Second hand BT Pro box

[Les-Gibson]

The fee for not returning a TV Box Pro is £115 (How to return and recycle your BT equipment for free | BT Help) after which I presume it becomes your property (?) so I guess it could be a profitable exercise to cancel within the cooling off period and retain the box. (No I haven't tried it and don't intend to 😀)

[Crimliar]

It's BT's property until a legal decision to the contrary.  Its use is dependent on a non-transferable agreement between BT and the person the box was supplied to.  BT specifically have rights that could be used to prevent the box from accessing BT-controlled servers/services.  So even if you bought the box "in good faith", there is no compulsion for BT to enable you to use it - your recourse would be from whoever sold you the box.

*Be aware that even being involved in a conversation about this prior to purchasing a box, pretty much "removes" the "in good faith" argument and creates the possibility that the purchaser would be considered to have received stolen property, also removing any recourse against the seller.

**On other platforms, moderators are much more strict on conversations about what amounts to illegal activity regarding their equipment!

[Les-Gibson]

@Crimliar 

I already have a 100% legit box which just sits on a shelf all day long gathering dust, I even power it up occasionally so that it can get updates but other than that it is redundant so I've no interest in getting another, I'm just curious.

[TimCurtis]

@Endwinad 

IPTV is only available with a BT TV subscription even for the Freeview channels (not all are available btw) as these are provided by BT.

[stereohaven]

Unless anything has changed I’m not aware of, a YouView box of any flavour picks up its overall look and feel from its platform configuration (the broadband line it is connected to).

Software updates are provided based on box type regardless of how the box was procured.

What you can access (apps, channels etc.), depends on the broadband line it is connected to and the answer the box gets when you try to access something. 

[Endwinad]

Thank you all for your responses. I will let you know how I get on once it arrives. 

[VeteranISPUser]

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@Les-Gibsonwrote:

The fee for not returning a TV Box Pro is £115 (How to return and recycle your BT equipment for free | BT Help) after which I presume it becomes your property (?) so I guess it could be a profitable exercise to cancel within the cooling off period and retain the box. (No I haven't tried it and don't intend to 😀)

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Hi @Les-Gibson   If all else fails then read the terms and conditions 😁

36(c) Payment of the non-return equipment charge does not transfer ownership, you must still return the loaned equipment.

[SRB]

Yup, @stereohaven is correct, when I sent my BT Pro box back and plugged in my old YouView branded box, which had sat on a shelf since I returned to BT, it updated overnight and downloaded the BT branded YouView interface. It is receiving updates.

[Crimliar]

Previously on Vodafone broadband, it's been the situation with YouView boxes, that if someone who'd previously been on BT switched on one of the old data-capped services switched to VF they'd have to reset the box (which could be annoying as they'd lose their recordings).  Once reset it'd stop using the VLAN tagging that had previously been used to get around the main data cap on the subscriber!

[mhoam]

Hi @VeteranISPUser 

Thanks for the useful link. Do you know if there is an option whereby I can legally purchase my BT Pro PVR if I leave BT Broadband when my contract ends?

It is a good box and my wife would appreciate not losing her many recordings 🙂

I can't see anything in that link regarding an option to keep the box and, as you say, the charge is for not returning the box, clearly NOT a purchase option!

Thanks