Help needed; installer removed access to rooftop aerial; is this normal practice?

[Westlondoner99]

Can anyone please advise? As an exisitng ntl phone and broadband customer I was recently contacted by ntl and offered a cable TV connection free of charge as long as I remained on the Basic package.

I thought this would be a new source of TV input in addition to my digital rooftop aerial, and that I would have the ability to record a cable channel while watching Channels 1 to 5 from the terrestrial signal.

However, the installer went onto the balcony and cut through the connection to the rooftop aerial and brought the cable signal into the property by splicing the ntl cable signal into the cable that used to carry the rooftop aerial signal.

This is not what I expected. Is it normal practice to install in this way, or can I ask the company to make good the damage to my digital rooftop aerial?

[Graham M]

Can anyone please advise? As an exisitng ntl phone and broadband customer I was recently contacted by ntl and offered a cable TV connection free of charge as long as I remained on the Basic package.

I thought this would be a new source of TV input in addition to my digital rooftop aerial, and that I would have the ability to record a cable channel while watching Channels 1 to 5 from the terrestrial signal.

However, the installer went onto the balcony and cut through the connection to the rooftop aerial and brought the cable signal into the property by splicing the ntl cable signal into the cable that used to carry the rooftop aerial signal.

This is not what I expected. Is it normal practice to install in this way, or can I ask the company to make good the damage to my digital rooftop aerial?

Not normal practice no and I would complain if I were you

[invisibleboy]

cut the cable to our aerial too when we had our installation more to use the hole through the window for the cable. i wasn't there at install would have pulled them up about it only noticed this weekend when i pulled it through when tidying cables in anticipation of my v+ install tomorrow

[Stuart]

Can anyone please advise? As an exisitng ntl phone and broadband customer I was recently contacted by ntl and offered a cable TV connection free of charge as long as I remained on the Basic package.

I thought this would be a new source of TV input in addition to my digital rooftop aerial, and that I would have the ability to record a cable channel while watching Channels 1 to 5 from the terrestrial signal.

However, the installer went onto the balcony and cut through the connection to the rooftop aerial and brought the cable signal into the property by splicing the ntl cable signal into the cable that used to carry the rooftop aerial signal.

This is not what I expected. Is it normal practice to install in this way, or can I ask the company to make good the damage to my digital rooftop aerial?

:welcome: to the forum.

This is most definately NOT what Virgin normally do. Not least because the cable may not be good enough.

I have found that when installing new boxes, they will disconnect any other equipment and just leave you with your NTL box plugged in (which is a pain for me as the installer disconnected both my TiVo and VCR), but they shouldn't splice any existing cables.

[ntl engineer]

nope they shudnt of done that the aerail cable is no good at all and they shudnt of done anything with it by standard pratice wen you av vm fitted then you shud av add ur vcr connected and ur aerial tuned into so you can still watch your 5 channels i wud complain about it and get them back to sort it and they are not allowed to go through the windows or door frames just incase you get them changed or anything else hope this helps

[Westlondoner99]

Thanks all for the advice and support; I managed to get through to the Area Regional Manager who agreed that the product had been pushed on me and then installed badly.

He said he would send someone round next week to disconnect the box and reconnect the rooftop aerial with Virgin cable, and just cancel the service, for which there was no contract.

This seems too good to be true, so I am slightly sceptical that it may not go as smoothly as planned.

[Stuart]

Hope you get it sorted anyhow..

[Westlondoner99]

Virgin turned up as promised and connected the two parts of the rooftop aerial using a junction. The analogue signal is pretty much good as new, but the Freeview seems less colourful than before, and the usual set up of aerial into Freeview box, Freeview box into VCR, VCR into TV now involves some loss of signal. I now have to have the video recorder connected to the Freeview box by a single SCART, which means when I play videotapes I am sending the signal back through the Freeview box. Surprisingly, videotapes played by this method are more colourful than the live signal.

As Virgin have (sort of) made good the mistake, I can't really pursue the matter with them any further, but having lost the ability to record analogue while watching Freeview and also now needing different colour settings for vidoes and live viewing, I shall probably purchase a new cable at my own expense just to get back where I started.

Something to watch out for when dealing with Virgin!

[c1rcle]

Seems to me that it is standard practice as it's happened to me twice, didn't know till reading this thread they're not supposed to do it.

[NTLVictim]

Don't Cable cable and aerial cable have different characteristics?