My mother had a cold call from Sky a month or so ago asking her if she wanted to protect her sky boxes (she has 3) with their repair insurance. Normally she wouldnt entertain these calls, however the previous week one of the sky boxes had died and she had had to replace it as it was well out of warranty. The other thing she liked about it was that it covered her tv's in the house for accidental damage. The bumpf she got through the post stated that she would get unlimited repairs/replacement for any accidental damage or breakdown of the item.

So cue the 4th of July on her 50th birthday when we have all the family round and there are young children! One of the littler ones threw a ball at someone, missed that person and hit the telly, smashing the screen!

Me mother rings the insurance company up and they duly collect the telly the next morning, however the letter she has recieved today has me quite concerned as it doesnt seem to add up with the previous bumpf.

They have told her that she has to pay the rest of the premium up front before they replace the telly, and once the telly is replaced the insurance will be ended????????????

Now we have read through the small print, but this small print is on the same page as the bit that says she has unlimited repairs/replacement!!

Now does this not seem right to others???

Unforunately, the insurance isn't with sky at all, it's a [problem] and tghey tried it with me the other year, cold called me and said something like 'the box is yours, if anything goes wrong with it you'll have to pay for it, pay us X amount a month and you'll be covered'

Complete bowlarks, you need to contact TS via Consumer Direct - Contact us and let them deal with it.

As for warranty periods, this is often an added extra, a bit like a 12 month guarantee, even though a product may fall outside of the guarantee or warranty period you still have your statutory rights, whereby this covers you for up to six years.

Normally however, for instance, if you insured a car and were paying for it by monthly installments, and had a crash, then yes the full balance of the years insurance would be payable before they were to repair the car, but it doesn't ring true that they will cancel the insurance after repair, which is why alarm bells are ringing here, and you need to get some help from TS.

Report it to TS..it is a [problem]....this should be covered with the normal contents insurance policy...

Have a read of this, I'm pretty sure it will be very familiar...don't worry, thousands of people have fell for it, in fact I must check with my mother to make sure she's not become a victim of it.

SKY TV Box Insurance [problem]? | Editorial

Most of these things should be covered by a decent buildings and contents policy anyway. The contract sounds like it makes no sense so probably is a [problem], has she got the TV back yet?

No question about it, it IS a [problem]...