SKY customer first time... phone line?

Sadderday

Hi,

Not sure if I'm in the reight place... looking for advice.

Moving into a rented house next week and just signed up for sky tv.

Sky need to know that there is an active phone line and I need to have one for this. The agent isn't sure about it and says it may not be connected up. I would be looking to have broadband set up too but it seems to be very messy. I dont know how to set up a phone line... we didn't want a house phone.

Any advice for a first timer ?

Thank you

Tokyo

If I read this right, there is a phone point in the house but you're not sure if it works or not?

Plug in a phone, and dial 19 9000 - if the line works, an automated system will read the number back to you.

Mr Simpson

If the house has a phone point that is inactive, Sky may be able to provide a service, provided it is a unique address and it can be found on the inactive line database (this is not always possible, even with a phoneline present).

A phoneline is necessary as the BB is provided by the eircom phoneline, you dont have to use the phone.

Sadderday

mike_ie wrote: »

If I read this right, there is a phone point in the house but you're not sure if it works or not?

Plug in a phone, and dial 19 9000 - if the line works, an automated system will read the number back to you.

Hi exactly and I don't move in for a week... but sky really want the details of the phone line asap so I'm starting to worry about whether it will be easy or not!

Stoner

Moved to Broadband

Mr Simpson

Sadderday wrote: »

Hi exactly and I don't move in for a week... but sky really want the details of the phone line asap so I'm starting to worry about whether it will be easy or not!

Once they have the details (as per my post above), it's easy

Sadderday

Hi again,

I haven't signed up for any broadband as yet but I will be soon (landline is required for this I assume) ... however; for the television alone sky keep telling me I need to get a phoneline in... they went ahead and agreed to install without it for now but If I dont bother getting it in will they hassle me at a later date? Just not sure why a phoneline is needed for the tv.

Sorry, Novice and First timer.... thanks all

Vico1612

Sadderday wrote: »

Hi again,

I haven't signed up for any broadband as yet but I will be soon (landline is required for this I assume) ... however; for the television alone sky keep telling me I need to get a phoneline in... they went ahead and agreed to install without it for now but If I dont bother getting it in will they hassle me at a later date? Just not sure why a phoneline is needed for the tv.

Sorry, Novice and First timer.... thanks all

As far as I know, land line is required for initial card activation [ but the install engineer can call sky to activate the care with the box ] and is only used if you use services .
Land line is mandatory if you have Sky multiroom
[ maybe the guys in the Satellite forum can confirm / clarify ]

Mr Simpson

Phoneline is needed for Multiscreen to verify all the boxes are in the one house. Do you have more than 1 box?

Drogmal

You don't need a phone line for standard sky installation unless you have multi-room. They just want you to have one. Just make up a number if you don't have one or tell them your line will be installed soon after the sky installation.

Mr Simpson

Drogmal wrote: »

You don't need a phone line for standard sky installation unless you have multi-room. They just want you to have one. Just make up a number if you don't have one or tell them your line will be installed soon after the sky installation.

You don't need to do that if you don't have multiscreen, you can just tell them you don't have one. If you have multiscreen its a different story completely though.

Sadderday

Mr Simpson wrote: »

You don't need to do that if you don't have multiscreen, you can just tell them you don't have one. If you have multiscreen its a different story completely though.

Thanks a million, I rang them and got answers... you're right about the multiroom but as I was told this morning I could plod along with just one sky box in the house and no phone line connection however; at the end of year I will have accrued charges amounting to over €100 for not connecting to a phone line. So I just cancelled straight away.

Thanks everyone - but I think they are making up regulations as they go along.


Isn't it funny the salesman never mentioned this yesterday btw

Vico1612

Sadderday wrote: »

Thanks a million, I rang them and got answers... you're right about the multiroom but as I was told this morning I could plod along with just one sky box in the house and no phone line connection however; at the end of year I will have accrued charges amounting to over €100 for not connecting to a phone line. So I just cancelled straight away.

Thanks everyone - but I think they are making up regulations as they go along.


Isn't it funny the salesman never mentioned this yesterday btw

100€ charges ? That sounds like bull .... :cool:
My box isn't connected to the land line ... never paid a cent

Sadderday

Vico1612 wrote: »

100€ charges ? That sounds like bull .... :cool:
My box isn't connected to the land line ... never paid a cent

I thought it was insane too and he said that he would check with his manager, came back and confirmed this was the case. I can't believe it myself. Cancelled it anyway I knew there was going be something attached to the 'great deal' I was offered yesterday. Never heard of this before nor has my friends or family and some haven't got their boxes connected either.

Chances are they will call me in a few weeks for business now that they have my number !

Tokyo

Sadderday wrote: »

I thought it was insane too and he said that he would check with his manager, came back and confirmed this was the case. I can't believe it myself. Cancelled it anyway I knew there was going be something attached to the 'great deal' I was offered yesterday. Never heard of this before nor has my friends or family and some haven't got their boxes connected either.

Chances are they will call me in a few weeks for business now that they have my number !

Did they give an actual reason what this €100 charge was meant to cover?

Sadderday

mike_ie wrote: »

Did they give an actual reason what this €100 charge was meant to cover?

apparently each month that i'd be watching sky and not connected to the phone line I'd be accruing charges. So I assume the fee is for each month that you watch tv from sky and dont have a phone line.... which was definately not mentioned in my conversation with the salesman otherwise I wouldn't have signed up...

This is just for the one box by the way

Mr Simpson

Sadderday wrote: »

apparently each month that i'd be watching sky and not connected to the phone line I'd be accruing charges. So I assume the fee is for each month that you watch tv from sky and dont have a phone line.... which was definately not mentioned in my conversation with the salesman otherwise I wouldn't have signed up...

This is just for the one box by the way

You wont accrue charges if you dont have multiscreen set up. The box only has to be connected if you have more than one box in the house

Sadderday

Mr Simpson wrote: »

You wont accrue charges if you dont have multiscreen set up. The box only has to be connected if you have more than one box in the house

They did say that phone line is a requirement for 2 boxes which is why I wanted to cancel the second box and just have the one... the guy on the phone then told me that although a phone line isn't exactly required for just one box.. if I don't get one I am looking at 'hefty' bill at the end of the year for not having a phone line. I'm glad he told me this so I could cancel the whole lot but no-one I know seems to have experienced this same thing. I asked if this was related to the bundle I chose or anything and he said no its the general terms of the contract.

Mr Simpson

Sadderday wrote: »

They did say that phone line is a requirement for 2 boxes which is why I wanted to cancel the second box and just have the one... the guy on the phone then told me that although a phone line isn't exactly required for just one box.. if I don't get one I am looking at 'hefty' bill at the end of the year for not having a phone line. I'm glad he told me this so I could cancel the whole lot but no-one I know seems to have experienced this same thing. I asked if this was related to the bundle I chose or anything and he said no its the general terms of the contract.

2 boxes with no phoneline = possible charges

1 box with no phoneline = no additional charges (except for €1 admin fee for PPV bookings made by phone)

I can tell you this with 100% certainty

Sadderday

Mr Simpson wrote: »

2 boxes with no phoneline = possible charges

1 box with no phoneline = no additional charges (except for €1 admin fee for PPV bookings made by phone)

I can tell you this with 100% certainty

I will surely not dispute that, my brother had rented with one box for a year and no phoneline and not accrued any charges but I had been honestly advised of such charges from a sky staff member in the downgrades dept this morning so I cant risk that.. but to be honest.. Mr Simpson you seem to be very sure of this as does my family & friends so I may call them now and question this once again because it certainly does not seem right to me either.

Thanks for the advice, going to call now for clarity - will post in a moment with the outcome

Mr Simpson

Sadderday wrote: »

I will surely not dispute that, my brother had rented with one box for a year and no phoneline and not accrued any charges but I had been honestly advised of such charges from a sky staff member in the downgrades dept this morning so I cant risk that.. but to be honest.. Mr Simpson you seem to be very sure of this as does my family & friends so I may call them now and question this once again because it certainly does not seem right to me either.

Thanks for the advice, going to call now for clarity - will post in a moment with the outcome

There seems to be some form of confusion going on here, you're best of ringing them to clarify

Sadderday

well I contacted them once again and am confused once more.
This time I was told that a phoneline is a requirement for the first 12 months and he has never heard of such charges for no phoneline and thinks his colleague may have gotten 'confused'. However; his version of the situation is that they would install the box if there was no phone line however; I wouldn't be able to view any television until a phoneline is activated. The salesman yesterday told me they would come out install it on the 29th and I would have tv straight away. I don't know what is going on in Sky but I am running a mile.

Mr Simpson

Sadderday wrote: »

well I contacted them once again and am confused once more.
This time I was told that a phoneline is a requirement for the first 12 months and he has never heard of such charges for no phoneline and thinks his colleague may have gotten 'confused'. However; his version of the situation is that they would install the box if there was no phone line however; I wouldn't be able to view any television until a phoneline is activated. The salesman yesterday told me they would come out install it on the 29th and I would have tv straight away. I don't know what is going on in Sky but I am running a mile.

If you have 1 box, the engineer can install without a phoneline, it requires him to manually enable the box, this may or may not incur a once of fee

Sadderday

Mr Simpson wrote: »

If you have 1 box, the engineer can install without a phoneline, it requires him to manually enable the box, this may or may not incur a once of fee

they did say that yes he could install the box but my sky account would need to be activated and can only be done once a phoneline is set up so I shouldn't be expecting to watch sky on the day of the installation (even though yesterday the salesman told me it was fine)

I don't think they know themselves there what is meant to happen but I thought it was very basic stuff... don't want the get screwed with charges for having no phoneline like the first guy said, dont want to be paying for sky when I can't watch it for a while like the second guy said and the salesman just really wanted his commission.

Mr Simpson

Sadderday wrote: »

they did say that yes he could install the box but my sky account would need to be activated and can only be done once a phoneline is set up so I shouldn't be expecting to watch sky on the day of the installation (even though yesterday the salesman told me it was fine)

I don't think they know themselves there what is meant to happen but I thought it was very basic stuff... don't want the get screwed with charges for having no phoneline like the first guy said, dont want to be paying for sky when I can't watch it for a while like the second guy said and the salesman just really wanted his commission.

Just to clarify, charging only starts once the services are activated

Sadderday

Mr Simpson wrote: »

Just to clarify, charging only starts once the services are activated

Oh ok, but still we would have a sky box with no tv for a while which isn't what I signed up for yesterday.
I was just told a moment ago that a phoneline is needed to activate it

Mr Simpson

Sadderday wrote: »

Oh ok, but still we would have a sky box with no tv for a while which isn't what I signed up for yesterday.
I was just told a moment ago that a phoneline is needed to activate it

That shouldn't be the case. Well it wasn't in my case

Sadderday

Mr Simpson wrote: »

That shouldn't be the case. Well it wasn't in my case

I dont think the information that I've gotten is at all accurate anyway.. one person telling you different from another isn't a good sign from the one company. I know it's not the case for my brother too so I'm not sure what the story is but I'm not risking the hassle... have to suss out UPC

ghostdancer

Sadderday wrote: »

they did say that yes he could install the box but my sky account would need to be activated and can only be done once a phoneline is set up so I shouldn't be expecting to watch sky on the day of the installation (even though yesterday the salesman told me it was fine)

this is not correct.

if you're getting one box installed, an installation guy comes, installs it, activates it by ringing Sky, TV works that day.
you don't need an active phone line to get the TV service activated for 1 box.
there are no charges (either per month, or accrued at the end of the year) for not having an active phone line if you only have 1 box installed.

this has been the case for me in multiple different houses, and with the accounts in either mine or housemates names.

Sadderday

ghostdancer wrote: »

this is not correct.

if you're getting one box installed, an installation guy comes, installs it, activates it by ringing Sky, TV works that day.
you don't need an active phone line to get the TV service activated for 1 box.
there are no charges (either per month, or accrued at the end of the year) for not having an active phone line if you only have 1 box installed.

this has been the case for me in multiple different houses, and with the accounts in either mine or housemates names.

Not disputing that at all, I'm sure it isn't correct... but since the company have told me this I am reluctant to go ahead with the installation ya know

domeld

mike_ie wrote: »

If I read this right, there is a phone point in the house but you're not sure if it works or not?

Plug in a phone, and dial 19 9000 - if the line works, an automated system will read the number back to you.

This is not true. If You will dial 199000 system will tell you last number connected on this line even when line is disconnected (number removed from "switch")