Picture freezing due to poor satellite signal

[Another+One]

Recently, the picture from my 10 year old or so Sky HD+ box is getting poorer.  Whereas the two signal strength and quality indicators used to show almost perfect values they now hover around the half way mark even on fine weather days.

My signal now breaks up and error messages about lost signal are shown when there's light drizzle and all channels are lost during rain (not necessarily torrential) so I assume the old LNBs or their connections are failing, or the dish has moved.  There's nothing obscuring the line of sight.

I'd like to call out a Sky engineer and tried to do so online, but the chatbot informed me that this was possible only for Q customers and didn't offer an alternative method of contact.

Please advise how I can arrange this and what the cost is.  Is it worth buying Sky Protect and will this lessen the cost of callouts?

thanks

[Annie+UK]

Sounds like a dish alignment problem

Either Phone Sky or a 3rd party satellite installer and they will be able to re-align the dish

Note: Sky charge £65 for a call-out

[Mark39]

If the LNB is of similar age to your Sky box, I'd say you're right and it's likely failing.

Sky+ customers can't book an engineer online, so you'd need to call. You can find the number to call via the 'need more help' dropdown at the bottom of this page:  https://www.sky.com/help 

Cost of a callout is usually £65. Sky Protect costs around £100 year, the last time I looked, so whether or not it's useful may depend on how times a year  you would call on it.

You'll probably be offered a good deal to upgrade to Sky Q, if that's an option for you. That would include sorting out the dish issue at no additional cost. Bear in mind that if your Sky box is 10 years the hard disk is probably on its last legs...

[Another+One]

Thank you  @Annie+UK and @Mark39 for your answers - just the advice I need.

Regarding upgrading to Q, I wondered if this might be offered and started another thread here today to find the benefits and disadvantages of HD+ vs Q:  Link to HD+ vs Q I quite like how the HD+ UI and use case works and might be frustrated changing to something that looks pretty but isn't as efficient to use.

[Mini+Mo]

@Another+OneWhen I made the move from Sky HD+ to Sky Q some years ago, engineer replaced the old rusty dish,lnb & ran new cable, all included in the offer.

Took a while to get use to Sky Q  menu layout, still a few niggles with things I missed from HD+, but I wouldn't go back to HD+.

[Mini+Mo]

One thing I do like with my Sky Q  2TB box it's 4K, plus it has more storage capacity compared to the old box, & being able to record up to six programmes while watching live TV is useful.

Sky Q Mini box is a useful addon, especially in this household, & it connects  via Wi F, or hardwired.

[Another+One]

For information I arranged a call-out and the installer replaced the dish and LNB and re-aligned everything and I now have an excellent picture once again.

I was given a discount and charged the reduced rate of £30 as opposed to the £65 full amount.