Sky Go Extra: Still a bunch of toss for me

If you recall I have been trying to get Sky Go Extra to work. The idea is simple: If you’re a Sky customer you are meant to be able to download a selection (admittedly limited) of episodes for consumption on your mobile device of choice.

The day I posted my rant, I found the Sky Go team had published an update on the App Store. I thought it would be worthwhile giving the service another go once I’d done the updates.

I did.

It’s still “a bunch of toss”.

This is a technical description for an application or service that does — theoretically — work. If you squint hard enough at the specific objectives defined by the application’s project manager and suspend your disbelief, you’ll agree that Sky Go Extra does work.

Everyone else — me, at least — calls it a Class A Turkey.

I am so disappointed.

I thought it was going to be worth the effort, I really did.

I was looking forward to the prospect of being able to watch cool new shows like Game of Thrones and whatnot. Instead I’ll need to wait 6-9 months and buy it on iTunes. Or Netflix.

The extra fiver that Sky is charging for the download capability really did excite me. The concept had the potential of significantly changing the game for the broadcaster.

The advertising I’m seeing around the place (I snapped the above photo at Waterloo a few minutes ago) is now having an adverse effect on me. Every time I see any adverts, I have to work really hard to avoid shaking my fist at the b’stards.

Don’t misunderstand me. I was right there standing in virtual line with my virtual credit card in hand when the company announced Sky Go Extra. I signed up with a few clicks on their site and excitedly logged in on my phone.

It’s only when I repeatedly tried and failed to get anything to work on any of the large number of devices I’ve got, that I have now declared defeat.

I haven’t bothered phoning Sky.

As I said in my original post, if I have to phone someone, that’s a failure point that I simply cannot handle. I want this stuff to work first time, or not at all.

Perhaps there’s something wrong with my account? I obviously didn’t download a movie and I was pretty careful in trying to select downloads from the likes of Sky One that I *know* I subscribe to. (I don’t subscribe to the movie channels any more as I just buy stuff on iTunes or Netflix. When I managed to eventually cancel it from my package I cited the lack of download functionality as the key reason I was removing that service! I’m not kidding, I did want to use Sky Go Extra!)

The next step I now face is colossal: Removal of the service.

I think I’m still in the trial period but that’s likely to change shortly. There’s probably a 30-day notice period knowing Sky. Insert cynical comments here. So be it. I shall attempt the cancellation procedure when I’ve got a spare 30 minutes in the next few days.

If you have magically got the service to work, please — for the sake of some balance — add a comment below.

I’m off to watch some iTunes content.