Yet another SKY+ box died on me

[Tron[ADS]]

Just off the phone with Sky...amazing how yet again my threat to cancel seems to magicaly waive the "engineer" visit charge.
This will now be my 5th box, although amusingly the chap on the phone said his system told him I had never had a replacement box, but the 3 "box swapped" engineer receipts in front of me told him otherwise.
Usual story though, helpdesk want to charge £65 and no way can they do it for free, OK then put me through to cancelations, who must have more power than helpdesk, and they straight away agree to a free repair and put me back to helpdesk to arrange the appointent. I feel sorry for the ill informed who actualy pay the repair fee, not realising you just have to pretend to cancel to get it waived.
Now to put back in the standard hard drive before they come to swap the box.

 

[natalielongstaff]

Now to put back in the standard hard drive before they come to swap the box.

hope you have better luck with the new box

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Strange, I have the HD box for almost 1 year now with no problems.
Do you think that changing the hard drive to a bigger one could be your problem??

 

[UKDEB]

I think Obi might have hit on something there. You must be very proud of yourself, Tron.

 

[waltfan1957]

Strange, I have the HD box for almost 1 year now with no problems.
Do you think that changing the hard drive to a bigger one could be your problem??

no we had to have 4 boxes in 18 months we also said we were going to cancel

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Now to put back in the standard hard drive before they come to swap the box.

Did you replace the original drive with a 7200rpm model. I believe the original drive (as with the majority of DVD HD) run at 5400rpm. The 7200 rpm runs hotter and can cause problems.

 

[pokemon_master]

Wow weird.. We have had the same boxes for years and never had a problem... Except when it gets a bit cloudy....

 

[tony64]

WE are with NTL and had about 4 boxs ( replaced free with no hint of a charge)

the problem is always getting to hot due to the dvd and video being in close proximity , not to mention the fact it's next to the radiator.

 

[Laurafoster]

We have had 3 Sky plus boxes in just over a year. They dont even seem to argue with us and just replace it no probs.

 

[Minniespal]

Glad you got it sorted out

 

[Goofysmate]

I'm sorry to hear that most of you have had the same problem with your Sky box.
Watchdog did a program about this fault and still do up dates on the continueing problems is it worth getting in touch with watchdog in there web site.

 

[wils]

What a hassle-I'm glad they aren't charging you each time!

 

[aaronandterri]

HI MY CURRENT NEW BOX IS ok but last year was a nightmare, we had 4 boxes, first was new and never worked properly was swapped for a re conditioned box with sky (yes ones they swap r re conditioned never new, pherhaps y they never moan to much about swapping!)

this stoped working after 2 weeks and was swapped agin the next lasted a month , then i wrote a snotty letter and called refusing to accept another reconditioned box, as i had paidfor a new one! which never even worked, after a lot of hassle they swapped it and it was fine till we moved, then we signed up as new customers in my name instead of his as they were doing free sky plus box at the time and gotr another so we had one spare

i hate it when they replace it as we lose all our stored programmes!,, and being busy there is loads on there!

I hate it that they take sooooooo long to answer there phones! was on hold 45 mins last week!

 

[Tron[ADS]]

Did you replace the original drive with a 7200rpm model. I believe the original drive (as with the majority of DVD HD) run at 5400rpm. The 7200 rpm runs hotter and can cause problems.

The bigger hard drive has only been in this latest box, which is the one thats lasted the longest.

Richard is quite right about the drive though, I had great difficulty in sourcing the drive I am using (which will be put in the new box tomorrow, right after the engineer has driven away), its one of these http://www.ultratec.co.uk/stocklists/Search-ResShopnew.asp?model=4R160L0
The Maxtor 4R160L0 is supposed to be the best one for the job.

I did try a 200Gb 7200rpm one a few months back, but the fan was on permanantly, and it was just too noisy.

D

 

[Tron[ADS]]

In typical Sky fashion, they were a no-show on Saturday, despite telling me on two seperate telephone calls that despite missing their appointment slot, they were still coming (they even told me this at 5pm), I gave up hope by about 6ish.
Phoned again Sunday, got cut off, phoned back again, was told there was no "reason" put on the file as to why the appointment was missed, and they can only apologise etc etc.
Now they are supposed to be coming tomorrow.
We shall see.

 

[ariel75]

have they been yet?

 

[Tron[ADS]]

have they been yet?

Yeah, they showed up yesterday morning....
Amusingly, when I got put through to cancelations because I refused to pay the £65 charge, they offered me either a PVR3 (the newer box with 80Gb hard drive) for £49, or a normal visit for free where they would either repair or replace with a recon. I simply maintained I was not paying anything.

So, I was pretty pleased to come home yesterday to find they had replaced it with a brand new PVR3....so, the £49 offer was simply a scam to try and get something out of me when I had already refused the £65.....Glad I still declined.

The only drawback is that Ive found out that I couldnt simply put back my hard drive into the new box as its a different model and not compatible....The drive could go in it and be formated, but you cant put it in and watch the programs I had stored on it, so they are lost.

That said, we never came close to filling the 160gb drive, so Im happy to just leave this 80 in there and find something else to make use of the 160gb drive...Im sure one of my 3 xbox's still has the 8Gb model in it that I can replace.

 

[Minniespal]

Glad you got it sorted Dave