Freesat Anmeldelser 

I bought the Aris box in September 22, it failed in July 23. They replaced it under warrantee (which took too long and I wasn't back up and running until end of August 23). The replacement failed today so it lasted 7 months.

They wont replace it as the warrantee is only on the first box so their replacement only needed to last 7 days and it was out of warrantee.

I asked about approved repairers or YouTube fix video links and apparently it's against their company policy as it would break the seals... so the answer is to bin it and buy another one... how green!

I'll have to find another option as £250 for 12 months is like paying for Sky with none of the benefits.

Ho ritenuto che ci fosse una valida alternativa a HUMAX invece: sui canali abituali mi compare "segnale criptato" tranne che RAI 1, non riesco ad avere i canali nell'ordine che preferisco. Già questo mi dice che ho acquistato un aggeggio inutile e che ho buttato i soldi.

-EDIT- The app has now been removed and remote recording setup is no longer available.
The app is awful. It doesn't scan for my box and it overheats my iPhone 15 and drains the battery.
-EDIT- Since the October '24 software update the box is now even worse. The EPG is hopeless, more often than not showing 'no data'. It doesn't move around properly and I often now have to type in a channel number to get it to move to the previous/next screen of channels.
Time-shifting hangs when it gets close to 'live' TV.
Two recording that start at the same time now fail.

The 4K 1TB box is also very poor. The surround sound output does not work on HDMI or optical. It cuts out intermittently and this has been an ongoing issue for several years with no sign of a fix. You have to leave it set to 'Stereo'

I bought a 4k hdr box from freesat directly on 21st Feb 24, plugged it in turned it on, picture was fuzzy and yellow, then went into boot loop... they collected it the following saturday.. had to keep chasing to find out if a replacement was going to be sent.. I was told that it would take 14 working days for someone to check the returned faulty
box (even though we had established it was faulty). They said it needs to be checked just incase I have damaged the box with a hammer prior to sending it back. I requested a refund in full then was told that it would take 14 working days for a refund. I politely pointed out that UK law states all refunds are to be made with in 14days of returned items being received. They received it on 28th Feb 24 therefore being a leap year I should have the refund latest 13th March 24... STILL NO REFUND! So they're breaking the law and distance selling regulations. Now my emails are being
ignored. SHOCKING CUSTOMER SERVICE, COMPANY POLICIES ARE OUT OF DATE. SHAME ON YOU JOHNATHAN THOMPSON *****AVOID FREESAT, EVERYONE TV****

After 5weeks of intermittent tv,overcoming several policy hurdles finally agreed there was a fault with the box. Alas more delay when you actually atempt to return faulty box and you have to go with out any television at all! Even some television is better than no television at all!
Eventually told them to keep the replacement I shall purchase a replacement from a more reputable, reliable company. Please note no after hours support strictly 9to5 and no weekends. AVOID At all costs, no thought for consumer, even when their equipment is at fault.

I can't believe that you have taken off channels that I enjoy watching tryed retuning an can't get any back this is a joke I will now have to go and buy Freeview thanks Freesat

Arris's Freesat 4k players and recorders have two serious design flaws: HDR flag is always on, and Dolby Digital 2.0 (stereo) audio is flagged as 5.1 so is unusable if you have surround-sound amp and speakers.
Arris have known about these bugs for years but won't (or can't) fix them.
See DPREVIEW forum for details.

I bought a refurbished freesat 4K box directly from freesat @£180-00 as the old HUMAX BOX kept freezing
So like a fool decided to replace it with a FREESAT 4K BOX? i was going to purchase a new box from freesat?
But on freesat's online advertising they said why not purchase a refurbished one from them as they are fully serviced and are just like new, which i did,
When the box arrived it did look like new. i set it up and followed the instructions and connected to the broadband router, everything seems to work fine, so i put the old HUMAX BOX ( which was second hand when i bought it) 5yrs ago and had given me good service until recently out on the front in case anyone wanted it, the next day i tried to record a programme.
And it said on the screen HARD DRIVE NOT CONNECTED please reboot, anyway to cut a long story short i sent the box back, about 2 weeks ago and haven't received the replacement refurbished box,
So because I now haven't got a box i can't watch live tv

I fully agree with recent comments I've seen regarding freesat not only have they removed all the great TV channels you can't even email them and having recently purchased one of their freesat boxes I can't even get the great tv player app from them I certainly wish I'd not bought this rubbish I've even now restarted Sky at least they have the Great TV channels.

Some of the Worst Customer Service Ever. Had 4K Freesat Box for just over a year then it went wrong. Insistent that it’s my internet but that’s working fine. They treat you like a fool and have to escalate everything which takes weeks. Avoid and save yourself a lot of hassle. They will do everything to avoid replacing a faulty box. As soon as your warranty expires (12 months) they don’t want to know. Spend your hard earned money elsewhere or you will be sorry when things go wrong (and they will).
My Mother In Law lives with us, is 94, housebound and frail so depends on the TV each and every day. Because of the fault on our box she is unable to watch any catch up channels so misses out on lots of things she enjoys watching. Well done Freesat, hope you are proud of yourselves.
Freesat are nothing short of scammers. They happily sell you an inferior product which may last a year if you are lucky; then when it goes wrong they are no where to be seen.
Like a previous reviewer I received an email asking me for further information or my review would be deleted. That’s typical of Freesat, they don’t want the truthful negative reviews but continue to treat customers appallingly and like fools. AVOID AT ALL COSTS, DON’T GET SCAMMED.

Freesat are taking off even more channels. When I first started with Freesat, there were about 147 TV channels, now there are only 119 TV channels. Only 3 movie channels now. Freeview have the same amount of channels on their platform. If you are considering Freesat, don't bother as they are taking off channels all the time.

First of all, can I just say that I am doing my review as someone that has used all Humax's Freesat past models and I also have 37 years of computer knowledge including programming them.

NOTE: If you did not use the Humax Freesat box, my review may not be relevant to you guys?

The hardware is brilliant! but the software (menu system) is a joke and so full of bugs and I don't understand why they don't fix them?.

I can only assume they used a 'program designer' who has never written computer code in his/her life and hence has no LOGIC but the programmer's had to use that design anyway?

Can I just add here that the remote control is terrible too but I tried my old Humax remote control and it works PERFECTLY with it and use it if you still have one guys!. (The [iPlayer] [ITV] [NETFLIX] [ON DEMAND] buttons do not need to be there and can be accessed via the main menu and were they payed to put them there?)

I will say that the menu system does have some GREAT improvements over the old Humax Menu and well done!, but they haven't got the basics right and such a mess Doh!

I cannot list all the faults here but I can tell them if they contact me IF they PROMISE to fix them?

It also seems the hard drive fails far too soon too (2 years some say and Google it) and that makes no sense and my Humax lasted over 5 years.

I have read that this American (ARRIS) company hates to be told off and I AM telling you off!

We HAVE to buy it as it's the only one out there that can record and it does it well but you will swear using it IF you have owned a Humax box in the past and know how good it should be?

Thanks Robert Err too and I read YOUR reviews in here and GOTCHA! and that's bad.

ARRIS: PLEASE ask your customers what is wrong and listen to them and then fix it and it's dead easy with a firmware/software update and then your customers will LOVE you OK?

Oh and, if you do have to replace the Hard Drive (hope not!), I have read it's best not to use an SSD drive as it will overheat and just buy a faster HD drive than it already has built in like 7200 RPM is better and up to 2 TB it can take.

Oh and also upgrade to a Wide Band LNB for your dish (cost me £99) and this one CAN record up to 4 channels at the same time with that and BRILLIANT ARRIS!

The Astra 2 satellite which FREESAT uses can only be accessed in the UK and why did they use an American company to create the FREESAT box I wonder and that makes no sense?

I have not and I never will contact FREESAT customer service as I know it will just be an idiot reading from a manual with no idea how to use it themselves etc

Freesat Recordable 4K TV Box 500GB bought one of these took home didn't work it was replaced.
21 months later hard drive dead these don't seem very reliable and forking out £240 for a new box after 21 months is bad.
Will stick with netflix and othe freeview apps.

Trust pilot are not to be trusted removed my honest review about Freesat for more information..... they were sent info but Mohammad still removed it? Nice....
Be careful sending Freesat log in info they have shared my box with TV licence name and address info.

I emailed Freesat gdpr dept in December to ask why I have not got a response although they have asked Trustpilot to take this down seems they can email someone?

Anyhow here we go again 4K box seems a bit strange when you can't get anything 4k on it? There is a handful of free hd channels on the box that's your lot.

I have the 500gb system it's ok like sky of 10 years ago gets a bit laggy at times like sky of old.

Shame Freesat can't email it's customers about data protection breach instead of Trustpilot aye?
The other reviews say the lot about Freesat really don't they.....
How on earth it's £200 is beyond me I just think Freesat are running along sky's expensive coat tails although sky box is free I could of had my subscription for 6 months paid for with sky but I'm willing to give Freesat a go we'll just see if this box lasts????
Peace out brothers and sisters

Had my box 2 year 8 months and it decided only to record only on the channel you watching. Luckily I took out
an insurance.. The box was sent off for repair but was deemed to be unrepairable..I paid £229.00 and would of expected it to last more than 2 years 9 months!!!

Update
Since disabling the wireless connection and using a wired Ethernet connection it now appears to be stable, out of curiosity I went back to the wireless connection and the problem reappeared. Therefore I will as a wired connection as this is more stable now.
Now on my 3rd 4k 2tb box, Argos replaced the first one for resetting itself on startup also resetting during watching it.
The second one did the same so contacted Freesat helpline and told them about the faults I have experienced with these 2 boxes they said it could be my power outlet which I know for a fact wasn't as I am a retired tv, audio and computer engineer.
Their answer was that there might be a faulty batch from Argos so sent me another box, which I plugged in and all seemed ok that day, however the next day I switched it on and guess what? Yes started to reset itself once again displaying the same faults as the other two boxes.
I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s fundamentally flawed.
So I think this box and it’s design is not fit for the purpose.
All of which leads me to believe that either there is serious design flaws or serious software issues.
So now having to resort to recording any important recordings on a HD freeview box as cannot depend on the freesat box to be reliable, also to another Humax freesat box in the conservatory which has given faultless service in 5 years.

Have disabled auto update and went to wired Ethernet connection to see if this cures the problem but can’t understand why all 3 boxes displayed the same faults.
Tried different HDMI ports with no success.

DON'T BUY A FREESAT BOX FROM THESE CLOWNS.

Ordered a 4k 1TB re-con box - came on time and was like new - that's where the good news ends!

Unable to pick up any channels. Did the overnight update routine - still the same.

Called customer services and was told my box need to show software version 1.51. Told customer service muppet that my box was showing 1.43. CS told me to do the overnight update routine! Informed CS that I already tried this and nothing. Asked if I could download version 1.51 from the web - no response. Told I would be issued a new box.

After several emails to confirm my address and the order number I was sent a new box. Before it came I asked them to make sure it was pre-loaded with version 1.51 - you know what's coming.....new box turns up with same software as the 1st one (1.43) - tried the overnight update and again, nothing.

Requested a refund which they are now dragging their feet on.

Totally crap product with a totally crap Customer Service to back it up. Avoid at all cost - waste of money and time.

5 times I asked these clowns if there is any other way to download the correct software version and each time zero response from them.

BE WARNED

Really awful customer service and response from Freesat. I would avoid buying any service/equipment from them. I bought a Freesat box in 2020 and within 12 months the Hard Drive had broken. As opposed to sending me a new box I was sent a refurbished box. the refurbished box has now failed!

I wish I had read the reviews before buying from this company. If you are considering buying a Freesat box I recommend you use one of the reliable, honest high street retailers, or one of the many online retailers who have a good customer support team. I bought direct, and found the courier they use, DHL, sends you advisery delivery dates/times that are purely fictitious. After waiting in for 2 days, my parcel finally arrived with absolutely no match to their emails. The lies and deceit that followed from Freesat Customer Support had to be experienced to be believed - they couldn't give a damn. Unless you want an early heart attack or anxiety attack, I recommend you steer well clear of this company!

If I could I would give FreeSat Service a Zero I would.
Well now my Freesat box sound failed completely and I returned the box to Freesat, who acknowledged reciept on 2nd January 2024. But as of today still not got a replacement box so asked for a full refund.
FreeSat Support still does not actively persue thier internal actions and dont keep me the customer informed, at all. I Have to chase, and chase and chase.
Apparently they think they sent a box via DHL on 2nd Jan but with no tracking, I didnt recieve it, they cant track and I think have lost themselve up thier own ........ side. I have given them 14 days then going to issue a small claim court action, maybe getting a CCJ will wake someone up in this lost organisation.