Problem with dish

Liam McPoyle

Hey dudes.

Our sky box as been acting the maggot for the last couple of weeks. I did the hard reset, deleted the planner etc and the problems continued. Got on to Sky and they sent a technician out today. He tested it and said there is a problem with one of the feeds from the dish, generally means the dish is borked but he wasnt covered for working on it due to the height, (we are in a 2 storey duplex with a an apartment overhead so the dish is 3 stories up)

He said we would have to get an independent contractor to replace the dish. I asked if he could recommend someone and he gave me the number of someone he knows.

I had a chat with yer man and he said he would replace the dish for €70 and could give us a brand new box (ours is about 8 years old, doesnt have wifi built in etc) and remote for an additional €60.

Is it the norm that Sky technicians cannot carry out replacement / repairs on a roof of that height? The cost of the call out would have been €60 but the guy that called out said as it wasnt a problem with the box and he couldn't rectify the problem we werent charged.

The missus is worried that the guy I was speaking to is a cowboy of some sort and that if he carried out the replacement and we bought a new box from him, do we have any come back.

Your thoughts welcome and appreciated.

obezyana

The problem might be the LNB which would not cost anywhere near the money you were quoted. If he was charging you 70 quid just for the dish alone then he is making a nice profit. If he is charging for the dish&LNB with labour then fair enough. You could also if possible change out the LNB yourself. Its simple to do. Given the height issue tho maybe its not an option.

Thurston?

Business Cat wrote: »

Our sky box as been acting the maggot for the last couple of weeks. I did the hard reset, deleted the planner etc and the problems continued. Got on to Sky and they sent a technician out today. He tested it and said there is a problem with one of the feeds from the dish, generally means the dish is borked ...

If the dish is 'borked', all the feeds would be affected.

I presume you're sure it's solely your own dish, & it isn't also serving others in the building?

Liam McPoyle

obezyana wrote: »

The problem might be the LNB which would not cost anywhere near the money you were quoted. If he was charging you 70 quid just for the dish alone then he is making a nice profit. If he is charging for the dish&LNB with labour then fair enough. You could also if possible change out the LNB yourself. Its simple to do. Given the height issue tho maybe its not an option.

Ya, it's for parts and labour. Tbh I'm not even remotely technically minded never mind trying to get up on a 3 storey roof to start fiddling with wires!!

Liam McPoyle

Thurston? wrote: »

If the dish is 'borked', all the feeds would be affected.

I presume you're sure it's solely your own dish, & it isn't also serving others in the building?

Yer man checked the feeds and said one was ok, the other wasn't so I dunno mate.

The service is intermittent, it was working grand last night but not at all the night before and tbh, I've a pain in my hole with it at this stage.

The dish is for our place only, the burd bought the place around 9 years ago and it was installed then so one would assume that they only have a certain shelf life anyway.

obezyana

Id say its the LNB or a bad connection somewhere. I presume he checked the connections at box etc. Its a bit silly Sky installers refusing jobs like this because of height, someone obviously put it up there so i wonder why they go on with this nonsense.

Vic_08

Business Cat wrote: »

Hey dudes.

Our sky box as been acting the maggot for the last couple of weeks. I did the hard reset, deleted the planner etc and the problems continued. Got on to Sky and they sent a technician out today. He tested it and said there is a problem with one of the feeds from the dish, generally means the dish is borked but he wasnt covered for working on it due to the height, (we are in a 2 storey duplex with a an apartment overhead so the dish is 3 stories up)

He said we would have to get an independent contractor to replace the dish. I asked if he could recommend someone and he gave me the number of someone he knows.

I had a chat with yer man and he said he would replace the dish for €70 and could give us a brand new box (ours is about 8 years old, doesnt have wifi built in etc) and remote for an additional €60.

Is it the norm that Sky technicians cannot carry out replacement / repairs on a roof of that height? The cost of the call out would have been €60 but the guy that called out said as it wasnt a problem with the box and he couldn't rectify the problem we werent charged.

The missus is worried that the guy I was speaking to is a cowboy of some sort and that if he carried out the replacement and we bought a new box from him, do we have any come back.

None of that sounds good tbh.

A problem with one of the feeds means either the LNB (small device on the end of the arm of the satellite dish) or the cable between that and the sky box is at fault. Most likely cause for those faults is water ingress to the cable but without testing the system properly there is no way of determining where the actual fault is, it could be a loose connection that needs tightening or a replacement of the LNB and/or cable run.

I assume that as he cried off fixing the dish due to the height the sky installer did not actually get up a ladder to test it? And that the other lad you talked to has not actually visited your property to test your system at all?

In which case how do either of these boyos know that your dish needs replacing? And if your dish is "borked" then why is he suggesting replacing your sky box as well?

If you want to upgrade your box then do that but it is a separate thing to getting your system repaired unless your original box is faulty. As for the brand new box for €60 I am somewhat sceptical about this, a new sky+ box without sky subsidy is more than that although you can get a second hand one very cheap off the likes of adverts.ie http://www.adverts.ie/satellite/sky-box/8294338 here is one for €35, lots more are available for that sort of price. They are cheap because sky subsidise them for new/upgrading customers and once a contract ends they are not of much use to non-subscribers so plenty of used ones are available, I would bet it is one of these that guy was trying to sell you.

It does sound like a pair of chancers to me but seeing as you obviously have no technical knowledge it may be that you are misinterpreting them. €70 isn't a bad price for a dish replacement but if that is not what you need it is not going to fix your problem. A good Independent installer will charge than or more for a callout.

Best thing is to take it from the start and find out what you need doing yourself, it isn't that hard.

You say that the box is acting the maggot, what type of box (sky, sky HD, sky+, sky+ HD) is it and what exactly is wrong with it? Is it a constant fault or an intermittent one?

Do you have a relative or friend with a satellite system that you can connect your sky box to check it is functioning properly? or alternately borrow another satellite reciever to test your system with?

Liam McPoyle

Vic_08 wrote: »

None of that sounds good tbh.

A problem with one of the feeds means either the LNB (small device on the end of the arm of the satellite dish) or the cable between that and the sky box is at fault. Most likely cause for those faults is water ingress to the cable but without testing the system properly there is no way of determining where the actual fault is, it could be a loose connection that needs tightening or a replacement of the LNB and/or cable run.

I assume that as he cried off fixing the dish due to the height the sky installer did not actually get up a ladder to test it? And that the other lad you talked to has not actually visited your property to test your system at all?

In which case how do either of these boyos know that your dish needs replacing? And if your dish is "borked" then why is he suggesting replacing your sky box as well?

If you want to upgrade your box then do that but it is a separate thing to getting your system repaired unless your original box is faulty. As for the brand new box for €60 I am somewhat sceptical about this, a new sky+ box without sky subsidy is more than that although you can get a second hand one very cheap off the likes of adverts.ie http://www.adverts.ie/satellite/sky-box/8294338 here is one for €35, lots more are available for that sort of price. They are cheap because sky subsidise them for new/upgrading customers and once a contract ends they are not of much use to non-subscribers so plenty of used ones are available, I would bet it is one of these that guy was trying to sell you.

It does sound like a pair of chancers to me but seeing as you obviously have no technical knowledge it may be that you are misinterpreting them. €70 isn't a bad price for a dish replacement but if that is not what you need it is not going to fix your problem. A good Independent installer will charge than or more for a callout.

Best thing is to take it from the start and find out what you need doing yourself, it isn't that hard.

You say that the box is acting the maggot, what type of box (sky, sky HD, sky+, sky+ HD) is it and what exactly is wrong with it? Is it a constant fault or an intermittent one?

Do you have a relative or friend with a satellite system that you can connect your sky box to check it is functioning properly? or alternately borrow another satellite reciever to test your system with?

Many thanks for the detailed response, Vic, much obliged.

The problem we are having is that we keep getting the "system is initiallising" but it just hangs there and does nothing. Sometimes switching it on and off at the mains works, sometimes not. Other times it says "no satellite signal is being received"

I did the hard reset as explained on the Sky site but that didnt help.

I then rang Sky and the guy on the end of the phone told me to switch it off and on again while holding the back up button on the remote. Apparently that should cause 4 lights on the front of the box to light up but that didnt happen with 3 or 4 attempts, it was at that point the guy said we needed to get the technician out.

You are correct that the technician did not get up to the dish when he was here due to H & S restrictions (according to him) and the guy that is supposed to be coming tomorrow has not been here as yet.

He didnt suggest replacing the Sky box, he said he could do it if we wanted. The one we have is an original HD + box so according to the missus the box thats here is the one she got when she moved in almost 9 years ago.

We were thinking of upgrading the box in any case, even before this happened as its not wifi enabled and the memory isnt all that good on it. The guy in Sky told me over the phone that they cost €199 but we could probably get it cheaper as the price isnt set in stone.

As for the last part, no, unfortunately nobody near hand we could test our box with but as I said above, the box itself works fine when its getting the signal.

foggy_lad

obezyana wrote: »

Id say its the LNB or a bad connection somewhere. I presume he checked the connections at box etc. Its a bit silly Sky installers refusing jobs like this because of height, someone obviously put it up there so i wonder why they go on with this nonsense.

Some years ago they would install onto chimneys and at greater heights but with an additional charge(some of which may have gone to insurance?) but now they barely use a stepladder. also if the original dish is in good condition ask the installer to leave it there and use it as it will be much better quality than the flimsy yokes that sky installers are using now. It is most likely a loose connection to the LNB or one of the 4 connections is gone, if he says he changed the LNB ask to see the old one as often a cheap fix is to use another connection on the LNB but charge you for a new one.

There are probably lots of sky installers who have friends who are probably also sky installers who will do these nixers for each other in the evenings or when they have no sky jobs on.