Why do Sky charge us for Multiroom?

[explicitlyrics]

After Sky botching the installation of a second box a few years ago they eventually agreed to remove the "both boxes must be on the same phone line" requirement. If you can think of a good argument for it then give them a ring and maybe you can get it removed aswell....

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Spud1

Theres nothing wrong with the multiroom - your paying for the extra feed, and getting it at a reduced rate.

So every Sky box gets its own dedicated ~100Mbit data stream? Wow, BSkyB must have a lot of satellites.

[Parm]

Ah, I forgot to update you all! I cancelled my Multiroom Subscription yesterday. Sod 'em!

[Richie P]

It's because they can.

Damn right. If people complained or didn't sign up for it...then it'd soon drop in price or be offered free.

The bit that made me cringe was when they offered to come to your house and fit the ir receive and extra control in you house for £50/60 or summat? The ir receiver and extra control is only £10/£20 to buy and with a few mins work and a bit of cable management you can get the same thing.

[Brucelles]

Originally Posted by Parm

Unfortunately not, BOTH boxes have to be connected to the phone line of the registered user. Good idea though!

I never have the box connected to the phone, because I don't want to. (and because I live in Belgium, where there is no Sky) but you are saying that, if I wanted Multiroom I would have to connect my phone? That's bad.

[squiffy]

I mean lets be honest, you are getting an extra service, so you should expect to pay for it. You pay extra for hd because you get more, you pay extra (at least for the box) for sky+ because you get more, so you pay for sky multiroom because you get more!

What I object to is sky telling me that because I have a spare sky box that I want to use, I have to pay £65 to have multiroom installed, but if I buy a new box from them for £50 I get free installation! Surely they should be encouraging their customers to re use existing equipment rather than adding to landfill! Especially in the current eco friendly society!

I think the tenner a month for being able to watch different programmes in different rooms is a bargain! If it means I dont have to watch endless re runs of the Backyardigans and wonderpets all day, I am happy!

[listy]

we are on full pack of sky and we pay 10quid for sky+ and get multiroom for nothing

so think we pay 52 every month for it

[Blademrk]

But that's not the only thing, you also have to have both boxes switched on 24 hours a day.

I've got a 2nd box in my bedroom, I only used to switch it on if there was something I wanted to watch when the other box was in use (which is what I wanted it for), and as it's a bedroom there's a severe shortage of plugs (and I don't want to use another multiplug as I already have 2 of those, 1 with my AV equipment on and 1 with my computer/console stuff on).

So my intention was to have 1 general use socket to plug in the 360/Wii/PS2/Guitar Amp/Sky box/ or whatever when I wanted to use it. Sky phoned up and complained because the 2nd box wasn't plugged in... ( this is to make sure that both boxes are still at the installation site and that you haven't given one to a friend for him/her to have cheap sky).

[Steve]

If they complained because I had a 2nd box turned off I'd tell them to f off or contribute to my electricity bill... I don't care how little they use in standby, they cannot demand that it be on all the time.

[listy]

ive never had my boxs hooked up to phone line weve have had sky about 4 or 5 years now and not one call

dont want to plug it in since kids would be getting games on it

[Dorza]

Originally Posted by listy

ive never had my boxs hooked up to phone line weve have had sky about 4 or 5 years now and not one call

dont want to plug it in since kids would be getting games on it

They sent my parents a letter when I forgot to plug my + box in to the phone line, cheeky bar stewards. Thing is though, what if you don't have a phone line, whats going to happen then? What will happen in the future when there are more people using mobile/VOIP services as their main telephone.

[TiG]

You sign up and agree to plug it into the phone line. Its a listed part of the SKY contract. Whether you agree with it or not its in there.

TiG

[Stoo]

Our digibox hasn't been connected to the phone line in something like 10 years - nothing untoward has happened yet..

[TiG]

They stopped service to my dad's sky box when the line wasn't connected and they phoned and advised him to make sure it was connected.

But i'm not saying they do or don't do anything about it, i'm just saying in the contract it does state the box is required to be connected to the BT line.

TiG

[Blademrk]

Originally Posted by Stoo

Our digibox hasn't been connected to the phone line in something like 10 years - nothing untoward has happened yet..

If it's just a single Sky box, it's only in the terms and conditions that the box has to be connected to the phone line for 1 year after that they won't bother you. However, if it's multiroom they've both got to be connected to make sure they're both at the same location (and you haven't offloaded one to a friend/neighbour for them to have cheap sky)

[squiffy]

You can pay Sky a £25 one off charge if you dont have a phone line but still want sky, or do not want to have your sky boxes connected to a phone line. Its basicaly a charge to not have to have it connected. I never had any complaints from sky for not having mine connected. I originally disconnected one after I had multiroom installed in my kids bedroom, they were only 1 and 2 years old at the time and my daughter managed to order us domino's pizza as we had saved all our card details on the sky site for quick ordering. She had been playing with the buttons and next thing we know we had pizza delivery at the door. Luckily it was saved with our usual order so we at least could eat the food, but from that day on, no sky boxes were connected! I guess its the luck of the draw, if you are the unlucky one who sky check up on! We have had sky in this house for a couple of months now and still no moaning from sky!

I dont see why sky should be able to dictate you have a box connected to a phoneline, but I guess they have their reasons. Can you really pass your multiroom card to a friend and have them use sky in their house? I will have to give that a try, see if it works!