Sky Conway - Any good?

MartyM

Hi All

Recently purchased a new apartment in Dublin and got the "Guided Tour" from the foreman, plumbing, heating, etc, etc...

When I queried TV (NTL, Sky Digital, etc), he said there was a communal dish on the roof and that a company called Sky Conway were providing the digital TV and that if I want Sky that I MUST use Sky Conway.

Maybe I have to use Sky Conway for Digital TV in general (or maybe its just for Sky, I'm not sure!), I'm waiting for the Developers to get back to me with my options.....if I have any!

Anyway, I have read some posts on this company that does not inspire confidence, but they were posted 1 - 2 years ago, so maybe things have changed.

In my rental property I had NTL Digital, which was fine but I was looking forward to Sky+ in my new apartment....particularly as it is now free to new customers.....maybe thats not valid with Sky Conway?....or maybe its not possible??

Any boards members with recent experience with this company would be great?

How much control do I have over which Sky packages I want, Sports, Movies, etc? Is it the same as if I were dealing with Sky directly?

If I want to change my package, do I call Sky or Sky Conway?.....its a confusing set-up!!!

Can I deal directly with Sky?

Any way to get a small dish which I can camouflage on my patio?

Thanks!

Homer

AFAIK they have a communal dish which feeds into each property allowing you to have a dedicated sky box in your home.
However, as they only provide one feed into each property you cannot get Sky+ as this requires two feeds from the LNB normally.
I have come across this in a few apartment blocks and this was the setup but your own may be different?
Standard dish is 80cm and most management companies insist you do not put up your own dish for aesthetic reasons.
This does not stop most people from getting their own dish from what I can see looking at most new developments!!

MartyM

industria wrote: »

AFAIK they have a communal dish which feeds into each property allowing you to have a dedicated sky box in your home.
However, as they only provide one feed into each property you cannot get Sky+ as this requires two feeds from the LNB normally.
I have come across this in a few apartment blocks and this was the setup but your own may be different?
Standard dish is 80cm and most management companies insist you do not put up your own dish for aesthetic reasons.
This does not stop most people from getting their own dish from what I can see looking at most new developments!!

Thanks for the info! Its good to know about the requirement for 2 LNBs for Sky+.

At least now when I talk to them, I have a specific question to ask!

Although when I do phone them, I'm sure I'll get a great sales speech!....hence the reason for posting here first!

watty

I can't print what I think or I would have to ban myself.

You'll need a 65cm dish under a plastic sheet on the balcony. I hope you can see the South East.

MartyM

watty wrote: »

I can't print what I think or I would have to ban myself.

That says it all!

Its very frustrating, they advertise that these apartments are built with smart homes technology (maybe it sound innovations in our case, and smart homes for the houses!)....either way, they then lump you with limited options for TV providers.

I understand the management company need (or like) to have a communal dish, its just a pity they cannot go to Sky directly!!

Tony

I spend quite some time fitting dishes to apartments which were fitted out by sky conway. As I'm in the business myself I cant say what i think of their work.:)

Tony

MartyM wrote: »

I understand the management company need (or like) to have a communal dish, its just a pity they cannot go to Sky directly!!

You can have a communal dish where everyone is free to choose what provider they wish to use its just that builders don't use independent installers for the most part. BTW sky conway have nothing to do with sky apart from being an authorised agent. Find out how much the monthly charge is on top of your sky subscription.

MartyM

Tony wrote: »

You can have a communal dish where everyone is free to choose what provider they wish to use its just that builders don't use independent installers for the most part. BTW sky conway have nothing to do with sky apart from being an authorised agent. Find out how much the monthly charge is on top of your sky subscription.

It will be interesting to see how much they are charging!

Yeah, I know Sky Conway has nothing to do with Sky, thats why its a pity that I cant go directly to sky to get my subscription!

Tony

MartyM wrote: »

Yeah, I know Sky Conway has nothing to do with Sky, thats why its a pity that I cant go directly to sky to get my subscription!

As far as I know thats how it works you get your sky package from sky and pay extra for conway to enable astra 2 access on your cable network, i presume you are having a set top box in the apartment?

MartyM

Tony wrote: »

As far as I know thats how it works you get your sky package from sky and pay extra for conway to enable astra 2 access on your cable network, i presume you are having a set top box in the apartment?

I have no idea what I get with Sky Conway? Like yourself I would assume I get a set-top box.

So, its sounds like all they actually contribute to this is the communal dish and then they look for extra money on top of your Sky digital subscription.

I'm still confused as to why the management company would not go to Sky and get the communal dish. The "service" provided by sky conway seems pointless....unless Sky do not deal with apartment blocks??


Also, are the management company right to tell me, if I want Sky Digital I must use sky conway?

Doesn't seem very fair....

Tony

Heres how it worked with customers I have fitted dishes for.

1. Sky conway wire the building and give a basic service with RTE and couple of other free to air channels ( for which they should pay the broadcaster)

2. The sell you a sky sub as agents and get the commission

3. they charge you an additional fee for access to their cable.

Sky are quite happy to wire up apartments blocks, they have even set up a division to do this, see www.skyhomes.ie

Any apartment block I have installed in has two cables running to each apartment and the apartment owner the chooses whether they want Local terrestrial only, local + FTA sat or local + fta + sky + HD or just basic sky. In some cases owners just brought in the existing boxes and plugged in.
We have even added in astra 1 and hotbird for those wanting it. The only charge afterwards should be maintenance which is pretty cheap on a well installed system.

Can you imagine if you were told you had to use a specific telecom company that the builder decided upon, there would be uproar, don't see why tv provision should be any different.

MartyM wrote: »

I have no idea what I get with Sky Conway? Like yourself I would assume I get a set-top box.

So, its sounds like all they actually contribute to this is the communal dish and then they look for extra money on top of your Sky digital subscription.

I'm still confused as to why the management company would not go to Sky and get the communal dish. The "service" provided by sky conway seems pointless....unless Sky do not deal with apartment blocks??


Also, are the management company right to tell me, if I want Sky Digital I must use sky conway?

Doesn't seem very fair....

zefer

We have Sky Conway in our apartment block and they are a waste of space.
They sell you a "service" for which you have to pay €40 every 3 months and then if you want Sky you have to pay the sky fee separately to Sky.

We are trying to get them out from our building at the moment..

mass

As the only option available in our apartment block, Sky Conway have supplied us with Sky+ box and service. As previously posted, most new developements have two cable drops to faciliate Sky+ or multiple receivers.

Communal systems are inevitably poorer quality. Signal insertion loss due to the aditional diplexers, multiplexers, amps and other equipment they use almost always leads to poor quality. I have been 3 months contstantly calling them about pixelation, drop-out and other problems. They call out, twiddle things, and generally get the same result each time.

You'll find if you call NTL, that they are willing to cable to your block's distribution point free of charge to the developer/mgt company. However because many delvelopers have a contractual arrangement with Sky Conway, you'll have to push your mgt company hard along with your neighbours to allow NTL in.

Tony

mass wrote: »

Communal systems are inevitably poorer quality.

This is simply not true , communal systems properly designed and installed should give exactly the same high quality pictures than a stand alone dish system.

Kotek Besar

Have I missed something here?

If there's a communal dish pointing at 28.2, with one feed coming in to each apartment, what's to stop one connecting his own FTA or Sky Digibox? And furthermore, from getting a second-hand (second-year?) contract direct from Sky?

Tony

benifa wrote: »

Have I missed something here?

If there's a communal dish pointing at 28.2, with one feed coming in to each apartment, what's to stop one connecting his own FTA or Sky Digibox? And furthermore, from getting a second-hand (second-year?) contract direct from Sky?

Nothing in theory and this is the way communal system should be. In conways case though they have the ability to block satellite frequencies to individual apartments if you do not pay up.

Kotek Besar

Tony wrote: »

..In conways case though they have the ability to block satellite frequencies to individual apartments if you do not pay up.

Right, now I get it. Crafty buggers. Still, that's the fault of the apartment developers, surely, for employing Sky Conway to wire the building and not an independent. Presumably the former charge much less to do the job, in the hope that they'll recoup revenue from the poor sods who buy the apartments.

MartyM

I phoned conway out of curiosity to see what they charge and offer!

Their connection fee is 60 euro.....I guess this means they will unblock the signal to the apartment??

Then for the basic channels, they charge 15 euro every quarter. She couldnt tell me what channels I would definitely get, but she was sure I would at least get the 8 terrestrial channels!

If I wanted Sky, it was:
Installation = 82.50 (without a phone line)
Installation = 45 (with a phone line)

Sky+
Installation = 75
Box = 149

These figures are from memory, but they're close enough. Also the Sky charges appear to be the same as Sky themselves would charge....not sure about the 82.50 installation, but the 45 euro installation is the same.


I then asked if I only wanted Sky Digital (no terrestrial) could I avoid the 15 euro quarterly charge and she said no, its actually a charge for the communal dish and not the basic package.

In the end, it turns out that if I want basic and/or Sky its 15 euro per quarter.

Deffo would not pay 15 euro a quarter to just use their aerial and receive terrestrial....

Daemonic

I have (to put up with) Sky Conway in my apartment block. Basic channels are BBC1/2/3/4, RTE 1/2, UTV, C4, TV3, TG4, Sky News, Living/Living +1, Film4, Virgin1 and a few Music channels.

MartyM

Daemonic wrote: »

I have (to put up with) Sky Conway in my apartment block. Basic channels are BBC1/2/3/4, RTE 1/2, UTV, C4, TV3, TG4, Sky News, Living/Living +1, Film4, Virgin1 and a few Music channels.

It sounds like the basic package is a mix of terrestrial (aerial) and satellite (communal dish).

I guess RTE would not be available from the communal dish without a Sky subscription...

Kotek Besar

MartyM wrote: »

It sounds like the basic package is a mix of terrestrial (aerial) and satellite (communal dish).

I guess RTE would not be available from the communal dish without a Sky subscription...

I suspect that there is no terrestrial aerial, only the dish.

dcom

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the negative opinions of Sky Conway.

When we moved into our new house we were told by the builder that we had to use sky conway, this is obviously a little arrangement with the builder and them because it turns out to be completely untrue......
They said our estate was to be 'satellite free' which is also B.S.

We ended up going to SKY direct as sky conway were so rude to deal with.
The lady on the phone did nothing for the PR of the company, she was the main reason why we cancelled our subscription 6 mths ago

From our experience you should just go direct to Sky and forget about sky conway if at all possible

kbell

Conways supplied communal systems to several apartment blocks a few years back here in drogheda.
All the tenants are paying management company fees which should cover dish maintenance.
Conways showed up last week and called into a resident, to check the system was working ok.
The guy fumbled around behind the customers tv for a few minutes then went outside.
Sky was fine at this point.A moment later Customers screen now reads No signal being recieved.
He returned a few minutes later and told the customer that the multiswitch had just died, and it would cost excess €700 to replace.
He said that they would cover half of the price with the 8 tenants coughing up the rest.
He then asked the resident to fill in some form of direct debit, at this point customer gave him his marching orders.
As i'm working on phase two of the development, i was asked to check out the equipment last saturday.
The guy had just disconected the 8 feeds from the switch and left the block with nothing.
I reconected the feeds and everything is now ok.
Needless to say the apartment owner wasn't happy about nearly being conned into paying for equipment that wasn't needed.

Kotek Besar

kbell wrote: »

Conways supplied communal systems to several apartment blocks a few years back here in drogheda.
All the tenants are paying management company fees which should cover dish maintenance.
Conways showed up last week and called into a resident, to check the system was working ok.
The guy fumbled around behind the customers tv for a few minutes then went outside.
Sky was fine at this point.A moment later Customers screen now reads No signal being recieved.
He returned a few minutes later and told the customer that the multiswitch had just died, and it would cost excess €700 to replace.
He said that they would cover half of the price with the 8 tenants coughing up the rest.
He then asked the resident to fill in some form of direct debit, at this point customer gave him his marching orders.
As i'm working on phase two of the development, i was asked to check out the equipment last saturday.
The guy had just disconected the 8 feeds from the switch and left the block with nothing.
I reconected the feeds and everything is now ok.
Needless to say the apartment owner wasn't happy about nearly being conned into paying for equipment that wasn't needed.

If that's true, I feel a court case coming on.. I hope the resident in question kept documentary evidence of Sky Conway's work, findings and recommendations.

Tony

This is fraud pure and simple,if it were me I'd be talking to the Gardaí

kbell wrote: »

Conways supplied communal systems to several apartment blocks a few years back here in drogheda.
.

byte

kbell wrote: »

Conways supplied communal systems to several apartment blocks a few years back here in drogheda.
All the tenants are paying management company fees which should cover dish maintenance.
Conways showed up last week and called into a resident, to check the system was working ok.
The guy fumbled around behind the customers tv for a few minutes then went outside.
Sky was fine at this point.A moment later Customers screen now reads No signal being recieved.
He returned a few minutes later and told the customer that the multiswitch had just died, and it would cost excess €700 to replace.
He said that they would cover half of the price with the 8 tenants coughing up the rest.
He then asked the resident to fill in some form of direct debit, at this point customer gave him his marching orders.
As i'm working on phase two of the development, i was asked to check out the equipment last saturday.
The guy had just disconected the 8 feeds from the switch and left the block with nothing.
I reconected the feeds and everything is now ok.
Needless to say the apartment owner wasn't happy about nearly being conned into paying for equipment that wasn't needed.

Jaysus, if that's true, that's very bad form, and delves into a new low.

I was gonna comment on what sort of multiswitch was being used that would cost €700 to replace! Until I read the rest of the post, whereby the damn thing isn't even faulty!

S320

Daemonic wrote: »

I have (to put up with) Sky Conway in my apartment block. Basic channels are BBC1/2/3/4, RTE 1/2, UTV, C4, TV3, TG4, Sky News, Living/Living +1, Film4, Virgin1 and a few Music channels.

I'm paying 20 quid a month to Sky Conway (no choice) in Dublin and I get the channels you mentioned except Virgin and music channels. No sports (is there not a free Setanta?), no channel 6 (is that not free too?).

Sky Conway are based in Northern Ireland and they are one of the most unprofessional companies I have ever dealt with.

When I moved in 3 years ago I asked the girl on the phone what broadband packages where available. She had no idea what the answer was. She feebly said something like "eh 256 megahertz". They hooked me up for a 1 meg broadband line for 25 quid a month. It took them 2 days to get the pre-installed wiring working. It turned out I was actaully getting faster speeds with my dial up modem..so I cancelled that! After having such trouble and lack of response about the broadband I wrote a letter of complaint to the director and received no acknowledgement back from them.

Since then I have e-mailed them 3 times to ask them how much it is to upgrade to Sky Digital and other packages and I have heard absolutely nothing back from them. If you have a choice to use another provider, do it.

The chances are slim but I hope someone from Conway reads these many comments and realises how poor their services are.