skyhd activation without phone line

mustang68

have a phone line free sky digital installation, but I have a HD box arriving from satellite.ie today, will sky give me any problems if I order plus and HD from them, as I don't have a phone line?? or will they just happily activate it over the phone?

(by the way I have the problem where I have no irish channels, better ring them today to get that sorted too)

Thanks

(I have a few questions which I think are all different, so for the sake of sanity, I'm going to split them up into different threads, mods feel free to merge them if that makes more sense)

watty

It doesn't need the phone line except as a marketing requirement.

azzeretti

watty wrote:

It doesn't need the phone line except as a marketing requirement.

You most certainly do need a phone line to add HD to your portfolio. Heres my story:

I had a standard Sky digital sub for years without a phone line. I have a VOIP service. I decieded I wanted HD and went about looking into getting it. I came across another site which has a very long and detailed description of what needs to be done to activate the service (PM if you want the link). There was much debate on this site as to weither a callback is required to pair your Sky card to the new HD box and switch on Sky+ and HD channels. On this site, there was one particular guy, who claims to be an installer, and he was adamant that you need a callback to activate it. Like a fool, I disregarded him and went ahead and bought a HD box from the same place you are buying it.
When it arrived I took it out and preformed the software update then proceeded to call Sky (one tip, don't select any option or give you phone number to the automated service, you will be put through quicker!) to pair my old card to the new box and add the HD channels. Heres were the problems started. At this point you need to give the serial number of the box and your Sky card number, they then tell you to preform a callback via the menu and call Sky back in 4 hours (although it does take less). When you call back, THEY MUST have the callback details on screen to activate the account. I tried all sorts of BS to try to get them to activate it, but they simlply would budge until a call back was made. I spend most of the day calling and trying to get an operator I could "talk into" activating the account, no joy. In the end I had to bring the box to a neighbours house and do the call back there. Once that was done, I then called Skty again and they switched the channels on straight away.

I have heard many people say you don't need a phone line to activate a new HD box but my experience says differently. After the box is activated though, you don't need a phone line connected the whole time, unless you have multiroom.

Hope this helps a little

mustang68

azzeretti wrote:

In the end I had to bring the box to a neighbours house and do the call back there. Once that was done, I then called Skty again and they switched the channels on straight away.

thanks for your help on this, so they did it when you could get to a phone. So if the worst comes true, I have to find someone else with a sky dish and a phone line and do it that way (or run a phone line from my neighbours house!!!

Mossy Monk

when i was pairing a viewing card with a Sky+ box i got the same ****e off Sky. they were adament that the card and box cant be paired without a phone line. had to explain for 5 minutes that i didnt have a landline. only a mobile. then they did pair it. Sky just like to be awkward. say you will cancel and they will probably do it with no problem

azzeretti

I tried all of that, even got talking to a manager and her manager! I found out in the end that Sky absolutly have to have a callback for existing customers as its a certain way to upload any PPV info from the card. Remember the way the card would cache the information if the phone line was unavailable? Well, aparantly when you call up and tell them you have no phone line to callback, they immediatley assume you haven't had a line for some time and may have outstanding bills to be uploaded!!

It makes sense I suppose.

Best of luck with trying though!

watty

They can give your NEW unused card a ZERO PPV limit.

givecredit

mustang68 wrote:

So if the worst comes true, I have to find someone else with a sky dish and a phone line and do it that way (or run a phone line from my neighbours house!!!

Ya, this will do it. You just need the phoneline to complete the call back via installer menu. You will NEVER need the phoneline again. I had the same experience when getting HD Installed. I too believed i could manage without phoneline, from reading this forum and digitalspy, but NO, you do NEED a Phoneline..

Everything is now working fine.

azzeretti

watty wrote:

They can give your NEW unused card a ZERO PPV limit.

Correct.They won't, or at least wouldn't, give me a new card cause I was an existing customer. Believe me, I tried all of these things. At one stage a guy did say I needed a new card to activate HD but that got rubbished away my his mate who I was passed on to.

Strange call center staff too, BTW!

Tony

Problem is sky are so inconsistent with their policy on this, sometimes you ring in and its no problem, other times you get the BS that the previous poster experienced. I do not see how they can insist on this with HD as there is no subsidy.