Sky+ Recording Kaput

Bradfield

Hi again,

Sky engineer called at 8.10am said the hard drive was "knackered" and replaced the box. He was only there ten minutes..

penrhyn

Did'ya get a new box or a refurb?

spike7451

Matt_Nixon wrote: »

I had this with an older Thompson HD Box, rung Sky threatened to cancel, ended up with a free New Samsung Box that's been running fine.

Thompson boxes were notorious for failed PSU's.

prowla

I thought it would be the hard drive; it definitely wasn't the PSU or there wouldn't have been any menus displayed.
Hard drives do fail, and it's not anybody's fault.

Bradfield

penrhyn wrote: »

Did'ya get a new box or a refurb?

I assumed it was a new box. Never thought it might be a refurb. I will ask him later.

davemurgatroyd

prowla wrote: »

I thought it would be the hard drive; it definitely wasn't the PSU or there wouldn't have been any menus displayed.
Hard drives do fail, and it's not anybody's fault.

Absolute rubbish the presence of the menu proves nothing - the failing power supply on the Thompson boxes does not pack up completely initially. It is usually failing electrolytic capacitors not smoothing the power supplied sufficiently which initially affects the more power sensitive parts of the box such as the tuners rather than affecting the display. They are "ailing" power supplies which can take quite a time to fail completely.

Bradfield

The Sky engineer replaced the faulty box with a new one. Now the customer is a bit miffed. He says the engineer saw it was faulty within a minute.

Yet he was kept on the phone for nearly two hours by the help line people who had him doing software updates and attempting planner rebuilds. I did say he was pretty clueless about these things and it must have been very tough going for him.

OK; maybe they were just trying to help, and what is done is done; but will there be any sting in the tail regarding the help line phone bill?? Anyone know what they charge for the helpline calls? As I say, we are talking about two hours here.

penrhyn

Calls to Sky contact centres are free for Broadband and Talk customers.
IIRC the cost of calling an 0844 number is around 5p / minute.

Your friend could ask for the call costs to be refunded.

Bradfield

penrhyn wrote: »

Calls to Sky contact centres are free for Broadband and Talk customers.
IIRC the cost of calling an 0844 number is around 5p / minute.

Your friend could ask for the call costs to be refunded.

So we could be talking 5 or 6 pounds. Not the worst case scenario compared to what some other companies charge.

Thanks for advice.

spike7451

Bradfield wrote: »

The Sky engineer replaced the faulty box with a new one. Now the customer is a bit miffed. He says the engineer saw it was faulty within a minute.

Very rare that a old box is replaced with a new one on a service call,it's usually a reconditioned box that has been recovered & repaired from a previous service call.
Used to be the box it came in had a red label on them to identify a reco box & the are sign-off stickers under the box from the repair.I'd be very supprised if he got a new one.