[beasty54]

Ive just made a phone call to sky to enquire about having an HD box and 2 standard boxes installed. I was offered The £75 for HD, 2nd box for free but then the 3rd for £50, even though i would be paying £70 a month. The conversation went something like this....

Me: How come the 3rd box is £50 but the second is free. i'll be paying a higher monthly subscription with a free 3rd box
Sales rep: uh huh
Me: Erm... so would i get a free 3rd box?
Sales rep: No
Me: But i'll be paying £60 a month, then if you throw in a 3rd box i'll be spending £70 a month so surely its better for sky?
Sales rep: uh huh
Me: ok, well thanks for your help
Sales rep: yep, bye.



After speaking to that extremely helpfull woman i might just give sky a miss for the moment

[SamRadford]

The payback period for two £300 boxes would be too long. Sky have their business model worked out and what you wanted didn't fit the model.

[beasty54]

Originally Posted by SamRadford

The payback period for two £300 boxes would be too long. Sky have their business model worked out and what you wanted didn't fit the model.

2 £300 boxes? they give these standard boxes away for free and rather than £50 for a 3rd box, why not 12 months at £10? if they dont give me the 3rd box for free they wont be getting the £120 a year extra from me.

[Miss Chief]

You get a Sky HD box at a discounted price, get a digibox for FREE and still want a further digibox for free as well? You get one digibox for free, that's standard but extra boxes are £49 with multiroom, which, in itself is a discounted price anyway.

[beasty54]

Originally Posted by Skytech

You get a Sky HD box at a discounted price, get a digibox for FREE and still want a further digibox for free as well? You get one digibox for free, that's standard but extra boxes are £49 with multiroom, which, in itself is a discounted price anyway.

well yeah i just thought its better for them, they can have my £120 a year minus £50 for the 3rd box or no money for a 3rd box at all, doesn't make sense thats all i'm saying. I dont consider a sky HD box to be discounted at £75 either, from what ive read they aren't exactly great quality and the amount i'm willing to spend monthly should be more than enough to cover the costs of any equipment, especially when sky aren't interested in any problems you have with the hardware once your fist year is up.
This post was aimed more towards the "i couldn't care less" attitude from the woman i spoke to anyway and not about the 3rd box, i'll be more than happy with just the 1 extra box if they dont want my £120 a year.

Maybe i am just expecting too much but as i said above, £240 for the 2 extra boxes in the first year should be more than enough to warrant free equipment.

[Broadz]

Originally Posted by beasty54

I dont consider a sky HD box to be discounted at £75 either

Don't you? And yet undiscounted they are selling for £399 from Sky, or ~£250 on ebay. And yet you think £75 is not discounted?

You know that when Freesat HD PVRs eventually go on sale they are rumoured to be selling for between £250 and £350? Do you still think that £75 is not discounted?

[beasty54]

Originally Posted by Broadz

Don't you? And yet undiscounted they are selling for £399 from Sky, or ~£250 on ebay. And yet you think £75 is not discounted?

You know that when Freesat HD PVRs eventually go on sale they are rumoured to be selling for between £250 and £350? Do you still think that £75 is not discounted?

The complaints on these forums seem to indicate that the thompson HD box is pretty poor so whether sky are selling them for £300 or £1000, its irrelevant. If i dont think they are worth the cash i wont buy it and £75 for something that will (by the looks of things) die after 18 months is more than fair and not what i'd consider a discount. I dont think the Thompson HD box can be compared to a top of the line £300 Humax freesat box either so those points, along with a huge subscription of around £70 a month should be a good enough reason for me to expect sky to sort me out with a bloody good deal on the equipment.

[derek500]

Originally Posted by beasty54

The complaints on these forums seem to indicate that the thompson HD box is pretty poor so whether sky are selling them for £300 or £1000, its irrelevant. If i dont think they are worth the cash i wont buy it and £75 for something that will (by the looks of things) die after 18 months is more than fair and not what i'd consider a discount.

I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of Sky HD boxes in perfect working order.

There are no doubt quite a few Sky HD owners who work in the mass media and if they were breaking down like these forums lead us to believe, then I'm sure it would have reached a wider audience by now.

[forestfan]

I can see your point OP, it would make more sense if the second box was £50.00 to break the bad news and the third free to make things a little more palatable.
My Mum had to get a an independent to fit as SKY would not fit???, there is zero reception on aerial, this cost the average mortgage repayment to my anger, I must say SKY CS are a lottery.

As for HD breaking down all the time, I must say most people air there problems sometimes on a message board, I think most of us would never buy that LCD, Plasma, AV equip because someone else has a certain negative towards it.

You have a 12 months guarantee on it and after that most independent warranty companies can sort out the boxes , LCD and DVD inc for a lot less than what SKY and associated companies can offer for one item.

[Jonstone]

Yes in this instance it would make more commercial sense, even to give you all the boxes for free would make more sense if it meant an extra £70 per month customer, they would make their money back on the boxes in less than half a year.

The problem is the sales rep you are talking too is not authorised to give her employers equipment away for nothing so you can't blame sky customer service for this.

Sky could make all hardware free if you take out a 12 month contract with the respective package, but they would have to balance this with the cost versus the extra subscription revenue versus the number of people who would still have subscribed even if they had to pay for the boxes.

Sky is a very successful business and I am sure they know what system generates the most income for them even if it might mean the odd disgruntled customer, although tbh I do think 1 sky hd box and 2 standard boxes for £125 is pretty good.

There are however plenty of instances where sky's customer service is far from ideal, I'm just not sure this is a good example

[beasty54]

Originally Posted by Jonstone

I do think 1 sky hd box and 2 standard boxes for £125 is pretty good.

Yes its not bad i suppose BUT there is no way i can justify spending £50 on a standard cheap amstrad sky box

Originally Posted by Jonstone

There are however plenty of instances where sky's customer service is far from ideal, I'm just not sure this is a good example

I was more amazed at the converstion, i could imagine the woman sat there with her feet up while filing her nails because she couldn't have sounded less interested

[mattclarkie]

Originally Posted by Jonstone

Yes in this instance it would make more commercial sense, even to give you all the boxes for free would make more sense if it meant an extra £70 per month customer, they would make their money back on the boxes in less than half a year.

The boxes cost a fair chunk more to make and distribute than the end user is charged.

I complain that new customers get better deals than existing customers, but the cost of the equipment is actually reasonable. Take the HD box, true it is unreliable, but buying a 300GB HDD on it's own costs £30, the cost of the PSU(although it sucks) is probabably £5. Then the cost of the CPU, motherboard, decoder chips, casing and assembly has to be a good £30 if not more. You have a device that costs a fair chunk to make not counting R&D costs.

I think you(OP) got a good deal, I paid £210 for an HD box installed from Sky in March, you(OP) are complaining you get an HD box, 2SD boxes and installation with a new dish for less than £200. Who got the bad deal in that one.