stbs on sale on ebay
 

just had a look on ebay and i was gobsmacked to see countless set top boxes for sale and people were actually BIDDING!!.

i was under the impression virgin keep an eye on this as it was against their terms and conditions to sell or attempt to sell their equipment.one poor souls bid was nearly £40 for a v+ scientific atlanta

am i right in thinking this boxes wouldnt work and technically if you rang virgin to pair these boxes to your account you would be held liable and cut off for recieving stolen goods?

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

Your correct. Plus with the card swap in progress all they are buying is expensive door stops.

Problem is there is a sucker born everyday :(

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

If they are happy enough to bid on the boxes then they deserve to get a non working box without any chance of a refund.;)

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

There's even some going for less than £10, forcing people to think they've made a good saving.

Couldn't eBay put a ban on "V+" listings?

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

You would have thought that VM would contact Ebay and advise them that stolen goods are being sold on there site.

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

aren't ebay actually breaking the law in allowing them to be sold on the site?

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

VM do. Ebay also frequently remove listings. However, they spring up faster than either can deal with them.

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

Fools and their money. A bit of research easily reveals the futility of buying these boxes.

Vm should do more to retrieve their equipment from ex-customers though.

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

How long left in the card swap process before all doggy STB's are make obsolete?

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

Yes they should have and are in the process of doing just that

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

Probably true, but in my experience, eBay really don't do much to stop repeat offenders. I used to report listings I found, and giving eBay credit, 90% of the time, they would take them down within 24 hours.

What used to really annoy me was the same sellers constantly relisting stuff again and again, even to the point of doctoring the same photo on the listing that got taken down to remove Virgin / NTL logo's..... and eBay let them get away with it! I've noticed more and more recently with eBay that they are focusing on what makes them money rather than actually being more pro-active and linear thinking in stopping dodgy listings.

As people have said though, if VM was better at collecting old equipment, it wouldn't happen.

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

As I said above if people are gullible enough to buy this kit then it will be their own fault when they find it is completely worthless and no one at Virgin Media will touch their box with the proverbial dirty stick and the seller disappears like smoke.

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

Yes, technically they are stolen goods as they do not belong to the customer so cannot be theirs to sell, unless Virgin have charged them for it. Unfortunately, if you put in a listing "Virgin told me to get rid of this myself" or "Virgin sold this to me", eBay take that at face value.

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

As Virginmedia would never tell a customer such rubbish and Ebay are more than aware that such things never ever happen that puts Ebay in the wrong for allowing any such postings.

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

There are two kinds of people buying these on eBay, the un-educated and those who want to try and alter the box to receive free TV, possibly even selling them on after doing so, sometimes on eBay itself. Obviously the later deserve no sympathy, but regarding the un-eduated, don't forget that for those people used to Sky, it's quite ok to buy and sell boxes and just ring up Sky to get them activated. Perhaps Virgin, as well as clamping down on non returned kit, should do some kind of customer awareness program to explain this isn't the case with them?

---------- Post added at 09:59 ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 ----------

I tend to agree, but it still happens.

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

The is a lot of difference between SKY and Virginmedia installations, with SKY all you need is a satellite dish and it will work.

But with Virginmedia you need a cable running to your property and a live account for any equipment to work plus all the kit is required to be listed on your account and correctly provisioned, you cannot buy any 2nd hand equipment and then call in for it to be added to your account.

If you are a Virginmedia customer then you should be aware of this and if you buy a box for a property with no cable connection then that is just stupidity.

If I wanted Freeview then I would just go to the likes of ASDA and buy a box for less than £20 with a 12 months guarantee.

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

Yep, I know all that and as staff, obviously you do to.

What I'm saying is, to the average man in the street who knows Sky allow you to plug whatever equipment you like in and just ring them, perhaps they assume it's OK to do this on Virgin?

I know, you shouldn't assume stuff, but a lot of these eBay sales must be to people with an existing Virgin account thinking they can just replace their existing old box or add an additional one. Perhaps Virgin could raise awareness of this not being the case? I can't find anything in the help section of the website about it.

Just a thought.

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

i agree ,i was the other way round though ,when i was with sky my stb (provided with the installation) broke and a new one was needed ,i didn't know at the time that i owned the box and was responsible for the repairs/ replacement ,it was suggested by the rep if i didn't want to buy a reconditioned one from sky i could buy one from any retailer including Ebay .There will be people switching from sky to VM unaware that VM are responsible for the box and think they can save a couple of quid by supplying the box themselves .VM should promote this not just for information but as a sales pitch

Re: stbs on sale on ebay
 

They need an ad that is of similar to Sky's with all the check boxes as I find them very useful as they list quite a lot of points. Very basic too usually.

Virgin's ads are nice, but sometimes they lack information - I agree with you martyh, they need to use it as a sales pitch :)