Digibox Repairs?

Cloud

Anywhere in Ireland do them? I have two sickies...

Tony

what make? Armstrongs do Pace and panasonic, they are expensive though no matter who you use.

Tony

Cloud

Pace and Grundig, how expensive is expensive?

JDxtra

I've got a broken one as well (a Grundig GDS 2000) - where's a good place for me to get a replacement internal power supply for it?

Tony

Originally posted by Cloud
Pace and Grundig, how expensive is expensive?

starts at 90 incl vat

Cloud

Thanks Tony, next question - where are they?

Tony

Originally posted by Cloud
Thanks Tony, next question - where are they?

http://www.web-sat.com/

jez

The obvious flaw in the Sky system is the digiboxes don't last too long. I think they'll have no option but to introduce a system whereby digiboxes can be replaced or repaired in a similar way to the NTL'S or CHORUS. Sky and Cable companies charge similar price why should we pay to fix a Sky box and just call Chorus to restore their service. Sky want us to keep paying their high prices therefore they should make sure our digiboxes are working!! That is the big weak link in the sky system that keeps the cable boys going!!

Tony

What evidence have you for stating that Sky boxes dont last too long?

Regards Tony

chernobyl

Originally posted by Tony
What evidence have you for stating that Sky boxes dont last too long?

Regards Tony

Sky filed for chapter 11 like 3 years ago, after this fatal flaw was discovered....you missed that..it was in Reuters...im sure of it.

lawhec

Originally posted by jez
The obvious flaw in the Sky system is the digiboxes don't last too long. I think they'll have no option but to introduce a system whereby digiboxes can be replaced or repaired in a similar way to the NTL'S or CHORUS. Sky and Cable companies charge similar price why should we pay to fix a Sky box and just call Chorus to restore their service. Sky want us to keep paying their high prices therefore they should make sure our digiboxes are working!! That is the big weak link in the sky system that keeps the cable boys going!!

There's a crucial difference - Sky doesn't have total control over who receives the signal from the Astra & Eurobird satellites. NTL have control over who watches their services and to an extent so do Chrous (you just can't buy MMDS receivers). Also If you're unhappy with Sky you can cancel your sub, be left with Free to view channels and hey, maybe even a grey market UK FTV card! You still keep the box! NTL and Chrous? They cut the cable and take away the box, you're left with nothing. Remember that after one year it's YOUR digibox. With NTL and Chrous the box is always their property.

The only way such a system could work is to be done through local retailers, not Sky themselves. But the retailers would ask for a rent fee per month for the box similar to renting any other TV/Video equiptment and while Sky are effectively giving away Digiboxes at their own cost no one will rent a digibox.

Also Sky has learned the hard way from ITV digital not to fall for such a trap.

Samson

Here's a tactic you could try if your Sky digibox develops a fault:
Ring Sky and tell them you want to cancel your subscription as your digibox is faulty and the repair cost is too high; I heard someone mention (on this very forum) that they will organise a free replacement rather than let you cancel.
Don't know if it would actually work, but it is certainly worth a try!

jez

In reply to two previous points.

1)Two people I know well have Sky. One here in Ireland and one in England.

Both had faults with their digiboxes within two years.

a)The guy in the UK bought the parts on e-bay for UK£10 (Capacitors) and his son-in-law fixed it free. Local shop quoted him £95 for same job. (This was a Grundig Box)
Another guy here in Limerick had a fault and ended up sending it to Enniskillen to be fixed and paid around €125 !!!

b)You might keep the digibox if you cancel Sky,but after pulling out the card for a few minutes last night believe me there ain't nothing worth watching and whether you subscribe or not you may still get a fault eventually.


I just believe that besides offering an absolutely brilliant service Sky should provide more in the way of digibox maintenance,repairs etc.

Tony

oops

Tony

This was mentioned before but I've never heard hard evidence that it works for out of warranty boxes. I've had several people try it to no avail.

Tony

Originally posted by Samson
Here's a tactic you could try if your Sky digibox develops a fault:
Ring Sky and tell them you want to cancel your subscription as your digibox is faulty and the repair cost is too high; I heard someone mention (on this very forum) that they will organise a free replacement rather than let you cancel.
Don't know if it would actually work, but it is certainly worth a try!

Tony

I agree sky should do more on the repair end . From my experience Digiboxes do not break down with any greater frequency than other electronic devices. I monitor all breakdowns as failure rates impact quite heavily on already small margins. It has to be said that pace boxes give more trouble than panasonics but we are still only talking about a 1% failure rate. I think a similar situation exists with mobile phones IE relatively cheap to get initially but expensive to repair. The worshop gear to fix digiboxes costs on average 250,000 Euro I'm told so its not surprising that repairs are expensive.

Tony

BTW the guy in Enniskillen is the top repair guy in Ireland

Originally posted by jez
In reply to two previous points.

1)Two people I know well have Sky. One here in Ireland and one in England.

Both had faults with their digiboxes within two years.

a)The guy in the UK bought the parts on e-bay for UK£10 (Capacitors) and his son-in-law fixed it free. Local shop quoted him £95 for same job. (This was a Grundig Box)
Another guy here in Limerick had a fault and ended up sending it to Enniskillen to be fixed and paid around €125 !!!

b)You might keep the digibox if you cancel Sky,but after pulling out the card for a few minutes last night believe me there ain't nothing worth watching and whether you subscribe or not you may still get a fault eventually.


I just believe that besides offering an absolutely brilliant service Sky should provide more in the way of digibox maintenance,repairs etc.

HappyDude

I recently had to get a replacement digibox - it is about 18 months old. Before that, I had two boxes in the space of 6 months - each died on me.

The last one to die (about a month ago) was over a year old, so I had to pay to have it repaired by a sky authorised person. Flat fee of 108euro. I got a refurbished grundig box, they realigned the dish and replaced all cabling...not bad I say.

As regards the whole threaten to cancel thing - did not even come close to working for me..maybe they might have written to me in two months time, but I was not prepared to wait. They know that there is no other feasible choice out there!

I think the 108 euro was ok to pay, seeing as I had the other stuff done by the engineer.

HD

jez

Great to be well off!!

John R

I don't have any verifiable evidence but just on my experience and that of others I know Sky digiboxes do not appear to be nearly as reliable as most other types of electronic equipment.

They all seem to have operational problems, mostly minor software glitches, but still I expected better from the digital revolution.

As for failures, I have gone through alot of home electronic equipment in my time and I can't remember the last time any item without moving parts failed completely (with the exception of TV's) but of the 6 digiboxes I have dealt with, 4 have failed. 2 of those were less than 2 years old, but conveniently out of contract so Sky refused to take any responsibility.

At least in the UK Sky have a repair service for a set fee, but as usual Irish customers are left out in the cold.

I have to say that considering the restrictions sky place on the consumer they should take more responsibility for repairing the faulty equipment they supply.

Tony

Originally posted by John R

At least in the UK Sky have a repair service for a set fee, but as usual Irish customers are left out in the cold.

I have to say that considering the restrictions sky place on the consumer they should take more responsibility for repairing the faulty equipment they supply.

I agree but bear in mind sky do not supply the equipment they subsidise it. The manufacturers are to blame for any faults that arise in boxes outside of software issues.

Tony

Lennoxschips

I recently had to get a replacement digibox - it is about 18 months old. Before that, I had two boxes in the space of 6 months - each died on me.

You might want to look at where you keep your digibox. Is it on a small shelf above a television with little ventilation? The two boxes that failed on you might have overheated. Also there could be water in your cable which damaged the tuner.

Make sure the digibox is in a well ventilated place and the cable job is done properly (i.e. insulation tape used on the F connector on the LNB to keep water out.) Some people even go as far as to fit fans inside the digibox (like a computer has) to keep the chips well ventilated. I haven't gone that far, because I don't want to tinker with the box too much.

Tony

Originally posted by Lennoxschips

Make sure the digibox is in a well ventilated place and the cable job is done properly (i.e. insulation tape used on the F connector on the LNB to keep water out.)

I think you mean self amalgamating tape as insulation tape is not much good for this purpose.

Tony

Lennoxschips

Indeed. I always get the two mixed up!

John R

Originally posted by Tony
I agree but bear in mind sky do not supply the equipment they subsidise it. The manufacturers are to blame for any faults that arise in boxes outside of software issues.

Tony

True, but unlike any other type of equipment, the customer has little choice in who manufactures the box and they get and no option but to get a sky-specification box. If I had my choice I would use a higher spec reliable reciever of my choice and add in the encryption module as in almost every other European DSat service. In that case I would have no problem paying for any repairs myself.
SKY want it every way, they want to control every aspect of UK and Irish satellite reception by supplying boxes that virtually restricts content to that controlled by them but expect us to pay to keep that faulty equipment running. Over time it could well cost more to keep a digibox running than it would to have had a reliable and more useful multi-platform reciever from day one.

John R

Self-amalgamating tape is not that easy to come by in my experience.
Both "professional" installers I got to set up equipment used only electrical insulating tape (which I only found out later) and a certain satellite specialist shop's answer to my request to purchase some was "huh, what's that?" Perhaps the individual I talked to was particularly thick but I had to order the stuff of a website from England.

bmg

i just want to verify that sky without fail have come out and replaced all my customers faulty boxes for free if they threatened to cancel their sub.they replace the box with a refurbished pace 2500. although they recently are trying to haggle the customers for half the price €50 before giving in and doing it for free.

the top digibox expert in ireland and possibly uk is in kesh co. fermanagh. the repairer in enniskillen is not the same person

Tony

Originally posted by John R
Self-amalgamating tape is not that easy to come by in my experience.
Both "professional" installers I got to set up equipment used only electrical insulating tape (which I only found out later) and a certain satellite specialist shop's answer to my request to purchase some was "huh, what's that?" Perhaps the individual I talked to was particularly thick but I had to order the stuff of a website from England.

Every wholesaler I know stocks it so some guys are not trying very hard. Insulating tape is not weather proof and will lead to problems later on.

Tony

Tony

Originally posted by bmg
i just want to verify that sky without fail have come out and replaced all my customers faulty boxes for free if they threatened to cancel their sub.they replace the box with a refurbished pace 2500. although they recently are trying to haggle the customers for half the price €50 before giving in and doing it for free.

the top digibox expert in ireland and possibly uk is in kesh co. fermanagh. the repairer in enniskillen is not the same person

Well I have to say that I know of at least 3 people who tried this without success. Of course you are right about Kesh I stand corrected.

Tony

Tony

Yes I agree this would be the best solution.

Originally posted by John R
True, but unlike any other type of equipment, the customer has little choice in who manufactures the box and they get and no option but to get a sky-specification box. If I had my choice I would use a higher spec reliable reciever of my choice and add in the encryption module as in almost every other European DSat service. In that case I would have no problem paying for any repairs myself.
SKY want it every way, they want to control every aspect of UK and Irish satellite reception by supplying boxes that virtually restricts content to that controlled by them but expect us to pay to keep that faulty equipment running. Over time it could well cost more to keep a digibox running than it would to have had a reliable and more useful multi-platform reciever from day one.

Greenman

I have 5 lnb's with a smear of vaseline (no smart remarks please) then I put on some heat shrink over the F connector. Never had a problem in 10 years!!!.
Re the ventilation I have 4 recievers on top of each other with a 5cms between them. I have fans close to the hot bits!!!. But really I should not have to go to all this trouble but I found that digital receivers got very hot!!!.

Regards JD!!! Belgium

byte

Originally posted by bmg
the top digibox expert in ireland and possibly uk is in kesh co. fermanagh. the repairer in enniskillen is not the same person

I assume you mean Kesh Electrics? I do believe it was you who recommended them to me for Pace tuners, and indeed we now get our tuners from them instead of Donberg Electronics whom we used previously.

As for Sky replacing boxes for free, I know of some who it didn't work for though they were offered cheaper call-out charge.

Self-amalgamating tape: It's really not that hard to get. Any aerial equipment supplier, like ATC, supplies it.

And wouldn't a videoguard CAM be ultra nice! If it were possible, I would have 2 of em, 1 for my sub and 1 for my FTV card!

Greenman

Here's the Kesh link http://www.keshelectrics.co.uk/


Regards JD!!! Belgium

byte

Thanks to my advice, we only supply Panasonic digiboxes now as they're much more reliable, and better to look at as a bonus! But, i'm sure they'll have their problems too. So far, out of many Pannies, only 2 or 3 have been faulty and were replaced by Armstrong Electronics as they were within guarantee. But something I don't see readily available is parts to fix Pannies like tuners etc. Or maybe the reason theyre not easily accessable is coz they're super- reliable? Sure hope so. I'm only 2 years with Sky and am on my 4th digibox, a Panasonic. The 3 previous ones were Pace 2500 all changed within first year!