Sky+ HD Box not working - what to do when calling Sky
Thomson 3 year old HD box has packed in.
Have transferred all the recordings off it using Internal SATA and Copy+.
Plan A was to fork out £30-ish for a fresh set of capacitors to replace them but decided I didn't have the technical soldering skills to do it and want to give Plan B below a go first.
Plan B = want Sky to replace Thomson box free of charge (and NOT with another Thomson box!), but fear its not going to be that easy!
Any suggestions for when I call them? i've been a customer since 2005, have had HD box since inception in spring 2006 (although we went through 3 of these HD boxes in the early days - but current HD box has been there since summer 2007). I'm not in a cable area though so can't play that card.
Have transferred all the recordings off it using Internal SATA and Copy+.
Plan A was to fork out £30-ish for a fresh set of capacitors to replace them but decided I didn't have the technical soldering skills to do it and want to give Plan B below a go first.
Plan B = want Sky to replace Thomson box free of charge (and NOT with another Thomson box!), but fear its not going to be that easy!
Any suggestions for when I call them? i've been a customer since 2005, have had HD box since inception in spring 2006 (although we went through 3 of these HD boxes in the early days - but current HD box has been there since summer 2007). I'm not in a cable area though so can't play that card.
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Well my dad did exactly what you suggested, and actually sky were pretty accommodating. His box was out of warranty, but he said that he wasn't prepared to pay for a brand new box as he heard that these Thompson ones are notorious for packing up. He then said that he was perfectly prepared to cancel the whole lot if it couldn't be sorted. Anyway, they agreed to send an engineer and repalce the box free of charge.
When the Engineer got there he knew what the fault was instantly and told my dad that he had a van full of these Thompson boxes and was constanly having to replace them.
That's what I was planning on doing - is your Dad in a cable area (I'd imagine that gave him a bit more leverage with Sky if he was!)?
My plan of attack was to call them and:-
(a) ask for another box free of charge given that this is a common fault with Sky boxes;
(b) if they resist providing another box for free, argue that it is reasonable to expect another box for free on the basis that I've been a loyal customer for 5 years;
(c) if they resist that, threaten to leave.
Any further suggestions either before I get to (c) or what to do if they still don't send an engineer out at zero cost after I've used (c)!
I bit the bullet and called Sky last night. Told them I’d had a few recordings recently that didn’t record due to technical faults / no signal, and that now when we switched on the box, under “All Channels” it just said “searching for listings” and also, when we tried to access the planner, it tried to search for the planner listings but none came up.
They told me they wanted to go through a few tests to try to fix this. First up, the Planner Rebuild Secondly, the System Reset (complete wipe of the hard drive). I followed their instructions to the letter (and luckily I’d Copy+’d all the recordings on the hard drive to my PC hard drive the day before) – although I did play a bit on the fact that I didn’t really want to lose all my recordings, but if they thought it would fix the box I was willing to give it a go.
As you may suspect (as did I) neither of these worked. They then told me that I had two options:-
I didn’t want to immediately jump in and tell them that I actually wanted an engineer call out for £0 and a replacement box without taking out any insurance. So I asked them if I could have more details of the insurance plan – i.e. minimum term, what it covered, etc.
So they transferred me through to another department (a subsidiary company?) who then explained what the insurance was, what it covered, etc [for info, minimum term is 12 months therefore £99 in total i.e. more expensive than the engineer call-out, although obviously I would then be covered under the insurance for 12 months; and this insurance covered unlimited call-outs for the box, dish, LNB’s, cabling, remote controls, plus wireless routers, phones, etc if I had them.
I then asked whether the replacement box would be a reconditioned box or a new box. I was informed that it was likely it would be a reconditioned box. At this point I said that since the replacement box wouldn’t be a brand new box, I didn’t really think this offered value and that I’d probably go for the engineer call-out instead.
They then transferred me back to Sky where I got a different member of the technical services (?) team.
When the member of the tech services team picked up the call I told him I’d been transferred through from another department within Sky and asked whether he was aware of the history of the conversation. He didn’t seem to be so while he had a look at his system for my call history, history of box, etc; I explained to him I’d had technical faults / failed recordings, I’d run through the usual planner rebuild / system reset solutions with one of his colleagues, before being offered insurance and being transferred to the appropriate department who deals with this. I told him that I’d declined the insurance as I felt it was too expensive for me right now, and that the insurance team had transferred me back here. Crucially (IMO) I didn’t mention that I’d also been offered the service engineer at a call out charge of £65.
At this point, to my absolute surprise, the chap on the line (very nice guy too!) told me that what he would do is have a look and see if he could get an engineer out for nothing! I was so taken aback as I thought I was going to have to challenge them / fight for an engineer call out for £0 that I thought it best to keep quiet and let the guy do all the talking.
He said that there is usually a chargeable fee for the Service Call, but that equally there are ways around that and he’d see what he could do. He needed to go through a couple of screens (cue me waiting anxiously on the other end of the phone whilst he did this!).
Once he’d managed to locate the appropriate screen, he told me that the call could be booked for the date I wish (which I selected) and that this was a one-off that doesn’t happen in general (aye, ok mate!
Definitely found that being polite and respectful on the phone seemed to get me places that I hadn’t before (I occasionally used to be a grumpy git on the phone thinking that it was more likely to get things moving if I was forceful!).
The replacement box that your Dad now has - who manufactured this and is it reconditioned or new?
Also, any tips on how to ensure I don't get a Thompson box when the engineer arrives?
I'm not sure if it was new to be honest. He did say that it was a different make and had a larger hard drive. I would just make sure that you mention that you are aware of the issues with the Thompson boxes, and ask politely if he could ensure that he doesn't give you one of those.
I arranged a free callout with a £25.00 reconditioned box. when the engineer came he produced a shiney new drx890. needless to say i kept quiet until the engineer had gone then i allowed myself to smile
No need to keep quiet, they give you what's on the van - if they don't have any second hand boxes, they simply give you a new one - but it will only come with the same 90 warranty as a second hand one.