Pace BSKYB3100 > Reviews (2)

About a year ago we decided to upgrade from Sky to Sky+ so my husband rang up Sky and arranged for an engineer to come and install the new box. He paid the then asked for £199 and it was arranged that the engineer would by out to install on the following Monday. A couple of hours after agreeing to the instillation we realised that it would be bank holiday Monday so my husband made another call to Sky asking if he could change the date of installation to be told that if he did not have it done then he would have to wait 6 weeks, so he kept the original date of bank holiday Monday.

Bank holiday Monday came and the whole family were looking forward to Sky+ arriving we had been told that the engineer would be with us between 8 and 12 in the morning (meaning that we could still go out in the afternoon). Twelve o'clock came and went so we thought that the engineer was just running a bit behind so we carried on waiting. When it reached 2pm my husband decided to ring Sky and ask them where the engineer had got to and he was told that he would be with us in the next half an hour. Again this time came and went so again we thought that the engineer must be very busy. My husband and myself decided that now we would not be able to take the kids out after all so I went to the local supermarket to get BBQ stuff when I returned at 3.45pm guess what still no engineer! By this time my husband was getting very irrate about the whole situation so I rang Sky and again was told that they had just spoken to the engineer and he would be with us in 20mins I felt that they were fobbing me off however I said thank you and left it at that.

At last the Sky engineer arrived at my house at 6pm he did not apologize for the fact that he was late because according to his work sheet we were not expecting him untill between 4pm and 7pm. A complete communication problem between Sky and the insallers! Anyhow he got on with his job and installed our Sky+ box downstairs and installing our old box upstairs in the bed room. He told us that we would have to buy the telephone line for upstairs ourselves as Sky do not supply this which we took at face value (later to find out that this was not true and he should of done this and stappled it all the way up the stairs in a neat fashion). The job complete he gave me the new controller and said he would be off. Finally we could start to discover what Sky+ was all about it was great and at this point well worth the wait.

We enjoyed our Sky+ for about 2 weeks then I made a big mistake I pulled out my television unit to clean underneath and at the back of it as I have always done. While cleaning I realised that the cable that runs from the Sky dish was very tight with hardly any scope for movement of the box however I decided at the time that if we wanted to move our television to another part of the room we could extend the cable ourselves.

I picked up my children at 3.30pm and when we got home the first thing they did was switch on the tele to watch cartons and to my horror the Sky would not work so off they went to watch tele in my room on the old Sky, I got down on my hands and knees to see if I could fix the problem.

First I checked to see if I had knocked any of the lead out while clening but Ihadn't then I made sure that there was power there was so then I made sure that I was on the correct AV channel and again I was so it was time to ring Sky once again.

I gave Sky all of the relevent information that they needed and arranged for an engineer to come out 3 days later. While on the phone she asked me why one of my boxes was not connected to the telephone line and I explained that I had not had chance to go out and buy the correct lead (this is when I found out that before the engineer left he should of made sure that both boxes were connected to my telephone line).

The new engineer came out and sorted out the problem with the Sky+ he told me that because I was not left enough cable I had bent the pin inside the box so was given a new box and he replaced the cable meaning that I could move my television anywhere in my lounge without any problem. He then provided all of the bits I needed to connect to the telephone line from upstairs and fitted them. He was appalled at the way the first engineer had installed both of my Sky boxes and asked me to complain as it was probably a contractor who carried out my work.

Everything working and happy at last. I did write a letter of complaint to Sky and they wrote back to me saying that it would be looked into and I never heard from them again.

Now about the Sky+ box it is great and I would advise anyone to get it you can pause live tv for up to half an hour you can watch one channel and record of others at the same time, everything that you want to watch can be programmed in so you don't have to change channel with the remote, you can decide to video a whole series with a touch of a button (you never have to miss an episode of eastenders while away on holiday ever again). We as a family enjoy using the Sky+ you can still access interactive programmes as on the normal Sky . The controller is easy to use and looks preety neat, also my 3 year old can navigate his way around all of his favorite channels its that easy.

If you are looking into getting Sky+ then my advice to you is shop around because I know that you can now get the box at a discounted price and also get your first month subsription for free. Also if you have the normal Sky you only pay one subscription fee and it means that you can be watching one programme downstairs and your kids or significant other can be watching something different upstairs I find this feature livesaving. Subscription for the full package is £39.99 a month so a bit pricey however after the first month you can change the package that you require reducing the price.

So finally a great product absolutley no problems with the second box still working as well as the day we got it. Just make sure that you watch the installer so that if you are not happy with anything they can change it for you then and there. I have spoken to many people who have had Sky installed and it seems that I am the only person who got a cowboy installer I just wanted to worn people that this may not happen very often but when it does it is a real nusience to sort out.