Why UPC are better in my Opinion

Ranicand

When Sky mess up in the billing department they like to send out threatening letters to their subscribes.

They route calls to India and even when you contact Scotland if you have a real problem these people are mindless and STUPID.

UPC do mess up but at least they are pleasant.

This happend to a friend of mine I have read it here a few times.

They cut me off and said they had a failed debit which my bank had no record of.

It turned out Sky was using a different account number and they said it must be my fault but yet they managed to take money out of my account for months before this.

To solve this I had to request 3 new mandate forms before they stopped getting lost in their system.
After all this I got nothing out of them not a sorry even.

They said I was not out of pocket.

The greedy pigs did not send me legal letters but I see red when I read about people who find themselves in this situation.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055990589

I know Sky are stupid lying morons so I would take this post at face value.

My friend sent a legal letter back to Sky and they backed off and they tried to say in was a misunderstanding.

People who give their bank details to Sky are crazy.

I am expecting replies that Sky has been great and never had a problem.
This does not help people who do run into the nasty side of this nasty operation.

EPGs number of channels etc or genuine mistakes do not compare to this.

Mr McBoatface

With respect it's more or a consumer issue than a satellite thread issue - http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=580.

bmaxi

Not long ago I finally managed to resolve an ongoing (over a year), saga with UPC. My daughter had enquired about a TV and broadband package, decided against it and thought no more of it. To cut a very long story short, we spent the following fourteen months in phone and mail communication, with what I can only describe as the most obtuse organisation I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. A debt collection agency was employed to collect a debt that didn't exist and threats were issued against my daughter's credit worthiness rating, at a time when she was negotiating a mortgage. In the end we had to employ a solicitor at our own expense, to finally get them to agree that the package had never even been agreed, let alone installed. I'm still waiting for them to reimburse me for the expenses, I'll probably have to employ a solicitor to get that as well.
Sky, indeed are a bunch of cowboys but UPC are not far behind and I'm sure there are many similar stories to relate.

Ranicand

bmaxi wrote: »

Not long ago I finally managed to resolve an ongoing (over a year), saga with UPC. My daughter had enquired about a TV and broadband package, decided against it and thought no more of it. To cut a very long story short, we spent the following fourteen months in phone and mail communication, with what I can only describe as the most obtuse organisation I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. A debt collection agency was employed to collect a debt that didn't exist and threats were issued against my daughter's credit worthiness rating, at a time when she was negotiating a mortgage. In the end we had to employ a solicitor at our own expense, to finally get them to agree that the package had never even been agreed, let alone installed. I'm still waiting for them to reimburse me for the expenses, I'll probably have to employ a solicitor to get that as well.
Sky, indeed are a bunch of cowboys but UPC are not far behind and I'm sure there are many similar stories to relate.

I did not know UPC done this kind of thing also.:(

Watty is right Freesat all the way.:)

12 element

The thread that you linked to is hardly a great example of how sky have bad customer service! I'm not sticking up for sky but ignoring bills for 6 months is just a bad idea. I've also heard of lots of bad storys about people trying to cancel UPC!
So the best option is freesat!

watty

Free satellite + UPC broadband only is better still

Kensington

The company that offers me the best customer service is the one whose customer service department I never have to contact...

I had to call UPC more times in the 10 months of television "service" I had from them than I've had to call sky in the past 6 years. Many more times.

I'd love nothing more than to switch the TV to UPC - their phone and broadband service is fantastic - but when you've used Sky+, trying to use UPC's equivalent is incredibly frustrating. Simple things like series linking, dual recording without having to switch the box off, jumping to a point in a recording, remembering where you last watched a recording, just aren't there on UPC or are very badly implemented. It feels clunky. The much heralded EPG seems to be a complete and utter flop from looking at the thread on it.

It doesn't make sense - the Thomson and Cisco kit they are dishing out aren't cheap crap - far from it - but UPC are dropping buggy, flaky, badly tested software onto the boxes, release after release, which is crippling them. If they want to seriously compete with sky, then they need to seriously rethink their software development policies, implement features that have been standard on sky+ from the start and sort out the many bugs. There's FTA PVR boxes out there that are more feature-oriented and stable than UPC's pay-TV equipment! Until then, they can offer me as many incentives as they like, I'm not going to switch back.

beer enigma

watty wrote: »

Free satellite + UPC broadband only is better still

Unless you want to run multiple devices in which case the UPC router falls over - fortunately they gave me a full refund ..........

12 element

Andip wrote: »

Unless you want to run multiple devices in which case the UPC router falls over - fortunately they gave me a full refund ..........

Which router was it? was it the cisco one? The old scientific atlantica and netgear combination was far better although thats not saying much! Dont know why they changed.

kmick

UPC cant come near sky for TV. The quality of picture is inferior and that UPC EPG is virtually unusable.

However SKY dont have a 3 in 1 package like UPC do. TV, Phone and 15Mb broadband for 70 bucks is a good deal.

watty

It's still about €70 if you sub to Sky for TV and UPC for BB + phone.
Both want DD.

steveon

UPC also charge a €10 fee for downgrading your package, sky dont.

Their channel lineup is lousy, althought admittedly it is getting much better. There service is different all over the country and despite this they have advertisments that falsely advertise their services and should be reported for such...

They also continuosly send me approx 3 letters a week asking me to switch to them wasting countless trees in the process and despite numerous calls they wont stop.

Have limited numbers of engineers in the country so if u live in the countryside you could be waiting quite some time for a repair, I along with Im sure many of the other installers out there get countless complaints over the phone from people begging me to get it sorted as they cant wait another week..

The moral is...whats rite for one user isnt rite for another, each person should experience both to make up their own minds...UPC provide fantastic combo deals where and I do specify where it works properly....

Sky need to invest in an infastructure here something they should have done a long time ago? Will they...I reckon they will have to at some time....as people want it..one bill saves a lot of hassle...

Tarabuses

bmaxi wrote: »

Not long ago I finally managed to resolve an ongoing (over a year), saga with UPC. My daughter had enquired about a TV and broadband package, decided against it and thought no more of it. To cut a very long story short, we spent the following fourteen months in phone and mail communication, with what I can only describe as the most obtuse organisation I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. A debt collection agency was employed to collect a debt that didn't exist and threats were issued against my daughter's credit worthiness rating, at a time when she was negotiating a mortgage. In the end we had to employ a solicitor at our own expense, to finally get them to agree that the package had never even been agreed, let alone installed. I'm still waiting for them to reimburse me for the expenses, I'll probably have to employ a solicitor to get that as well.
Sky, indeed are a bunch of cowboys but UPC are not far behind and I'm sure there are many similar stories to relate.

Small claims court?

campo

Horses for courses really I dont think there is much between both of them have there advantages and dis-advantages

bmaxi

Tarabuses wrote: »

Small claims court?

You mean to recover my expenses? Yes, thats a possibility I've looked at. I'm going to give them 'til the end of this month and look at it again, I need a rest at this stage.

Minstrel27

All companies can be gangsters. It is not exclusive to anyone.

mike tv . sports

but the free setanta in the basic and inexpensive espn in teh digital is good for sports fans.

johndoe99

Have to say, i've never had any trouble myself with UPC, always been a great service, i can count on one hand how many times my BB has gone down and then it was maintenence or an outage.

But when it comes to TV, SKY is the better (even though i'm now with UPC for that too).

But from reading all the threads on boards a lot of people do seem to be having trouble with UPC, maybe its related to a certain area or something, damn shame we cant create some sort of area map and see where all the trouble spots are.

superleedsdub

I`ve just moved house and had SKY installed with the HD Pack, 3 variety packs and the sports channels.


I previously had UPC digital so would like to add my opinions to this argument. These are my personal pro`s so are open to debate.....


UPC

Pros:

Slightly cheaper for SD TV
Back button on remote (previous channel)
Setanta ireland is part of the basic package
ESPN is cheaper

SKY

OSD responds alot faster than UPC - also looks a lot better
Apple mobile apps for recording and watching TV on my ipod
Anytime TV
Sky player on my PC
Interactive channels
Sports channels in HD (which look awesome)
HD box is now standard even if you do not subscribe to the HD pack - which means you get a HDMI connection instead of SCART (great for upscaling)
Freesat receivers can be hooked up to the dish for free viewing in other rooms.
The actual decoder looks cool - I love the blue ring when you play back a recording

SKY are quicker to adopt new technology (3D for example) BUT the customer does pay for it!

I have had some good dealings with both companies in the past and some not so good dealings (I had sky years ago in my parents home).
UPC seem to have improved their customer service while sky now have an office in cork to solve the india/scotland call centre issues.....

Minstrel27

superleedsdub wrote: »

UPC

Pros:

Slightly cheaper for SD TV
Back button on remote (previous channel)
Setanta ireland is part of the basic package
ESPN is cheaper

Sky HD offers this. Press the blue button and it will highlight the last viewed channel on the search and scan banner.

lgs 4

Attachment not found. hi guys cable has being here 35 years now even back then some people thought it was great and some thought it was crap and if you went 35 years into the future it would be the same thing as now and satellite was being here 20+ years and the same thing at the end of the day its all about choice and money and for me its freesat rte digital and free HD for all

ScrubsfanChris

UPC is more cost effective if you get it in a package (ie: insted of Sky + Eircom Broadband) but SKY is miles better if you just want tv.

Also, this is the Satellite Forum

lgs 4

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

UPC is more cost effective if you get it in a package (ie: insted of Sky + Eircom Broadband) but SKY is miles better if you just want tv.

Also, this is the Satellite Forum

i was sky sub and it was costing me 876 euros at year that was hd + movies and history ng discovery a lot of programs at are aired in the us never get seen in uk free HD for all

Bodan

Another point in favour of UPC, is when your box breaks. My digital+ box broke last week and I got a new one installed, for free, 3 days later. With sky, I would have to pay for a new box and pay for the call out charge(which is crazy).

Minstrel27

Bodan wrote: »

Another point in favour of UPC, is when your box breaks. My digital+ box broke last week and I got a new one installed, for free, 3 days later. With sky, I would have to pay for a new box and pay for the call out charge(which is crazy).

With Sky you own the equipment so it's not that crazy. It works the other way too. When you cancel Sky you still get some tv. With UPC you get nothing.

ScrubsfanChris

lgs 4 wrote: »

i was sky sub and it was costing me 876 euros at year that was hd + movies and history ng discovery a lot of programs at are aired in the us never get seen in uk free HD for all

Come back when you can speak some English.
Seriously, what was you point there?

Cantona's Collars

UPC can't touch Sky in terms of quality and choice of channels and technical innovation,the big advantage UPC have is price of multiroom and no need for phoneline to have extra boxes.In an ideal world I'd have Sky for TV and UPC for my broadband-never gona happen where I live,they still have UPC analogue, 14 channels for 26 euro p.m. and people think Sky is a rip-off.

steveon

Bodan wrote: »

Another point in favour of UPC, is when your box breaks. My digital+ box broke last week and I got a new one installed, for free, 3 days later. With sky, I would have to pay for a new box and pay for the call out charge(which is crazy).

Service call for UPC is only free when its an equipment fault. If you cause the problem, eg cut the cable then you will actually be charged..

Runs Cold

steveon wrote: »

Service call for UPC is only free when its an equipment fault. If you cause the problem, eg cut the cable then you will actually be charged..

UPC call out is free except when sub causes the problemnthis seems fair. when is a sky call out free?

cgarvey

Ranicand wrote: »

People who give their bank details to Sky are crazy.

People who take advise from a post with such ill-informed sensationalist ranting are crazy!

Signed
A UPC customer (on 3 separate occasions where each of the 3 times it took over 6 months to correct their DD-related mistakes), and a Sky customer.

Minstrel27

Runs Cold wrote: »

when is a sky call out free?

When you threaten to cancel

Sonic_exyouth

Just made the switch from UPC to SKY and regretting it already.

unless I am missing something, the channel + button drags you through all sorts of channels I am not subscribed to.. so blue screen after blue screen, after blue screen.

The order makes no obvious sense. I've to pass by channels like 'watch' and the likes before getting to BBC1 and 2.

There is no UTV or ITV2, 3 and 4.

It's rather annoying

watty

Set up your favorites
cycle then on purple button
All the ITVs are on EPG if you take out card.

Cantona's Collars

watty wrote: »

Set up your favorites
cycle then on purple button
All the ITVs are on EPG if you take out card.

Tune in ITV and ch5 into other channels- check sticky on tuning in other channels.No need to remove card.Watty is right,you can save 50 channels as favourites and use blue button to cycle through them.The EPG on Sky is much better than UPC,just takes getting used to if all you've had was UPC.

ScrubsfanChris

Sonic_exyouth wrote: »

The order makes no obvious sense. I've to pass by channels like 'watch' and the likes before getting to BBC1 and 2.

RTE 1 and 2 occupy the space BBC 1 and 2 would be on the UK EPG.
Just add channels to favourites.

Minstrel27

Sonic_exyouth wrote: »

Just made the switch from UPC to SKY and regretting it already.

unless I am missing something, the channel + button drags you through all sorts of channels I am not subscribed to.. so blue screen after blue screen, after blue screen.

The order makes no obvious sense. I've to pass by channels like 'watch' and the likes before getting to BBC1 and 2.

There is no UTV or ITV2, 3 and 4.

It's rather annoying

If that's your only complaint then I think you are doing quite well. UTV (why would anyone bother when there are DOG free ITV channels available) and all the ITV channels can be tuned in