How many monkeys does it take to activate Sky+?
Nearly three weeks ago now I went away on holiday for a week. I was due to leave the day that the new series of Lost started on Sky1 which was also three days before the new series of 24 started, also on Sky1.
Up until recently I had been using an original Sky box that I have had for 10 years so didn’t have Sky+. I recently acquired a Sky HD box so two days before going away (three weeks today) I called Sky to get Sky+ activated so that I could record Lost and 24 whilst on holiday.
After a couple of phone calls trying to get the right department which is hidden in an illogical automated telephone option system I managed to speak to someone that said I would need a new viewing card which would take 3-5 days to get to me.
I was a bit disappointed by this as it meant it would arrive before I left but I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to use the dreadful Sky Player when I got back instead.
When I got back from holiday 10 days after calling there was no new viewing card in the post.
I phoned again a few days later which was two weeks after the original phone call and was told they needed to add the Sky HD box to my account. They tried adding the HD box to my account but couldn’t do it.
I then got passed to a technical support person who tried to add the HD box to my account numerous times but the system wouldn’t accept it.
He then said that he would need to escalate the problem and someone would call me back within 72 hours. If I didn’t hear from them (why shouldn’t I if that’s the process?) then I should contact them again and give them a kick.
Surprise, surprise I didn’t hear from them.
I called them back yesterday and explained the situation again. They looked at the records and said they needed to pass me to technical support again.
This time technical support was a lady in India (at a guess) who wanted to talk about the weather and what I was doing that day. She asked me to confirm that I could view channels and if there were any error messages on screen and after a minute or so on hold she came back on the line and said it should be working now – and it was (without a new viewing card as well) 
So to answer my initial question. It takes four monkeys plus one that doesn’t call you back and a lady in India to activate Sky+.
