Refurbished Sky HD boxes

notahappycamper

So I've had enough of the pixalation / picture freezing problems and decided to ring Sky and get them to call out.

They're not charging me for the call out but are going to give me refurbished boxes. From my reading of the forums on Digitalspy these boxes are generally refurbished Thomson boxes which will have it's own problems.

I'm just wondering has anyone here received a refurbished Sky HD box and how long did it last?

What are the chances of getting a Samsung Sky HD box from the engineer when he calls?

joeg

After my second dodgy Thomson I requested a different model but was told that it depends on what the installer has in the van. The third callout was another dodgy Thomson. The fouth time I went with the guy out to the van and lo and behold a Sammy appeared. No (major) problems since.

BTW - all boxes were refurbished - you could tell from the box. I'm beginning to think we don't get any new ones over here. Even the Sammy is a noisy little bugger.

notahappycamper

joeg wrote: »

After my second dodgy Thomson I requested a different model but was told that it depends on what the installer has in the van. The third callout was another dodgy Thomson. The fouth time I went with the guy out to the van and lo and behold a Sammy appeared. No (major) problems since.

BTW - all boxes were refurbished - you could tell from the box. I'm beginning to think we don't get any new ones over here. Even the Sammy is a noisy little bugger.

"4th time lucky" - sweet Jesus that's crazy!

What type of problems were you having with the boxes?

Also, if you got a Samsung on the 4th attempt and it too was a refurbished box it shows that there are problems with the Samsung boxes also?

I've heard of remote control problems with the Samsung boxes but nothing major.

joeg

The problems were mainly bad/no signal issues on one of the tuners. It was always easy to troubleshoot as switching the feeds showed a good signal from both LNBs.

About the Sammy I got, I was told the original issue was related to the remote control receiver (which fair enough is not the most sensitive) but it's also quite noisy. After four boxes I figured I'd put up with those minor issues rather than go through more hassle.

Sam Radford

Sky will wear you down with a procession of so-called "refurbished" boxes. If you take the cover off you'll find that there's still fluff inside. If it's a Thomson you may be better off refurbishing it yourself.