Sierra (Installers)

Hi Guys. It's a pity I'm late to this discussion. But I was a Sierra employee from 2001-2006. In the beginning when John Molloy was sky manager, things were good and customers were always treated right. And I was too! But then A guy called Keith became manager and it went down hill from there. My area was Wicklow. I had to work Monday to Saturday NO exceptions, I was up at 5 every day. We got no respect what so ever since Keith took over, he didn't care about customers or Installers. The area I had to cover was ridiculous, covering all of the county of Wicklow in one day, while another installer would be in the same area as me, we were not assigned to areas like east Wicklow or West, that changed though, but the pressure was incredible so much jobs and 1 man crew. I got 1 pay rise in all my time with Sierra. If the weather was bad we were not told to stop and if we did that days jobs were included in the next days work. I know my quality of work suffered as a result of abuse from Sierra and I know people don't want to hear sob stories, but at least that might make them understand why installers attitudes and work can be bad. I always tried to treat customers right in every way, but sometimes the pressure got to me and there is no way I could do all the things they wanted me to do and still have time to finish my last job. Sometimes I ran cables and put dishes where it was easiest for me that's the way it was! I went in to a house with one thing on my mind, get the job done and get out, sometimes I did have time for a cuppa or a chat! There was no way in Hell I was going to run phone wire, customers got the cable and I told them to run it themselves. Usually the phone socket was a mile away from the tv anyway. What really got to me was the fact if we had 4 boxes to install or 1, it was all treated as 1 job. Service calls were a nightmare as Sierra thought a service call should only take 20 mins MAX. That's why most installers did not go near the dish and only swap the box, because it was much quicker than going near the dish! We were also payed per job, so we had to install a lot to make money. I believe all their installers are contractors now! They don't employ installers any more.

What really annoyed me was the health and safety. At the end they were paying people to go around and photograph us without our hi vis vests, harness etc. It takes a lot of time to put on all the gear and noone used it most of the time! 1 man crews were the greatest dangers on ladders. But really all that safety milarky was to protect Sierra if we fell, we would have a hard time putting in a claim!

I.C.L in Carlow, contractors for N.T.L or U.P.C as it is now, was the only other company I ever worked for that had total contempt for their employees. They had many many good installers and completely wiped the floor with them. There should be some kind of Union for installers, but Sierra locked the gates to the yard and threatened to close the company if there was a union brought in, That will tell you the kind of cowboys these companies are. And the fact they moan about not making money and force people to work for nothing 6 days a week, no bonus nothing. I.C.L even have tracking on the vans now to have more control on their employees, I could tell you stories about them but hey, Enough for now.

Anyway that's an x I.C.L and Sierra employees insight into the world of Installers! LOL hope you enjoyed it and apologies if ever I was one of those installers that pi**ed you off, really I'm a nice guy!