Hi All,

Getting into little dispute with Sky over what I consider to be the
premature failure of my Sky box after circa 18 months. They came and took
the box away (for which I had paid £65) as faulty and left a refurbished one
and charged me another £65.

Main issue for the purpose of this post is do I own the box? Can they take
it away and charge me for another? I am pursuing the premature failure too
but its kind of linked.

Any advice appreciated.

Bill

"bill" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

Getting into little dispute with Sky over what I consider to be the
premature failure of my Sky box after circa 18 months. They came and took
the box away (for which I had paid £65) as faulty and left a refurbished
one and charged me another £65.

Main issue for the purpose of this post is do I own the box? Can they take
it away and charge me for another? I am pursuing the premature failure too
but its kind of linked.


Current adverts I thought were saying the Boxes are free, so not
understanding the first £65, unless things were different 18 months ago.
Well I would not have agreed and paid the last £65 but would have said I
would stop paying the subscription and they to loose a customer.
Regards
David

bill wrote:
Hi All,

Getting into little dispute with Sky over what I consider to be the
premature failure of my Sky box after circa 18 months. They came and took
the box away (for which I had paid £65) as faulty and left a refurbished one
and charged me another £65.

Main issue for the purpose of this post is do I own the box? Can they take
it away and charge me for another? I am pursuing the premature failure too
but its kind of linked.

Any advice appreciated.

Bill


The box is yours from the day you get it. Now you've paid the £65 you've
almost no chance of getting it back. Put it down to experience and learn
from your mistake.

--
Adrian

bill wrote:
: the box away (for which I had paid ?65) as faulty and left a refurbished one
: and charged me another ?65.

: Main issue for the purpose of this post is do I own the box? Can they take
: it away and charge me for another? I am pursuing the premature failure too
: but its kind of linked.

You (always) own the Sky receiver - BUT they have NOT charged you £65
for "another new one"!

Sky offer "fixed price" repair service at this price - this covers the visit
+ whatever is needed to make Sky work again + 3 months warranty on the repair.
If this repair needs a new STB then, indeed, they will replace the existing
one with a refurbished one. The new (unsubsidised) STB price is, I believe,
£149 at present.

Adrian wrote:
: The box is yours from the day you get it. Now you've paid the £65 you've
: almost no chance of getting it back. Put it down to experience and learn
: from your mistake.

It's not a mistake - he has paid for a Sky "Repair Service" visit!

On 28/10/2010 17:00, bill wrote:
Hi All,

Getting into little dispute with Sky over what I consider to be the
premature failure of my Sky box after circa 18 months. They came and took
the box away (for which I had paid £65) as faulty and left a refurbished one
and charged me another £65.

Main issue for the purpose of this post is do I own the box? Can they take
it away and charge me for another? I am pursuing the premature failure too
but its kind of linked.

Any advice appreciated.

Bill


You own the box, and you could have tried claiming that the sky box was
not of sufficient qaulity as 18 mths is not a long lifespan for a
domestic electrical appliance. As with any manufacturers or retailers
warranty, it does not replace your rights as a consumer, it can only
supplement them. People have taken manufacturers to court and won over
goods that have failed outside of warranties.

Unfortunately by calling out sky and paying the £65 you have pretty well
scuppered any chance of that. They've replaced your faulty box for £65
rather than charging you £150.

I do think it's a bit dodgy palming people off with refurbished boxes
with a very limited warranty. As other posters have said you could give
them a simple ultimatum, replace it for free or I'm off.

Failing that my old one will be up for sale soon, 3 years old, works
perfectly,remote looks a little worn. :-)

I'm giving Virgin a try, limited HD channels + ESPN + faster broadband
for £8 per month more than I was paying for sky. They own the box so
should it go wrong, free replacement!

So far so good, customer service has been top notch, barring throwing in
a massage I'm not really sure how it could have been improved. Virgin
box has subtle but slightly annoying differences from sky+ but I guess
I'll get used to them in time. Internet is easily twice as fast as sky
could offer on a BT line.

Mike

On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:29:15 +0000 (UTC), (Brian
Mc) wrote:

Adrian wrote:
: The box is yours from the day you get it. Now you've paid the £65 you've
: almost no chance of getting it back. Put it down to experience and learn
: from your mistake.

It's not a mistake - he has paid for a Sky "Repair Service" visit!

Uncle Rupert has sold/supplied you with a working DodgyBox (now your
property) in return for your "consideration" (payment in goods and
cash) of 65 squid and a dud DodgyBox. The old box ceased to be your
property when it (and the cash) were handed over and the replacement
box was received.

"bill" wrote in message ...

Hi All,

Getting into little dispute with Sky over what I consider to be the
premature failure of my Sky box after circa 18 months. They came and took
the box away (for which I had paid £65) as faulty and left a refurbished one
and charged me another £65.

Main issue for the purpose of this post is do I own the box? Can they take
it away and charge me for another? I am pursuing the premature failure too
but its kind of linked.

Any advice appreciated.

Bill





It's yours - if it dies it's your problem.
having said that, if you'd cancelled your subscription explaining you're not
willing to pay for a replacement, they would have offered you a new box for
free.
i know because i did it - said i was going to virgin.



-- Gareth.

that fly...... is your magic wand....
http://dsbdsb.mybrute.com
you fight better when you have a bear!

It's yours - if it dies it's your problem.
having said that, if you'd cancelled your subscription explaining you're
not willing to pay for a replacement, they would have offered you a new
box for free.
i know because i did it - said i was going to virgin.

-- Gareth.

Yep, I've done this several times with mine and family's boxes.

Easier bluff with in my laws as they are in a cabled area! We're in the
middle of nowhere, but told I them Freeview was more than adequate for my
viewing and asked to be put through to disconnections. Before they put you
through you go to "Customer Retention Dept" where you can almost state your
terms to stay.

My last call was regarding a replacement (9 month old) failed Thomson
standard Sky box and they agreed it was unsatisfactory for it to fail so
soon and brought a brand new Amstrad and replaced the LNB again, free of
charge with no arguments at all. Despite their warranty on the £65 callout
only being 3 months. The Thomson replaced an 8 year old Pace box.

My parents now have that Amstrad on Freesat (and it's been superb) and I
have an Amstrad Sky+ box which is very moody after our frequent power cuts.

bill wrote:
Hi All,

Getting into little dispute with Sky over what I consider to be the
premature failure of my Sky box after circa 18 months. They came and
took the box away (for which I had paid £65) as faulty and left a
refurbished one and charged me another £65.

Main issue for the purpose of this post is do I own the box? Can they
take it away and charge me for another? I am pursuing the premature
failure too but its kind of linked.

Any advice appreciated.

When my old Thomson HD box failed 6 months ago I phoned up and was given the
option of taking out a Sky maintenance agreement (which is ridiculously
overpriced and makes no sense at all), or paying £65 for a visit to repair
or replace my box.

I opted for the latter but complained about having to accept a refurbished
box. When the engineer arrived a couple of days later he replaced my old
box with a brand new Amstrad. He said that it was not his policy to supply
refurbished boxes because they rarely lasted for very long... He also, while
he was at the house, checked the dish alignment and replaced the LNB without
any additional cost.

I only ever had to pay the single £65 'repair/replace' charge however. I
don't believe you should have been charged twice and I would take that up
with Sky if I were you.

--
Kev