Good service in general, but I don't like their money conning ways (Sky Broadband)

Member Name: jennikitten

Product:	Sky Broadband
Date:	18/06/09 (60 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good and reliable broadband

Disadvantages: Loops and money tricks

I've had Sky Broadband for over 2 years now, and whilst I'm generally happy with the service I've received, I do have a few complaints. That said, my situation is slightly more unusual than most, so don't be put off, but here are a few things to bear in mind.

Signing up with Sky was very easy. They check whether it's available in your area, and once that's been confirmed you arrange a date for them to come round and install it. Ours was part of a package with the basic Sky TV, and so the broadband only costs around £5 a month (or at least that's how it's billed on the statements we receive).

Installation of the modem was simple, and the details you need are handily stuck to the side. If you're anything like me and tend to lose account numbers and passwords two minutes after you've opened the envelope, this is pretty useful.

Your network is named as SKY and then a series of numbers. This is definitely good for security, as putting anything that involves your name or address is a potential security risk because other people in your area will be able to see this name.

If you log in to your account online, you can have a Sky email account as well as a range of options to change things on your account without the hassle of having to call up. You can change things like your billing option and date and TV package.

The wireless broadband connection we've had has always been very good, no complaints there. Of course we don't get anywhere near the potential top speed they advertise, but it is fast enough to be able to use and for students it's especially important.

The house is only small so the wireless has a good range everywhere, including in the small garden. I have however lived in a shared house with average height ceilings and three floors, and with my room being on the third floor I did occasionally suffer with the connection dropping and poor signal.

Previously we had Tiscali, who were terrible and I suffered problems of poor service with them as well as a problem that went on for more than a year with their billing - they did however send me a cheque for the £300 odd they stole from me, but it was like getting blood out of a stone for sure.

My Sky problem occurred when I was moving out of my house. It was a house I owned, and I was renting it out to students for the year. Unfortunately, I hadn't been around the year before when my housemates had moved in, and so they had set up Sky in their name. I thought it would just take a quick call to Sky to solve, but I was told that I had to go through a set procedure to get the name changed. I also tried to change it online but to no avail. Even though I could change all the billing details to my own and they had no problem with the direct debit being in a different name to the billholder, apparently changing the name on the account was impossible. Frustrated, I called back another few times, only to be told a different thing each time.

In the end I decided to just cancel the Sky account because I was hitting my head against a brick wall. I asked about the procedure and was told I could just cancel that account (yeah, I can cancel an account not in my name but not transfer it to me??). I signed up again for the same thing (by this time it was quite a bit less per month for new customers - way to go with your customer loyalty there Sky), and THEN and only then was I told I'd have to pay a £50 set up fee! Which I was never told about at all during ANY of the phone calls, and to be fair the woman said she asked if it could be waived but was told it couldn't. But I was still annoyed, because it was their fault in the first place that I couldn't change the name on the account.

Yes it's a pretty unusual situation, but then there are a lot of landlords out there as well as divorcees and deaths and all kinds of things where being able to change the name on your account without all the hassle of having to close the whole account and open a new one and being charged £50.

To be fair, once I had angrily paid that, they did send me a new router which was easy to install.

Another point was that for a few months after I'd signed up, they continually sent me letters monthly telling me their prices were increasing by £1 and £2 a time. By the end of all that, I wasn't really saving any money per month compared to the original price, so I think that was a pretty sneaky thing to do to make themselves seem cheaper to new customers.

Overall, Sky's service in itself has been good for broadband, but they still need to sort themselves out when it comes to the admin side of things because the lack of understanding of their own procedures and ridiculous added-on costs made what would be an otherwise great provider a let down.

Summary: Recommended as long as you don't get involved with customer services