The proof of the pudding... (Digital TV's in general)

Member Name: macutmore

Product:	Digital TV's in general
Date:	20/01/01 (410 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Most popular digital TV system

Disadvantages: Cost 'ongoing' with subscription requirement

As long as I can remember I’ve been a customer of Sky Satellite since the good old days of analogue! Although I didn’t upgrade to digital at the earliest opportunity, I did when the ‘free’ offer came on the scene and was one of the first in my family (and street come to think about it) to go for the ‘digibox’ installation.
I had my original Amstrad digibox installed in May of 1999. Prior to this I had a Cambridge analogue receiver, which served well.
If you haven’t got or seen Sky digital TV yet in operation by now then you probably aren’t interested in TV, as we know it!
So many people have it now as they did the analogue systems and so many have also experienced the good and bad of Sky’s customer services.
It’s amazing that they can ‘switch you on’ and are there for you on the phone in the evening when you may need them most!
I’ve had the overcharging ‘we’ll refund you next month’ excuses, the pestering ‘free half price’ extra subscription phone calls, the ‘take up an extended warranty’ threats and just about every con they have ever been accused of happen to me.
Despite this I still think the Sky package is a winner!
Recently my Amstrad digibox gave up the ghost. For a while it was slow to give channel listings and occasionally it reported no signal (normally in very bad weather).
I had put up with the rare ‘frame freezes’ and necessity to reboot a couple of times a month (unplug it and restart), but this time it permanently reported ‘No signal is being received’ Oh no!
Having NOT taken up the Sky extended warranty I feared the worst having seen BBC’s Watchdog and a report on Amstrad digibox failings a couple of months previous.
I rang Sky, there was nothing they could do over the phone that I hadn’t already done.
An Engineer visit would cost £40.
I rang around l
ocally to see if I could beat this by hook or by crook. I wanted to establish if the problem was just a dish realignment requirement or more seriously an LNB or even complete digibox failure! Would life go on?
A couple of days later the digibox was still as dead as a do doo, independent Satellite engineers wanted at least £45 and could only do dishes! I therefore went for the Sky engineers visit. A date was set one week ahead. No problem.
I was phoned the day before the set date by an engineer with a time to expect them the next day (a two hour guess). The price however would be £50 call out!
ARRRRGH!
The visit time was reliable however, the engineer tested the signal itself to my digibox, said it was ok and that the problem was the digibox (gulp)!
He plugged in a brand new digibox (this one was a Grundig). It didn’t work.
He said ‘it’s the cable mate’ and went outside. He replaced the LNB and the entire cable run (virtually a complete installation, bar the dish). It worked with full signal strength!
I had no more to pay!
A brand new digibox, and this one has S-video and RGB outputs!! A new LNB and Wow what a picture! I was impressed.
It’s taken time but Sky have got their act together at last.
I think the original ‘extended warranty’ offer, would in fact have been more expensive than it was worth.
The proof of the pudding…

Summary: