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Sky H D Box
bright spark
Posts: 191 Forum Member
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Hi my brother recently changed is old Thompson SD box for a H D BOX but no means of recording. I s old box packed in and because he had sky protect they replaced it changed the dish. What I want to know is there a sky hd box that does not record THANKS.
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These are usually installed just as multiscreen boxes though - not as replacements for a main box.
Not sure why his previous box was replaced with a Sky HD box though - unless he couldn't record on his original SD box either, so to save installing a new dish/new LNB/new cabling, they just did a straight swap of one non-recording box for another. Given that you said they did replace the dish as well, this doesn't make much sense. If they replaced the dish they would have fitted a quad LNB - and if they fitted a quad LNB they would have run shotgun cabling from dish to box, and you would have thought that they would then have issued a box with two tuners and the ability to record as well.
Surely they would swap like for like? So if they had an SD single tuner box, that is what they would get in return, as they no longer do SD boxes, they replaced it with a single tuner HD box.
Couldn't they have just installed the two tuner box but put it into single feed mode?
They haven't gone through Sky though, with a standard Sky call out, they probably would have done, they have used the Sky Protect service, which I believe is run by someone else, not Sky (Domestic & General is it?), so they are probably instructed to swap like for like, and may not even have anything else with them they can use (whereas a Sky installer will probably have other boxes on the van), probably allocated equipment for the job.
The account would also need updating if a standard box was swapped for a + box, again, might not be something they can do whereas a Sky Installer could.
Looking at the website, it is £7.42 a month if your main box is a + box, or £4.92 a month if your main box is a standard box (with all other boxes covered assuming they are no better than the main box), so that would explain why it was swapped for a standard box, they are paying less.
https://secure.skyprotect.com/SkyQuote/products
The different pricing for insuring recording and non-recording boxes now sounds like a bit of an anachronism, as all new standalone boxes have been recording boxes for many years now. If I had an old SD non-recording standard box and it went faulty and couldn't be fixed, I would expect it to be replaced with whatever is now the standard box, an HD Sky+ box, even if it's a refurb.
I guess that the two tier charging is a legacy of possibly having to replace drives in recording boxes, which in the early days of the system were much more expensive in real terms than they are now.
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You should direct your rant at Domestic and General who run the Sky Protect insurance scheme and NOT Sky - get your facts right.
Firstly, they are paying Domestic & General, not Sky, and that is who they organised the call out with.
Secondly, they pay a lower fee for the standard box, and they replace like for like, to keep the monthly cost the same.
Personally, i wouldn't even entertain paying them, i would have just phoned Sky who would have done the job for £65 (equivalent to 13 months insurance at £4.92), and often you can get that reduced or even free, and they WOULD have given out a recording box.
Or cash converters or the like?
Rather pricey - as they are under £30 at Cash Converters
True, but the principal remains the same!
Ask Sky Protect, or your brother, they did the job, nothing to do with keeping costs down (changing the dish won't change the monthly cost your brother pays - changing the box to a recording one will), if they felt the problem was with the dish, they would change the dish, that is part of the contract, if that didn't fix the problem, they won't then take the dish back down, and have decided to swap the box, as he had a standard non recording box, that is what they got in return, if you have a problem, take it up with Sky Protect, run by Domestic & General (Not Sky), as they organised the work.