A Pretty Shoddy Sky Instal

swoofer

I was called to have a look at a freinds sky sytem as the dreaded " no satellite signal etc " was shown. I knew cables at back of box were ok so went straight to dish that was sited at step ladder height. I was appalled, disgusted, amazed, and very disaappointed. The cable from the lnb was tilted at an angle, and I could see the bare wire, there was no weather loop in the cable, the f conncector was in 2 parts, the cable used was very brittle, had a white solid plastic core, silver sheating, and not easy to bend, looked like chorus cable. the cable run was ultra short, the guy had drilled from the inside out and knocked a big lump of plaster off the outside wall.

This was a fully fledged sky installer. The call out charge to fix problem was 75 euro even though they only installed it 3 months ago!!

It took me 2 mins to fix, just used new f connector. It was so badly done it was bound to fail. I got nothing only the satisfsction that these people did not get 75 euros for 2 mins work.

Does this person have any comeback with sky. Apparently they signed for sky and got a free box, should have been a free instal as well but they rang these sky installers direct, they charged her 40 euros to fit.

Needless to say I wont be using them.

Tony

Whatever about the rest of the install drilling from inside out is the recommended practice, damage to plaster is unavoidable in some cases unfortunately but obviously this does not excuse the other bad practice.

Sponge Bob

GBCULLEN wrote:

This was a fully fledged sky installer. The call out charge to fix problem was 75 euro even though they only installed it 3 months ago!!

Define "Fully Fledged" please !

Small claims court for them if the wall is not restored and the cable brought up to scratch by close of business next friday. You should drill inside out but turn off the full hammer when you are nearly through . ( you know when the drill hits the inside of the outside block which is 4" thick so mark the bit ) .

You dictate the letter to go by registered post tomorrow with details of whats wrong .

swoofer

tony. I accept what you say and I should have added that the cable entry was next to a window cill so the person could have easily gauged the entry level from outside. It was a big blob of plaster that fell off.

spongebob, unfortunately the people concerned are after a quite life so won't make a row. Fully fledged read " Authorised Sky Agent" that's what they quote on the blurb but as with everything here it could mean sod all. I was so angry I had to post something and I like this board. By the way the cable was so bad if one tried to put it in a loop it would probably break.

One good point the dish was rock solid and well aligned.

gb--

watty

There are no Irish Standards/Certification for Domestic Satellite Dish install.

Tony can explain the nature of Sky Training & Examination of prospective agents. I suspect Sky training is on Product Features.

Tony

GBCULLEN wrote:

tony. I accept what you say and I should have added that the cable entry was next to a window cill so the person could have easily gauged the entry level from outside. It was a big blob of plaster that fell off.

It does sound very careless for sure especially if the depth could be easily gauged .

Tony

watty wrote:

There are no Irish Standards/Certification for Domestic Satellite Dish install.

Tony can explain the nature of Sky Training & Examination of prospective agents. I suspect Sky training is on Product Features.

Absolutely right Watty there is not training on dish installation of ASA'a just product features. Even the sierra training is minimal

Ice_Box

I've been thinking of getting Sky for a while and info like this puts me off. Are there any guys out there who will do a good job? I live in Maynooth.

Tony

Ice_Box wrote:

I've been thinking of getting Sky for a while and info like this puts me off. Are there any guys out there who will do a good job? I live in Maynooth.

Yes there are but its a matter of getting a good local independent, perhaps ask you friends/neighbours who they used.

watty

Tony wrote:

Absolutely right Watty there is not training on dish installation of ASA'a just product features. Even the sierra training is minimal

WARNING

Point the sharp end at wall before pulling the trigger.

steveon

Turning off the full hammer doesn't always mean you wont knock off a huge piece of plaster when u go through a wall, although it can help, it simply depends on the structure of a wall.

The biggest problem with Sky installers can be summed up quite easily, a lot of them have never before installed anything before, they simply purchased a sat finder and off they went and gave the rest a bad name.

This is a crying shame and I dont have to look very far from my own front door to see some bad installs. Maybe we could submit some bad installs for others to see for the laught.

Rosser

Maybe we could submit some bad installs for others to see for the laught.[/QUOTE]

Not a bad idea, you'd crack up if you saw the job they did on my house

steveon

Hi Rosser If you saw some of the installs I see everyday you would probably think your bad install was actually quite good...lol but I hope u managed to get everything sorted to your satisfaction

brightspark

Steveon said

Maybe we could submit some bad installs for others to see for the laugh

Any chance of photos of good installs too?

stoneroses

Hmm.

Cannot beat cable when it works. Less wires. No Dish. Broadband and Telephony.

watty

OTH I have 3500 FTA channels, 7 set boxes and Basic Sky sub for €22

My BB & phone wireless too via Metro.

Nearest cable is likely to be always at least 6km away.

steveon

Wow sounds like a sweet setup you have there watty.... I for one am a sucker for channel surfing so hmmmm if it took approx 1 second to change channels it would take about an hr just to keep flicking....impressive

What satellites u receive from???

watty

I have a motorised (motek from www.satellite.ie) 1.1m Triax dish with a Fortec Star "beta" blind scan receiver. 42E to 50W

4 Quattro LNBS on a 95cm for 13E, 19E, 23.5E and 28E feeding a 16 way multiswitch with 2 Sky boxes (one FTA, one Sub) and 3 PCs with satreceivers (2 have two cards each).

Also a C-Band LNBF on 96cm dish @26E (now), not aligned just yet. 1.7m mesh dish coming for the LNBF.

steveon

Very impressive indeed watty u must take some pics