What to expect from a Sky Engineer?

Robbo · 16 Nov 2009 at 16:10

I have sky coming on friday to setup my multi-room Sky+ HD upgrade and I was wondering, as its been years since I last had a Sky guy round, what to expect from them?

I assume they are able to drill etc where needed to get the wires where they need to go and assist with any phone line wiring (although its not a lot of trouble if not).

Is there much they dont do, do they just come in and do the bare minimum of whats required to wire the Sky up, or whats the deal here?

Thanks for any replies.

Sirrel Squirrel · 16 Nov 2009 at 16:46

AFAIK they won't drill through any internal walls and won't move or add a phone line extension.

-Ad- · 16 Nov 2009 at 18:07

Installer not engineer

They will sort out an additional phone line for you as it's skys requirement to have your boxes connected to the phone lines.

Lanz · 16 Nov 2009 at 22:47

I had them around a whole ago to fix me up a dish just for freesat, for the `pay once watch forever` deal. They were two polish guys who didnt speak much english. They attached it to my downstairs neighbours dish in the end, but they did run me two lines as I told them I was going to get Sky+ down the road.

They weren't too bad, but it was pretty much bare minimum, I had trouble getting two lines from them, I had to haggle and say that they saved a dish so the least hey could give me was two connections.

Moment they went, I packed the Sky box away and plugged my MCE in...

neil_g · 17 Nov 2009 at 10:13

we're having this conversation at work at the moment as a couple guys have just ordered/had installed sky HD.

if the dish needs to go in an awkward place youll need a special heights team, but generally its the installers call as to whether they can fit it or not.

fadetoblack · 17 Nov 2009 at 11:08

Sirrel Squirrel said:
AFAIK they won't drill through any internal walls and won't move or add a phone line extension.

They did drill an internal wall in my house : )

OpenToSuggestions · 17 Nov 2009 at 11:11

He will be a man in a van with a set of spanners.
Don't expect him to perform wonders

.

Robbo · 17 Nov 2009 at 16:25

Yeah I wasnt expecting any wonders, it should be fairly simple to get the wires to where they need to be.

I've got phone line sockets basically within a couple of meters reach of where both boxes will be, and he can run a wire along the outside of the house and then drill a hole next to the window, which is where the other TV (for multiroom) will be.

The main TV already has Sky rigged up to it so that wont require much work!

kefkef · 17 Nov 2009 at 17:06

Had HD installed recently replacing Sky+. The guy put up a new dish, removed the exisiting two wires going to front room (going from dish at back of house to front), replaced with single wire that had two cores, filled old hole in wall with silicon sealer and siliconed the wall where new cable went in. Plugged the box in, connected it to the telly, ran the setup prog and then left me with a card with his mobile number on to call him if i had any problems within the first week or two of use and he would call back.

Sirrel Squirrel · 18 Nov 2009 at 08:13

fadetoblack said:
They did drill an internal wall in my house : )

Lucky I mush have had a jobsworth, I remember coming back from school expecting Sky to be installed and my mum told me that he wouldn't drill through an internal wall so I had to wait another 2 weeks whilst we got someone to fit a telephone extension by drilling through the wall. Was gutted

(this was about 10 years ago)

firstborn · 18 Nov 2009 at 11:58

Jamesftw said:
I have sky coming on friday to setup my multi-room Sky+ HD upgrade and I was wondering, as its been years since I last had a Sky guy round, what to expect from them?

I assume they are able to drill etc where needed to get the wires where they need to go and assist with any phone line wiring (although its not a lot of trouble if not).

Is there much they dont do, do they just come in and do the bare minimum of whats required to wire the Sky up, or whats the deal here?

Thanks for any replies.

Expect just a man with a drill and dodgy cabling skills and don't leave them alone!I did and found they'd cut the cable short and when connected to the box the cables were suspended 2 foot off the ground. They also refused to install on the first visit as telepohone points were too far away and the trees were too high in front of my house. Had to draw them a picture to show how the trees wouldn't be a problem if they used a ladder longer than 6 foot to install the dish

I imagine some are good and some are bad though.

Yas786 · 18 Nov 2009 at 12:19

The guys who did my sky HD install were brilliant...tidied up the cables out and made it look better than the original sky install. Even inside he tacked the cable to the sky hd box neatly...but he wouldnt drill any internal walls which was ok as i drilled a hole through, put the telephone cable through and he tidied it up...gave them £10 beer money for their excellent job.