Hopeless Sky: Critical Update kills service

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mclayma

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Master Geek

#15010 31-Jul-2007 09:57

This morning I went to turn on the tele to catch CNN only to find that the "Critical Update" that Sky did this morning has rendered my service non functional.

Any thoughts on what I can do?

Before you say call the callcentre I did, they told me to power the unit down, The lady refused to accept that I had already done this (I was only on hold for 15 mins though).

So the issue is because I live in a Multi dwelling (apartment) it would appear that we need to wait for a technician.

[Moderator edit (MF): edited more meaningful subject]

"Communication" a basic human need.

Regs

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Snowflake

#80525 31-Jul-2007 10:00

hmm. i wondered how much of this we would see. can't be easy to hit all the multi-dwellng installs around the country in a couple of hours of outage...

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mclayma

104 posts

Master Geek

#80526 31-Jul-2007 10:02

Yes Its not the best they said someone should be around by the weekend....what a joke

"Communication" a basic human need.

cyril7

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#80527 31-Jul-2007 10:04

If you checked out the previous thread regarding Sky moving to Horizontal polarity last evening you will note how MDUs may be affected for a period today as technicians have to visit each MDU headend and alter the LNB power supply. This was expected and not a lot can be done there are only so many techs and quite a number of MDUs to be scouted round.

Patience is a virtue, I would expect your service to be back on latter today.

Cyril

sbiddle

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#80529 31-Jul-2007 10:06

mclayma:
Yes Its not the best they said someone should be around by the weekend....what a joke

Under the circumstances I believe Sky are handling this the best they can. Sky were forced into a change they had no long terms plans to do due to the incorrect configuration of the D1 satellite. Even if 1% of Sky's digital installs fail which is reasonable to expect that's 6000 repair jobs. They all can't be done in a day.

People are going to slam Sky for the failures that are occuring today but in reality I'd love somebody to suggest how it could be handled better. There is no way you could know for sure whether the service would fail for customer X until the changeover occured.

mclayma

104 posts

Master Geek

#80531 31-Jul-2007 10:14

cyril7: If you checked out the previous thread regarding Sky moving to Horizontal polarity last evening you will note how MDUs may be affected for a period today as technicians have to visit each MDU headend and alter the LNB power supply. This was expected and not a lot can be done there are only so many techs and quite a number of MDUs to be scouted round.

Patience is a virtue, I would expect your service to be back on latter today.

Cyril

Hey Cyril thanks for the information the CSR said it was very common the Multi dwellings were affected with the change.
I guess for me it was the "attitude" that I was given when I called up.

"Communication" a basic human need.

Bung

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#80536 31-Jul-2007 10:44

sbiddle:
People are going to slam Sky for the failures that are occuring today but in reality I'd love somebody to suggest how it could be handled better. There is no way you could know for sure whether the service would fail for customer X until the changeover occured.

Surely you're not suggesting that Sky haven't a clue what equipment they've installed at your place?

How much trouble would it have been to divide up the letters they sent on the 25th into individual or MDU cases or even just include the fact that MDU installs would need a visit that would be done ASAP?

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utopia

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Wannabe Geek

#80538 31-Jul-2007 10:53

We take our MySky away to the bach and when there have to change the LNB to the old dish. On return home we do the same thing.

Well - the last update that sky made - to enable the On Demand function - happened in the middle of us returning home. So, turn on the MySky box and it says "Updating listings". Sits there and then comes up with "Atmospherhic conditions.....". I press Active to go into the 'secret' menu to change the LNB.... but no go, it just keeps saying "Updating listings". So - no way to go into the LNB.

Sky's solution - give us a whole new box. All our recordings go...

What a mess!

Their solution to this - backup things you want to watch to DVD... hahaha! that is what the whole box is for.

Handy hints:

1. Write down all the series you have setup to record
2. Watch everything recorded within a week
3. Don't trust the box

I must say thoug - the only live tv I watch now is sport and the news at 6pm. My 6yr old son pauses tv, records things and gets annoyed when staying at relatives places who don't have mySky to pause.

cyril7

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#80540 31-Jul-2007 10:55

I must admit that I would have thought that MDU dwellers would have been sent an additional note with the mailout all subs got last week explaining the extra delay that possibly may occur. Not living in an MDU I am not aware what they were sent.

I would be pretty sure that Skys records would show which subs are MDU connections.

Cyril

Bung

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#80543 31-Jul-2007 11:03

Their records should. The last time somebody fixed a fault at my place he took as much time filling out the form recording serial numbers etc as doing anything else.

mclayma

104 posts

Master Geek

#80549 31-Jul-2007 11:17

cyril7: I must admit that I would have thought that MDU dwellers would have been sent an additional note with the mailout all subs got last week explaining the extra delay that possibly may occur. Not living in an MDU I am not aware what they were sent.

I would be pretty sure that Skys records would show which subs are MDU connections.

Cyril

Hi Cyril. Nothing more than the bog standard letter that advised of the work. (Colleagues at work had the same letter sent to them for single dwellings)

So Cyril is there a fix we can do?

"Communication" a basic human need.

allstarnz

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#80550 31-Jul-2007 11:30

mine worked fine this morning, turned on my decoder and all was well. Then again, i don't live in an MDU

I think they chose the best time possible to do it. Le Tour is over, should a major issue crop up, they have 2.5 days to fix it before the next live rugby game. The only thing they were interrupting last night was the cricket.

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cyril7

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#80556 31-Jul-2007 11:51

So Cyril is there a fix we can do?

Dont think you can other than wait, the contractor needs to get access to the headend, often requiring approval from the body corp/admin person. One assumes this has been obtained, so just a matter of waiting for your turn.

Cyril

Regs

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Snowflake

#80730 1-Aug-2007 13:32

People are going to slam Sky for the failures that are occuring today

I was expecting that too but, afaik, there are no news articles or anything to say that was the case. You'd have to congratulate them on that front...

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