Wanted Old sky digital box (not a fancy smancy skyplus one)

ToriRat

Is that a Moomin?
Our ancient pace digi box is starting to show its old age (10 years !) and when we phoned sky they said its impossible to replace it and we have to upgrade to the plus hd package- They want £160 for this. ( £60 of which is some fat bloke coming round to plug it in!)

If anyone has a working digibox they no longer require we'd be very grateful- can possibly stretch to £20 for it.

If not does anyone use a freeview box and know if you can add channels to it? The kids will mutiny if their disney and nickleodeon channels dissapear...


<3's

Tori
 

db

#chaplife
just tell sky you'd like to cancel your contract then cos virgin are offering you a free deal.. i can absolutely guarantee that sky will give you a new box (probably sky+, i doubt it will be HD) for free..

they may not give you right there and then, but just continue down the "ok, no big deal, in that case i definitely want to cancel and i'll sign up with virgin :)" path.. they will not just cut you off - there is a 30 day "grace" period before your contract is terminated.. during this time, they will phone you up and offer to give you a free box to stay (even if you're on the most basic package)..

i've done this twice (1st time cos i had basic sky & wanted a free sky+ box, 2nd time cos they tried to charge me to move house).. the first time they left it right until the last few days to call me back, so i did worry a bit, but worst case scenario you never hear from them again, and you can just call back on the 29th day and say "changed my mind, please don't cut me off" - but i would be very surprised if you had to do that!
 

db

#chaplife
ToriRat said:
Might give it a go DB, I'll tell Markerat to harrass them
defo worth a go innit.. see this post for details of when i've successfully done it before..

i always advise people, imo one's best option is internet from virgin, and tv from sky.. then you can play them off one another! if one pisses you off, just say "well i already get my internet/tv from virgin/sky and they're always phoning me offering me [make something up] for free, so to be honest if you guys can't help me i'll just cancel my contract and take them up on their offer".. don't be an arse about it (not suggesting you would be), just say it matter-of-factly with a smile on your face, and you will get results..

i do it every time virgin try to put the cost of my internet up lol..
 

ToriRat

Is that a Moomin?
Well Markerat just phoned up and we are the 31 day wait now, we may switch to virgin anyway as their package seems to have improved since the last time we looked but hopefully Sky will give us a nice new box.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Virgin will have a short term gain because they can offer truly interactive - their network goes both ways. Sky is severely limited at present due to the delays between your input through a phone line and their satellite sending you the results. V have I'd say 5 years to exploit this, along with the "we have much faster infrastructure", before advances start making it all irrelevant. As a consumer I doubt the difference between 200Mb and 300Mb will matter one jot, it'll be reaction to our choices that sell us.

Unfortunately a product of our "we must have this shiz within 2 picoseconds or we're not happy" culture, but it will happen.
 

Miss Red

Well-Known Forumite
ToriRat said:
Our ancient pace digi box is starting to show its old age (10 years !) and when we phoned sky they said its impossible to replace it and we have to upgrade to the plus hd package- They want £160 for this. ( £60 of which is some fat bloke coming round to plug it in!)

If anyone has a working digibox they no longer require we'd be very grateful- can possibly stretch to £20 for it.

If not does anyone use a freeview box and know if you can add channels to it? The kids will mutiny if their disney and nickleodeon channels dissapear...


<3's

Tori
I have a spare box, its a amstrad, pale grey with black sides (just over a year old)......not hd, if your still interested. I used to have multi room, till it broke me lol now i just have sky + in living room.

As for virgin, i think sky are putting their fingers in that pie, they have already taken most of virgin channels. So i think they going for a monopoly.
Let me know if you still want box
 

wildwood

Well-Known Forumite
The thing that puts me off Virgin is their horrible, slow, laggy menu system - the folks have nothing but problems with it. Sky+ is a breeze!
 

db

#chaplife
tek-monkey said:
Virgin will have a short term gain because they can offer truly interactive - their network goes both ways. Sky is severely limited at present due to the delays between your input through a phone line and their satellite sending you the results.
i haven't had a landline for years, so my sky has never been plugged into a phone line.. what am i missing out on?? i've never had any errors or "you can't do that" kind of messages..

wildwood said:
The thing that puts me off Virgin is their horrible, slow, laggy menu system - the folks have nothing but problems with it. Sky+ is a breeze!
this, definitely..
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Dunno, I have sky but have never pressed the red button!

Sky is pretty much one way though, lots of incoming streams and you tell your set which one you want. Virgin is true 2 way comms, your box can tell the 'server' things and the server can respond accordingly. I have no idea if this is exploited in any way, but the technology is definately there.
 
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