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Mahes Visvalingam
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Customer Talk

This subweb seeks to provide case studies and observations for those undertaking research on Customer Services.  The author is not qualified to give any advice and shall not be held liable for any action or outcome arising from readers mistaking the observations and cases provided herein as advice.   Readers should consult official sources and seek the advice and assistance of specialist professionals.

Freesat - for digital satellite TV

UK Television will become digital from 2008.  This means that the old analogue signal will be switched off.  This is explained in the Digital UK website.  Better picture quality is said to be one of the purported benefits of digital TV.  We agree that the picture quality is substantially better when we get a digital signal.  Unfortunately, both Freeview and Freesat have proved to be unreliable and costly and we often have to switch to analogue if we want to see a programme.   Solving the problem of erratic digital reception may prove difficult and costly given the multiple components.  This page records our experience and provides links to some helpful information on the web.  Given what we know now, we would ring Sky in future if we had further problems with Freesat.

Our experience

Early 2004
 We live in a hollow and the analogue terrestrial TV signal is blocked by a hill and trees.   So, we bought a Sony Freeview receiver and asked a local company to fit an external aerial and an amplifier for £150. 

April 2006
The reception was initially satisfactory but the picture started to shatter every time a car went by and ITV1 made the TV go berserk.  So, we had to call the local engineers out again and they suggested that we get Sky's Freesat.  We paid £160 for installation of the Freesat system and the Amstrad DRX550 receiver, called the Sky Box.  Everything worked fine for about 18 months. 

21 October 2007
We lost the satellite signal during the Grand Prix.  We had not tampered with the box since it had been installed. We looked up the online forums and noted adverse comments about the Amstrad Sky Box receiver which was also confirmed by neighbours, who have switched to other products.  After several attempts to reload the software as instructed using the Backup button on the box, we took the box back to the shop for testing on 23 October 2007.  It worked perfectly in the shop for over 10 mins.  When we reconnected it at home, the receiver worked for about 5 minutes and the 'no satellite signal' error message returned.  We tried leaving the box on standby overnight.  Again, when we put on the TV on in the morning of 24 October 2007, there was initially a signal but this was soon lost.   We left the box on standby again overnight but there was no signal in the morning.

25 October 2007 - The shop said that it must be a fault in the Amstrad Sky Box receiver, which only showed up when the device warmed up.  We had seen reports of poor soldering and inadequate power supply on online forums. We were told that electronic devices can fail, and were quoted £150 (as a discounted price for an existing customer) for a replacement.    Fearing that this was going to become a recurring feature, we decided to contact Amstrad to see if others had reported similar problems and if there was a cheaper solution, namely repair.  This should also alert them of problems since Sir Alan Sugar does seem to be concerned about his reputation.

However, before contacting Amstrad, we wanted to test the Sky Box again.  The shop kindly obliged and the Sky Box worked without a glitch for over an hour.  So, we brought it back home but got no signal again.  We were then told that it must be the LNB component (whatever that means) in the satellite mini dish and, since we were loyal customers, were quoted a discounted price of £50 for call out, part replacement and installation.   We therefore went ahead and booked a call out on 26 October 2007.  Fortunately, the technician had another job before ours.  For, when we put the TV on in the morning, we got a signal and the reception was brilliant for several days.  The shop was happy to cancel the call out until necessary since this might just be another flash in the pan.

8 Nov 2007
The reception has been erratic this week.  The web link will also be sent to Amstrad (amstrad@frankpr.it) and bSkyb (http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/feedback) in the hope that they will provide a simple explanation of this problem for the general public who might otherwise incur unnecessary expenditure.  The feedback portal to bSkyb proved to be unavailable.  On further investigation we found that Ofcom (see below) will investigate TV reception and interference problems.  You will only be charged if the fault is in your property.  We also contacted the BBC Watchdog program (see below) to find out if others had experienced similar problems.  Only Ofcom replied.

Interim Conclusions
 Several others have reported having similar problems in online forums.  We initially thought that :

  • it might be a software problem.  As part of going green, we had been turning everything off at the socket to save energy.  It looks as if the Sky Box has to be left on standby for software updates.  Our Sky Box seemed to have got into a twist and it took the best part of the week for it to sort itself out on standby.  But, we did not get a satellite signal consistently from 6 Nov 2007 despite the Sky Box being switched on all the time.  So, the problem is not just due to switching the device off to save energy.

  • the criticisms of the Amstrad Sky Box  may be unfounded;  but friends say that the Amstrad Sky Box was erratic before it gave up for good and that they have had no problems since they switched to Panasonic or Pace.  Apparently, if your box is still under guarantee, you can ask Sky to replace the Amstrad Sky Box with one of the other models - note that this is just hear say and you need to check this for yourself.

  • the LNB component in the satellite dish may not be faulty; those who claim to know say that if this was the case, we would not get a signal at all.

  • there may some other problem.

Like the online forums, Direct Satellites were too quick to apportion blame where it was not due.  We feel that they should have investigated the problem before offering to sell and install unnecessary kit.   But, they were obliging and we have saved ourselves a lot of unnecessary expenditure as a result.

Update:
21 Nov 2007
We are posting this page on the internet so that others, such as Ofcom, will be better placed to advice.   We have yet to call them out since we have not had problems since last week.  But, we will ask them to look at this page in case others are having similar problems.

Sat 29 Dec 2007 - Erratic reception of satellite signal and total loss of signal from Fri 25 Jan 2008.
Sat 2 Feb 2008 -   Rang Sky on the number given to us - 0870 850 0033
 There was a fairly prompt connection to an operator.  We were asked to click on Services on handset, then System Setup and then option 6 which flagged NOT LOCKED - so an engineer had to be called out.  We were initially cited an all in fee of £65 including VAT but this was waived for some reason.
Mon 2 Feb 2008 -   Engineer replaced the LNB component of the receiver and checked that everything worked as it should.  Although we were not charged on this occasion, it carries a 3-month guarantee.

Final Conclusion:  We should have had Freesat installed by Sky in the first place.  There is nothing wrong with Amstrad's Skybox.  We should have rung Sky when we started to have problems even though the guarantee had run out since they seem to be quite flexible and helpful.  The whole affair was dealt with in a professional and trustworthy manner.  So, we rate their Customer Service as excellent on this occasion.

Some useful links

Mahes Visvalingam, 26/10/07
Last updated on 04/02/08