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First4IT
Mentor

Blurry/Pixelated Sky Sports - Official Complaint Raised

All,

I have seen countless posts in this forum from users who are experiencing problems with the picture quality of their live Sky Sports streams.

In equal number are the useless and quite frankly insulting 'canned responses' from offshore support either through live chat or responses to postings suggesting problems with broadband bandwidth or user equipment.

Having been through all of this myself and having been appalled at the lack of response from NowTV within the forum despite repeated requests from users, I have written to and made a formal complaint to NowTV. Their complaints procedure acknowledges they have 7 days in which to respond.

NowTV provided me with a report that illustrated all of my viewing over a 2 month period, the programme watched, the connection method (broadband or Cellular), the duration and connection speed. They tried to argue I was experiencing problems as my bandwidth was showing a very slow. Like most other users, having a rock-steady fibre connection with no other streaming or viewing issues and with 25 years of experience as an IT consultant I was not going to be let this matter rest.

I obtained a bandwidth monitor report from my ISP for the same period and it clearly illustrated that my average connection speed was monitored and recorded as 44Mbps during the same period which completely debunks the claims made by NowTV.

So, don't waste your time any further with NowTV tech support. The problem is absolutely related to either the NowTV Roku Box/Setup/Configuration or a steaming/bandwidth issue directly from NowTV. 

I will post updates on this matter as soon as I receive a response from NowTV. 

 

14 REPLIES 14
First4IT
Mentor

As promised, I received an update from NowTV today (31st October). I have removed personal information from their email (they did not respond to my letter). 

The email was sent from Emma @NowTV from email address [email removed]

*******************

Thank you for contacting NOWTV. Your case has been escalated to myself in the Executive Complaints team.

I have read your letter and I'd like to start off by apologising for the level of service you have received from NOW TV to this point. We do not want our customers to feel that their complaints have been ignored or not responded to their expectations.

I have reviewed your points and I agree that the issue you have been having is strange and would indicate a technical issue. I do not wish to subject you to any further Troubleshooting as I feel this is more to do with software issues rather than hardware or setup. There have been two factors that could be influencing your viewing. The first is more recently than June though. This was an issue that was raised specifically to the Sports pass. There were issues with lag and also pixelated picture. The second issue related to the NOW TV Box itself and the same issues present here but have been intermittent across different programmes, different passes, different channels. This has taken us longer to resolve and we needed to liaise heavily directly with Roku who supply the hardware for the NOW TV equipment.

The issue relating specifically has now been resolved and there is an update rolling out to over 60,000 device between 27/10 and 01/11. Please make sure to update the app if you are prompted to do so. If not you can go to the home screen and search for updates under Settings.

I would like to offer a full refund for all Sky Sports pass you have purchased since June. The reason for this is that you have had this issue for a prolonged period of time and we have been unable to supply a resolution. Hopefully the new update will improve the viewing if not rectify it entirely.

In addition I would like to offer you a months free Sky Sports pass in order for you to trial the services once the new update comes. You can then feedback to us on your findings. If there has not been an improvement I would like then to gather as much information as possible and then link in with our Technical teams. Upon your acceptance, I will be happy to provide you with the voucher code.

I hope you find the proposals I have put forward to be adequate and fair and we will work together to get this resolved once and for all. If you feel I have missed any points you have raised please feel free to highlight these in your reply.

*************

 

As you will see I am offered a refund for my viewing from June when NowTV stipulate the problem started, although I experienced the problem before this and one-month free pass to Sky Sports. Suffice to say, I am going to reject this offer. I suspect this will result in deadlock and then in line with their code of practice I can then escalate my complaint to CISAS (Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme)

In addition, they state that during the one-month free pass, I can liaise with them from a technical standpoint to solve any issues if their proposed fix does not work and f I experience further problems. 

The fundamental issues relating to the quality of offshore support, the lack of representation from NowTV within the forum and the expectation that consumers will continue to help resolve issues by offering their time free for a service they are paying for and expect to receive is quite frankly ridiculous.  It would have taken very little time for NowTV to properly investigate and resolve these issues and a public apology should be issued to NowTV and refunds offered to all customers during this period with a free 3-month pass of their choice.

Companies used to have UAT (User acceptance testing) departments which tested developments prior to their release. Across the technology industries, these areas have been predominantly decommissioned, instead, the pressure to release updates and new features before existing products and services are stable results in the responsibility for testing and troubleshooting falling at the feet of consumers.  You wouldn't take your car to the garage and help them troubleshoot what was wrong with it, would you? So why am I expected to do this with technology service providers?

Customers should not be expected to raise a complaint to be compensated for a 'known and accepted' problem. 

I suggest you all do the same and I hope this helps you all. 

I will post an update when I have sent a rejection notice and I receive the next response.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

 I would like to raise a complaint also, as I have been trying to sort out the same problem for 4 months now.  I dont know where to write or email, can you let me know?

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I have suffered the same thing with a new (3-week-old) Now stick, and 6-month sports subscription with 1080p add-on.  For unpopular events the quality is usually OK.  But as soon as a very popular event happens - eg Spurs-Chelsea yesterday, the quality gets variable then unwatchable.  Re-booting sometimes improves things for a time, but then the problems re-surface.  But when the match ended, and ads came on ... suddenly good stream again.  I was also fobbed off with nearly two hours of useless chat advice - including being disconnected while entering the crazy complicated BT password for my internet, and being escalated to a technician who frankly didn't seem more technically on the ball than the first person.  I was told at one stage I needed to buy a new stick.  No advice was any help at all.  Of course I didn't see much of the match either.

My internet is stable 50 to 55MB, and no other streams suffer from any problem.  At the time of these problems there were no other things using the internet apart from the PC I was chatting to Now on. I have stopped using the TV USB for power, and use the mains USB lead.  I have done hard resets and updates on the TV and stick.

No answer was given why the quality deteriorates during popular events.  After the two hours of chat I had to stop.  An email was sent which said the technician was pleased that quality had been restored (because I said it was OK in the ad break!) and offering me a free one day pass.

This is not good enough by a long way.

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I too have issues with blurred screen, especially bad with sky subscription channels......it’s like buying poor quality pirate dvds at an expensive rate 😡😡. I also have connection problems at times but nothing is as frustrating as paying to watch a game or film and constantly switching from good to blurred an unwatchable every 5-10 mins. Not impressed at all. They must be aware they have this problem as I’m seeing so many similar complaints. I won’t subscribe again simply because of this issue.....it’s a shame.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

same problem when amazon put on football no problem at all i have cancelled my subscription thanks for your work cheers