Sky+ Broken - Where Can I Get A Replacement?

[markmullen]

My Sky+ box seems to have given up the ghost, it is switching off every few minutes, if I leave it on it hangs and has to have the power disconnected to reset it.

Needless to say it has failed once it is outside of warranty :mad:

So, does anyone know where I can get a replacement without spending the full Sky retail price?

[thebluemonkey]

ebay have a few normally.

[Pies]

www.thedigiboxshop.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=105

[ian_s]

ring them up tell them cancelling sky subscrption and tell them why, they should sort a free one, from what i have read others have done.

[DanH]

Anyone know how I can use a sky+ in a block of flats? We have a communal dish and the hardware seems to shite to support it Could they just chuck a quad LMB on up top or is it a lot more complex/expensive?

[satman]

DanH said:

Anyone know how I can use a sky+ in a block of flats? We have a communal dish and the hardware seems to shite to support it Could they just chuck a quad LMB on up top or is it a lot more complex/expensive?

Its a tad more involved than that....if you mail me through my profile with a contact number, i'll give you some details of whats involved....

[tvradict]

quick hijack, is it possible to buy a Sky + box from the site listed above/below, and plug + play? would I need to tell Sky that I had a Sky + box?

[lurking lawyer]

tvradict said:

quick hijack, is it possible to buy a Sky + box from the site listed above/below, and plug + play? would I need to tell Sky that I had a Sky + box?

You need to tell Sky - they need to amend your subscription before it supports Sky+.

And Sky+ takes two feeds from the dish, so you have to get another cable run to the box.

So, in short, no - it's not a DIY without-telling-Sky job.

[tvradict]

so I would need a Quad LMB, a second run of cable (have more than enough Sky grade cable for that) and then tell sky.

Would sky want to charge me a stupid amount of money to change the subscription?

[lurking lawyer]

IIRC, they waive the £10 a month Sky+ subs if you already take 2 or more premium channels - i.e Sports or Movies.

Dunno whether you're able to opt out of the one-off installation charge either, irrespective of whether you're able to install it yourself.

[mcflurry]

you need 2 inputs for sky+ as there are 2 channels (for recording etc)

the lnb needs to support 2 channels for each sky+ box and one for each regular box due to the polarity of the signal...

[rebelstar]

Back to the original post!

If it's out of warranty and you can't convince Sky to replace it for free, they'll send an engineer out for 60-70 quid or so. This includes the price of a replacement box if required and 3 month's warranty.

It seems to me that if you take out the standard 1 year warranty with them, you're making a bet that their equipment will fail around twice per year...

Also bear in mind that there are some third parties who try to scam you into renewing your Sky insurance when you don't have it with them (or at all - they tried it with me last week).

[satman]

rebelstar said:

If it's out of warranty and you can't convince Sky to replace it for free, they'll send an engineer out for 60-70 quid or so. This includes the price of a replacement box if required and 3 month's warranty.

This fee usually only applies to a standard Digibox, and not a Sky+ one....but you never know...it maybe worth a phone call.

[LuS1fer]

The call-out fee is £65. We had a problem with the signal and had to have a call-out and it was a bleedin' tree that had grown since the dish was installed. Could have told us to check that on the phone!

Anyway, they moved the dish higher up and replaced the box for the fee but we were told that if you say to forget it, thatv the "chances were" they'd send someone out for nothing so they don't lose the sub.

[JonRB]

We had a standard digibox stop working on us and it was a £65 flat fee to get it sorted, which included the call out.

Turned out that the dish was out of alignment and the guy who came out didn't fancy going up on to a flat roof and then from there way up to the top of the chimney so installed a brand new dish and LMB on the other side of the house that he could reach with a standard ladder and then routed a new cable in to the house. Didn't bother wiring it into the wall panel, he just drilled a hole though that and ran an uninterrupted cable from the dish to the box. Said it was to improve the quality (and nothing to do with not being arsed to wire up the panel, I remember thinking at the time ).

I would imagine that Sky have a similar deal with their Sky+ boxes.

[rebelstar]

satman said:

rebelstar said: If it's out of warranty and you can't convince Sky to replace it for free, they'll send an engineer out for 60-70 quid or so. This includes the price of a replacement box if required and 3 month's warranty. This fee usually only applies to a standard Digibox, and not a Sky+ one....but you never know...it maybe worth a phone call.

Mine is a Sky Plus box - I seemed to get into problems when the hard disk became full which even a full reset (and losing all my stored programs) couldn't fix. They've given me a new box twice now.

[chim_knee]

rebelstar said:

They've given me a new box twice now.

Does that work for marriages too?

[tvradict]

mcflurry said:

you need 2 inputs for sky+ as there are 2 channels (for recording etc) the lnb needs to support 2 channels for each sky+ box and one for each regular box due to the polarity of the signal...

So lets see if I understand this.

If I got a Quad LNB, stuck it on my Minidish, then ran a second cable from it, and plugged both cables into a SKY+ box, it would work? I would just need to tell sky.