Have Your Say

Sky box saga

Sinéad Hamill from Dublin typed an e-mail to us with one hand while on hold, waiting to speak to someone from Sky television. It was the 10th time she had been on to the company in a month.

“Since May 6th, my Sky+ HD box has been on the blink,” she writes. “It was installed in November last year so is still under the one-year warranty. It freezes and won’t record or do live pause or basically any of the services I am paying for.”

She phoned Sky on the day it broke to report the problem and went through the motions of a system reset via the technical support unit.

“After many more failures, Sky eventually admitted that the box itself must be faulty and said I would have to get it replaced.” She says that it has been very difficult to have the problem resolved because Sky uses third-party engineers for installations and repairs.

“The bottom line is that I have had no service for a month – no fun with a six and a three-year-old screaming for cartoons. The direct debit continues to come out and Sky has washed their hands of this. They claim that if they problem gets sorted, they will credit the amount paid but they are deducting money for a service that they can’t provide.”

Hamill points out that the direct debit does not go to a third party engineer “so surely it is not my problem. They say all they can do is organise to have a new installation done but I would have to pay full price for a new box. I am unwilling to pay a cent as the box I have is under warranty.”

She says that when she spoke to a Sky supervisor it was suggested she contact their customer relations department. “I asked to be transferred and she said the only way to contact them was by post or fax. I asked for an e-mail address so I could copy them on this mail and she said they didn’t have e-mail. Obviously their department is housed in the Bora Bora mountains if they have no access to e-mail. Please help.”

The company told us that it had contacted our reader “and on the same day an engineer visited her house and replaced the faulty set top box. Our 12-month warranty was applicable in this case and no charge for the replacement set top box or the engineer visit was levied.” The spokesman went on to say that a credit had been applied to her account “covering the period when she was unable to receive Sky’s services. As a goodwill gesture, our customer will be offered our services for 3 months free of charge. Our customer has indicated that she is satisfied with this outcome. Sky regrets that the information provided by our customer services agent regarding the applicability of the warranty in this case was incorrect.”

Tesco’s stingy new refund policy

Sarah Murphy from Dublin writes: “As of three weeks ago, Tesco’s policy on grocery pricing error refunds has changed. No longer will you get the item free. Instead, they will refund you twice the difference of the overpayment. Confused? If they charged you €5.99 on an item that was on offer for €4.99 – they will refund you €2. They kept that one quiet!” They certainly didn’t shout about it, that’s for sure.

Baby advice from the voice of experience

Jane Doolan is a mother of three children, aged 6, 10 and 13, and she was prompted to contact us after last week’s article on the costs associated with having a child. “One of the biggest cost-saving devices is breast feeding. Apart from the obvious health benefits to mother and child, I never had a steriliser or a baby bottle. I didn’t even have a baby bag – a nappy and a packet of wipes went in a jacket pocket.” She goes on to say that “walkers can be dangerous, depending on the speed and agility of baby and they curb the natural stage of crawling to walking.” She says second-hand cots are fine apart from mattresses “we never owned a cot as the baby was in the bed, (endless arguments can be had about this one!) and when one child left, another moved in.”

She accepts that she may “sound like a New Age-y hippy but the years with my three children, as young ones, were incredibly enjoyable, not sleepless as we all slept comfortably together. Having the equipment does not make the experience easier but having and taking time with your new baby does.”