Sky installation problems :(

[SkavenUK]

Hey guys

Well I finally took the plunge as per my last thread and ordered the sky package last month with broadband... what a nightmare.

As it stands at the moment we have the broadband installed, but still no dish installed.
On the first date we had set for installation the guy pulled up in his sky van, had a look and was told that it would require a two man team to put up the dish because of the high heights of our terraced house - fair enough. 3 weeks later today we had the two guys come out to install it.

Basically, was told that he coulden't bring the ladder through the house to install the dish to the wall in the garden because the ladder was too big. Then was told because I wanted a box downstairs in my bedroom that it would require the cable being run over the roof - this would require the ladder being put onto the road outside (which by the way is dead quiet during the day, no cars whatsoever) and that they would have to get special permission to do that, also was told that we would require an extra phone line to be installed in the middle of the house as there wasn't one.

They could do all this we were told - but for the fact that it wasn't on there 'spec sheet' and that they woulden't get paid for it by SKY if they would of gone ahead and done it. I wasn't angry at all with them as to be honest I understand its not their fault etc but they wern't exactly flexible with the whole situation.
I really don't know what to do now - they spoke with the customer services over the phone for a good hour trying to sort this out and have booked yet another installation date, but this time just for a box to be put into the main room, leaving my bedroom without tv whatsoever, which is compleatly pointless as that is not what I had originally asked for. Im about to ring customer service up now and to see what exactly is going on and if I can actually get what I asked for in the first place without getting the run around.

This woulden't be so bad but for the fact that I cancelled my virgin account in preperation for all this work to be done, but im compleatly without the tv now.

Could anyone possibly advise what to do - should I have a proper go at them on the phone or should there be something im missing here and should be saying?

Cheers!

[Paul]

Standard installation only covers a basic install that doesn't require any specialised equipment or permissions. To put a ladder up so that it sits in a road would require permission from the council otherwise the contractors would not be insured if someone knocked the ladders at all (even if the probability is slim to none).
The installers are paid to do a standard install which would take them a standard period of time to do and would require a standard set of equipment. Anything outside of this would cost someone money.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

Hello matey, My advice would be STICK with VM, l have been with SKY for the past 15 years, and with Telewest / VM on and off for about a year, l have just decided to tell SKY stick it, as l could write a book on the problems that l have had with Sky;
We have a service contract with Sky, and we could not get a signal, and the engineer blamed it on the SIX FOOT TREE in our garden, so we cut it down, then they blamed it on the TREE ON THE CORNER OF OUR ROAD, some forty feet away, they called back three days later, with a service MANAGER, he blamed it on OUR PHONE for preventing the signal to get to the dish, and this is without CHECKING THE DISH first, a week later, another engineer called, and l said could it be the dish, he said NO as it was installed by them and they can check it without going to the dish, just by luck our neighbours were having SKY installed by an independant contractor, and l asked him, he checked the dish and found the problem, the LNB was broken, and he offered to change it for a tenner, so we paid, and everything was fine, l contacted SKY, and they said ' there HIGHLY trained engineers, must have been busy' and FORGOT to check the dish' they come out with so much crap it is unreal, and the cost of the phone calls must have run into pounds, the CS is appaling, they constantly send you invoices before the account is due, and there direct debit services sometimes takes out more than they should- once they took FOUR MONTHS SUBS, and refused to pay it back in, in my opion, if you are with VM, stick with them, SKY will cost you a fortune.

[colin-bennett]

Originally Posted by Paul

Standard installation only covers a basic install that doesn't require any specialised equipment or permissions. To put a ladder up so that it sits in a road would require permission from the council otherwise the contractors would not be insured if someone knocked the ladders at all (even if the probability is slim to none).
The installers are paid to do a standard install which would take them a standard period of time to do and would require a standard set of equipment. Anything outside of this would cost someone money.

This is only the install. Should you ever get over this problem I do hope you never get a fault !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

[SkavenUK]

Originally Posted by Paul

Standard installation only covers a basic install that doesn't require any specialised equipment or permissions. To put a ladder up so that it sits in a road would require permission from the council otherwise the contractors would not be insured if someone knocked the ladders at all (even if the probability is slim to none).

In which case, surely then it would save time,money and less hassle for the customer and proberbly Sky if they were to send out a surveyor to check the propertys for any special requirements needed?
Thing I don't understand is that every other house down our road has a dish plonked on the wall in their garden, with the wires feeding over their roofs - ive gone and looked outside, I can't believe every single one of thoes has had to of gained special permission, theres quite a fair bit of pavement between the house and the road so maybe they just put the ladder on the pavement?

Originally Posted by Paul

The installers are paid to do a standard install which would take them a standard period of time to do and would require a standard set of equipment. Anything outside of this would cost someone money.

The engineer at the time told me that he could of done the work needed no problem, but that 'apparently' the last time they did it Sky ended up not paying them as it wasn't down on their spec sheet to do. He's still chasing up money thats owed to him from around 6 months ago - according to him. So are Sky just that inflexible that they won't pay their sub-contractors if they need to do extra work for the customer?

Anyways, some good news at least. I rang them up again the previous evening. Spoke to a nice chap and told him what had been happening. In short he said they were talking rubbish, they could of fed the cabling through the actual house but they were just too lazy to do it and that the ladder being too long to get through the house was just a poor excuse (his words). He himself lives in a 3-story house and had no problems at all with them doing it for him.
So ive now been told that the day before they are due to come next week to ring sky up to tell me if they're using sub-contractors or their own installation people, and If there's any problems during the actual install to ring them up and they will sort it out. So fingers crossed next tuesday I can actually watch tv again!

[iain_herts]

HI SkavenUK as a ex sky engirneer let me give u some info.

sky installer and subbies use 2 types of ladders triple 13 and triple 15 on a few occaions where iv had to get ladders through the house i have had to split them up as they were to big.(even had a job where i couldnt get the ladder though the house)

all sky installers ARE trained to do triple ladder work (which means the ladder fully extended) triple 13 will do a 3 story building and they CAN all do roof work.They are allowed to run cables inside the house and though rooms iv done it.

phone lines all installer's carry drums of phone cable which they are ment to run from where ever a phone point is say a phone point is at ground floor and u need a point up on the 3rd they MUST run it.

if there is anything else u would like to know let me know.

also if he turns up ask for ID and take down HIS TECH number .if he/she does not do it get them to call there team manger. if it gets to a point call sky and complain about ur last installer and request a team manger comes down (u will be better to speak to the scotland call center for this)

iain

[SkavenUK]

Thanks alot for the info

[AndyCambs]

Out interest when my NTL (as it was then) was installed - I had the cable run from the box in the street. They asked where they could dig to lay the cables in the garden. They asked where I wanted the cable to cross the path to the house and the external box sited - I have two boxes one downstairs and one upstairs, and a cable modem.
There was no problem at all from the cable fitters.