Sky Protect - what is it and is it worth it?

katieb168

Hi guys, thanks for all your help. I have shredded the letter from Sky Protect (it was quite convincing, with the Sky logo at the top) and I think I'll take my chances, seems from what you say I could get it from eBay or an engineer for much cheaper, so hardly seems worth paying monthly for something I may never need!

And I'll pay attention in future for a little box to tick so my details don't get passed on!

Thanks for your help! :j

jurgysgirl

We too received one of these letters a few months back. We checked with sky and apparently only domestic and general are the ones sky themselves endorse.
It costs us £126 for the year which the ad said covers us for replacements if needed.
What they dont tell you as they sign you up is that the replacement is a refurbished box always. Even though the small print which arrives later says "may be a refurbished box". On asking sky and the engineer, i was told nobody ever gets a new replacement box so they dont know why domestic and general are using the term maybe. This might be one for the insurance ombudsman.
A few weeks after taking the policy out. One of the channels stopped coming through on our box. We phoned sky who told us to make a claim under sky protect.
The engineer arrived and told us it was due to the box being a few weeks old ( no trouble with until this point). He replaced it with a refurbished one. 10 minutes after him leaving, the box started making a terrible whirring noise as if it was overheating. It was so loud we had to unplug it from the wall when not in use.
We phoned sky protect who sent another engineer out a week later and he changed the box. Within 10 minutes of him leaving, again the same loud whirring noise started again but even louder than the first one.
We again phoned sky protect who are sending out yet another engineer next week who will probably fit another "refurbished" box.

I now have no confidence in this policy, i have had 3 weeks of lost programmes saved on the hard drive and 3 weekends of inconvenience having to wait in for engineers to come. A replacement box in my opinion should be a new box not these previously faulty but now refurbished boxes.
Having phoned sky to complain about this policy they "endorse" i was told to ring domestic and general as it is their policy. Even though sky provide the engineers and the dud refurbished boxes, customers are still fobbed off to domestic and general. This situation needs to be raised on watchdog as soon as possible so people know what they are letting themselves in for. Take the advice of other forum users. Avoid these policies and invest in a new box from the many reputable companies which are around who care about their customers and provide equipment fit for its purpose. Sky and domestic and general i am afraid do not fall into this category and should be thoroughly ashamed at themselves for allowing this situation to continue.