Can I replace Sky + box?

A

Alan F

Member
My Satellite Setup
sky +
My Location
UK
I have an 18 month old Sky + box, and still subscribe to sky's exorbitant fees. My sky + box has been playing up, and is unreliable. Programmes set to record often don't record, and some stuff disappears from the hard drive despite being marked 'keep'. Also the drive is saying it is almost full (6% space free) when only 6 hours of stuff is on the hard drive.

I gather that the monthly fee to sky doesn't cover replacing the set top box, and that if it needs replacing it will involve paying an engineer's call out fee, and paying sky for any parts, which I have no doubt will be above the going rate!

Assuming either the box or the hard drive is faulty, can I buy a new box (and still use my existing card) or hard drive from anyone else, or do sky have the monopoly?

Thanks

Alan
 
Alan F :-Welcome1 to the forum

Please make good use of the search facility here as I have seen mention of this before. For the life of me I am not sure what it was, corrupt HD I think from memory or was it a software problem. I'll have a look and get back

edit There is something here re HD reformat I would suggest a good read of the dedicated forum
 
You could try calling S*y and telling them you want to cancel as the box is not working - they may supply a new box on a replacement basis. Otherwise they lose your account - take it the year is up? You may have to agree to another year of S*y +.

If that doesn't work you can buy a box from ebay or a dealer call S*y and get them to re-pair your card to the new box.
 
Give them a ring and tell them you wanna cancel. Thats what I did. She offered me a call out at first for 40GBP but I told her I wasnt interested as the box is knackered and I dont need to pay 40GBP just for some bloke to come out and tell me this. She then offered me the new SKY 160 box or what ever its called for a discount price. Cant remember what it was exactly, I told her I bought the original SKY+ box for 300GBP back in the day and have paid 40GBP a month since and I said I think I've paid enough to SKY over the years and I was fedup with permanently having to pay for new boxes or call outs or whatever. She then asked me if I would continue subscribing if I was given a new free box. I didnt have to subscribe for a new year. All I got was the same ancient version 1 box, but I never had anything better before so what the hell.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, and I will certainly try the reformatting option on the link sent, although will have to watch/back up all my saved programmes first.

I may try calling Sky's bluff and threatening to cancel, but what if they accept? I may have to pay again to reconnect!

Can other suppliers legally sell the Sky Plus box? I did see a posting saying Argos sold them but have looked in their catalogue and can only see the remote control.

Thanks

Alan F
 
For the advice. Having saved everything onto DVD-RWs first I reformatted the hard drive as you advised, and that has solved the problem. Now 100% space on the hard drive. Appreciate the advice from the forum!

Alan
 
Alan F said:
Can other suppliers legally sell the Sky Plus box? I did see a posting saying Argos sold them but have looked in their catalogue and can only see the remote control.

Thanks

Alan F
Click to expand...
Yes, no problem with buying another box from a dealer and, as gameboy says, marry your card to the new box with a call to Sky. You should be able to get a new box for about £149 from an independent dealer.
 
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