Sky to replace 90,000 HD boxes

Manufacturing fault affects one in ten

17 February 2009 11:31 GMT / By Verity Burns

Sky has confirmed that tens of thousands of its customers will need to have their HD boxes replaced due to a manufacturing fault.

The fault affects around one in ten boxes, and will mean up to 90,000 Sky+ HD boxes will have to be binned.

A Sky spokesman said: "The problem relates to the way that some of the boxes were assembled. It doesn't raise a safety risk or prevent them from being used as normal until we exchange them, but in the longer term it could lead to the failure of the box.

"We started calling the affected customers last week to fix an appointment for one of our engineers to come and install a free replacement box".

The spokesman said it would take the company around 3 months to contact everyone affected, due to the sheer number of boxes needing to be replaced.

It seems the flaw is likely to have affected a "small minority" of customers with boxes from the first batch supplied by manufacturer Pace, with model numbers 9F3001, 9F3002, 9F3003 and 9F3004.

However, Sky has promised to provide a replacement box to all customers with these boxes as a precaution.

Furthermore, to apologise for the inconvenience Sky is giving all affected customers 3 months' free subscription to its HD pack, worth £29.95.

Pocket-lint visitor Manda is only too familiar with Sky+ HD box problems. She left a comment on our Sky+ HD review recently, writing: "I am now on my 5th HD box! Bought a new one from Sky in October 08 and after a fortnight it broke down.

"I have now been issued with 4 more "refurnished" boxes all lasting no more than 3 weeks before faults emerge. Countless phone calls, letters and threats to leave Sky later, I'm on my 5th box (this one is not new either) and waiting for it to fail at any second".

Have you had problems with your Sky+ HD box? Let us know in the comments.

Full tags

Home Cinema, Sky, HDTV