering the very best content at the same time as anticipating customers' evolving needs, delivering the programmes that they love across multiple platforms and devices.

"This approach has delivered an excellent financial performance in the quarter, with further broad-based revenue growth of 6%, translating into a 10% increase in operating profit.

"This performance was driven by strong demand across the group. We added over 130,000 new customers in the quarter, up 7% on the previous year, which means that we've added almost a million new customers over the past twelve months, up 51% year on year.

"Our total product base now exceeds 54 million, and within this, broadband growth in the UK had a stand-out performance this quarter, up 77% year on year.

"Our investments in content are driving a great performance on screen, with highlights this quarter including record viewing of Sky Atlantic in the UK, of the Bundesliga in Germany and the X Factor in Italy. We are building scale in our own world class original content, as well as securing key rights including multi-year deals with Disney and SANZAR southern hemisphere rugby.

"We want to make the viewing experience even better for all our customers. Following the success of our proven connected home strategy in the UK and Ireland, we are beginning to roll this out across our other territories.

"We now have almost 10 million connected households across the group, driving over 750 million views to our connected services this quarter alone.

"As these results show, we are delivering against a clear set of plans across Europe, and are well positioned for the growth opportunities ahead."

Other highlights included:
Strong customer demand and loyalty across the group

· 134,000 new customer additions

· 937,000 new paid-for subscription products, with 133,000 new broadband subscribers in the UK

· Strong churn performance across all territories

Strengthening leadership in content and innovation

· Taking Sky's original drama to the next level: The Last Panthers to launch across the group

· Securing the best content: multi-year agreements with Disney and SANZAR rugby

· Driving connected services: over 750 million views across 9.6 million connected households

On watchlist looks cheap, could get cheaper.

StockMarketWire.com
Sky has invested $1m in The Drone Racing League (DRL), and has agreed to a distribution deal that will see the thrilling world of elite drone racing come to the newly launched Sky Sports Mix channel.

DRL is the global leader of First Person View (FPV) drone racing, which features elite pilots each flying a custom designed, hand built and identical drone, through complex, thematic, three-dimensional racecourses that have been compared to a real life video game.

The DRL media team creates and continues to innovate a custom-designed broadcast and race infrastructure to capture the fast, close proximity racing.

In addition to Sky's investment, Sky Sports has completed a distribution partnership with DRL to bring live events and broadcast content to the UK and Ireland. Airing as ten, one-hour episodes, the 2016 DRL season covers five races including a winner-take-all world championship to crown the best drone pilot.

The broadcasts will air from this October on the newly launched Sky Sports Mix channel. Sky Sports Mix will provide an introduction to the sport for millions of Sky customers at no extra cost, with live sports every day.

Sky Sports and DRL will also team up with London & Partners to bring an official DRL race, the first professional drone race in the UK, to an iconic venue in London.

Fox to bid for Sky this week via scheme of arrangement: sources

Comcast challenges Murdoch with $31 billion offer to buy Sky

Liberum Capital today upgrades its investment rating on Sky Plc (LON:SKY) to buy (from hold) and raised its price target to 1250p (from 970p).