performance agreement on a laptop/sky equipment?

homealone_2

i had the misfortune to own an advent lap top that was bought in pc world 2 years ago. we took out thr pc performance agreement, even though we were not sure about it, at a cost of £7.99 permonth. we did this as i am reliant on having a computer for my day to day living. as things turned out the lap top spent most of its life time with the tech guys so i guess it was a good thing. now, i have a shiny new dell computer, the 1545 model in navy blue that was advertised in their sale recently at pc world for £399. I did not know much about the original agreement besides the fact that i hated parting with the £7.99 a month. i wrongly assumed that this would not be needed now i had a new machine as obviously i would have a 12 month agreement as standard and now that i have a barclays bank account they offer a 12 month warranty on any electrical item costing more than £25, however, now looking more closely at the paperwork it is only the hardware that is included and not the software. so my question is do i need to get yet another agreement and cough up monthly or is there some other safe guard i can use??? i need to do something soon as worrying about it going wrong already and not being covered?? does anyone have a history of this or perhaps know of a better agreement elsewhere? similarly whilst changing banks and updating direct debits i find i am paying £8.25 a month for a similar agreement with sky repair??? should i be looking elsewhere for this too??

totalsolutions

2p's worth
these contracts not worth it to me as I underwrite my own mistakes and repairs. Any laptop will go wrong spilt drinks/dropped, blocked fan cooling vents and overheating, fragility, etc. not your main workhorse is it...
With budget deals more so, just get another ....?
Insurance on software ???

Sky it's there box/service let them repair it.

gjchester

totalsolutions wrote: »

Sky it's there box/service let them repair it.

Nope, You buy the Sky box from the outset, it's yours not there. After the 12 month warranty period you would need to pay for repairs. Virgin Media rent you the box and cover all repairs, but thats not the case here.

You first Sky box is subsidised by part of the contract, hence free to you, you will not get such a big subsidy on subsequent boxes.

Having said that £8.25 a month could be put aside an you buy a replacment from Ebay, Freeads, local cash convertors, in the event of a breakdown, or you can alway call sky and threaten to leave if it breaks and get a new or refurb one that way.
Before you cancel the contract you may need to check what it covers, is it just the Sky box as it suggests, or is it a contract for something else under Sky's name.

totalsolutions

Yes but when you then cancel due to a dead set top box I bet they get one for you......

homealone_2

totalsolutions wrote: »

2p's worth
these contracts not worth it to me as I underwrite my own mistakes and repairs. Any laptop will go wrong spilt drinks/dropped, blocked fan cooling vents and overheating, fragility, etc. not your main workhorse is it...
With budget deals more so, just get another ....?
Insurance on software ???

Sky it's there box/service let them repair it.

i do rely on it heavily everyday! unfortunately and wouldnt have a clue where to begin if something went wrong with it. my old one has broke due to i think a problem with the back light as without warning suddenly the screen will go black but if you look real close you can still make out the writing that was on the last page you looked at. i mean how do you work out if its a hardware problem or a soft ware problem??


as for sky sysytem they say that when you get sky you actually then own the box and it is down to you to get it repaired and they charge £30 call out

homealone_2

gjchester wrote: »

Nope, You buy the Sky box from the outset, it's yours not there. After the 12 month warranty period you would need to pay for repairs. Virgin Media rent you the box and cover all repairs, but thats not the case here.

You first Sky box is subsidised by part of the contract, hence free to you, you will not get such a big subsidy on subsequent boxes.

Having said that £8.25 a month could be put aside an you buy a replacment from Ebay, Freeads, local cash convertors, in the event of a breakdown, or you can alway call sky and threaten to leave if it breaks and get a new or refurb one that way.
Before you cancel the contract you may need to check what it covers, is it just the Sky box as it suggests, or is it a contract for something else under Sky's name.

as far as i know it covers just the box. i had real problems with them last year when you could not watch anything you taped on your sky plus would just keep saying not aavailable and when i called them out at least 6 times they said it was not even worth looking at it that they just give you a new box that used to drive me mad as i would lose all the programmes i had taped. i also asked all of them about the copy function on the sky menu which looks like you can copy whatever you tape onto video or dvd but none of them ever knew anything about it. its only that i am at the stage of having to give new bank details to all my DD people so before i set them up am questioning do i really need this service??? which is where i come in asking my mse

Reggie_Rebel

i mean how do you work out if its a hardware problem or a soft ware problem??

Software - a programme will stop working. hardware - the whole thing normally stops working.

I've never heard of insurance against software failure as generally you can uninstall the programme and start from scratch.

If you have accidental damage on your contents insurance then that could be the best way of insuring your laptop.

Your Sky box answers seem to have been covered by previous posters

gjchester

homealone wrote: »

its only that i am at the stage of having to give new bank details to all my DD people so before i set them up am questioning do i really need this service??? which is where i come in asking my mse

If they never gave you good service in the past probably not worth it .

Before you cancel it look how much a new box will be. A quick look on fleabay shows they go for £100 or so brand new, so work out if you'd rather self insure, save the case for the off chance it breaks.

As has been mentioned you may be able to threaten to cancel and they'll replace it, but your spending £100 a year on insurance, you can almost replace the box every year for what you are spending on the insurance.

homealone_2

Reggie_Rebel wrote: »

i mean how do you work out if its a hardware problem or a soft ware problem??

Software - a programme will stop working. hardware - the whole thing normally stops working.

I've never heard of insurance against software failure as generally you can uninstall the programme and start from scratch.

If you have accidental damage on your contents insurance then that could be the best way of insuring your laptop.

Your Sky box answers seem to have been covered by previous posters

i do have contents insurance, but how would that cover something like the backlight going on my computer??

jamalfatty

If you were to for example accidentally drop the laptop down the stairs, pretty sure that would screw the backlight up