Replacement box from Sky?

irish_dew

Had an engineer looking at my sky system today about signal break-up on non-SKY channels. He says the box is kaput, and the best bet is to ring SKY and cancel unless they send a replacement box free. Anyone had any success with this tactic before? Where is the cheapest place to get a box otherwise, and will I be able to install a new box myself?

swoofer

yes but they may call your bluff, by the way do you know anyone with a box where you could try out your own, cheapest is ebay, fit it yourself is a doddle, just ring sky to swop over viewing card.

norbert64

same thing happened to me, there a few months back

apparently a few members managed to obtain a new box, by pretending to cancel.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=319324

I ended up just getting it repaired myself, didn't really fancy my chances with the cancel sub thing, so I never tried.

mitabrev2241

irish_dew wrote:

Had an engineer looking at my sky system today about signal break-up on non-SKY channels. He says the box is kaput, and the best bet is to ring SKY and cancel unless they send a replacement box free. Anyone had any success with this tactic before? Where is the cheapest place to get a box otherwise, and will I be able to install a new box myself?

I've had experience with this before. In 2003 my Pace box died. I called the installers and told them. They said they would give me a new box and install it for €250. I was annoyed cos the box was only 2 and a half years old. I rang sky and told them I wanted to unsubscribe. I filled them in on the price I was quoted to get a new box. Then my call was transferred to a man in the unsubscription service desk, who, when he heard the price (€250), offered to get me a brand new box, and have it installed the next day, for €50. Needless to say, I took the offer.
My advice....push them right to the end...my experience is that sky ALWAYS cave first.

irish_dew

Tried to cancel with Sky today in effort to squeeze new box out of them. Guy on the phone thought the box was okay, and it may be LNB, so instead of a free box, they are sending out an engineer next week for half the call out fee, with a guarantee he'll fix or replace any faulty part. I wonder....

parsi

I got a refurb box and engineer visit for 50 after threatening to cancel last October. As it turns out I have since cancelled anyways and got odd with yer man doing the exit interview.

"I'm just asking you a few simple questions" (after telling him to stop pestering me)
"I don't want to answer them"
"They are just simple questions"
"LOOK ! I just want to give my notice and not have to answer any of your bl**** questions"
---silence--- then
"that's done now. Anything else I can help with ?"

Skyuser

You'll get it free if you say you'll cancel. Im certain of it.

scart

If you threaten to cancel they will in all probability offer you a reduced or even a free service call. But the big disadvantage in this is that the 'engineer' will give you a refurbished box which could be anything. In my case my pace 2500B was replaced with a refurbished old amstrad which is a piece of c***. Too slow to cope with the menus and constantly loses analogue teletext on channels that provide it, unit needs to be rebooted every second day, Very annoying!
When I complained to 'engineer' he said it was the only model he had, he even showed me his van which contained one other same model amstrad.

IMHO to avoid this scenario you'd be better off sourcing a good fast box like the pace DS430N on e-bay paying around €50-70 excluding postage.

watty

I got a new box free + quad LNB free for renewing, and minimum 3 month contract. After 3rd or 4th attempt at ringing up to renew (normally they won't offer anything free). After 6 months or so of cancelling they may offer 1/2 price for 6 months or replacement box etc. The Pace2500xx are fairly slow too now compared with new box. I have two that need new tuners. I don't think really it is worth spending the 18 quid per tuner to repair such an old box.

Xcom2

I got a spanky new box off them a couple of years ago.All it took was staying on the phone for half an hour insisting I wanted to cancel.:D

kmb

Ya,I got a new box free just before xmas.Itold them i was going fta and that my sky box was knackered.First they offered the usual call out charge,i said no.
then they offered half price call out,and again i said no.
Finally she said okay it will be free and i got it.

Then 3 weeks ago the signal was freezing so i rang and agin got a free call out and new lnb fitted.

Stick to your guns!!!


Regards kieran