Sky Plus is Broken - What will repair bill be?

beachbeth

After reading advice on this site, I had Sky+ installed back in June. Its a refurbished Pace box that only cost £49 and we were well pleased with it. However, two nights ago it suddenly froze while we were watching a programme on playback and then none of the Sky+ features would work. I can still watch Sky normally, I just can't record, pause, playback etc and have lost all programmes in my personal planner.

Of course, I rang Sky and followed their instructions but nothing helped so they are sending an engineer on Saturday. As it is a refurbished box I think I was only covered by 3 months warranty (Im not sure about this though) but the operator said the repair would be free of charge.

Has anyone had any experience of this kind of fault and is the engineer likely to present me with a repair bill when he comes?

gunneradt

If you get presented witha bill then say you will cancel your sky plus subscription. You can always pull this on with sky - you weill either get a very cheap or even a free box from them if you threaten this.

marksimpson

A Sky repair call out will cost £65 (unless it's changed recently). This will include any parts necessary for the fix, including a replacement box (more than likely a refurbished box rather than a new one).

beachbeth

The operator did say that it would be free though. I just hope the repairman doesn't come and present me with a £65. If its going to cost that much I'd rather buy a new box.

gunneradt

if theyve told you it will be free then it will be. As ive said sky will dish out new boxes rather than lose a subscription.

-=Mr-J=-

beachbeth wrote:

...Of course, I rang Sky and followed their instructions but nothing helped so they are sending an engineer on Saturday.

Did sky make you do a full reset of the box or just the usual fiddle with the cables and switch to different channels malarky?
TBH It sounds like the Hard Disk has crashed (or got severely corrupted) - most problems on the Sky+ come down to a problem with the Hard Disk.

beachbeth wrote:

As it is a refurbished box I think I was only covered by 3 months warranty (Im not sure about this though) but the operator said the repair would be free of charge.

I believe if your a new customer buying the refurb deal you get a 12 month warranty.
If you get a replacement refurb after your 12 month warranty has expired a 3 month warranty is applied to the refurb.

beachbeth wrote:

Has anyone had any experience of this kind of fault and is the engineer likely to present me with a repair bill when he comes?

You would have had to agree to the standard £65 'out-of-warranty' charge before the engineer would have been booked. You have it for free.
If he needs to replace the box, he will - no charge. You may even get a 'new' box - depends what is in his van at the time.

beachbeth

Apparently I am still covered under warranty and the engineer's visit was free. When I originally rang Sky they got me to do the full system reset to see if it would help but the set just wouldn't record or pause etc.

The engineer came Saturday and gave me a different (still refurb tho) Sky+ box - a newer one. He left it working fine.:) However, 4-5 hours after he left it wouldn't switch on at all. When we tried pressing the standby button it just stayed red, flicking to green for a fraction of a second. No picture or anything and then every minute or so it would completely go off as though someone had unplugged it! We tried leaving it unplugged for a few hours but it was still the same when we plugged it back in. We rang Sky and the stupid woman was telling us to go to this screen and that screen and we had already told her we had no picture or sound!:mad: The engineer is coming again Tuesday.

However, on Sunday morning it was working fine again but by Sunday night it kept turning itself off again. Ive left it off today but will plug it in overnight so that it plays up when the engineer comes again tomorrow (these things always work perfectly when the repair man comes though don't they?!!!)

I really wish he would give me a new box instead but my luck never runs like that.:( (I even gave him a cup of tea when he was here Saturday;)!) I may ask what the charge is for a new box instead but I can't really afford £199 which is what they say they are on the Sky website.