Sky protect plus - worth it?

[Oldred_V8S]

My parents have just received a letter advising them they now need to take out Sky Protect plus insurance for their dish and box.

Whilst it is not a huge amount, are Sky likely to not offer a free box/dish if the equipment went down?

I am sure if my parents said oh well as the dish/box has gone down we might as well close our Sky account, Sky would be quite quick to offer a free replacement. Or am I being naive?

[silobass]

Unless it's the new Sky Q, you own the equipment. I've never bothered it and always thought it was quite expensive for what it was. You'll be able to get it fixed independently cheaper than an annual policy should something happen and like you said, you can always try the "fix or we might as well cancel line".

[Zetec-S]

I've always taken the view we can pick up a refurbished Sky+ box from ebay for about £30. Either that or we'll cancel and go over to something like BT or cable (or not bother with anything).

[bristolracer]

Not worth it at all.

If the box goes there are loads on gumtree for £20 or so
If the dish goes it shouldn't cost more than £80 to get it sorted.

Generally both bits are pretty reliable, and worse case scenario sky will only charge £80 for a service call.

They don't break down very often these days

[easy_rider33]

Never bothered. The box did stop working so I phoned up to cancel the subscription and sure enough they could send me a new one for free so there was no need to cancel. They'd rather keep the monthly payment coming than lose a customer for the sake of a cheap box to them.

[cat with a hat]

Insurance policies exist to make money in an attempt seduce people anxious about large risk.

When the risk is < £100 worst case, it's probably not a good idea.

[AJB88]

Oldred_V8S said:

My parents have just received a letter advising them they now need to take out Sky Protect plus insurance for their dish and box.

No they dont as said can pick up a replacement for a few quid.

[stemll]

easy_rider33 said:

Never bothered. The box did stop working so I phoned up to cancel the subscription and sure enough they could send me a new one for free so there was no need to cancel. They'd rather keep the monthly payment coming than lose a customer for the sake of a cheap box to them.

Exactly what I've always done. Ring up to get it fixed, when they say "£65 please" the reply has always been along the lines of "Well, if you won't repair it, I can't watch your services any more so guess I'll have to cancel and just use Freeview". As above, they've always fixed it free.

On Q now so no longer an issue (which is just as well as already had the box replaced after less than 3 weeks - and the first replacement wouldn't even boot up)

[Oldred_V8S]

Thanks one and all for your feedback, I'll tell them to tell Sky to take a hike. They only have it for my Dad to watch British Superbikes anyway.

[jjones]

Our sky hd went, chap at work gave us his old box, paired our card with his box using the website (it comes up on the screen telling you the URL to use) and it has worked fine since.