Grundig GUFSAT01HD

...going to houses that have Grundig boxes as they take forever to set up. Then they asked how much I had paid for them and said I should have gone to John Lewis or Richer Sounds as they are selling then for £97. Now I know prices fluctuate from store to store but by £43???? So I had spent £86 more than I needed to and I still need to buy two more boxes for other rooms, so this could have almost paid for a third box.

I went online and ...
...was told again, DONT TOUCH GRUNDIG THEY ARE THE WORST YOU CAN BUY, GET A REFUND. Go and buy a HUMAX.

The box I use is connected to a Samsung 42 inch plasma screen just over a year old and the one upstairs is connected to a Sony Bravia 42 inch plasma screen so I feel its highly unlikely that any of the issues are relevant to the TVs.

The only way I can actually get these boxes to come on ( and yes this issue is with BOTH ... more

Possibly the worst piece of electronic equipment I have ever owned.

I purchased two of these boxes the day before guys were due to install the dish and cabling. I went to Currys, the salesman assured me that this was the best brand and I paid £146 each. It all went downhill from there.

Two men came to install the dish and the first thing they said was that they dread going to houses that have Grundig boxes as they take forever to set up. Then they asked how much I had paid for them and said I should have gone to John Lewis or Richer Sounds as they are selling then for £97. Now I know prices fluctuate from store to store but by £43???? So I had spent £86 more than I needed to and I still need to buy two more boxes for other rooms, so this could have almost paid for a third box.

I went online and found that Currys do a price match so went back to the store to ask if they could refund the difference. The answer was yes they could as long as it was certain stores ( John Lewis was one stores they matched, Richer Sounds was not), and as long as the item was in stock. They searched online while I was there and John Lewis were showing as out of stock, so no refund.

When I asked if I could just bring them back for a full refund I was told that I could only do that if the security seal hadnt been damaged. It had on both boxes as we had opened them to take a look.

I then went home, looked online again and found that Comet had them for £127 and they WERE in stock. Back to Currys ( this time carrying my macbook on the relevant page!), and was refunded the difference between the Currys price and the Comet price. Better than nothing right?

Next morning, and in fact every morning since, I switch my tv on and the freesat doesnt come on, its just a blank screen. Called the installers and was told again, DONT TOUCH GRUNDIG THEY ARE THE WORST YOU CAN BUY, GET A REFUND. Go and buy a HUMAX.

The box I use is connected to a Samsung 42 inch plasma screen just over a year old and the one upstairs is connected to a Sony Bravia 42 inch plasma screen so I feel its highly unlikely that any of the issues are relevant to the TVs.

The only way I can actually get these boxes to come on ( and yes this issue is with BOTH boxes) is to unplug it from the wall, wait for a minute then plug it back in. I recall when we used to have Sky that this had to be done occasionally but EVERY DAY??? I am not even turning the things off at night, all we do is switch of the TVs, we dont touch the boxes, and every morning we have this same issue of having to unplug them to get the to come back on.

If thats not bad enough, there have been three occasions in the past 4 days where I have switched to a chanel and realised the the sound doesnt correspond with what Im seeing, its 15 seconds or so 'out'. So you see peoples mouths moving before you hear what they are saying. Again the only way to resolve this is to switch the whole thing off at the wall and power it up again.

So these boxes ARE going back to Currys just as soon as I can afford to go and get Humax ones from somewhere that isnt charging extortionate prices ( a credit card refund will take days to credit and my kids will give me grief if we are without it for a few days !).

Since all of this has happened I have spoken to many people who have all said HUMAX is the only box worth buying. My advice would be dont touch Grundig and dont bother with Currys, the staff dont appear to have a clue about this product or anything related to Freesat, and the staff training leaves a lot to be desired. 

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