# CS can't take action until Team Leader returns from vacation ?!?



## fallingditch (Dec 4, 2004)

[see Time to bring to life my backup Tivo - but how?]

I first logged the call with CS to "please upgrade me to 2.5.5a" on 22 December, then went away for Christmas. I returned on 29 December - the upgrade had not been applied. Spent 20 minutes on phone to CS representative who said they had to "email their team leader" and that their "team leader would email America" but "because it was the festive season things might get delayed".

Called up today to try to get an update; after a 22 minute wait, today's CS representative had no idea of status so I had to explain it all again; today's CS representative went looking for the CS representative I spoke to yesterday. Yesterday's CS representative explained that because "their team leader was on vacation until after the new year" nothing was going to happen. Asked to speak to today's Team Leader - request denied. (They will "try" to send an email on my behalf ...)

The point is that nobody in CS appears to have any idea of the status of my request; why it has taken so long (apart from "its the festive season") and when the request is likely to get resolved.

Why did I think this would be straightforward?

Any suggestions anyone?


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

I suspect that 'Team Leader' is an overly-grand title for the single person in the whole of Sky who deals with TiVo support. I suppose that we should be thankful that at least some of the Sky support personnel know he exists.


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## pauljs (Feb 11, 2001)

This must surely change when Virgin/TiVo is launched, otherwise there will be terrible confusion. On the other hand maybe there will be just confusion.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

pauljs said:


> This must surely change when Virgin/TiVo is launched, otherwise there will be terrible confusion. On the other hand maybe there will be just confusion.


There is obviously no way that Virgin would allow Sky to 'support' the new Virgin hardware. Especially given Sky's questionable efforts at marketing the Series 1.

However, while I suppose that Virgin could refuse to take on the mantle of supporting Series 1 hardware, I would have thought that they would want the opportunity to market a hardware upgrade to existing TiVo customers.

I suspect that the TiVo 'Team Leader' at Sky is otherwise occupied having an interview at Virgin.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

iankb said:


> I suspect that the TiVo 'Team Leader' at Sky is otherwise occupied having an interview at Virgin.


Where is Virgin's main customer service centre in the UK? I bet that its nowhere near Livingston in Scotland.

I used Sky HD at my sister's house over xmas and the new EPG with Recorded programs separated from scheduled programs and so on seemed a lot more useful as was the proper nesting of episodes of a series. Also getting the currently showing program and the sound for it in the top right of the screen in the EPG was a big improvement.

What specific aspects of Tivo can Sky not hope to emulate if they come under market pressure to do so by the UK appearance of a Virgin Tivo? Does it include Wishlists, proper fast navigation of the live buffer and of recordings (instead of having to fast wind the program like a video tape), thumbs ratings and Suggestions.

Sky Anytime was a complete and utter joke though as despite my sister having all the Mixes and the Disney channel Anytime simply recorded programs on numerous HD movie channels that she could not view because she did not have a valid subscription for them. Even if Sky can't do proper Suggestions surely they could narrow down Anytime recordings to only the channels you are able to view and to only program genres that you indicate you are interested in having programs auto recorded for.

I reckon by the time that the Virgin Tivo comes out that an all singing and dancing 60" Plasma set will be so cheap that i will have to consider getting one, although I am still concerned about all the extra power that such a device is likely to eat up. Are LCD LED sets that have just as good a resolution as a Plasma but use much less power anywhere on the horizon yet? Or can more power efficient Plasma displays also be expected in due course.


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## pauljs (Feb 11, 2001)

Pete77 said:


> Sky Anytime was a complete and utter joke though as despite my sister having all the Mixes and the Disney channel Anytime simply recorded programs on numerous HD movie channels that she could not view because she did not have a valid subscription for them.


I do often find a few good progs on Anytime, but it is clearly a promo tool for Sky, recording movies to make un subscribed customers wish they could watch them.

A bit like not providing the option to hide unsubbed channels on the EPG


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## katman (Jun 4, 2002)

pauljs said:


> I do often find a few good progs on Anytime, but it is clearly a promo tool for Sky, recording movies to make un subscribed customers wish they could watch them.
> 
> A bit like not providing the option to hide unsubbed channels on the EPG


If that is the case, then why has the EPG now changed for the HD channels so that instead of showing the HD content you are missing, it just says "To recieve HD call ----------------"

I did have the SKY software on my laptop until I ran out of space on my C drive one day and discovered it was due to over 8Gb of Movies that had been downloaded without me requesting them, and worse still, they didnt show in my library and if I clicked on the WMV files it told me I didnt have the right to play them. Since uninstalling that my bandwith usage has plumeted.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

katman said:


> I did have the SKY software on my laptop until I ran out of space on my C drive one day and discovered it was due to over 8Gb of Movies that had been downloaded without me requesting themv...


Sky Marketing are their own worse enemies.

They are so arrogant that they expect users to change their habits to fit the limited and misjudged functionality of their products, rather than try and cater for the varied requirements of their users.

Personally, I left Sky when they insisted in showing premiere movies out-of-hours that required pin-entry, and that stopped me recording them with my TiVo. it would have been so simple to have rotated the broadcast times of the movies through the week, rather than show them at the same fixed time on every day of the week. But common-sense is certainly one thing that you can't attribute to Sky.

I wonder how many other customers left because of poorly-judged design decisions.

Even if PC-based products (e.g. Windows Media Center) were to grab a significant proportion of the market, I doubt that Sky would ever produce a PCI or USB tuner; unless, of course, Virgin were to get there first. However, I'm not sure that Microsoft are showing the appropriate long-term commitment to Media Center that would make cable or satellite companies commit to producing that sort of product.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

iankb said:


> Personally, I left Sky when they insisted in showing premiere movies out-of-hours that required pin-entry, and that stopped me recording them with my TiVo.


Tell me about it! Luckily I only get the movie channels for a month once a year; I have them at the moment 

I don't see why they can't offer the ability to disable the PIN in situations when it is simply not required. ie there's no kids that need protecting in my house.


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## pauljs (Feb 11, 2001)

Sky Player now appears as an option within Windows 7 media centre. Perhaps Sky assume that is all they need to do to support MCE


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