Finlay communications - 100 Euro installation charge!!

MartyM

Hi All

Just wondering if this cost is the norm for connecting people up to a communal dish these days or a complete rip off? (I think I know the answer)

Our apartment block is pre-wired for Satellite TV, cable TV, Ethernet, etc, etc. Originally we only had one option for Sky Digital and that was a communal dish installed by a company called Sky Conway. Sky Conway charge 15 Euro a quarter and had an initial installation cost of 60 Euro about 2 years ago.

Since then, our management company has worked closely with Sky Homes Ireland, or so the mails that we constantly receive from Sky tell us! , and we now have a second communal dish which was installed by Finlay communications. Thinking that I would like to eliminate the 15 Euro a quarter charge AND move to a "Sky" dish (as opposed to a Sky Conway dish), I contacted Sky Homes & Finlay.

The Finlay engineer said that all he had to do was swap two cables in a box located in the common area of the apartment block. When I asked how much, he said 100 Euro!....you can guess what I said to that!
In fairness he was sound and did admit that it was a Finlay charge and not Sky Homes Ireland and that if I was a new customer it would only cost 50 Euro!.....50 I would have paid!

I know people in houses that have had a dish put up, cables ran, holes drilled, etc, all for under 100 Euro. I also understand that Finlay have to recoup their installation costs, etc, but to me, this is just rip-off Ireland at its worst! Its only a 3 storey block with 12 apartments that are all pre-cabled! So much for a recession bringing things back in line!

They then called me back a week later to see if I was still interested and had the cheek to try and justify the 100 Euro by saying that 8 more quarters with Sky Conway would cost 120 Euro. To me it appears they are just using their knowledge of our fee's to Sky Conway to bump up their own price. When I said to the girl on the phone that I was going to complain to Sky Homes about Finlay, she said they were the same company and that Sky Homes Ireland is not part of Sky!? The Sky Homes Ireland website clearly states BSkyB Ltd at the bottom of the page!

Rant over!

homelink

Existing customers in houses have to pay €120 for a service call out (standard sky rate). Their pricing is geared towards new customers. Some people have cancelled their sub and taken out a new one.Either way you would save in the long term by connecting to the Sky homes dish.

St Senan

homelink wrote: »

Existing customers in houses have to pay €120 for a service call out (standard sky rate).

Thats if customers book a service call with sky Directly.
A service call from an Independant installer or a local tv shop would not be €120

MartyM

homelink wrote: »

Existing customers in houses have to pay €120 for a service call out (standard sky rate). Their pricing is geared towards new customers. Some people have cancelled their sub and taken out a new one.Either way you would save in the long term by connecting to the Sky homes dish.

Sky Homes have said that they cannot control what Finlay charge and suggested I try and negotiate with them! Off course, in the long run it's cheaper but thats not the point!

This is an installation fee (not a service call out) and if it's not a Sky fee, I'm certainly not an existing customer of Finlay. And besides, I could probably do this "installation" in 10 seconds myself if I knew where the 2 cables should be switched!

Any job should be priced on the amount of work required....just my opinion!

stevethesatguy

You could get a private installer out to connect the cabling and then just go buy a receiver,

homelink

scaller wrote: »

Thats if customers book a service call with sky Directly.
A service call from an Independant installer or a local tv shop would not be €120

How much would it be?:rolleyes:

MartyM

stevethesatguy wrote: »

You could get a private installer out to connect the cabling and then just go buy a receiver,

Can I by-pass Finlay and get myself connected to the Sky Homes dish? I assumed Sky would only allow Finlay to do that.

I have a Sky+ receiver, I just need to be moved from one communal dish to another.

Anyway, was just curious as to what people thought about the cost and it seems that this is a normal charge!

Will still complain to my management company and have already complained to Sky. People are too accepting of these high prices...

Tony

Its really depends on what cost they are trying to cover with it. If its just a service call then it seems high but are there other elements involved, did sky pay them for the multiswitch for example ? Once sky get involved there are all sorts of costs they try to push on to the sub contractor, if this is the case maybe they should have done a better job explaining this to you.

Since sky are getting an ongoing revenue from you they should make it as cheap as possible for the contractor to hook you up.

On the matter of getting someone else to do it i'd be very wary, if somone attempted to interfere with equipment that I had installed i would not be impressed.

MartyM wrote: »

Anyway, was just curious as to what people thought about the cost and it seems that this is a normal charge!

St Senan

homelink wrote: »

How much would it be?:rolleyes:

Around €60 to €80 be the Normal price for an Installer to call out.
But Sky charging €120 for a sub/sub contractor to call out is madness

homelink

scaller wrote: »

Around €60 to €80 be the Normal price for an Installer to call out.
But Sky charging €120 for a sub/sub contractor to call out is madness

Marty M was quoted €100 (not €120)and as Tony pointed out the cost of the communal equipment may be reflected in the price.
There is also the chance that if he connects the cables himself he could inadvertently disconnect someone else in the process and get into hot water for interfering with the equipment.

St Senan

homelink wrote: »

Marty M was quoted €100 (not €120)and as Tony pointed out the cost of the communal equipment may be reflected in the price.
There is also the chance that if he connects the cables himself he could inadvertently disconnect someone else in the process and get into hot water for interfering with the equipment.

I know all that but i am not talking about Marty M. You said in your post that Existing customers in houses have to pay €120 for a service call out (standard sky rate). and i said thats if customers book a service call with sky Directly. A service call from an Independant installer or a local tv shop would not be €120.
Marty M dont need a service call he has said that already in a reply what he needs is Sky to send out a Sub contractor to swap cables in multiswitch from a Skyconway dish to Sky dish. Which seems to me that he is leaving Skyconway to become a customer with Sky digital so in fairness all he needs to pay is an install fee to Sky and not an extra €100 on top of his install fee to Finlay communications

MartyM

Tony wrote: »

Its really depends on what cost they are trying to cover with it. If its just a service call then it seems high but are there other elements involved, did sky pay them for the multiswitch for example ? Once sky get involved there are all sorts of costs they try to push on to the sub contractor, if this is the case maybe they should have done a better job explaining this to you.

Yeah, I'm not sure what costs they are trying to cover, but they probably don't need 100 Euro from me when they would only charge 50 to a new Sky customer.

The Finlay engineer who called out was very honest about it and said straight out that it was Finlay who dictate the price.

I know their install for the apartment block was also straight forward: dish on roof, 4 cables down the wall, drilled into the main hallway of the block. Everything else was in existence. Switches and cables to each apartment have been here since the block was built nearly 3 years ago....long before Sky Homes Ireland and Finlay got involved.

MartyM

scaller wrote: »

Which seems to me that he is leaving Skyconway to become a customer with Sky digital so in fairness all he needs to pay is an install fee to Sky and not an extra €100 on top of his install fee to Finlay communications

Currently I'm a customer of Sky Digital and Sky Conway. I just wanted to cut-out Sky Conway by moving to the Sky Homes dish.

I don't know how Sky Homes Ireland operate, but they seem to higher subs for apartment blocks.

Tony

MartyM wrote: »

Yeah, I'm not sure what costs they are trying to cover, but they probably don't need 100 Euro from me when they would only charge 50 to a new Sky customer.

Most likely beacuse they would receive a commision payment from sky for a new customer

MartyM wrote: »

I know their install for the apartment block was also straight forward: dish on roof, 4 cables down the wall, drilled into the main hallway of the block. Everything else was in existence. Switches and cables to each apartment have been here since the block was built nearly 3 years ago....long before Sky Homes Ireland and Finlay got involved.

I'm not defending them by any means but I seriously doubt they are using the same multiswitches as sky Conway 1. Because sky conway would not allow it and 2. there would have to be a second mutisiwtch fitted to run their dish/cabling into. I've never gotten involved with sky homes so not sure at all as to who pays for the equipment.

STB

Eh, You need to get on to your management company about the cost that was agreed for installs!

As this satellite contractor is the one chosen for the development by your management company you have no business bringing in a seperate contractor yourself. Installers can not put up sats or run cables from common areas without the say so of the management company. No independent installer will interfer with an other guys setup anyway. Its highly likely that each of these install areas are in closed off rooms to stop everyone who thinks they are an engineer from having a look.

I have no doubt the cost covers the connection to the the communal use of the multiswitch for each small block of apartments.

Count yourself lucky. I have heard much higher prices than that for a FTA install on prewired apartments.

MartyM

STB wrote: »

Eh, You need to get on to your management company about the cost that was agreed for installs!

I agree. The irony of it all is that I tried very hard in the early days to get Sky Homes into the apartment block because I wanted to avoid Sky Conway...went almost 8 months with no TV, but had to give in, in the end!

STB wrote: »

As this satellite contractor is the one chosen for the development by your management company you have no business bringing in a seperate contractor yourself.

I never even suggested that I would do this!

STB wrote: »

I have no doubt the cost covers the connection to the the communal use of the multiswitch for each small block of apartments.

I have no doubt either, I'm sure it more than covers the cost! Especially when the Sky Conway install only cost 60 Euro and they were involved in cabling each apartment at the time it was built.

STB wrote: »

Count yourself lucky. I have heard much higher prices than that for a FTA install on prewired apartments.

Dont agree with this logic!


Like I said, I would have paid 50 Euro for the cables to be swapped but not double that.

The engineer called out to see what was involved, initially (on the phone) he thought he would have to run cables down the external wall and drill into the apartment. (This would also have cost 100 - which I would have paid in that case). It was when he called out and seen the set-up, he said all he needed to do was swap cables!

Most people would be shocked to hear that quote for that job!

Tony

Yes but again bear in mind they would have received a commission at that point as you were a new customer and its much cheaper/easier to install cables at the build stage. I suspect they are charging for the use of the multiswitch as well as changing out your cable. Again I'm not defending them as the service is being badly sold to you as you will be paying an ongoing subscription to sky.

MartyM wrote: »

I have no doubt either, I'm sure it more than covers the cost! Especially when the Sky Conway install only cost 60 Euro and they were involved in cabling each apartment at the time it was built.

MartyM

Tony wrote: »

Yes but again bear in mind they would have received a commission at that point as you were a new customer and its much cheaper/easier to install cables at the build stage. I suspect they are charging for the use of the multiswitch as well as changing out your cable. Again I'm not defending them as the service is being badly sold to you as you will be paying an ongoing subscription to sky.

I hear what you're saying regarding commission but I dont understand how commission plays a part with Finlay. Sky themselves in conjunction with the Management Company got the 2nd dish introduced, so any new customers connecting to that dish would be thanks to Sky and the Management Company. Finlay just happen to be the crowd hired by Sky Homes to go out and do the install, they are not winning new business for Sky.

Also, it was due to Sky sending me letters about how they have worked closely with the Management Company, that made me give them a call. So again, Sky themselves were winning the business (had I been a new customer).

Tony, I know your in the business and understand the reasoning better than most....but to the normal Joe Soap, thats how it looks!

As you said, it was badly sold. I have no problem paying what I think is fair!

Only yesterday, Sky Conway sent an engineer out to connect me to a terrestrial aerial at no charge! The engineer still picked up 30 Euro for his troubles!

Now I can cancel my Sky subscription and still have my Irish channels!

The downside will be losing Sky+ recording!

Tony

I sympathise Marty, given what you have said Sky Homes should have made a bigger effort to keep your business and keep the end user installation cost to a minimum. I wonder if the cancellation team will do anything for you ?

MartyM

Tony wrote: »

I sympathise Marty, given what you have said Sky Homes should have made a bigger effort to keep your business and keep the end user installation cost to a minimum. I wonder if the cancellation team will do anything for you ?

I doubt it Tony, Sky dont value existing customers and to be honest I dont think I would want them to. My thoughts are already turning to the Technomate TM7100 and the Humax Foxsat HD PVR 320GB!

Which will be my next post, when I get around to it!

STB

MartyM wrote: »

Dont agree with this logic!


Like I said, I would have paid 50 Euro for the cables to be swapped but not double that.

The engineer called out to see what was involved, initially (on the phone) he thought he would have to run cables down the external wall and drill into the apartment. (This would also have cost 100 - which I would have paid in that case). It was when he called out and seen the set-up, he said all he needed to do was swap cables!

Most people would be shocked to hear that quote for that job!

Well you see your management company ultimately put these guys in there. The contractor will have a maintenance contract with the mang co which is not worth a whole lot of €€€. They are dependant on getting their money from installs.

When I said count yourself lucky, what I meant was that I know of plenty of developments who were prewired for satellite at unit level. Then the satellite company gets the install contract, where the communal dish is installed and fed to multiswitches for each block. Then you have the installs on a unit by unit basis. I have heard of "once off connection fees" of 300 and 400 euro if you want access ie be connected to the multiswitch. You then have fta access to 28.2 and no bills. Its up to you to decide whether you have sky or not. Just because you have heard of €50 or free connection deals, in most cases it doesnt apply to multi unit developments such as apartments.

This doesnt make it right, but remember you cannot stick up a sat dish yourself and you are dependant on access to the communal sat which the installer quite rightly knows, and they are in the business of making money. They are in charge of the infrastructure to make it work.

Your management company should know what price was agreed for individual connections. Having 2 systems ie one sat and one UHF cable system is unusual. Management companies usually decide what the wiring will be for. It is good to move away from a pay system.

With that in mind, the money for 2 connections sounds quite reasonable in the long term with no more tv supply bills. At least they have installed a multiswitch that enables you get 2 feeds. I have a technomate HD 6900 and a clarketech 5000C. They are fantastic for FTA sat & Dtt. Clarketech have a new triple tuner out too btw.

There is also a dtt/hd sat combo with usb pvr functionality on the market for €150 in the edison argus 2n1. See saor TV. (2 of which might be a cheaper alternative to the Technomate triple which is close to 500euro mark). Infact Tony above also sells the ferguson ariva combo which are in or around the same price as the Edison.

homelink

scaller wrote: »

Marty M dont need a service call he has said that already in a reply what he needs is Sky to send out a Sub contractor to swap cables in multiswitch from a Skyconway dish to Sky dish. Which seems to me that he is leaving Skyconway to become a customer with Sky digital so in fairness all he needs to pay is an install fee to Sky and not an extra €100 on top of his install fee to Finlay communications

I don't believe he said the €100 was on top of his install fee.The €100 was his installation fee. if he had signed up as a new customer he probably would have got the latest offer from sky.Also I would assume that Finlay are responsible for the dish and probably installed the system.

St Senan

homelink wrote: »

I don't believe he said the €100 was on top of his install fee.The €100 was his installation fee. if he had signed up as a new customer he probably would have got the latest offer from sky.Also I would assume that Finlay are responsible for the dish and probably installed the system.

After reading back through his post i see that now but what ever the installation fee is.
Now Marty M is going to cancel with Sky all because of In his words
RIP -OFF Ireland at its worse.

And Sky charging €120 to existing customers
for a service call from a Sub/Sub contractor is a example of it.

As i said a service call from a local tv shop or Independant installer would cost between €60 to €80.

MartyM

STB wrote: »

Having 2 systems ie one sat and one UHF cable system is unusual. Management companies usually decide what the wiring will be for. It is good to move away from a pay system.

With that in mind, the money for 2 connections sounds quite reasonable in the long term with no more tv supply bills. At least they have installed a multiswitch that enables you get 2 feeds. I have a technomate HD 6900 and a clarketech 5000C. They are fantastic for FTA sat & Dtt. Clarketech have a new triple tuner out too btw.

There is also a dtt/hd sat combo with usb pvr functionality on the market for €150 in the edison argus 2n1. See saor TV. (2 of which might be a cheaper alternative to the Technomate triple which is close to 500euro mark). Infact Tony above also sells the ferguson ariva combo which are in or around the same price as the Edison.

Thanks for the info STB! The sat and UHF share the same cable into the apartment, which surprised me, but he just used a TV/Satellite combiner on the cable running into "Input 1" and split it to the "Aerial In". This gave me the terrestrial in the bedroom via "RF 2".

Yeah, I'd definitely be looking for a HD receiver with PVR. The DTT would also be good, assuming DTT works with the normal aerial.

At a high level, am I right in saying that Freesat = FTA, and the main difference between the Humax and Technomate is that the Technomate supports DTT?

Can the Technomate do Freesat channels? If so, why the big buzz about the Humax? Is that a better option?

Cheers!

byte

Yes, the Technomate (and the similar Clarketech) supports both DTT and satellite.

The technomate cannot offer a 7-day EPG like the Freesat boxes can. The Humax Foxsat HDR being a dualtuner box, similar to Sky+, but again, doesn't support DTT (is a shame there isn't a Freesat/DTT combo).

MartyM

byte wrote: »

Yes, the Technomate (and the similar Clarketech) supports both DTT and satellite.

The technomate cannot offer a 7-day EPG like the Freesat boxes can. The Humax Foxsat HDR being a dualtuner box, similar to Sky+, but again, doesn't support DTT (is a shame there isn't a Freesat/DTT combo).

Thanks byte! So, just to decide on DTT versus EPG...

homelink

I don't mean to throw a spanner in the works and I hope I'm wrong. But whilst Marty M might own the cabling in the apartment, he doesn't control the multi switch that they are connected to.If he is still connected to the sky Conway feed, he may still have to pay a quarterly subscription to them.also he won't be able to swap over to the sky Homes system without taking out a Sky subscription for at least 12 months.I personally wouldn't be shelling out for a freesat or dtt hardware unless I was sure that my supply source would not be cut off.:(

MartyM

homelink wrote: »

I don't mean to throw a spanner in the works and I hope I'm wrong. But whilst Marty M might own the cabling in the apartment, he doesn't control the multi switch that they are connected to.If he is still connected to the sky Conway feed, he may still have to pay a quarterly subscription to them.also he won't be able to swap over to the sky Homes system without taking out a Sky subscription for at least 12 months.I personally wouldn't be shelling out for a freesat or dtt hardware unless I was sure that my supply source would not be cut off.:(

No spanner thrown! I definitely won't be moving to the Sky Homes dish and while I will have to pay 15 Euro a quarter, I will be saving on the monthly Sky subscription when I cancel.

Sky 1 is probably the only channel I'll miss, but then again all I watch on that is 24.....so will wait until the season finale!

STB

MartyM wrote: »

No spanner thrown! I definitely won't be moving to the Sky Homes dish and while I will have to pay 15 Euro a quarter, I will be saving on the monthly Sky subscription when I cancel.

Sky 1 is probably the only channel I'll miss, but then again all I watch on that is 24.....so will wait until the season finale!

I didnt actually know what Sky homes was.... ho ho ho. Had to google it. What a disastrous setup !

What you need to do is get yourself on that management commitee and boot this Sky Conway crowd out and get sat dishes installed on the roof for each block wired to multiswitches managed by a sat installer. They will just manage the initial installs and the upkeep of the system. That upkeep or maintenance contract can be paid out of your management fees for the year.

Then everyone can gain access to freesat or choose to subscribe to sky for those that want more sports channels etc. The cost of the connection will be enough to get the sat cmpany in the first place.

What a racket! That explains how Sky homes got in! It is not in the interest of someone offering a cable system to offer free connection to a sat system over their own so they let another pay operator in on the basis of those wanting to pay for Sky platform but not access to a Sat dish without subscription!

MartyM

STB wrote: »

I didnt actually know what Sky homes was.... ho ho ho. Had to google it. What a disastrous setup !

What a racket! That explains how Sky homes got in! It is not in the interest of someone offering a cable system to offer free connection to a sat system over their own so they let another pay operator in on the basis of those wanting to pay for Sky platform but not access to a Sat dish without subscription!

Which part of the set-up is ridiculous? Sky Homes and their dish OR Sky Conway and their dish and aerial system?

Regarding Sky Conway, in the early days I tried hard to find an alternative, not only because of their 15 Euro a quarter charge but because of their reputation (complaints I have read on the internet), but they were the first and only TV provider we had for a long time and the Management Company said they had no control over that aspect. At the time it sounded like a brown paper bag exchanged hands between the developer and Sky Conway!

Now we have 2 communal dishes and NTL cable in the block.

Given the fact that Sky Conway are now providing me with Sat and terrestrial (since last week), I think 5 Euro a month is acceptable compared to the 26 Euro a month paid to Sky...plus the 5 on top of that.

I also have the option of Freesat and DTT.....that wont happen if I move to Sky Homes! Freesat might be an option but not the DTT.

If I did move to Sky homes, I don't believe Sky would tie me to a new 12 month contract as suggested by homelink above...because I'm an existing Sky Digital customer. If they did, they would have to charge me the 50 Euro install option and not the 100 Euro I complained about in this thread.

satchman

Finlays are quoting me €215 connection fee, even though the apartment is already pre-wired and I have all my equipment!!! They are saying it's a fibre cable so the cost is higher, this is a joke as I know all they need to do is connect one or two cables at the comms panel to provide the feed in to the apartment. I have had multiple conversations with several Sky departments (and even installation engineers) all of which told me that the standard charge should only be €77, and this even includes erecting a dish and all cabling.

I contacted Finlays again and informed them that Sky had quoted a standard fee of €77 and told them I was willing to pay this recommended fee, but they basically don't want to know about it. I have lodged a complaint with Sky about this and told them if they can't sort out this ridiculous fee i'll be cancelling my subscription. Don't know if it'll get me anywhere though.

MartyM

satchman wrote: »

Finlays are quoting me €215 connection fee, even though the apartment is already pre-wired and I have all my equipment!!! They are saying it's a fibre cable so the cost is higher, this is a joke as I know all they need to do is connect one or two cables at the comms panel to provide the feed in to the apartment. I have had multiple conversations with several Sky departments (and even installation engineers) all of which told me that the standard charge should only be €77, and this even includes erecting a dish and all cabling.

I contacted Finlays again and informed them that Sky had quoted a standard fee of €77 and told them I was willing to pay this recommended fee, but they basically don't want to know about it. I have lodged a complaint with Sky about this and told them if they can't sort out this ridiculous fee i'll be cancelling my subscription. Don't know if it'll get me anywhere though.

You still have a Sky subscription from a previous address but no Sky connection at the new address?

If you cancel the original subscription and sign up as a new customer (under the new address), Finlay may give you a cheaper rate for being a new customer? I would have got my installation 50% cheaper had I been a new Sky customer!

Having said that, 215 Euro is ridiculous. Finlay do not seem to have a consistent pricing policy!

I doubt you will get any help from Sky on this. They hire Finlay (among others) to do their apartment installations, but they seem to have no control over them!

I'm relatively lucky in that we have 2 communal dishes on our block, so I chose not to give Finlay my business and will be cancelling my subscription to Sky very soon and going to Freesat...

satchman

MartyM wrote: »

You still have a Sky subscription from a previous address but no Sky connection at the new address?

If you cancel the original subscription and sign up as a new customer (under the new address), Finlay may give you a cheaper rate for being a new customer? I would have got my installation 50% cheaper had I been a new Sky customer!

Having said that, 215 Euro is ridiculous. Finlay do not seem to have a consistent pricing policy!

I doubt you will get any help from Sky on this. They hire Finlay (among others) to do their apartment installations, but they seem to have no control over them!

I'm relatively lucky in that we have 2 communal dishes on our block, so I chose not to give Finlay my business and will be cancelling my subscription to Sky very soon and going to Freesat...

Yup!! Still paying for a service i'm not receiving. SKy called me last night and, as expected, told me there's nothing they can do. They said they understand my frustrations but they can't control what their 3rd party installers charge. Typical. Since I only have Sky a few months, if I cancel i'll probably have to pay a fine (or perhaps the remaining year's balance?) for breaking the contract. Looks like i'm going to have to pay those bunch of robbers the money.

It's more the principle of it. I do understand Finlays have to make some money out of it but €215 for simply connecting one or two wires just infuriates me. That along with the fact that Sky seem to have absolutely no loyalty to existing customers.

Tony

Do you know who paid to have the apartment pre wired?

satchman

Tony wrote: »

Do you know who paid to have the apartment pre wired?

I'm not exactly sure to be honest. All I know is that there was another company providing TV and Broadband to the complex (Broadworks) and they had everything wired up. Sky then came in installed their own shared dishes but are just using the existing connections.

I wish I knew a Sky engineer who'd be interested in a nixer!!

bk

satchman wrote: »

Finlays are quoting me €215 connection fee, even though the apartment is already pre-wired and I have all my equipment!!! They are saying it's a fibre cable so the cost is higher, this is a joke as I know all they need to do is connect one or two cables at the comms panel to provide the feed in to the apartment.

There may actually be some truth behind this.

Some apartment buildings (in particular large and high apartment buildings) aren't suitable for standard cheap shared distribution systems, instead they have to install expensive fibre based distribution systems.

These sort of systems are much more expensive and I believe unlike the standard "Sky in your Apartment" setup, Sky won't cover the cost of installing such a system. Instead the Management Agency needs to get a third party like Finaly in to install the system and pay them for it.

So the €215 charge isn't just for some lad to plug your cables into the switch, it is mostly to cover the initial cost outlay of installing the entire fibre system.

satchman

^ I came across some letters that were sent to the previous tennant in my apartment from the Management Company that said Finlays were charging €180 per dish, but they got them Conditions so that they didn't have to pay anything. So it looks like Finlays are hitting the residents for the fee.

I understand what you're saying about the higher cost of Fibre cables but again just think the connection fee is way overpriced. Perhaps this is the price you have to pay for this system, but I just never heard anyone having to pay this amount

MartyM

bk wrote: »

These sort of systems are much more expensive and I believe unlike the standard "Sky in your Apartment" setup, Sky won't cover the cost of installing such a system. Instead the Management Agency needs to get a third party like Finaly in to install the system and pay them for it.

So the €215 charge isn't just for some lad to plug your cables into the switch, it is mostly to cover the initial cost outlay of installing the entire fibre system.

In this case the OP should be able to get the landlord to fork out the cash. If the €215 is to cover the initial costs of the install. This must fall on the apartment owners.

He should not have to pay such a large fee and have all future tennents (and the owner) benefit from this.

Satchman - I see from your latest post that this apartment had a previous tennent. Did they have this connection set-up before they left? If so, a reconnection fee should not be the same cost as the initial outlay cost.

Finlay cannot recoup €215 from every new tennent that moves in!

satchman

I think the previous tennant had their service with the old company Broadworks but had shown an interest in Sky. She had moved out just before Sky came in to play in the complex. That was my point as well... if each tennant in my block alone connects to Sky, Finlays end up getting the guts of €3000. And there are another 8 or so blocks of apartments in the complex so they are making a killing on this. That said, some tennants may be new to Sky so their connection fee probably wouldn't be as much.

I thinks it's disgraceful that tennants are tied down to a sole provider... what ever happened to the freedom of choice!?

As much as it kills me I think i'm just going to have to bite the bullet and pay the fee It's been an eye opener though and in future if and when i'm moving to a new place i'll make sure to check out all these hidden costs

EDIT: in addition to your point about future tennants benefitting from this... I wouldn't be surprised at all if, when i leave, they would come in and simply disconnect the wire and then go through this whole process with the new tennant!!

MartyM

satchman wrote: »

in addition to your point about future tennants benefitting from this... I wouldn't be surprised at all if, when i leave, they would come in and simply disconnect the wire and then go through this whole process with the new tennant!!

You should seek clarification from Finlay on what the reconnection cost to the next tennent would be, should you leave in the future.

Assuming it will be nowhere near 215, you could then go to your landlord with this info. He might put something towards the cost because it is an initial set-up fee, that no other tennent will have to pay.

My impression of Finlay is not good, but I couldn't see them charging this to all future tennents in that particular apartment! I would imagine it would be 50 for a new customer and 100 for an existing....and most people who move apts should sign up as new anyway, because Sky dont care about existing customers...

satchman

That's a good point Marty, hadn't thought of that!! I'll mention it to the landlord and see what she says.

Thanks for all the feedback on this guys, much appreciated!!

bk

First of all let me just say that I'm guessing about this.

What I do know is that I helped get Sky into my apartment building and it cost us nothing, as it was a standard communal dish install and Sky covered all the costs, while Finlay did the work.

I also know I tried help getting a similar set up in another apartment building, but because the building was very tall, with lots of units, sky told us that we could only get a fibre distributed system and the amount quoted was a lot more then €3,000 (I'm guessing in your case the whole system maybe shared between all 8 buildings). In the end the residents decided it would be too expensive and decided to stick with their existing crappy provider.

BTW I completely agree with you that I hate these mini monopolies in apartment buildings and I've actually raised it with various government departments and Ministers, to no avail.

MartyM is also correct, you should query Finlay for what the cost involves and if it is as I expect, then yes the landlord should pay it (or at least the majority of it).

homelink

satchman wrote: »

Finlays are quoting me €215 connection fee, even though the apartment is already pre-wired and I have all my equipment!!! They are saying it's a fibre cable so the cost is higher, this is a joke as I know all they need to do is connect one or two cables at the comms panel to provide the feed in to the apartment. I have had multiple conversations with several Sky departments (and even installation engineers) all of which told me that the standard charge should only be €77, and this even includes erecting a dish and all cabling.

I contacted Finlays again and informed them that Sky had quoted a standard fee of €77 and told them I was willing to pay this recommended fee, but they basically don't want to know about it. I have lodged a complaint with Sky about this and told them if they can't sort out this ridiculous fee i'll be cancelling my subscription. Don't know if it'll get me anywhere though.

If you cancel your existing subscription and take out a new one you will get the latest offer (same as house offer).If your apartment is pre-wired with coaxial cable then it is no use for connecting to a fibre system.

Tony

Did he/she not already say they were only a few months into the contract? Even if this was possible a a fibre system is not standard so the normal offers would most likely not apply.

homelink wrote: »

If you cancel your existing subscription and take out a new one you will get the latest offer (same as house offer).If your apartment is pre-wired with coaxial cable then it is no use for connecting to a fibre system.

satchman

^^ yeah i'm only 3 months in to the contract so cancelling isn't really an option unfortunately.

homelink

Tony wrote: »

Did he/she not already say they were only a few months into the contract? Even if this was possible a a fibre system is not standard so the normal offers would most likely not apply.

An optical fibre system is now a standard for shared dishes (by Sky Homes) in retro fitted apartment blocks.

Tony

homelink wrote: »

An optical fibre system is now a standard for shared dishes (by Sky Homes) in retro fitted apartment blocks.

Thats good news but obviously it does not mean standard fees if Finlay are involved as the OP's experience shows

satchman

One more question I forgot to ask you guys (and Finlays for that matter)... in a shared dish system in an apartment complex, once you pay the connection fee do you also need to pay Finlays a monthly subscription fee for the use of the dish or is it just a once off connection fee??

Been trying to ring them there to find this out but nobody answering the phones as usual :mad:

Tony

Only they can answer that as they seem to have different arrangements in different apartment complexes.

satchman wrote: »

One more question I forgot to ask you guys (and Finlays for that matter)... in a shared dish system in an apartment complex, once you pay the connection fee do you also need to pay Finlays a monthly subscription fee for the use of the dish or is it just a once off connection fee??

Been trying to ring them there to find this out but nobody answering the phones as usual :mad:

satchman

Ok, thanks Tony, will try get them on the phone this morning and find out