Alternatives to €100 Sky engineer callout?

toadpenguin

Hi guys, I was having a lot of trouble with "No Satellite Signal is being received" error messages on both of my boxes (one standard, one Sky+) and I called customer services today. The person I talked to was really helpful in running all sorts of system and signal tests but in the end she said our options were to pay €100 for a Sky engineer to come out and fix it or find a local engineer who could do it for less.

I'm just wondering where I stand legally on this, the boxes are well out of warranty but this wasn't our fault. Is there any way they would oblige us under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act, seeing as the boxes/dish is no longer fit for it's purpose? I know it's a (VERY) long shot but is it worth a try?

If not then could anyone recommend an engineer in the Cork area, preferably one who gives a decent warranty?

Thanks in advance!

Cantona's Collars

There's a 12 month warranty on Sky equipment.Ring back and tell them you are cancelling and joining UPC and viola they'll get somebody out to fix it for free.;)

St Senan

Try www.signalsolutions.tv based in Cork.

Deep Thought

Hi

Had the same problem

Went out side and with a brush gave the White LNB a tap and it worked again

It may not be the best way...but it worked for me !!

listermint

Its more than likely the LNB, check the wire connections coming of it, might have water ingress on them. make sure it is fixed to the disk properly.

LNB might need replacing they are cheap as chips and can be easily changed with a minor bit of hands on know how.

lucernarian

The warranty doesn't affect your statutory rights and going on EU consumer law and how that affects the interpretation of "goods must be of merchantable quality", you could legally force Sky to offer a replacement or else pay you for a replacement part if the equipment's 2 years old or less.

As the other posters have mentioned, it's a simple enough job to replace an LNB so long as you can safely access the dish to swap the LNB which is at the end of the dish's arm. The part would only cost €20 or so.

Another thing could be the alignment of the dish, if you can adjust it to the left or right *slightly* with the help of a spanner to loosen the nuts holding the dish to the wall bracket, you can then check the sky box to see if there's any improvement in signal strength and quality.

If you don't feel like checking out the dish yourself, the signal solutions crowd seem to be good at their job based on reports here.

redout

To be honest there is no way you can say for certain it is not your fault. My advice would be to check all connections from the box to the dish and just make sure somebody didnt knock a wire or whatnot. Just last week the uncle threw a hissy over the exact same thing only to find that one of the wires from the dish was loose. No talking to him though - he rang sky and gave them a verbal volley. Chap on the phone had him do all sorts of tests and eventually told him he requires a €100 callout! I fiddled with the connections for all but 20 seconds and it was right as as rain. Also from my experience just because the f connector is connected up to the receiver doesnt automatically mean there will be a signal. These things can be quite temperamental at times and can require a bit of fiddling around with. Bring up the signal test screen in services menu and try adjusting the wires whilst looking the signal readout. Could save you €100.

mad muffin

Just call cancelations.

That's what I did when my old Thomson box that I payed €500 for when Sky HD first came to Ireland, kicked the bucket.

Free new Amstrad box and €100 fee waved.

Rippy

Obviously I can not be sure of fault without seeing it, but is unlikely to be boxes as both are out. Same with cabling, LNBF or connections.
Most likely is dish alignment or structural failiure of dish and/or support due to rust.

Stinicker

Tell them you are cancelling over them charging you the €100 fee, they will probably throw in a free callout and reduce the cost of your package for the next six months.

toadpenguin

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, unfortunately the mother went and called out a local engineer without my knowing it who found the bracket holding the dish had degraded and it was aligned wrongly. Fixed it and charged us €80 which I suppose wasn't too bad.