Sky install - A joke

griffy

griffy

griffy

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25 Apr 2004
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574
Location
Cambridgeshire UKJ
Sky were scheduled to upgrade my Sky+ to Sky HD today, the letter stated an AM time slot. I arranged with my boss to get the morning off work so I was all set. :cool:

According to the Sky website, the engineer will call either the night before, or before 9 am on the day of installation to confirm what time he expects to arrive...I didn't get a call. :(

I waited till around 1030, then after the very longwinded automated phone service provided by sky, I got to talk to someone, who confirmed that I should see the installer sometime between 10 and 1. I then got an answer machine message from AVC telling me the installer would be visiting sometime between 10 and 1. I waited.... :rolleyes:

I waited till 1:30 then rang Sky. 'Due to very high call volumes' they were unable to answer my call, so I listened again to my AVC answer machine message, and used the ring back service to call them direct. Someone answered right away, apologised and informed me that the installer would deffinetly arrive before 4pm. I waited.... :rolleyes:

The installer arrived at 5:35, apologised for being 'a bit late' and sorted out my HD install. I'm ****ed off for waiting around all day, and having to take a day off work, when I didn't have to. My boss is fuming, as he only expected me away from work for a few hours at most. Who do I talk to for some sort of compensation, and what should I expect in return? :mad:
 
I'd have went to work, and then phoned up sky and told them to send someone round to fit my stuff as no one arrived, nor phoned to confirm a time, and their service sucks so please get it right this time kthx bye. Don't think you'd get any compo.
 
and for every "bad install" there are just as many good ones - just not posted about.

We moved to SkyHD about three weeks ago - I was in hospital when it came to the actual installation date, so I left my wife in charge.

We received a call the evening before confirming our installation would take place AM the following day.
At 10:00am the installer was onsite.
I'd left instructions with the wife to ask for a Samsung HD box if that was at all possible.
On the van my assigned box was a Pace, installer found a Samsung and was happy to swap it over for us.

Everything cabled up and confirmed working.
Wife was a little unsure about using "Source" buttons on the TV (was used to simply switching Sky+ box on and auto channel change).
Installer spent 5-10 minutes with her until she was happy getting to the various channels.
 
I would say this is installer dependant with the case of Sky. You'll get the same with breakdown recovery companies, energy suppliers etc who all send out an engineer. They operate in mostly the same fashion and it's just bad luck if the particular engineer you get is poor or average. The only thing you can do is report the said engineer and hope they are re-trained or re-assigned so other people aren't inconvenienced by sub standard service. There's only so much Sky can do until the engineers are set free on their customers.

I doubt I'll ever be able to justify every using Sky myself though. No fair :(
 
As has said that does suck, I had the opposite my guy came out in the morning time slot and got it all done within about 30mins and he was a very friendly guy, offered some tips on getting the best out the box etc. As has been said by Dup it can vary, the guys obviously get a load of work and if held up you will be put back unfortunately. Sky for you, make more money this way.
 
Had my first install booked a few weeks ago. A right arsey little chap came out - no advance phone call as promised. I was in work 5 mins away and had a mate sitting in the house to call me when they arrived in case they didn't ring in advance. I could then pop back and tell the installer where things needed to go etc.

He refused to do the install; first as there were no phone points near the box locations, which there were. Then the trees are too high and would block the signal - I've checked based on azimuth and elevation from a first floor window and looking towards the satellite I see only blue sky. He'd left before I got home less than 5 mins after he turned up.

Sky then rang me to say I couldn't have their service and when I asked why she rang the engineer to ask - she then came back to me saying "Oooo, he was very rude!".

I now have a 2 man heights team coming out tomorrow, so fingers crossed that they are a bit more sensible and are willing to climb more than 5 foot up a ladder.
 
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They've arrived! Somewhat bemused as to why the last guy didn't do it. Dish is up and they're running cables as I type. They even refused a coffee :eek:
 
stoofa said:
and for every "bad install" there are just as many good ones - just not posted about.
Click to expand...

Does that mean that 50% of installs are 'bad'? :p

I've also heard good and bad stories and as you say, the good ones don't really get much of a mention. Also i think it very much depends on the attitude of the installer and perhaps how busy a day he is having.

My installation went much better than expected. There was only one place on the house that the dish could go and it meant the installer climbing up a ground floor extension sloping roof. I was expecting the installation to be refused but the installer had no problem with it. Whilst up there he encountered an active wasps nest about 2ft from where the dish was going. Whilst drilling the wasps weren't too happy but he carried on, scared ****less though. I was watching this cringing, half thinking i wouldn't be doing that in a million years but the other half looking forward to Sky HD!

Also the wiring wasn't straight forward; it went round the house, through a garage, through the garage roof, into a built-in cupboard under a roof which is only 2ft high and through another wall. Again, the installer had no problem although when i asked he did mention it was one of the trickiest installations he had done.

I think it helps having tea and biscuits on the go as a sweetener. Gave him a couple of bottles of Bud for his efforts when he left and he was well chuffed!
 
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