Sky box broken, they wont replace for free

Hotwired · 21 Jun 2016 at 18:51

Jez said:
Always the way with sky unfortunately, you have to play their games at every contact

Hardly unique to sky.

Every time my contracts with virgin end I get informed I'll be paying more shortly.

Maybe it's meant to be an incentive to sign up again but I have no desire to either change provider or pay more so I say I'd like to quit to BT or somewhat and I stay paying the same amount as before and get the package bumped up a bit after agreeing to another fixed length contract.

mattyg · 21 Jun 2016 at 18:53

Nevakonaza said:
I dont quite get why you have to "buy" their boxes anyway,If your taking out a subscription for a service they should provide you with the goods required to use the service end of.

Its like renting a car,yet you will need to buy a ~~steering wheel~~ Fuel in order to use it..

Fixed it for you.

Anyhow.....Just cancel and then get the wife to sign up in her name as a new customer get ALL new equipment, Dish, LNB, Box

Nevakonaza · 21 Jun 2016 at 19:03

mattyg said:
Fixed it for you.

Knew someone would do that

Fuel is expensive..one of those boxes to a multi million pound company isn't...its just greed to be honest.

They done it to a friend of mine,Something was wrong with the cable outside yet they wanted to charge him to replace it,I mean come on..hes paying the the service without the cable he cannot use it..pathetic.

He obviously phoned Sky back up,asked to speak straight to a manager,Got the chap to replace the cable at no charge.

Vertigo · 21 Jun 2016 at 22:12

Nevakonaza said:
I dont quite get why you have to "buy" their boxes anyway,If your taking out a subscription for a service they should provide you with the goods required to use the service end of.

Its like renting a car,yet you will need to buy a steering wheel in order to use it..

As stated, it's the same as a mobile phone contract and just the way Sky have always done it.

Sky Q is different - you rent the equipment and return it if you cancel, much as Virgin Media have always done.

mattyg · 22 Jun 2016 at 08:58

Nevakonaza said:
Knew someone would do that

Fuel is expensive...

No its not. Have you seen what they have to do in order for you to get a litre of that stuff in your tank

Vs

Bottled water.

varkanoid · 22 Jun 2016 at 14:54

Nevakonaza said:
I dont quite get why you have to "buy" their boxes anyway,If your taking out a subscription for a service they should provide you with the goods required to use the service end of.

Its like renting a car,yet you will need to buy a steering wheel in order to use it..

So you would expect MS to give you a Xbox for free because you are buying Xbox live subscription ?

yeah right.

demonix said:
^This

Sky+HD boxes are a dime a dozen and would be found for cheap in a majority of second hand stores.

Just remember though Sky are more likely to give you a new (!) box with 12 month warranty.
You dont get that with a second hand box which you dont know who's had it or what they've used it for.
I bought two a while ago to repair and when I opened one up it was full of sand!. Yes Sand. I reckon some little
nipper had been stuffing it full of sand through the grill. There was enough to fill a small childs bucket.
However I cleaned it all out, replaced the hard drive and it still worked !

I`ve got nothing against second hand boxes per se but when you can get a new one for £30 its yes/no whether its a good purchase.
Actually what am I saying you can have my 2tb modded cool running Sky HD box for £20 I`m not going to need it soon......

Vern1961 · 22 Jun 2016 at 15:41

£30 is cheaper than it used to be. When we were with Sky (got rid of them over 2 years ago and now just use Freesat/Netflix and Now TV) it was a £65 call-out to a technical fault which covered the cost of a replacement (not necessarily new though) box.

I do actually agree with the premise though that it's a strange arrangement. You are paying quite a hefty subscription and the only way to receive the programmes is through their box, so it and any repairs should be covered in the cost. Years ago when Reddifusion etc. provided TV service rather than through an aerial, the box on the wall was theirs.

dbmzk1 · 23 Jun 2016 at 08:41

Phone and cancel then wait. They will come crawling back.

Happened to me years ago when both my boxes got fried by a lightning strike. They wanted like £300 each to replace and they were not even HD or + boxes! Just cancelled and a few days later I got a call.... then got 2 new shiny HD+ boxes (despite not having HD or + at the time)!!

Sirrel Squirrel · 29 Jun 2016 at 19:55

As above. Cancel and wait for them to make you an offer, normally within the 30 day notice period. You could probably fix your current box yourself by putting in a new hard drive.

Regy53 · 29 Jun 2016 at 20:16

your up the road, i have a sky hd box you can have.

Psycho Sonny · 30 Jun 2016 at 16:37

£30 for a brand new box is ridiculously cheap. I wouldn't even bother second hand at that price.

Try and buy a freesat box with all the same features and your talking £200 easy.

However I would go down the whole cancel route if you can get one for free however you should cancel and sign back up as a new customer (under partners name), taking advantage of new customer deals and new equipment for free.