Problems with Sky install

shahakran

Hi all,

We ordered Sky from one of those shopping centre stalls back at the beginning of October but we still don’t have Sky installed. The first people supposed to call out didn’t bother and didn’t bother either to phone to let us know after taking the day off work and all…

Anyway, it seems the installation was then passed to another installer who did call out the day they were supposed to. However, they had us down for only a standard install instead of Sky + with multi-room so didn’t have the correct set of equipment that day…

I told the guy it would be easier for the dish to go on the chimney since the rooms we want Sky in are on opposite sides of the house. It wouldn’t mean an awful lot more work just much less cable to get to the other side. Having viewed where we wanted to setup he then told us it was going to cost €150 extra if we wanted to have Sky installed. This seems a helluva lot to me for an extra bit of cable. Having poked around some it seems that the reason it will cost so much is that since it’s contracted out the installer will charge us for the bracket to attach to the chimney. Whereas if we’d gone with a Sky engineer we wouldn’t have to pay this extra charge.

So I said because of all the trouble we were having getting Sky installed that I wouldn’t pay €150 any more. The guy agreed on the phone to charge us only €100 and promised he’d be out the next week early in the morning to install it.

Next week, no sign, tried phoning the shop, no answer. Phoned Sky and lodged a complaint. Phoned the shop we’d ordered from and let them know. Eventually the installer phoned us back saying he knew nothing about coming to install for us that day and it would now be €150 again… At this stage I’m thinking to cancel and just go with Sky to get it done. Even if they end up charging me €150 I’d feel better than giving it to some contractor who’s been messing us about so much.

Just wondering if anyone else has had the same problems and charges. What’s really annoying is that I’ve seen a couple of Sky vans around the estate at the weekend who’ve installed quickly and gone on their way.

Thanks for any information and sorry for the long post!

redout

Sounds a disgrace. I also had an install date arranged and nobody turned up so I called them and they told me they did not even have my information even though they ordered my viewing cards which had already arrived ! If you have not received the cards as of yet then I say cancel. If you have received then then it could be a bit tricky.

Gregor Samsa

To be honest, you may fare no better by ordering straight through Sky. Personally I had no major problems, but a colleague of mine has had huge issues over the past few weeks trying to upgrade to multi room through Sky themselves - first installer thought he was just getting a dish, and didn't have a Sky box. Rebooked an appointment for the next week, and the installer didn't show up. When the installer eventually showed up the week after, he installed Sky + (this wasn't ordered), and then had to come back to remove the Sky + box and put in the regular one.

And after all that, he's been overcharged.

He recons he spent about 4 hours (and counting) on the phone to Sky (over 15 phone calls) trying to get this sorted out.

shahakran

What's funny is that I have received 2 cards from Sky and when I contacted them originally they had all the correct details. However when the installer did call out he had the incorrect address (he called me from a different town wondering where my house was), incorrect installation details... everything wrong.

I've no problem keeping the cards as it's likely we'll get Sky from Sky themselves rather than these contractors. The contractors have agreed to call out this weekend and do the install but have said they will charge us €150 for it. I'm mostly wondering if anyone has heard of this much being charged for what seems to me a quite small piece of extra work on top of the standard install which has already been paid for. Granted they say it'll take 2 of them but surely it can't be that much since the standard is only €50...

redout

Installing a dish on the chimney is not classed as a standard install afaik so there could be a charge even from sky. But I agree €150 sounds excessive.

Tony

Bear in mind the install price is subsidised so it in now way reflects the actual cost of the work involved. I'd advise against chimney mounting as you may end up paying again in the future for maintenance work. A stand off bracket/pole usually adds around 75 to an install

St Senan

I agree with Tony a stand off Bracket{T+K} would be the way to go.
Also the contract installers Sky use will not install Dishes on 2 storey chimneys most of them dont have insurance to cover chimney or roof work

shahakran

This seems to be the case now as they've cancelled completely and won't come out and install... I tried to tell them to just install on the wall then, which they were prepared to do originally, but they flat out refused.

Now I'm out €100 I've already paid when ordering and no doubt will be waiting around another 4-5 weeks for another installer to call out.

redout

If you already have the viewing cards you will find it tough going to get another installer to finish the order for you unless you let them order their own cards.

shahakran

Just been back on to the original people we ordered from. Apparently the reason given was that we had refused to pay the installer any extra costs incurred from it being a non standard install.

Completely untrue, all I'd said was I would want a breakdown of the extra costs before I paid it as most people seemed to think that €150 was excessive. But they never gave me a breakdown, even something simple like there would be an insurance cover for going on the roof, charge for the bracket and then the extra cabling, just said they weren't going to call out anymore. I don't think asking what you're paying for is that big a deal especially considering money is going to be tighter over the next few months across the country. :rolleyes:

Anyway, hopefully we'll now get a new installer who will come out and do what should now be a very simple install, attach to a wall and run cable through the attic and I'll have no problems paying extra charges involved in that. :pac: