Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 27 December 2001

Note: the comments below are the unabridged submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.
 

From: Another frustrated sky user
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Changes to Sky

I agree 100% with all of the comments made about the "new
look" sky service. Not only is it painfully slow, but
nowhere near as well laid out as the old system. ie, for
some reason the mosaic has been moved to channel 0 and (on
my set at least) can no longer be used by pushing the damn
button that actually looks like the mosaic... where is the
logic in that? (please feel free to tell me if im doing
something wrong here.... but I cannot get it to work the
way it used to).

I also agree with comments made about Sundance. I too am
considering giving it up for the same reasons, its simply
too frustrating to go find it now.

What I can't understand is why this was even necessary. I
would imagine that most people that subscribe to Sky would
almost certainly have access to e-mail already, and the
games.. well don't get me started on those.. what an
absolutely appalling joke they are. The old program guide
did everything it needed to, and quickley...  I can't
understand why Sky isn't just working on getting better
programs and more channels and increasing its revenue base
that way, by concentrating on what it does best - TV. There
seems to be too much emphasis on trying to get "web
enabled" and provide services that quite honestly most
people already have (like games and e-mail). Why can't Sky
realise that they should only ever do what they can do
well - and not go into new ventures like this half
committed as they will frustrate and annoy customers so
much that they will leave.

Perhaps its worth giving Saturn a look....




From: Andrew
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Sky Digital Bites, non existant CS

My sky digital crawls, I dont think sky even know the
meaning of the words Customer Service anymore.. oh for a
saturn rollout in Hamilton.. When i lived in Wellington i
was a subscriber to TelstraSaturn for TV, Phone, &
Internet.. While occasionally they did have problems, for
the most part their CS staff were reasonable, and helped
get things sorted out fast, and were willing to offer
compensation when it was obviously thier fault.
(Free installation of my cable modem when it was a week
later than promised, free movies for other problems etc).
Saturn were far from perfect (the chello debarcle springs
to mind), but they at least had half a clue when it came
to CS.




From: Kelvin Hilton
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: More Lies

Those buggers told me I was in line for the new services
later that day . That was a week and a half ago. So much
for the free use of the useless stuff during the month of
December a couple of days only to go.
 I checked it out on my dad's system following the reviews
in aardvark I agree its crap except for getting TV 1 now on
Digital which used to come with lines on the screen.
However even though it may be rubbish I sure don't want to
miss out on anything for free.




From: Debs
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Sky - some changes but not enough

First can I say thank you for being willing to
publish "something" about this mess. The lack in mainstream
media (inc tv) is stunning (apart from one small item).
Perhaps they consider advertising revenue more important
than news now.

I agree with all comments to date - slow speed, unwanted
changes and additions. All of it is annoying to such a
level that I too am seriously considering unsubbing. And as
I was installed on the first day available nearly a decade
ago I am a long time customer.

I too rang Sky. Took 3 days as the lines were overloaded
and I could not get a call thru. Was told the same saga but
even the staff member finally admitted they have a problem
and they know it. She too, she said, hates the new setup.

Since then (a couple of weeks ago) there have been some
small improvements. The progam guide is about 1-2 seconds
faster (but still to slow to use) and they have introduced
new buttons (blue and yellow) that will page up or down a
screen (but I will forgive most for not knowing this as I
have only seen the ad once and I have been on Sky all day
watching cricket for the last few days).

Where my biggest annoyance is is with the lack of
improvement to the basic service. I attended a Sky run
presentation (via an appointed media company) where they
wanted feedback from customers (I had been selected as a
represenative of a long time customer) about Sky and its
services. This was mid this year. At the end we all said
the same thing. Price (too expensive), lack of channel
choice (more needed) and lack of channel package options
(pick your own right down to only 1 or 2) were the main
comments we made and it turned out were made nationwide (we
were told at the end). Considering that I and others said
we were not interested in email, games or anything other
than a better basic service then I for one know they did
not even listen to the company they employed to speak to
their customers.

Years ago we had a premier motorsport service on Sky. F1,
Indy and Nascar. Now since Sky WONT pay for them we dont
have Nascar at all (but Saturn do broadcast some) and F1
only on TV1. I am told when I rang that this will not
change in 2002.

Once we had channel choices not found anywhere else. Now we
have Fashion TV on 2 channels and the loss (unasked - yes I
watched UkTV) of a unique one. More BBC World - admit it
Sky - it is all about saving revenue and charging more for
basic service. Well I for one am sick of it.

More examples. Anyone notice that NZ cricket in the South
Island is not covered. Word from those in the know - too
expensive to cross the Cook Strait. Movies - when Sky
started there was a set delay before they made it to Sky.
Now they make it to the pay per view in that time and then
months later to the free movies section. Oh thats right -
not free, $18 per month. I was asked a while back how long
before we pay for say Super 12 as a premium service. Anyone
want to guess.

Change to Saturn - I would. But Sky just signed with them
and from Feb 1st it sounds like Saturn will broadcast Sky
programmes. Sky gain 7 years of content agreements so maybe
we will see some more new channels. Shame is they wont fix
the problems only new management will (management prepared
to go back to basics). Time to buy some Sky shares with
voting rights.




From: Philip S
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Seems everything about Sky seems to be slow...

I don't have Sky at home due to not being able to afford
it, but I've tried at a friends place....put me off ever
getting sky unless it gets better.
I used the old system and I'd use that over this one any
day.
Turned on the tv, flicked sky on and the damn thing crashed
as been mentioned. Anyway, you can guess the rest.
What this is really about is their web site.
I have to say, their web site, although it looks alright
(sort of), the colours do clash with the yellow and white
writing on the blue, it took AGES to load, and then had a
nice message in the status bar: "Done, but with errors on
page."
A look into the coding may explain a little of the
slowness, with frames the main part had a couple of pages
of white space to read down to get to it, and the main part
of the site had so much code it was just awful, I'm sure
you could do that front page a hell of a lot tidier and
with less coding.
That is coming from a web designer by the way so I am not
just blabbering I do know what I am talking about.

Anyway, to Bruce: I LOVE Aardvark, great job, as of yet I
have not found another site that comes close. Although I
must say something, your old host was a lot faster than
this one, I have the site as my home page as I'm always
reading up on the news here and it takes just that little
bit longer than before, anyway, worth the wait :o)




From: Steve
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Sky volume

Anyone else have problems with the volume on sky?

Since the new format, every so often I attempt to turn up or
down the volume and find that it goes to full volume at the
first press of a button. Then, even leaving your finger on
the volume-down button, it's soooo slow to turn down.

Anoying when members of the family are asleep in the room
next door and you have the volume right down so as not to
disturb them - then they wake up with loud noise and
swearing and cursing as pixel by slow bloody pixel, I
attempt to turn down the volume from the sudden maximum.

Sky - get your act together.




From: Jamie Dobbs
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: I'm now an ex-Sky customer and it feels GOOD!

As I said I would, I have today returned my Sky Digital
decoder, remotes and cables and have just cancelled my
subscription and I feel damn good about it!
The only thing that puzzles me is that Sky never asked why
I was returning the decoder and cancelling my subscription -
 surely one of the first rules of the game for suppliers of
services such as this is to find out why a customer becomes
and ex. customer so that they can try to remedy the
situation and keep customers?
But then again I guess they know their new 'improvements'
are causing a lot of people headaches and its just a lot
quicker to take the gear back and not mention anything.
With the money saved from my Sky subscription maybe I can
expand my DVD collection :-)