Wednesday, 7 July 2010

Well done Sky!

Without wanting this to read like an advert, or trying to sound sycophantic, there are a few companies who always seem to "get it right" without appearing to try, and Sky is one of them. They called me the other day, and asked if I'd like to abandon my BT landline, and switch to "Sky Talk", which basically means renting a phone line and getting my phone calls from Sky, and not BT. They're £5 a month cheaper than BT, and if you sign up, they knock £5 a month off your Sky Broadband bill (assuming you have one). I thought what the heck... why not?

In true Sky style, all the paperwork came through within a few days, and even BT got their act together with a "sorry you're leaving us" letter. I did express a concern about keeping the 1571 "Call Minder" service, but Sky reckoned they had the same thing, only better.

When I got home from work yesterday, I could tell that they'd switched me from BT to Sky during the day. My phone (a standard "BT Decor 1300") was miraculously aware of the correct date and time, and had a little message saying "3 missed calls, 3 new numbers". I've never bothered to program my phone before, so I'm impressed that it now knows the date and time, and as for Sky's 1571 service, it makes BT's look pretty clumsy. Whereas the painfully slow automated voice on the BT 1571 is clearly designed for the severely dim, or hard of hearing: "Welcome... to... BT... you've... one... new... message....", the Sky voice is much faster and more natural, taking you straight to your messages without faffing around. Even the basic 1471 readout is an improvement over BT's effort. The call quality has somehow improved too, when I made a couple of calls in the evening they were both crystal clear, whereas with BT I'd had crackling and distortion on the line since day one.

So, a better service, less annoyance, and I'm £120 a year better off. Bravo Sky, well played. More of that, please!

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