NO POWER IN SKY+ BOX-9 DAY WAIT FOR ENGINEER

gizmo73

I came home today to find no power at all in box. Tried the usual, plugged out and waited, nothing. Checked connections. Changed fuse in plug, still nothing. So rang sky-they are sending out an engineer but he won`t be here until Tue 17th(9 days). I find this ridiculous, especially when i`m paying over €700 a year for this service. Does anyone have any suggestions, or is there someone you can call out that doesn`t go through sky??

PCros

Did your power go off at all and then back on with the sky box left on? If so I've heard of cases where the power surges and kills the box, the box should go straight to stand by but in cases it doesn't.

They'll just give you a new one without inspecting it.

gizmo73

yeah i`d say power must have been hit. box would have been on standby though. was onto sky again today and i think im just going to buy another box on e bay or wherever,it`ll be cheaper than €100 call out, and will be here a lot sooner

cute_cow

Same thing happened to my parents a couple of weeks ago. The HD box came on, but nothing showing on any channels. She called Sky and again, like you, said it would be 7-14 days before an engineer would come out.

My mum told them that they were in breach of the contract she held with them, to provide a service, and that she wouldn't be paying for the time that they couldn't receive it. I know, a long shot, but the person she spoke to agreed and wasn't charged for it. Turns out the arm on the actual satellite was damaged, and had to be replaced.

There are a few people in Wexford, where they live, that will call to install or check if there are any problems, but I would suggest you keep working with Sky to get it resolved.

_Kooli_

And i bet they are charging you €100 for the pleasure too

kbell

MOD SNIP

Wizard007

kbell wrote: »

MOD SNIP

Re-subscribing with an independent may cost him his Sky Retailer Number ( ASA )

Gizmo73, if you are going to take this route ( which I would never advise anyone to do ) , please please do it through Sky Direct. It's not worth the crap the Independent will draw on himself.

bk

It isn't exactly against the rules, but it is a little dodgy, so I'm going to ask people not to discuss re-subing for the time being, thanks.

kbell

Ok, fair enough..
Apologies.

gizmo73

cheers guys. on the money front i`ve told them i won`t be paying for the days i won`t have viewing, and they said it would be automatically taken off my next bill.
On the engineer, i had to cancel tue 17th as there won`t be anyone in the house, next date Fri 20th. Ridiculous
I`m just after coming off e bay and found a + box for €65 inc postage from uk. If i order that in the morning it will be here by friday at latest, a week before the engineer-if i go ahead with that i`ll cancel call out and save myself €35. i think its worth the risk.

Rick_

This happened me last week, box wouldn't come on, no lights on the front, no picture, no button presses would do anything, it was a glorified brick. Tried several times to get it working and nothing. I waited 5 days for an engineer, he plugged it in and voila, it worked.

He still changed the box for me though and also the dish, HDMI cable, power lead and he even left me a new remote.

Having said that this was the 5th box I'd have installed in 2 months as they all developed faults. In the end Sky gave me 25% off for 6 months, a £50 credit on my bill and are presumably going to put on a bit extra of viewing credit for the virtual week we were left with nothing, they told me to e-mail them back to confirm all was OK (this time) and last few times I did that they told me they were giving me discounts!

_Kooli_

We refused to pay and canceled. Told them we would go freesat.
Sky rand up a few days later and offered us 6 months half price. We still refused and they offered us 12 months half price and free HD upgrade and no call out fee.
We accepted, but were fully prepared to go with freesat.

gizmo73

a shower of gansters doen`t even come close to describing them. ordered a sky plus box on e bay today.should have it by fri at latest

Mocrie14

Sky+ box died last night. We had bad thunder storm (just outside Wexford town) and box would'nt work this morning. Have tried changing fuse/using different socket etc.

Two questions :

1. Anyone know a reliable sky engineer in Wexford or should I go directly through Sky?
2. What are the chances of the hard drive having survived?


Thanks!

St Senan

Bazbu wrote: »

Sky+ box died last night. We had bad thunder storm (just outside Wexford town) and box would'nt work this morning. Have tried changing fuse/using different socket etc.

Two questions :

1. Anyone know a reliable sky engineer in Wexford or should I go directly through Sky?
2. What are the chances of the hard drive having survived?


Thanks!

No sky installer calling out to you can sort this out if you box was connected to a phoneline then it might beyond repair.

contact
Maurice Redmond domestic repairs ballycale Gorey.

Cantona's Collars

I'd say a lot of em went belly up last night-serious thunderstorms.Had 2 people I know with dead boxes this morning.Generally when lightning is involved theres no good news.

Kristopherus

Bazbu wrote: »

Sky+ box died last night. We had bad thunder storm (just outside Wexford town) and box would'nt work this morning. Have tried changing fuse/using different socket etc.

Two questions :

1. Anyone know a reliable sky engineer in Wexford or should I go directly through Sky?
2. What are the chances of the hard drive having survived?


Thanks!

I would advise you try Sky first. As this is an old thread, you will now be talking to the Irish Call Centre. See if they are any better/worse than Scotland. If the service is slow as in previous posters experience, threaten to cancel and see what they will offer.

St Senan

Kristopherus wrote: »

I would advise you try Sky first. As this is an old thread, you will now be talking to the Irish Call Centre. See if they are any better/worse than Scotland. If the service is slow as in previous posters experience, threaten to cancel and see what they will offer.

Sky will send some out a sub contractor guy 5 to 10 days from time of call they will charge €120 for a refurb box with a 3 month warranty and the op will have no hope of retriving his recordings. I left two sky boxes hit by surges last night in to the repair shop { that i recommend to the op} today and collected them this evening each box repair cost less than €100.

Kristopherus

scaller wrote: »

Sky will send some out a sub contractor guy 5 to 10 days from time of call they will charge €120 for a refurb box with a 3 month warranty and the op will have no hope of retriving his recordings. I left two sky boxes hit by surges last night in to the repair shop { that i recommend to the op} today and collected them this evening each box repair cost less than €100.

Fair point taken. I was just suggesting the poster to go to Sky first. If there was an unacceptable waiting time for service, that would present an opportunity to squeeze what he could from Sky for the inconvenience.

Mocrie14

scaller wrote: »

No sky installer calling out to you can sort this out if you box was connected to a phoneline then it might beyond repair.

contact
Maurice Redmond domestic repairs ballycale Gorey.

Thanks for your reply - box was not connected to phone line

gizmo73

I`d say the hard drive is fried alright. lost 2 boxes like this after storms myself

snaps

Sky will charge you 100€ call out you'll most probably be charged a fee for another box if your out of your 12 month contract. Buying a 2nd hand box off ebay or adverts is possibly the best and cheapest route

Kristopherus

I thought the €100 covered a replacement box if necessary.

Mocrie14

Kristopherus wrote: »

I thought the €100 covered a replacement box if necessary.

Thats what I've been told

St Senan

Kristopherus wrote: »

I thought the €100 covered a replacement box if necessary.

There is differant stories going around about sky's €100 call out does it cover a replacement box or not. But as i have said before if sky change a sky+ box it will be a Refurb/secondhand box usally a pvr2 box and a 3 months warranty with the customer having no hope of saving any recordings. So the best option would be to try and get repaired for less than €100 and for the customer to by a surgre protection tray to protect against lighting.

watty

Surge protectors don't work for lightening.

Minimum is unplug phone lines. (Any strike with 100m of phone line between you and exchange could wreck box)

Best is unplug everything from mains and disconnect LNB & aerial cables if storm near.

Digifriendly

watty wrote: »

Surge protectors don't work for lightening.

Minimum is unplug phone lines. (Any strike with 100m of phone line between you and exchange could wreck box)

Best is unplug everything from mains and disconnect LNB & aerial cables if storm near.

Sorry if this sounds a stupid question but here goes anyway- If your Sky box is not connected to a 'phone line is it more likely to survive a lightning strike?

Tony

Digifriendly wrote: »

Sorry if this sounds a stupid question but here goes anyway- If your Sky box is not connected to a 'phone line is it more likely to survive a lightning strike?

Its not a stupid question, you are less likely to damge box if phone line not connected.

Digifriendly

Tony wrote: »

Its not a stupid question, you are less likely to damge box if phone line not connected.

Thanks for that. Just another question - do surge protected plugs make little or no difference when there is a lightning strike as stated in post 26 and if not why not?

Kristopherus

Digifriendly wrote: »

Thanks for that. Just another question - do surge protected plugs make little or no difference when there is a lightning strike as stated in post 26 and if not why not?

If its a Belkin, note that they make great play that they will compensate up to £50,000 if a surge damages your equipment. They wouldnt make that claim if they werent sure that their protectors would work.

Tony

Lightning gives a very poweful electromagnetic pulse which usually does most damage. A surge can be just a temporary spike in the mains voltage.