FTA Receivers and warranty

[greenterror]

Hi all. I am looking to upgrade my receiver to something capable of HD and S2. I've narrowed it down to the Azbox Ultra, Premium+, or the Openbox S9. I contacted a vendor of the Openbox receivers with some questions including one regarding warranty. I was told I would receive a 1 year manufacturers warranty, which if needed would be handled by the manufacturer. Thinking about this, the thought comes to mind that this sounds an awful lot like "no warranty" to me. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that an FTA receiver coming into Chinese customs would disappear like a fart in a hurricane.
I would appreciate some thoughts of the members here on warranties, dealers, imported gear and such. Does it factor into your purchase decisions?

Thanks in advance.

btw, Great forum, learned a lot of stuff here :up

 

[SatelliteAV]

Personally, I would only purchase a receiver if the seller processes the warranty. Many eBay and internet sellers will direct you to contact the manufacturer or distributor for warranty on a satellite receiver, but in my experience manufacturers and distributors do not deal directly with the end user and will refer you to process the potentially defective product through the seller for testing, repair or replacement.

Distributors are provided a percentage of product in excess of their purchase by the manufacturer to cover warranty issues. The distributor collects warranty products and distributes replacements through the reseller
If the quantity of defective product exceeds the warranty quantity provided by the manufacturer, the distributor usually receives additional replacements or discounts on a future order.

If you purchase internationally on sites such as eBay, consider the purchase as final with your only recourse for DOA product through PayPal.

Bottom line..... know who you are buying from!

 

[greenterror]

I would have some recourse on DOA as he (ebay seller) does offer a 7 day exchange. After that, I guess I'd be on my own.

Kind of leaning toward the Ultra anyway These are carried by DrSat here in Canada. He must be fairly new as I don't remember running across him the last time I shopped satellite stuff.

 

[woodheat/nooil]

Openbox S9 HD FREE SHIPPING Openbox S9 HD PVR [Openbox S9 HD PVR] - $139.99 : FTA Satellite Equipment, FREE TO AIR SATELLITE

2 year so far so good.

 

[greenterror]

Openbox S9 HD FREE SHIPPING Openbox S9 HD PVR [Openbox S9 HD PVR] - $139.99 : FTA Satellite Equipment, FREE TO AIR SATELLITE



2 year so far so good.

Lots of sweet deals there. Now if only they would ship to Canada........

 

[greg harris]

Buyer Beware if you want an OpenboxS9 warranty.

FTA Satellite Equipment has been asked to explain their warranty for the OpenboxS9 in detail and they would not do it. Since it is a limited warranty, it has written conditions. I think you would do good to get a 30 day warranty out of these people.

OpenboxS9.us has a 1 year "limited" warranty, but this time frame is only for parts. They have a 6 month "limited" warranty where parts and labor are covered but when you read what is actually covered, you will see they do not intend to warranty any receivers unless they want to. They have a list of 25 exclusions which eliminates about every possible failure. Anybody that says "Determination of failure cause and warranty eligibility is completely at our sole determination." is not interested in honoring a warranty.

Most OpenboxS9 sellers on Ebay do not have a warranty but you may be able to buy one. This may or may not be a good warranty deal.

I seem to remember Sadoun claiming to have a one year warranty for the Solomend, but I never saw it in writing.

Hypermegasat has a 1 year warranty for the OpenboxS9 and he will tell you in writing what is covered. This is the best warranty I have seen for this receiver from any seller or dealer.

GregH

 

[Anole]

one opinion:

For the purpose of warranty, I'd never order across the USA/Canadian border, much less from China! -
Biggest problem is sending 'em back. (...but see below)

I'd also lean toward a product that had been in reliable production for a while, as opposed to anything brand new.
You can read up on many receivers here on the forum, to see if they've been plagued with a lot of failures.

Lastly, I'd buy the SSO or AZbox without being too concerned.
They've both gotten pretty inexpensive.
And, I have friends with two of each who are happy, and well past six months. -

 

[perazzimx15l]

If you are looking for a one with a good warranty go and see if there is a place that will ship you a Pansat Reciever. Pansat has 2 year waranty longer than any other company that i have delt with for FTA. Google in Pansat and see what you can find, Wish you best of luck.;

 

[SatelliteAV]

Two judgements against Panarex (Pansat) in 2010 are putting the nails in the coffin. A two year warranty doesn't mean much at this point.

March 30, 2010 Judgement

November 5, 2010 Judgement

 

[woofy]

Yes those are judgments against a manufacturer that encouraged piracy as other manufactures did as well, they had rom code built in to circumvent encryption. Set top boxes such as openbox and azbox and others seem to be manufactured as True FTA boxes and should provide some sort of decent warranty to customers.

Saying that, in this day and age, Ethernet ports and the world wide web leaves things open to good and bad.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Set top boxes such as openbox and azbox and others seem to be manufactured as True FTA boxes and should provide some sort of decent warranty to customers.

Sorry, but Both Azbox and Openbox are primarily manufactured for theft of service. The popularity of both of these STBs in Europe and in South America for sharing decryption keys lead to their availability in North America. Both units have the native ability to circumvent service provider encryption through the use of card sharing and internet servers. This is not just a default when a device has an ethernet port.

If either unit is purchased through a reputable reseller they should have warranty as stated in the sales materials.

 

[greenterror]

Thanks for replies guys. I would agree that warranty on a $150 Openbox is perhaps nothing to get excited about. Experience tells me that electronics will often fail almost immediately or last for many years. If I'd go with something like the Azbox Premium+ ($400 +GST+shipping), then it would be nice to know I'd be covered by a dealer who stands behind the sale.

I sent an email to DrSat on Thursday asking for details on the Azbox warranty, still waiting for a reply. I'm hoping to buy here in Canada.

I'm finding it really hard to decide between the three models. Even after many many hours of reading, knowing the pluses and minuses of all, still tough.

 

[pback]

Simple

If your receiver is quite a distance from your home network hub, then, the Az Plus with wifi would be the unit you want to get.

If your receiver can be hard wired to the hub, then the Az Ultra would be it.

The SSO is a good choice in place of the Az Ultra, much cheaper, but no clock when turned off by RCU which I can never get used to, LOL.

Pretty sure "pwrsurge" is a member here from Dr. Sat.

 

[greenterror]

Simple

If your receiver is quite a distance from your home network hub, then, the Az Plus with wifi would be the unit you want to get.

If your receiver can be hard wired to the hub, then the Az Ultra would be it.

The SSO is a good choice in place of the Az Ultra, much cheaper, but no clock when turned off by RCU which I can never get used to, LOL.

Pretty sure "pwrsurge" is a member here from Dr. Sat.

Ahh, but not so simple. The Premium has the option of adding a second tuner, that might be useful at some point. It also has a front panel display, which is nice, but of course it is more expensive.

The OSS has a great price, but then there is the green tint issue(don't know how serious this really is ???), the remote issues( which one is good to get V2?, V3?) I don't know of anyone in Canada that sells it with the V3 remote. Then there is that self-destruct button on the remote, not to be pushed. I have read of people cutting it out, taping the contacts, etc. And of course, the clock issue.

I'm currently using a Sonicview Elite 360. One tuner runs my motorized 1 meter Ku, and the other runs my 7.5' BUD via a Vbox, no switches. This setup has worked fairly well for me for the last 2+ years. The motor control on the SV has been flawless, and the blind scan is actually not too bad. Now if only it did HD, and S2.......... If I would buy a single tuner unit I would probably use it for C-band and keep the SV on Ku duty. Seems to me there is considerably more S2 / HD stuff on C-band. Or, I may throw in a switch somewhere, although I really like the simplicity of not having them.

 

[pback]

The green tint on the SSO is not an issue if you are using HDMI to your HDTV. No sense buying a HD receiver to view 480 pics with RGB/Composite connections, right?

Two DVB tuners on the AZ Plus would be good but I would rather have an ATSC tuner for an all-in-one box, I have the SSO as my 2nd tuner.

I bought my AZ Plus from Rick's as Dr. Sat did not have a store yet at that time and my SSO came from Sadoun. Both units incur big time import duties into Canada but what can you do.

 

[greenterror]

Yeah, those duties can be a killer.

I'm still a tuber when it comes to TV, although I see an LCD in the near future. Currently, I'm running my main tv off the S-video on the Sonicview and use the composite out to feed two other tv's. If I were to upgrade my main tv, that would bring up another issue with the SSO. I understand that receiver will only output SD OR HD, not both simultaneously.

 

[Pixl]

I understand that receiver will only output SD OR HD, not both simultaneously.

My OpenBox does both. I watch the HDMI output in the living room, while my wife is watching the AV composite sent to the computer room and bed room on older tube tv's.

 

[odinbear]

My OpenBox I think does both, too. I watch the HDMI output in the living room and when it says 1080i the picture looks beautiful, super clear. My wife is watching the AV composite(3-plug) sent to the bed room on older tv. (her pic ain't so good). Buggy as hell though. Especially after reloading the channel list. (shut down the unit and repowering, i lose the hdmi output, I have to unhook it, make sure the other tv sees something, powerdown, hookit back up. Sometimes gotta do it more than once). Slow warmup too. All warranty items, IMO if you are concerned. I consider my unit, for the price, a final sale. (let the buyer beware)

 

[greenterror]

I've decided on the Az Premium+. Should be here next week, from DrSat.

Thanks everyone for your input.

 

[AcWxRadar]

I had an AZBox Premium HD receiver fail on me. This receiver has a two year warranty. I tried to send it back to the seller, but they refused and stated that they only offer a one month warranty. The 2-year warranty is NOT through the seller, but through the OpenSat company. Although the retailer is supposed to honor this 2-year warranty program, this one was refusing to do so and referred me to the parent company.

When I explained this trouble to OpenSat, they wanted me to pursue my warranty claim through the seller, but he was still refusing to honor the OpenSat warranty period. I corresponded with OpenSat and they granted me an RMA to send my unit directly to them in Portugal for the repair. They also informed me that they were investigating the seller and would "correct" this problem with him. I don't know what they intend to do to "correct" it, but they were either going to force him to follow their procedures or yank his contract with OpenSat as a qualified or licensed OpenSat outlet.

I understand why the seller did not want to accept my unit for warranty concerns. I was required to send it direct to OpenSat in Portugal and they required me to pay for the S&H and customs fees. It not only cost me to send it, but it isn't an easy task to set up the shipping to an overseas country. I think he did not want to bother with the procedure, and I certainly understand why.
However, that does not excuse him from the responsibility.

Since OpenSat informed me that they had other complaints of this nature regarding this seller and that they would "take care of it", I will not mention the company by name. This will allow OpenSat to deal with the seller's company directly and correct the problem without me giving them a black eye and circumventing OpenSat's efforts to resolve the problem for everyone.

I write this information here so that you will be informed that OpenSat will stand behind their 2-year warranty, even though you have to pay the S&H. This makes me very happy with my AZBox purchases. Maybe not so much pleased with the seller in the US, but at least the OpenSat company was extremely supportive of me and their product! Their support team was extremely cooperative and they replied to all my emails within one business day with superb instructions. I must say that their service for me was above and beyond anything that I ever expected. This really makes me pleased with my AZBox. They have a legitimate committment to their customers and they follow through with full support in every avenue.

You can decide upon which STB company that you wish to purchase from through your own research, but I give the AZBox and OpenSat a top ten rating from my personal experience.

RADAR