finley
0
Hi,
SkyDSL is the absolute worst company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. Let me give you a few reasons why:
I bought the professional package over three months ago, and since then, I've had no more than about 10 days of actual web access using the service.
I've had just about every problem imagineable with SkyDSL customer service, their hardware and their software. A few details shown below:
- The hardware was delivered a week later than advised
- The dish and fitting bracket they sold me did not fit properly and required bending out of and back into shape
- They do not provide any support over the phone at all - I knew this before ordering, and didn't see it as a problem as they assured me that email support was provided within 2-4 hours (during office hours). This simply isn't true. I've sent a number of emails including complaints, the replies to which have taken anything from 24hrs to over 2 weeks. I currently have an open complaint with them which they are seemingly refusing to acknowledge at all, regardless of sending over 10 chase emails.
- They have cut off their UK sales phone line - I can only assume that they got sick of people trying to get support - as soon as they realise you're a current customer they say "I can't help you, nothing I can do" and hang up.
- The FAQs on their website states a set up time of 1 hour - mine took 3 months (I have a degree in information systems, so user incompetence should not be a major issue)
- They advise you to use a compass to get the correct signal - I was told to 'aim the dish south' and move it around until I get a signal - this is utter rubbish - 3 compasses and hours up a ladder later I ended up paying a satellite installation engineer to align the dish correctly at 'Eurobird' (as advised by SkyDSL), costing £40. Still no signal. It was only after further research on the web that I found that there are 3 different Eurobird satellites which SkyDSL had omitted to tell me. My dish was pointing at Eurobird 1 (the engineer was only experienced in TV, so I had to call him out again costing a further £20.
- The software conflicted with just about everything in my PC. I've never known a piece of software like it. I even reinstalled windows completely 3 times, to start with a 'clean slate'. One minute the set up would work, then after a reboot, nothing. This was the same on two different PCs. After two months of almost nightly fiddling around with every setting known to man, I was on the brink of insanity.
- Finally, when I actually got that first connection up and running, no thanks to SkyDSL's so called support or less than useless install manual, everything was great. Blood pressure went down and the download speeds were absolutely phenomenal. However, everytime I left my PC on overnight to take advantage of the unlimited download speeds, the PC would reboot in the middle of the night, cutting all my downloads on IRC. I couldn't place this problem on anything but the SkyDSL software - I ran thorough spyware & antivirus checks, and had not had this problem before.
I've now been waiting for a response to an enquiry and complaint for over two weeks. I have chased and chased and chased. I've chased from different email accounts, and even via their website. Still, I've heard nothing. Until they respond, I can't get online (my SkyNumber has mysteriously changed so I can't get where I need to on their website to pay my bill). So, I've now gone with another provider - slower connection but cheaper, more reliable, and accessible via phone for support.
I'm sure that there'll be some of you out there who find it a great product, and it is - its just the company behind it I warn you about.
Anyone had similar trouble with 'em?
Finley
SkyDSL is the absolute worst company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. Let me give you a few reasons why:
I bought the professional package over three months ago, and since then, I've had no more than about 10 days of actual web access using the service.
I've had just about every problem imagineable with SkyDSL customer service, their hardware and their software. A few details shown below:
- The hardware was delivered a week later than advised
- The dish and fitting bracket they sold me did not fit properly and required bending out of and back into shape
- They do not provide any support over the phone at all - I knew this before ordering, and didn't see it as a problem as they assured me that email support was provided within 2-4 hours (during office hours). This simply isn't true. I've sent a number of emails including complaints, the replies to which have taken anything from 24hrs to over 2 weeks. I currently have an open complaint with them which they are seemingly refusing to acknowledge at all, regardless of sending over 10 chase emails.
- They have cut off their UK sales phone line - I can only assume that they got sick of people trying to get support - as soon as they realise you're a current customer they say "I can't help you, nothing I can do" and hang up.
- The FAQs on their website states a set up time of 1 hour - mine took 3 months (I have a degree in information systems, so user incompetence should not be a major issue)
- They advise you to use a compass to get the correct signal - I was told to 'aim the dish south' and move it around until I get a signal - this is utter rubbish - 3 compasses and hours up a ladder later I ended up paying a satellite installation engineer to align the dish correctly at 'Eurobird' (as advised by SkyDSL), costing £40. Still no signal. It was only after further research on the web that I found that there are 3 different Eurobird satellites which SkyDSL had omitted to tell me. My dish was pointing at Eurobird 1 (the engineer was only experienced in TV, so I had to call him out again costing a further £20.
- The software conflicted with just about everything in my PC. I've never known a piece of software like it. I even reinstalled windows completely 3 times, to start with a 'clean slate'. One minute the set up would work, then after a reboot, nothing. This was the same on two different PCs. After two months of almost nightly fiddling around with every setting known to man, I was on the brink of insanity.
- Finally, when I actually got that first connection up and running, no thanks to SkyDSL's so called support or less than useless install manual, everything was great. Blood pressure went down and the download speeds were absolutely phenomenal. However, everytime I left my PC on overnight to take advantage of the unlimited download speeds, the PC would reboot in the middle of the night, cutting all my downloads on IRC. I couldn't place this problem on anything but the SkyDSL software - I ran thorough spyware & antivirus checks, and had not had this problem before.
I've now been waiting for a response to an enquiry and complaint for over two weeks. I have chased and chased and chased. I've chased from different email accounts, and even via their website. Still, I've heard nothing. Until they respond, I can't get online (my SkyNumber has mysteriously changed so I can't get where I need to on their website to pay my bill). So, I've now gone with another provider - slower connection but cheaper, more reliable, and accessible via phone for support.
I'm sure that there'll be some of you out there who find it a great product, and it is - its just the company behind it I warn you about.
Anyone had similar trouble with 'em?
Finley