Slingbox 350

Pros: Allows place shifting for the period of time the warranty lasts.

Cons: Slingbox has a habit of sending out software updates after the product is out of warranty which causes the product to stop working. Owners are then forced to either pay $29.95 for tech support or embrace their newest paperweight.

Summary: If you are considering buying a Slingbox PLEASE do your research before you buy!! A good place to start is slingbox's own answer forums (http://answers.slingbox.com/index.jspa ). Search for "firmware update" or "software update" and you'll find dozens of instances of updates causing product failure. Sling Media (the company that manufactures/sells Slingbox hardware) has a habit of sending out what they call "firmware updates", basically new software, 1-6 months after the warranty expires. After these updates a large number of Slingbox owners have found their units cease to work. Upon calling for support Slingbox owners/users are told they must pay $29.95 for technical support. Sling Media explicitly states that while the technical support may or may not fix the problem, the fee is NON refundable regardless of the outcome.

Additionally, Sling Media says in their own Software License Agreement that software downloads are warranted for 90 days, however when owners have asked Sling Media to honor this policy, Sling Media refuses.

While I cannot prove that Sling Media intentionally send out faulty software (perhaps someone with more experience reading/writing computer code could), it cannot be denied that Sling Media does have motive to send firmware updates that cause out of warranty units to stop performing correctly. 1) Anyone who owns an out of warranty slingbox is a potential revenue stream for Sling Media. 2) Sling media controls the frequency of software updates, and in theory could release another flawed "update" as often as they want and generate additional troubleshooting fees. 3) Multiple users have reported their slingbox units worked up until the release of a software update, lending credibility to the idea that the updates are causing Slingbox units to stop working.

I encourage anyone who has had a similar experience to respond to this blog, to follow @slingboxscam and search #slingboxscam on twitter.

http://slingboxscam.blogspot.com/2013/05/if-you-are-considering-buying-slingbox.html