UPC or not to UPC

cabledude

I am currently a customer of SKY. We have one sky subscription in our living room with magic eyes for all our other telly's. Now i have been on to SKY loads of times to try and get multi-room, but, they insist that we install a phone line to avail of a multi room for €15. Or i can have a second subscription at €27 per month. There's no way i'm putting in a phone line to pay €30 line rental per month for a phone I will not use. I'm in a rural area so land line broadband in not an option for me, so to pay out €30 p.m. for a phone line is out of the question.

So I would have to pay €54 per month for a basic (no movies or sport) package in two different rooms.

Now. If I go to UPC I and have digital television packages starting from €21.75 per month and as many multi-room boxes as I want for €5 per month each and crucially NO need for a phone line. So for example if i were to have the main point in the living room and a point in my kitchen/dining and a point in my bedroom, they could do this per month for €31.75.The same from SKY would be €81. That's a considerable difference from cost of same service from SKY.

My question to you all is : Is UPC reliable, what is their service like in event of breakdown's, what is their customer service like? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Just to point out I'm in a rural area so cable is not an option. I'll have to get MMDS/Aeriel based services.

Red Alert

Is Sky + FreeSat an option for you? You'd have to change your LNB on the dish, and run the additional cables to it.

That way you could have your Sky box in the main room and have the free channels elsewhere. Since only one Sky box, no need for a phone line.

The other option is to use a HDMI distribution splitter on the output of the Sky box, and run HDMI cables to your TVs. This will depend on how easy it is to route the cable.

The ultimate version would be to do both.

Vanbis

What about trying or getting these.

http://www.tvtrade.ie/wireless-phone-extender-base-and-extension-unit.html


Discussions on options for Multiroom in this thread.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=74522725

cabledude

Red Alert wrote: »

Is Sky + FreeSat an option for you? You'd have to change your LNB on the dish, and run the additional cables to it.

That way you could have your Sky box in the main room and have the free channels elsewhere. Since only one Sky box, no need for a phone line.

The other option is to use a HDMI distribution splitter on the output of the Sky box, and run HDMI cables to your TVs. This will depend on how easy it is to route the cable.

The ultimate version would be to do both.

I've made my mind up that Freesat is not for me. Too many channels that we would not watch and no Irish/Sky 1's etc etc......

I absolutely need full service in both rooms.

cabledude

Vanbis wrote: »

What about trying or getting these.

http://www.tvtrade.ie/wireless-phone-extender-base-and-extension-unit.html

You need a working phone line in the house for these to work. I done have or will not have a working phone line in house.

Vanbis

cabledude wrote: »

You need a working phone line in the house for these to work. I done have or will not have a working phone line in house.

Ok i see that in your post. I thought you didn't want a second connection upstairs.

chops018

I find UPC good, there not the best there is or was but there isn't a whole lot of choice here!

I've got the Digital Select Extra package (includes Setanta Ireland and ESPN and ESPN America) and the Sky Sports package, with multi room and I'm very happy with it to be honest. Have the digital + box in one room and just the normal box in another.

It's an extra 3.75 a month for the + box (I think it's cheaper for new customers) and an extra 5 for having a box in another room (this is the same for both existing and new customers). As far as I know it's 5 euro extra a month to have it in ONE other room, not as many as you like as you said above. So if you had a box in the main room, the kitchen and the bedroom it would be an extra 10 euro a month as you would have 2 additional points installed.

If I were you I'd ring them up and explain exactly what you want and then they would tell you proper prices etc. then you could go online and order it so as to waive the installation and connections fee's etc.

If you do opt to sign up online you should use the boards.ie deal and get the 50 euro free voucher.

I'd recommend UPC anyways, especially if the Sky prices are that high.

cabledude

chops018 wrote: »

I find UPC good, there not the best there is or was but there isn't a whole lot of choice here!

I've got the Digital Select Extra package (includes Setanta Ireland and ESPN and ESPN America) and the Sky Sports package, with multi room and I'm very happy with it to be honest. Have the digital + box in one room and just the normal box in another.

It's an extra 3.75 a month for the + box (I think it's cheaper for new customers) and an extra 5 for having a box in another room (this is the same for both existing and new customers). As far as I know it's 5 euro extra a month to have it in ONE other room, not as many as you like as you said above. So if you had a box in the main room, the kitchen and the bedroom it would be an extra 10 euro a month as you would have 2 additional points installed.

If I were you I'd ring them up and explain exactly what you want and then they would tell you proper prices etc. then you could go online and order it so as to waive the installation and connections fee's etc.

If you do opt to sign up online you should use the boards.ie deal and get the 50 euro free voucher.

I'd recommend UPC anyways, especially if the Sky prices are that high.

Thanks for the reply.

I did not realise you could apply online and receive extra discounts.Funny they never told me that. I know i'll have to pay €10 extra per month to have two additional points along with the main point in the sitting room. But for ten euro i'm getting three channel options across the house at any one time. And I don't have to have a phone line. The same service with sky would cost me €57 per month.

Just to clarify you get your service through MMDS aerial and not cable/pipe?

P.s. how do you avail of the 50 boards voucher?

Many thanks for the help.

dogpile

cabledude wrote: »

I am currently a customer of SKY. We have one sky subscription in our living room with magic eyes for all our other telly's. Now i have been on to SKY loads of times to try and get multi-room, but, they insist that we install a phone line to avail of a multi room for €15. Or i can have a second subscription at €27 per month. There's no way i'm putting in a phone line to pay €30 line rental per month for a phone I will not use. I'm in a rural area so land line broadband in not an option for me, so to pay out €30 p.m. for a phone line is out of the question.

So I would have to pay €54 per month for a basic (no movies or sport) package in two different rooms.

Now. If I go to UPC I and have digital television packages starting from €21.75 per month and as many multi-room boxes as I want for €5 per month each and crucially NO need for a phone line. So for example if i were to have the main point in the living room and a point in my kitchen/dining and a point in my bedroom, they could do this per month for €31.75.The same from SKY would be €81. That's a considerable difference from cost of same service from SKY.

My question to you all is : Is UPC reliable, what is their service like in event of breakdown's, what is their customer service like? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Just to point out I'm in a rural area so cable is not an option. I'll have to get MMDS/Aeriel based services.

Have you no phone line at all? if so how was Sky installed in the 1st place?? the engineer runs a phone line into the box but other than that it can be taken out.....so if u want multiroom just plug a phone line in when he's there take it out afterwards, not needed..


We have both Sky and UPC... Sky much the better, better quality and reliability.....more channels, far better epg etc etc

cabledude

dogpile wrote: »

Have you no phone line at all? if so how was Sky installed in the 1st place?? the engineer runs a phone line into the box but other than that it can be taken out.....so if u want multiroom just plug a phone line in when he's there take it out afterwards, not needed..


We have both Sky and UPC... Sky much the better, better quality and reliability.....more channels, far better epg etc etc

We had a phone line at the time of installation of sky but got it taken out two weeks later as our local telephone exchange is not broadband enabled. So unless I can get broadband through my landline I will not have an active landline. Sky apparently have no issue with this. However if you have a multi room package they are more prone to do line checks on your system. If I was to go ahead and get a phone line in at a cost of €100 only to get it taken out the next week because my sky multi room is installed, as sure as night follows day they would do a line check on me and i'd be screwed. Too much hassle and cost......

Kristopherus

I have UPC mmds since August 2010. I also have multiroom. I have the same setup as Chops018, and I'm very happy with it. I had ditched $ky and they pester me with mailshots every 2 months offering me what I had with them before, for half price for 12 months. I was paying UPC the equivalent of $ky's offer as it was. At the end of my first 12 months I went back to UPC and quoted $ky's letter to them. They gave me €7.00 off for the next 12 months. So I'm very happy.

hdowney

op can i just clarify something with you: sky told you that if you wanted multiroom you had to get a phoneline OR pay for two subscriptions?? like sky themselves, not a third party installer person?

i ask because my friend wants to get multiroom installed, but they do not have, nor will they get a landline in. he contacted sky, both by email and phone. in the email the representative made it sound like yes he could have two full price subscriptions if he wanted, but when he rang them they were like 'no sorry for misleading you but the ONLY way you can get multiroom is with a phoneline'

cgarvey

hdowney wrote: »

the ONLY way you can get multiroom is with a phoneline'

He doesn't want Multiroom though, just 2 regular subs. Would that have been the source of confusion? I know of 2 similar situations. 1 household is 2 separate names/bills (husband and wife), and the other household is 2 (regular) subs on the 1 bill. Both in the last 18 months, and both via Sky directly.

hdowney

cgarvey wrote: »

He doesn't want Multiroom though, just 2 regular subs. Would that have been the source of confusion? I know of 2 similar situations. 1 household is 2 separate names/bills (husband and wife), and the other household is 2 (regular) subs on the 1 bill. Both in the last 18 months, and both via Sky directly.

sky wouldn't let him do either of the above - said he couldn't have 2 regular subs on the same bill and said there couldn't be 2 people with sky subs at the same address

cabledude

hdowney wrote: »

op can i just clarify something with you: sky told you that if you wanted multiroom you had to get a phoneline OR pay for two subscriptions?? like sky themselves, not a third party installer person?

i ask because my friend wants to get multiroom installed, but they do not have, nor will they get a landline in. he contacted sky, both by email and phone. in the email the representative made it sound like yes he could have two full price subscriptions if he wanted, but when he rang them they were like 'no sorry for misleading you but the ONLY way you can get multiroom is with a phoneline'

They told me I needed either a phone line or in the event I didn't have a phone line I'd have to take a second full subscription onto my account.

hdowney

cabledude wrote: »

They told me I needed either a phone line or in the event I didn't have a phone line I'd have to take a second full subscription onto my account.

and yet they refuse to let my friend do that. hmm. sky :mad:

cabledude

hdowney wrote: »

and yet they refuse to let my friend do that. hmm. sky :mad:

Weird