Sky+ froze

[Peter_]

Being charged for repairs is one of the reasons I would never go back to SKY again, was stung by them years ago and people moan about Virgins SLA for engineers when SKY's is a damn sight longer and they tell you what day he is coming no choice offered.

[Pedro H]

I had a problem with my Sky+ box and when the engineer finally replaced it, it only worked for a few hours. When he finally returned he told me that they are instructed to replace warranted boxes with reconditioned ones, which used to be repaired in the UK but believe it or not they now send them to China to be reconditioned, I insisted on a new one which he gave me but said he could get into trouble for giving me one, to which I replied they could stick their Sky+. Everything works perfectly now and I haven't heard a word from Sky.

[Paul K]

They are supposed to use recons for replacements but can use brand new if it is demanded by the customer I think. Last time we had an engineer out we were offered time slots which we could choose and the guy even rang up on the day to offer to turn up first thing in the morning in case we wanted to go out (it was a weekend call out).
Biggest problem is third party installers, if you get a pure "Sky" installer you should be fine, get lumbered with a 3rd party who only cares about the number of installs he can get done a day and things go wrong.

[D_Skids]

I had numerous problems with my Sky HD box and had it replaced a fair few times I always insisted on a new box as I had paid the full £250 but I since learnt that it is actually better to get a reconditioned box because the original components are pretty crap but when they recondition them they put better quality components in. My last box was a reconditioned box and it has worked fine for quite some time now

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by D_Skids

I had numerous problems with my Sky HD box and had it replaced a fair few times I always insisted on a new box as I had paid the full £250 but I since learnt that it is actually better to get a reconditioned box because the original components are pretty crap but when they recondition them they put better quality components in. My last box was a reconditioned box and it has worked fine for quite some time now

Thomson Sky HD box? The issue is with the capacitors on the PSU.

http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/thom_psu.htm

http://www.satcure.com/accs/psu.htm

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...23&postcount=9

http://www.stevetowells.co.uk/


From what I have read, if you get a reconditioned/refurbished Thomson Sky HD box from Sky it will *not* have better quality capacitors, as allegedly Sky's "reconditioning" / "refurbishing" doesn't actually involve replacing the PSU's caps (or even looking at the PSU).

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...b#post36840754


Mine died after 2 1/2 years ("no signal" on random channels, failed recordings, etc... got worse & worse & became unusable). Opened it up... bulging capacitors on the PSU. Could have paid Sky £65 for a call-out & had the box swapped, but as that could have ended up having the same problem later on (if another Thomson), I had the PSU rebuilt instead using the Satcure mk2 capacitor upgrade. Cheaper & more reliable option. Works much better now (plus I also installed a nice new 500GB HDD too).

[Although one person at DS claims that installers aren't using Thomson refurbs now due to the failure rate: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...3#post37067183 ]