New sky card problems

 Hi Guys

Thanks for your replies on my previous question.

Ok, my new card has been issued to an address in the UK and as I have no way of finding out where it has gone I have cancelled the sky subscription and set up a new one using my UK address. For some reason the agent in Spain didn't use my name or address for the previous account and that is why I had to cancel the subscription.

I presume that when the new card arrives I can take it to spain, put the card in my sky box, phone sky on my UK mobile pretending that I am at my UK address and the card will be paired with my box. Are there any potential problems doing it this way?

Secondly, I have a second box in Spain, the subscription on which has also been cancelled.  Is there a way of using this box to supply me with basic channels without taking out a further subscription? I will have the obsolete blue card and I also have a bona fide UK subscription which is resident and used in the UK so I could take that card out to Spain as and when I travel if need be.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers

Hi  b4ssy

You can't take your UK card to Spain as each card is paired to its own box when activated, you can when in Spain ring sky and tell them you have changed your box and and they will then pair the card to the box in Spain, however when you return to the UK you will have to have it paired back to your UK box ,i think sky may question this after a couple of times, another way is to buy a free sat card from sky for £20.00 and take it to Spain this will give the same channels as freeview, or you could purchase a free sat reciever set it up at home in the UK and then take it to Spain no subsciption needed.

Rob

Ok, my new card has been issued to an address in the UK and as I have no way of finding out where it has gone I have cancelled the sky subscription and set up a new one using my UK address. For some reason the agent in Spain didn't use my name or address for the previous account and that is why I had to cancel the subscription.

Best thing to do especially if you dont know the agents or where abouts..

I presume that when the new card arrives I can take it to spain, put the card in my sky box, phone sky on my UK mobile pretending that I am at my UK address and the card will be paired with my box. Are there any potential problems doing it this way?

None that I can see

Secondly, I have a second box in Spain, the subscription on which has also been cancelled.  Is there a way of using this box to supply me with basic channels without taking out a further subscription? I will have the obsolete blue card and I also have a bona fide UK subscription which is resident and used in the UK so I could take that card out to Spain as and when I travel if need be.

And Sky box, even without a viewignc afrd in serted, will continue to receive the free to ari channels - like BBC, many ITV1 regions, CHannel 4 etc and around 100 or so more channels.

A sky card will work in ANY sky box for any of the "6 mixes" channels.,...but not for the Sky Sports or the Sky Movie channels, which can only work on the box that the card has been paried to.

another way is to buy a free sat card from sky for £20.00 and take it to Spain this will give the same channels as freeview

no...there are many channels that are free on freeview but subscription only opn satellite - such as Dave, Sky Sports News, Yesterday, Virgin 1, 4 music, TMF,   Currently a freesafromsky card gets you some ITV1 regions, some channels 4's, Five, Fiver, Five USA, SKy Three, Setanta Sports News.

or you could purchase a free sat reciever set it up at home in the UK and then take it to Spain no subsciption needed.

but then you would not beable to use a sky card in it - and you dont have to set the freesat box up in the UK before hand...it can be set up wherever it can get a good signal..

Hope this helps...

I've a similar problem, having previously aquired a sky subscription in Spain via a third party (who has now moved/gone missing/out of bussiness) and so don't know what UK address/details he used to create the subscription and won't be recieving the new sky card, although Sky will still be taking money from my UK bank account.  So how did you go about cancelling your subscription without appearing an idiot (who doesn't know his name/address), or admitting you're in Spain ?

Pedro

 Hi Pedro

My sky account was in somebody elses name at an address in UK of which I never had any knowledge. The credit card debit was in my own name with a UK bank. They obviously don't tie up the account holder with the person paying. I simply cancelled the credit card so no more payments will be made to sky. This is the only way to cancel credit card payments because I was unable to speak to sky, not being the account holder or knowing his details and password etc. For some reason, payments set up on a credit card can only be cancelled by the payee ( sky, in this case ). Payments from a bank account can be cancelled by the account holder.

Sky will presumably write to the account holder demanding money.

In the meantime I have called sky and added another account to my UK account. This is in my name and registered to my UK address. I have received the card for this new subscription and will take the card with me to spain at the weekend, phone sky from my UK mobile, and hopefully, have the card paired with my box in spain.

I hope this explanation is not too confusing. If I had done this in the first place I wouldn't have to go through this process.

Interestingly enough, I will get the subscription on the extra box price rate until they realise that the box is not attached to a UK phone line. I suppose I could bring the box back with me from time to time and attach it to my UK phone line as and when they write to me threatening to put the price up.

If you simply cancel the direct debit with your bank, you won't even have to talk to sky and, in fact, you can't anyway.

Will let you know how I get on with the new account.

Cheers

you have learnt well my young apprentice!

Interestingly enough, I will get the subscription on the extra box price rate until they realise that the box is not attached to a UK phone line. I suppose I could bring the box back with me from time to time and attach it to my UK phone line as and when they write to me threatening to put the price up.

the boxes call back once or twice a month...after about 5 missed calls the first letter will appear asking for you to check the box...thats a good indication to take the box back and get it to call back (service, 4 0 1 select, new installation)

In the meantime I have called sky and added another account to my UK account. This is in my name and registered to my UK address. I have received the card for this new subscription and will take the card with me to spain at the weekend, phone sky from my UK mobile, and hopefully, have the card paired with my box in spain.

Lets hope they dont insist that your new multiroon card is actiavted by phoneline only - which is another reason why it is not always safe to do multiroom in spain!

If you simply cancel the direct debit with your bank, you won't even have to talk to sky and, in fact, you can't anyway.

thats the best way to do it...best to do it now, as most cards have ben changed....and if you leave it too long you may end up payng for TV that you will not be able to view - as you pay sky for a months viewing in advance!

Thanks for your advice:

Lets hope they dont insist that your new multiroon card is actiavted by phoneline only - which is another reason why it is not always safe to do multiroom in spain!

Sky wouldn't actually let me do it any other way. I told them the box was being installed in my pool house which doesn't have a phone line. It was the lady at sky who told me the way it would work with the call backs and the letters. I was a bit surprised because I already have a box on multiroom and I thought you could only have one extra box on this deal.

We will find out next week!

Cheers

I am moving to Spain,Costa del Sol, in the next month.

Can you advise me if I can take my British tv with me .Will it work okay?Can I take my dvd player?Its just that they seem much cheaper to buy in the UK than Spain.

Can I take my sky HD box and just continue to pay my subscription as if I was still in UK?

Will a UK freeview box work in Spain and give UK channels with a terrestial aerial or will I need to buy a satellite aerial?

Is there a B&Q type store in Costa del Sol that sells aerial cables connectors etc. and everything else in the electical plumbing field?

Cheers,

Danielca

Can you advise me if I can take my British tv with me .Will it work okay?

Yes. It will work fine. The only things that you may have trouble with is for the spanish analogue TV signal (its being swithed off anyway!) as they use a different sound system to the UK, and if you have freeview builtinto the tv it may not work 100%

Can I take my dvd player?

Yes. Any appliance that plugs into the TV via SCART will work ok.

Can I take my sky HD box and just continue to pay my subscription as if I was still in UK?

Yes. Although as mentioned above and in other thread, multiroom sky subscriptions are not advised, and best to move you sky accont to a uk address "you control".

Will a UK freeview box work in Spain and give UK channels with a terrestial aerial or will I need to buy a satellite aerial?

UK Freeview boxes do work to an extent, maybe not 100%, as freeview is a UK based system and the freeview software is not entirly compatiable with the "generic" spainish TDT system,.

You will not get UK channels via your TV aerial in spain, as freeview is a uk only service transmitted from the land based transmitters (like Emly moor) whos services does not reach Spain.

You will be able to use it for TDT - Spains version of Freeview - around 30 digital spanish channels - no uk channels - but you do have th option to change the language on many programmes into english.

Ideally if you want the UK channels you will use your Sky box and appropriate sized satellite dish...

Is there a B&Q type store in Costa del Sol that sells aerial cables connectors etc. and everything else in the electical plumbing field?

Look out for Leeroy Merlin - Spains B&Q.

Hi

can anyone help please,we had a mesh dish put up by teleast + dig box 2 years ago,they then charge for an upgrade diffrent dish diffrent dig box, we stopped paying the monthly subs,havent got a card so only get the channels that are not scrambled,is there a company that let you have a short package and not a yearly one.

I dont think a sky card would work in it would it ?

Anyway I can get ITV and BBC 1

Advise from anyone PLEASE

MS 51

I dont think a sky card would work in it would it ?

No idea about the mesh system offers, but I can tell you a sky card in a mesh system recevier will not be of any use!

Have not got the mesh now its a dish thats pointing towards a transmitter  I live near Riquilme golf resort, dont like the idea of paying 20€ a month when only there  in total about 3 months a year (i was with Teleast.

satandpcguy thanks for the very helpful advice.It was much appreciated.

danielca

Have not got the mesh now its a dish thats pointing towards a transmitter  I live near Riquilme golf resort, dont like the idea of paying 20€ a month when only there  in total about 3 months a year (i was with Teleast.

If you point / realign your dish to the UK group of satellites, if you can programme your current box to search for the channels, you MAY be able to get a handful of UK channel;s.....but nothing mainstream...
 

Again, if you can reprogramme  your current box to search for the channels you can always realign the dish to arabsat (26 east) or Nilesat 7west) and look out for the MBC group of channels. many uk / usa programmes in english. note you will need atleast an 80 (if not a 1m) dish for these.

otherwise if you want to keep using a rebraodasters there may be one that does a "holiday" pack..but i have no idea who would/.

 Hi

I am now in spain with my new sky card. I need to activate this new card by calling sky on 08442 414141. The question is, how do you call this number from spain? I have tried dialling +448442 414141 and also just dialling the number as above with no joy. Is there another number I can use without alerting them that I am in spain?

Any help appreciated

Cheers

i know that it sometimes helps if you dial "067" in front of the UK number when you are dialing from a fixed telefonica landline.

but would assume you just dial the number from a UK mobile?

i just dialed 00448442 414141 and it go me thru!

are you calling the correct number..sometimes the number on the screen differs from the one on the letter that comes with the card? it looks like the correct number...

or you can ask someone in the UK to call them on yu behald...just make sure htat this person has all the relevant details

 Strangely enough I have tried to call the sky number on 3 different uk registered mobile phones. Only one of them connected succesfully, a blackberry registered with O2.

Anyway, I paired the card with the box, in spain, with no problems.

Thanks for your help.

 To anyone in the know,

My sky+HD  box has developed a fault...when i try to record another channel i get a message to say it is clashing with what i am watching.

I then have to cancel the recording....

The idea is to record something your not watching so it is either something i have done wrong or is this a common fault?

Help please....

Hi Georgia

Before you call out anyone and start incurring costs perform a backup of the system which cures quite a few problems and takes about 10 minutes.

To do this remove the power lead from the back of the box and leave out for approx 30 seconds.

on the top of your sky box you will see some buttons normally set in a circular pattern. One of them usually towards the top of the circle is the " back up " button. ( note this is not the same as the back up button on the sky remote )

You need to hold the back up button down as you replace the power lead. Keep holding the back up button down for approx 20 seconds until the lights come on, on the front of the box. At this point you can release the back up button.

You will then see a message on your screen along the lines of " your system is downloading software and this will take approx 10 minutes "

When this is completed leave the box for about 5 minutes before turning it back on.

Hopefully this will cure your problem and should be performed roughly every 6 months anyway.

 many thanks for that......i will give it a try tonight.

Thanks again.