Problem With Satelite Provider

Degag

Hi all, just looking for opinions on this.

A few months back i got a letter from my satelite provider informing me that my phone lines were not connected to my boxes and if i did not connect them i would be liable for extra charges of €48.25 a month. My problem is that i can't connect the phone lines because it plays havoc with my broadband if i do.

I consulted a few friends and asked a) if their boxes were connected to the phone lines and b) did they receive the same letter i did. The vast majority did not have them connected and none of them had received these letters.

Being rather annoyed, (two months payment had been direct debited from my account at this stage) i rang the provider and explained my situation. They told me that the phone lines have to be connected at all times. I asked why other people i knew weren't incurring these charges, i was told that they couldn't comment on other peoples situations I said i wasn't asking about specific customers but in general, why were these people not being charged if i was. They said that they will eventually be found out.

Stupidly i left my direct debit run until last month when i cancelled it. I plan to ring their competitors tomorrow to change over.

I'm just wondering if anyone here has had similar experiences. Can they really charge me these charges when they don't other people in a similar situation?

Cheers

wmpdd3

You have signed up for a 12 month contract with sky, if you cancel the dd you will get a threatening bill for the remaining 10 months subs at the last channel package you were subscribing to.

Just hook it up to the phone line and check your account online etc. When I had sky I only hooked it up to the phone line to order movies / games etc, about 3 time per year I'd say.

Degag

wmpdd3 wrote: »

You have signed up for a 12 month contract with sky, if you cancel the dd you will get a threatening bill for the remaining 10 months subs at the last channel package you were subscribing to.

Just hook it up to the phone line and check your account online etc. When I had sky I only hooked it up to the phone line to order movies / games etc, about 3 time per year I'd say.

I'm not a new customer, i've been with them 6 years with the phone line disconnected about 4 of those years.

jor el

Why didn't you tell them the phone line is connected?

Anyway, you can get Sky without a phone line, but there is a once off charge of about €50. It's not a monthly charge, unless you have multi-room, in which case both boxes must be connected to the phone.

As for playing havoc with your broadband, which I assume is DSL, you just need a DSL filter connected to the phone line that the Sky box is using. That's all it takes.

Degag

jor el wrote: »

Why didn't you tell them the phone line is connected?

Because i presume they have a way of knowing that it is not.

Anyway, you can get Sky without a phone line, but there is a once off charge of about €50. It's not a monthly charge, unless you have multi-room, in which case both boxes must be connected to the phone.

Yes i have multiroom. They told me that the sky box did not have to be connected.

As for playing havoc with your broadband, which I assume is DSL, you just need a DSL filter connected to the phone line that the Sky box is using. That's all it takes.

Sorry not much good at these kind of things. My broadband is through Eircom with a router that i keep in the kitchen. Where would i get a DSL Filter and how much would it cost?

Thanks alot for your reply.

Flankerb

You would have got them with your broadband modem and if you had read the instructions with said modem you would know that these filters are to be placed on any phoneline you use so on your house phone and the line connected to your sky box.
Sorry that sounds a bit harsh but you would have saved yourself all that hassle if you had read first few pages of your broadband manual.

Pacing Mule

The reason why they want a phone line connected is that billing information for the likes of sky box office is dialed out by the box on a monthly basis. If they don't get a check in call from the box they know the phone line isn't connected.

penexpers

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

The reason why they want a phone line connected is that billing information for the likes of sky box office is dialed out by the box on a monthly basis.

In this case, the OP has multi-room and the phone line needs to be connected to both boxes so that Sky can verify that both boxes are still in the same house.

Galadriel

We had sky for years, but wanted to get another box put into the attic bedroom, before I got Sky in I called them and asked them over and over again 'do I need to keep the box hooked up to a phone line' and was told no you don't.

Engineer calls out few days later and tries to charge me an extra €80 to hook up a phone connection, told him what I was told on phone but he didn't believe me so I rang sky and asked them again they said no so I put them onto the engineer, he then continued on without the phone line.

All was well for a few months then the letters start arriving saying I would be charged if I didn't hook up a phone cable...arrrrghhhhhh!! The funny thing is the box we had for years in the sitting room has never had a phone cable hooked up to it but this was fine?!

Anyways cancelled the whole thing.

MichOS

I have had Sky for years and years with no phone line connection. I know loads of people with no landline who have sky - the engineer installing sky at my neighbour's house ran cable from next door into our house to activate the box with our landline socket and she hasn't had their sky box connected since!
I bought multiroom for my son and the sky engineer said to leave it connected for a month or so then it was ok to disconnect it (It was a very awkward connection). That was years ago. We did connect the main box when we upgraded to sky plus, but both boxes were permanently disconnected on the advice of an eircom engineer when both our phone and broadband went down. I couldn't believe how much better the broadband was in our house without the splitter and the sky box on the connection, so I never bothered trying to reconnect it. Now I've had to cancel my entire Sky subscription because they're insisting that I ruin my phone and broadband by hooking their box up to it again. The alternative was to be charged for two full subscriptions.
So sky are happier to lose a long standing customer rather than understand that in some cases it is not possible to have their equipment connected to a phone line. Funny that. I suggest that everyone who gets one of these letters cancels their subscription. If enough of us do, they'll have to give in!

BostonB

Sky charge you € 37 extra to set up without a phone line. its on of the option online. So it makes no sense to me why they'd then insist you need one.

djk1000

BostonB wrote: »

Sky charge you € 37 extra to set up without a phone line. its on of the option online. So it makes no sense to me why they'd then insist you need one.

You need it for multiroom. The second box in the same house is cheaper than a standard sky connection. They want to stop people ordering multiroom and then using the second box in another house. They check that both boxes remain in the same house by using the phoneline.

If sky keep acting like this, just cancel the multiroom thing and pay for one sky connection, then get yourself a freeview card on ebay for the second box.

tallaghtoutlaws

djk1000 wrote: »

You need it for multiroom. The second box in the same house is cheaper than a standard sky connection. They want to stop people ordering multiroom and then using the second box in another house. They check that both boxes remain in the same house by using the phoneline.

If sky keep acting like this, just cancel the multiroom thing and pay for one sky connection, then get yourself a freeview card on ebay for the second box.

We have sky going on 10 years and have multi-room the last few years and don't have the phone line connected to either of the boxes. For the first year of the multi the line was connected to the second box but after that removed. Never been threatened by Sky or told to plug them in. And in fact been on to them a couple of times about our dish and they never mentioned to me to connect either of the boxes. Luck of the draw it seems.

testicle

Degag wrote: »

Sorry not much good at these kind of things. My broadband is through Eircom with a router that i keep in the kitchen. Where would i get a DSL Filter and how much would it cost?

Thanks alot for your reply.

Any computer shop, pay no more than a tenner.

MichOS

DJk1000, that sounds like a good plan - I enquired today and it will cost a lot to sort out the phone line hassle in our house so I can plug the multiroom into a phone socket. The local (excellent) tv engineer is also recommending I cancel my cancellation (!) as we will effectively have no tv picture at all without sky - very bad signal area we live in!
What kind of freeview card should I look for, and does it just plug into the second sky box I have already? Thanks.

Tiny Explosions

testicle wrote: »

Any computer shop, pay no more than a tenner.

Or he could email/phone eircom and tell them his old filter is faulty, I did this a couple of months ago and they sent me out 3, free of charge!:)

djk1000

MichOS wrote: »

DJk1000, that sounds like a good plan - I enquired today and it will cost a lot to sort out the phone line hassle in our house so I can plug the multiroom into a phone socket. The local (excellent) tv engineer is also recommending I cancel my cancellation (!) as we will effectively have no tv picture at all without sky - very bad signal area we live in!
What kind of freeview card should I look for, and does it just plug into the second sky box I have already? Thanks.

http://cgi.ebay.ie/WHITE-CARD-FREE-VIEW-SAT-already-active-no-need-call-/310231838214?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_ConEle_SatCableFreeview_RL&hash=item483b422e06

Have to add a disclaimer, I have no idea if that guy is an honest seller, or if the card will work in your box:D

cgarvey

Sky Multiroom requires that all boxes are connected to the same phoneline at all times. It's black & white in the terms and conditions that are part of your contract. Whether your friend, or someone on the internet, has gotten away with not having them connected for years makes no difference to your contract.

The idea being that Sky give you a (potentially) massively subsidised subscription for the second box. In return, they want to be able to confirm that the box is being used as intended, and is not being shared with a cousin in another county, is not in a holiday home, or not in an Irish pub in Tenerife.

When I had multiroom, I didn't have the second box connected at all times (knowing that I was in breach of the contract and risked penalty). I did, however, connect it up and do a "New Installation" (where the box phones home). That seemed to keep Sky happy (and I did it once every 3 or 4 weeks on both boxes).

Claiming "but you didn't charge them" has no bearing on the breach of your own contract.

As for the DSL filters... every device in the house (phone, fax, alarm, sky box, caller ID unit, etc.) should be connected to a filter. For most houses that's a filter per device, but in some cases you can have it wired up so that all sockets in the house are filtered (and the DSL modem is plugged in to a special/separate socket). You'll get the DSL filters from most big stores, but some charge a premium. You could also ring your broadband provider (eircom?) who might send some free of charge, or at a reasonable cost.

To answer the original question, yes they can charge you. It's something you agreed to when you signed up (even if it was hidden within the T&C).

TheDriver

you can keep your sat and sky boxes and get all the free channels, the only ones you need reception for is rte1,2 and tv3, tg4. With DTT coming in, you probably will be able to pick these up.

padocon

Hi I had the exact same problem as you with the broadband and satellite. You need to do as a poster above said. Add a filter