A partially sighted man from Aberdeenshire has hit out at Sky after they offered him 18 months worth of free HD TV instead of fixing the remote control he relies upon to change channels.
Stuart Nelson, from Portlethen, has detached retina and has had six operations on his eyes since being diagnosed three years ago.
The 70-year-old says his eyesight is like “seeing the world through a drinking straw” and that he cannot change the channel with his controller due to his sight loss.
Despite his problems seeing TV pictures clearly, he enjoys listening to documentaries. He relies on speaking to the voice-activated device to select the programmes he wants.
Mr Nelson’s problems with the Sky began when he could not find Forces TV and called Sky, who told him it was no longer available on the channel because of contractual issues.
Soon, the controller stopped working entirely. And when Mr Nelson contacted Sky to fix it, they refused, instead offering him 18 months of free HD TV – a gesture meaningless to him because he can’t enjoy the clearer pictures because of his eyesight.
He refused the offer saying: “I told them specifically that I didn’t want it because of my eyesight.”
Sky told him the controller was no longer available due to “technical problems”.
Mr Nelson says he was “absolutely shocked” by the response and when an engineer did visit his home, he was told that it could not be fixed.
Remote control fixed with P&J help
Mr Nelson has praised the Sky’s disability team, which he gets through to direct on number 150, saying they are “always very nice polite people”.
After being warned by Sky the next step would be he would have to go through official ombudsman channels to resolve the complaint, Mr Nelson contacted the Press & Journal for help.
And after the P&J took his case to Sky, Mr Nelson received a phone call from the broadcaster, in which they admitted that the offer of free HD was “totally unreasonable” and “wrong”.
Mr Nelson says he was told the voice-activated controller was not working due to problems with not having HD – describing it as a “bias” towards high definition.
Sky has since fixed his remote control and offered him free HD TV for life.
A spokesman for Sky said: “Our team has spoken to Mr Nelson and we have reached a resolution.”
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