When Sky cocked up my installation ages ago I emailed James Murdoch, got a reply within half an hour and a massive discount by way of apology.

Worth an email to whoever the CEO is these days

heh at not being able to make a phone call 'because covid'.

Fvcks sake.

Still, it could be worse, you could be trying to get Virgin media to do something. 

What dd said.  Reminds me of 2007-10 when everything and anything that “couldn’t” be done was because of the credit crunch.  

It's nothing to do with covid.  As I've said before they sub-contract installation in London and Sky say they have no control over the contractors and the contractors say they are meant to call before they get to you but Sky don't give them the details so they can't call.  Somewhere in between is probably the truth.

I haven't left the house and have no food, and am starving. It is aparently a two man job and they require a long ladder, I live on the second floor FFS. It is about to start raining, I fear they won't work in the rain.

Ah yes the joys of not going anywhere all day because they will only give you a window that's between 9am and 5pm only for them to call at 4.55pm and announce it's been rescheduled.  On the upside you've only got another 48 minutes of waiting.

Now tv better value - just tell them to forget it

You don't need a dish for SkyQ - just the box and decent broadband.  Or, just fit your own dish - takes about an hour.

Sails, you  sure you do not work for sky! Christ I call them at 4.30, and they call the engineer who says he will be here in 20 minutes max. At 5.00 I get an automated email saying it has been rescheduled for the 8th. Someone in a call centre I don't know where is very apologetic, and promises me it won't happen again, and have credited my account with a measly 25 bloody quid. I pressed for more and he said he couldn't.

Dear lord, when I had Sky a few years ago, this shit never happened , its outrageous. Any suggestions

PS: He blamed it on Covid, the joker.

It’s exactly what I went through in Feb with them but I emailed a letter to the chief exec setting out the timings of my assorted conversations assuring me someone was coming only to then reschedule.

What worked weirdly was phoning them at 4pm on the third day and telling them to stuff it all as I was going to choose someone else competent.  Ten minutes after I put the phone down the engineer appeared and set it up.

You wold think they have DD to death the contractor(s) after all it is a contract probably worth seven figures plus. When did they outsource the call centre to India, it used to be in Scotland.

I cannot be the only one, there must be tens of thousands who have had similar experiences.

ebit, I had similar issues but on a smaller scale. Install date fixed about a month in advance for early June.  At 5pm on the day I get the message saying it's rescheduled to late June, with no explanation. Complained to extremely helpful (Scottish) girl at the call centre who promised to try to get me an earlier date. Next day, I get a message rescheduling to mid July... Errrm, thanks...?

In my online account I found a free slot the day after the late June date. The engineer turned up and was ace.

But today the roofer nudged the dish and I've lost signal. But - hah! -the ace engineer had anticipated the nudging and booked the job as a partial completion with another visit scheduled for mid July.

Between ordering and actual installation date, are they giving you access to all channels on Sky Go?

Took me three months from ordering to getting it working.  This was for my parents so  could use Sky Go through my own account until they got it sorted.  Turned out there was also an issue with the communal distribution system in the building which had to be fixed before it would all finally work.

sky install take 6 today, do you reckon it will happen and do they work in the rain?

They did not turn up . Sky called community vision limited who say they didn’t get the order , Sky insisted the third party installation company got the order. An hour on the phone they apologies profusely have given me another measly £25.00 credit, escalated it to a manager who will return to me in 24 hours. Utter shambles, on this occasion I believe Sky, this instillation company seem two Bob 

Fun times ebitda. Fun time. 

Sky must be losing millions with these clowns. I can get most but not all of the channels on my laptop, but I want to watch stuff on a TV

I’ll give you the chief exec’s email if you like as my letter to him got me a helpful Scottish lady rather than the general call centre and she got stuff sorted.

Interesting. When I had Sky Q installed around 2.5 years ago they turned up exactly when they said they would, there were 3 of them, the installation was smooth and efficient and they didn't bat an eyelid at having to crawl into my loft through the tiny hatch to make the connections. They then spent a considerable time showing me how the system worked and answering my questions. It was probably the best experience I have ever had with workmen coming to my home.

Geoff maybe it was a different contractor, when I had Sky twice in the past when they were doing the installs in house , they never missed a beat.

"the engineer will not call when he is an hour away, due to " Covid"."

I don't quite follow. Does he think he travels through the airwaves?

you do need a satellite dish for sky q

The annoying thing is the dish is here, it just needs adjusting a bit before they can connect the internals . At the point of order I told them i lived on the second floor, and they advised it would require a long ladder and a special access team of two everytime apart from the first time they turn up single handed.

The first occasion the other guy stayed in the van, and the guy went to fetch him to help and he couldn't be arsed as it was late in the day (5.30) and he wanted to get home !

Geoff are you in London?  Outside London the engineers are Sky employees and are very good but in London they are contractors.

Well they are due by 11.00 today , what are the chances ?

Did they turn up??

Bump. Closure needed!!!

If you call and cancel the order now he'll be with you before 3pm.  When I did that the engineer turned up just after I put the phone down and started getting ready to go out.

Clive, they turned up and all is well. An engineer turned up, on his own having got the job last night at 11.00. I asked him where his mate was, and he told me he is on his way his colleague having only got the job at 8.30 am. One travelled from Tonbridge and the other from Ashford , Kent.

Apparently Sky just take sales, and advise the contractors at the last moment. He was not surprised it took 6 months! I asked him how many jobs they had and he advised 4, although he was not shy in telling me his back was about to go and they would only get 3 done today.

As he was leaving he was given a new job round the corner. Utter shambles.

Sails our posts crossed, I reckon the new job they had round the corner, was from someone who said they would cancel. The issue with my job it required" a long ladder team), I am on the second floor FFS!

Friend of mine always has trouble as his dish is mounted high up on the outside of the block and although he always says he'll need a long ladder team they send an engineer who turns up and announces he can't do it and he'll need to rebook it for a long ladder team...

Yes sails, that happened 5/6 times. Sometimes I got a call to be told they were 30 minutes away, and they didn't turn up, blaming Sky saying they never knew it was a 2 man job. Or when I called them direct they had no knowledge of the job!.

I reckon Sky just cram them in, no ifs, no buts.

Congrats! - a happy ending!