joinskytv

It has become apparent over the past few months that some of you have been receiving second hand reconditioned Sky+HD Digiboxes when you have in fact purchased new. This all stems from November 2008 when Sky somehow managed to run out of supply of new Sky+HD Digiboxes, even though they had a number of manufacturers on the go. We suspect this happened when they decided to stop selling Thomson’s HD box due to reliability, but Pace, Samsung and Amstrad were not fully up to speed.

What has happened since then is that Sky in desperation of ensuring they could fulfil orders over the Christmas period, had thousands of reconditioned Thomson units released through the installer network. Initially they were advising customers of this and offering £30 discount plus 18-24 month warranty.

Recently however it seems a number of you have been receiving Sky+HD Digiboxes which you suspect as not being new, even though you’ve been sold as new. Our recommendations for when you purchase and the installer arrives are as follows:

1) Check it’s a latest brand box from Pace, Samsung or Amstrad. Whilst there may be a few Thomson’s still in the network, it’s very unlikely, nor would you want to accept anyway, they are terrible.

2) Make sure the digibox comes in an official manufacturers box, complete with accessories. Don’t allow the installer to unpack in his van and bring just the box in. The manufacturers box for the Pace, Samsung and Amstrad models are black and white with clear indications of being a Sky+HD Digibox.

3) Don’t accept a Sky+HD Digibox if supplied in a plain brown box, it’s most likely a repaired unit, as they are supplied in plain boxes, not new boxes.

4) Make sure you receive all accessories, including HDMI cable, this is part of the new digibox package.

If you want to take things even further, check for finger prints on the digibox when unpacked, or scratches around the satellite input on the back, or around the viewing card slot. Furthermore, there should be a yellow sticker on the front requesting an over-the-air software update.

We recommend where possible you see the packaged digibox prior to being opened, it should be sealed, but not always as the installer does have to take the NDS code sticker out to place on his job sheet.

If you have any questions or concerns about receiving a second hand / repaired box, post comments and I’ll do my best to help out.