UPC 1st Day...Already looking bad!

maxwell smart

Ok so I fell for the Digital +HD package, as it looked like it would save me around €20 per month over Sky and Vodafone at Home.
Installer arrived right on time....unfortunatly things went downhill from there.
He has no HD box with him, "two months wait" he told my wife. Not too happy about that.
When I arrived home I switched it on, picture is poor compared to Sky, I have a Sky HD box with a HDMI cable, and as its only the SD box I have with a scart from UPC, maybe it will get better.
I rang UPC and asked about the HD box availability. Max 2 weeks I was told. Hmmm we will see.
I moved my Sky HD box out to the kitchen to watch some programmes I have recorded on it, as I have not cancelled Sky yet......Not working for some reason.
I went out to the dish, yep still there, followed the cables down, and what did I find? All the cables from the LNB running to the kitchen box CUT! Now this was totally unnecessary for them to do when installing the box.

Just rang them there now, after an 8 minute hold I checked out the website, customer service is closed at 8pm....pity they don't tell you that when you ring!!!

So tomorrow some poor baxtard is going to get both barrels of it, and it I don't have my Sky reconnected, and a HD box out here Friday, they can take the whole lot back.

djimi

Someone else complained about the same thing a few days ago. If that were me Id be looking to take a case of criminal damage against them; just because you get Chorus installed does not mean that you cant have Sky as well. The way I see it its no different from them going around smashing all of your phones or something; disgraceful behaviour.

0ph0rce0

Did the same too me, snipped my sky+ box cables and the one in the bedroom too.
Haven't had time to call yet, they are giving the price of my sky sub for the 2 months I paid off the bill or he can come back and recable it up or I'll be giving out big time


That sh!t just ain't right.

Let us know how ya get on

Minstrel27

What a desperate attempt at preventing you from watching satellite tv. I would contact the Gardaí about that.

Infoanon

maxwell smart wrote: »

I moved my Sky HD box out to the kitchen to watch some programmes I have recorded on it, as I have not cancelled Sky yet......Not working for some reason.
I went out to the dish, yep still there, followed the cables down, and what did I find? All the cables from the LNB running to the kitchen box CUT! Now this was totally unnecessary for them to do when installing the box.

Make a complaint with the Gardai - Write to UPC (Otherwise they will deny everything) and note all losses due to UPCs action.

You could also go to the media to publicise this action.

lilka

i agree with the rest, call the cops, one poster mentioned this the other day and i assumed this was just one engineer cutting sky out of cheek, but they obviously are operating under instruction from upc, they cannot be allowed to get away with this...., i switched back to sky because of poor reception, the user interface, the ease of sky+ versus their equivalent plus the service of upc was no crap...even if it costs just a bit more...also couldn't handle the fact that the tv listings took a year to load up...anyway, good luck

com7

the guards will be delighted to hear from ye ! sure they ve nothing else to do except chase upc contractors about cut cables GET A GRIP !!

Pat Gleeson

com7 wrote: »

the guards will be delighted to hear from ye ! sure they ve nothing else to do except chase upc contractors about cut cables GET A GRIP !!

I don't know about you, but I would be livid if someone who I let into my house damaged anything of mine - especially under those circumstances - unbelievable !

bricks

You can't let them get away with cutting your cables, sure you might have wanted to use the existing box and dish for Free To Air ffs.

Ring the cancelation line and get some concessions at least.

I've got UPC BB and Sky+ for TV, I wouldn't touch their TV I just don't have the right temperament for dealing with it.

com7

bricks wrote: »

You can't let them get away with cutting your cables, sure you might have wanted to use the existing box and dish for Free To Air ffs.

Ring the cancelation line and get some concessions at least.

I've got UPC BB and Sky+ for TV, I wouldn't touch their TV I just don't have the right temperament for dealing with it.

I did nt say leave them get away with it , they should nt, but RINGING the guards , that is ridculous in fact it must rank as one of the worst suggestions i ve ever read on this site

watty

It is criminal damage.

Also even if you are cancelling Sky sub you may want FTA Satellite.

I see that behind me on a house. They pinched cable of LNB for MMDS dish. They have no right and often con householders into thinking there will be no service on the Dish when sub is cancelled.

Unlike UPC, you own all the cabling, dish and box from day1 of sub and you have permanent entitlement to watch the free satellite channels.

It's important to report vandalism and criminal acts from point of view even of statistics. The Garda will not waste time. But they are obliged to keep records.

If you don't report things you may have issues with Small claims court or Insurance.

Tefral

The guards wont get involved, its a civil matter.

Call an electrican, or electrical engineer, get him to survey the damage, and then take them to court the small claims court, use the engineers findings as evidence.

Kristopherus

cronin_j wrote: »

The guards wont get involved, its a civil matter.

Call an electrican, or electrical engineer, get him to survey the damage, and then take them to court the small claims court, use the engineers findings as evidence.

If I went into your house and cut the cables to you stb, I would be committing a criminal offence. UPC installers are doing exactly the same. Criminal offence = Gardai involvement, and not a civil matter.

Minstrel27

com7 wrote: »

the guards will be delighted to hear from ye ! sure they ve nothing else to do except chase upc contractors about cut cables GET A GRIP !!

There was damage to private property. Why wouldn't he contact the Gardaí? The Gardaí are not there exclusively for catching drug dealers and murderers.

djimi

cronin_j wrote: »

The guards wont get involved, its a civil matter.

Call an electrican, or electrical engineer, get him to survey the damage, and then take them to court the small claims court, use the engineers findings as evidence.

How is it a civil matter? If he took a hammer to your tv wouldnt you call the guards? How is this any different? If anything this is nearly worse as he is causing willful damage to your property in such a way that you probably wont notice until well after he has left.

Pat Gleeson

If wilful damage is done to property you contact the Gardai. The report generated could be used in any dispute afterwards. I'm fairly positive the Gardai would be interested given reports of this allegedly happening elsewhere.

BostonB

A few of you should get together so that its obvious thats it not an isolated act.

Supercell

The engineer didn't do that here thankfully as i still use the free channels on satellite that are not on UPC. Are you sure its not a one individual rogue engineer with a bee in his bonnet?

Tefral

Kristopherus wrote: »

If I went into your house and cut the cables to you stb, I would be committing a criminal offence. UPC installers are doing exactly the same. Criminal offence = Gardai involvement, and not a civil matter.

Im sorry but it is a civil matter, do you think they will send a file to the DPP just so you can get compensation for the damage done...

The guards will take a statement that is all, its up to you to take the person to court for compensation.

Same thing if your in a car accident, the guards will only take a statement and make sure the road traffic act is discharged, they wont get involvent in assigning blame or anything like that.

Infoanon

cronin_j wrote: »

Same thing if your in a car accident, the guards will only take a statement and make sure the road traffic act is discharged, they wont get involvent in assigning blame or anything like that.

Don't know where you got that notion from - they most certainly will assign blame in a traffic accident.

As has been stated by other postings - cutting the sat cables on private property is an offence and the reality is the only way to get UPC to stop this practice and repair the damage is to report the incident to the gardai. Sadly its the only language UPC understand.

djimi

Infoanon wrote: »

Don't know where you got that notion from - they most certainly will assign blame in a traffic accident.

They actually wont assign the blame unless they are direct witnesses of the incident. If they arrive at the scene afterwards all they can do is take statements, note the particulars of the incident and pass them onto the insurance company, and its up to the insurance company to assign the blame.

Tefral

djimi wrote: »

They actually wont assign the blame unless they are direct witnesses of the incident. If they arrive at the scene afterwards all they can do is take statements, note the particulars of the incident and pass them onto the insurance company, and its up to the insurance company to assign the blame.

Excatly, that part is a civil matter!! (they will only discharge the road traffic act, if your drunk they will arrest you, if you drove up the wrong side of the road they will arrest you for dangerous driving, they will note this in their reports, and the insurance company will determine who is at fault) The same with this cable company snipping the wires, they will only log the details, its up to you to take it further.

People are posting here without a notion of what they are talking about.

djimi

They may only log the details but I would be getting them involved if only to do that. Whether they follow up or not its still a criminal matter and they need to be involved in it.

Infoanon

djimi wrote: »

They actually wont assign the blame unless they are direct witnesses of the incident. If they arrive at the scene afterwards all they can do is take statements, note the particulars of the incident and pass them onto the insurance company, and its up to the insurance company to assign the blame.

I am talking from first hand experience - blame was assigned at the scene of the incident.

Anyhow back to the matter in hand - if UPC damage personal property they are liable.
Talking to somebody else who recently got upc installed and they where asked did they want the Sat connections to remain - so its possible there are just a few rogue UPC installers

Pat Gleeson

Infoanon wrote: »

they where asked did they want the Sat connections to remain - so its possible there are just a few rogue UPC installers

Why would they ask that? The satellite dish, box and cables are nothing to do with UPC. They're supposed to provide their own cables etc. - not use existing ones unless specifically asked to do so by the customer.

djimi

Infoanon wrote: »

I am talking from first hand experience - blame was assigned at the scene of the incident.

Anyhow back to the matter in hand - if UPC damage personal property they are liable.
Talking to somebody else who recently got upc installed and they where asked did they want the Sat connections to remain - so its possible there are just a few rogue UPC installers

Im also talking from first hand experience; unless its blatently obvious whos at fault (ie youre drunk and have mowed another car into a ditch) they cant assign the blame at the scene. I was told this by two guards at the scene of two different accidents I was involved in.

I dont know why they even ask about Sky; its absolutely none of their business. Surely by even looking in the direction of someones Sky box they are leaving themselves open to something like this?

Infoanon

djimi wrote: »

I dont know why they even ask about Sky; its absolutely none of their business. Surely by even looking in the direction of someones Sky box they are leaving themselves open to something like this?

At the install apparently they used (asked to use) the leads from the Sky box followed by do you want to keep the connections - as you say why even put themselves in that position

stevek93

You can't file a complaint against upc unless you have a witness, upc HAVE no right to tamper with the wires for sky, they are a poor service their digibox is slow an freezes an poor quality.

Manc-Red

People can try to gloss over UPC all they want - its a pile of c*ap.

There's a reason why its cheaper than Sky......

Think about it

happydayz182

customer service is open ill ten ring them report damage to property all the technicians are contracted out so really it lies with them

stevek93

Tell us how it goes...

elnino35

UPC...Upset Paying Customers:D:D....proud of that one!!!!...make ye pine for Rupert's mob wudn't it??:eek:

Dublin518317

lads it is not possible for install techs to use or cut sky cables. i know this first hand too well.

1 - There are cq crews that check all installs that are done by upc
2 - if a sky cable is used its classed as a fail and you dont get paid for that job

watty

I see one on house behind me. MMDS.
Very common on MMDS installs.

I suspect only some installs are checked, that's normally how qc (Quality Control) works, sampling.

Calibos

Got UPC in 6 months ago to a rented house. UPC box on eaves is near Dish Location with LNB feeds to the rooms we wanted wired. We actually asked the UPC installer of he could use those and he told us no. He had to run new cables. We decided to just leave it at one room, and all he did was pull out the LNB cables to make room for the UPC cable coming in through the hole from outside. LNB cable to that room was not cut just pulled out and left hanging but tacked to wall.

Never did get any QC guys out checking install so it seems its random sampling as Watty says. Seems like a textbook install from our installer who actually told us UPC were not allowed use or damage SKY cables. Rather than a Corporate policy by UPC, I think cases like this are just some Lazy installers on their payroll.

Eamo71

elnino35 wrote: »

UPC...Upset Paying Customers:D:D....proud of that one!!!!...make ye pine for Rupert's mob wudn't it??:eek:

Ehhhhhh.... No.

djimi

elnino35 wrote: »

UPC...Upset Paying Customers:D:D....proud of that one!!!!...make ye pine for Rupert's mob wudn't it??:eek:

I pine for Ruperts mob every time I turn on my television...

pork pie

Have UPC coming this Saturday to replace my Sky service but keeping the dish for FTA in the bedroom. Now worried after reading the above. Presume that I will have to sign something when UPC installation complete - won't be putting pen to paper if Sky not working after.

Minstrel27

Tell them before they do anything that you do not want them to cut any cables. Prevention is better than cure.

elnino35

djimi wrote: »

I pine for Ruperts mob every time I turn on my television...

aye me too...time to swallow me pride and go back methinks:(

Mad_Mike

djimi wrote: »

I pine for Ruperts mob every time I turn on my television...

elnino35 wrote: »

aye me too...time to swallow me pride and go back methinks:(

I just swallowed mine!
Ordered Sky + again about 20 mins ago online.

As for UPC.......... Internet - Great....well, happy about 95% of the time with it..........Phone - Same as....

TV - Absolutely horrendous. Would NEVER EVER recommend it to anybody. Got 3 different boxes, different remote controls, everything, and we no longer watch tv its so bad. Freezing boxes, losing recordings, total random actions by remote. I could go on and on, but I think you all know what I mean.

maxwell smart

OP here.

Update for you all. My sky cable is now reconnected, I have received my HD box too! There ends the good news.

I have had to ring customer service 14 times (no joke).
Still no HD service, despite being promised it for two weeks now.
I now have 2 phone numbers!! (Thats good ain't it!)
The digital box is so slooooooooooooooow. The programme guide is very poor, its not easy to organise stuff to record, and it seems like I can only record only one thing at a time.
If I have another person from tech support telling me to "plug the box out, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in, go to factory reset etc etc. I will scream".
The internet is working fine, in fairness.
When I rang up about the slow programme guide, I was asked to press a few buttons. I then found out I had an old version of the epg. "Ah! says the UPC guy, thats your problem." So I downloaded the new version...........still like waiting for a bus.

The actual staff are very helpful when I ring up.

I have told them that if I don't have HD running by Thursday I will by hand delivering the whole lot to their HQ in East Point and billing them for a new Sky connection. I'm so glad they record all calls, as I've stated this from day 1.

I cannot recommend UPC to anyone.

They have over promised and under delivered.

Mad_Mike

maxwell smart wrote: »

The actual staff are very helpful when I ring up.

To be fair, I have to agree with you on this point.
I read lots of comments before I joined with them and most of them attacked their level of support.
I have found everybody, regardless of whether it be tv support, phone support, internet, accounts etc.. all to be very very nice and more than willing to try help, although as they are working from scripts, the whole "plug out the box for 30 seconds....bla bla bla" can get a bit frustrating alright, but thats not their fault

BostonB

Especially when you don't have a box...

djimi

maxwell smart wrote: »

If I have another person from tech support telling me to "plug the box out, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in, go to factory reset etc etc. I will scream".

I actually lost the rag with a tech support guy one day because after my 5th or 6th support call trying to resolve an issue and each time having them waste 20 minutes of my time retrying the same basic steps I had already tried before ringing I just couldnt take it any more. We had already long since established that the issue was not going to be resolved by bouncing the box, and all I wanted/needed was a technician to call out and take a look at the issue (which they resolved in 5 minutes when they eventually bothered sending one out to me), so I really blew a fuse with what I percieved to be timewasting tactics by someone who clearly hadnt a clue how to resolve my issue. I would have respected them more had they just said the issue had them stumped and they would need to send someone out to me.