If I bung the Sky installer a few quid, might he...

[cerebros]

I'm getting Sky+ installed soon which will be the first Sky installation at this address.

Now I can get access to an unused standard digibox, and would like to use this in the bedroom, however, when I put my order in for Sky+ and install, I was told that they wouldn't put in the cabling for a second room unless I was taking a multiroom subscription. I don't really want multiroom subscription, I just want to use this digibox for whattever free to view stuff I can see.

Now when they come to do my installation, is it likely that if I offer to bung the installers £20 or £30, they'll do the second room?

[Nick_UK]

It might depend on whether you get a Sky installer or a sub-contractor. In my experience, the sub-contractors are much more willing to bend the rules.

[cerebros]

How will I tell if it's a Sky installer or a sub-contractor? Will the Sky installer's come in those Sky branded vans that they used to show in those cartoon adverts when Sky Digital first launched?

[Kenny Glasgow]

Well he can only say "Yes" or "No" so it's worth asking. £20 would be fair

[cerebros]

Just hoping that it is either an independent installer or that the Sky guy isn't a complete jobsworth not tempted by cash...

[MrFurious]

let us know

[Nick_UK]

Originally Posted by cerebros

How will I tell if it's a Sky installer or a sub-contractor? Will the Sky installer's come in those Sky branded vans that they used to show in those cartoon adverts when Sky Digital first launched?

Subbies usually have their own names on the vans, but they can also have the Sky logo on there too. Ask them whether they work directly for Sky. The guy who fitted my Sky dish owned a small "father & son" company, and they did an excellent job.

[Dabs]

When i bought Sky+ box from Currys i was a newbie and was told(by a hopeless salesman) i just needed to plug in the existing cable, but realised i needed 2 feeds and a quad rnb(by reading these forums).
So i spoke to a Sky installer and was quoted £40.He did an excellent job which included the quad rnb and extra feed.And he left me his mobile in case of any probs.
As for that Currys salesman he said i would'nt even need to phone Sky but i did to activate the subscription.

[Corkonian]

On the receipt you get after paying for Sky+ it says you've payed for the installation of the new box plus relocation of the old one. I didn't pay for multiroom.
Surely that means they must install the 2nd box properly, cabling and all?
I did it myself anyway. Lots of thieving installing Sky here, didn't want them snooping around the house.

[cerebros]

Hi all.

Currently fuming somewhat as things haven't gone as hoped

First off, despite having specified an afternoon installation, which I was told would be between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., when the installers rang at about 8:30 this morning my gf was told they would be coming between 9 and 1 - annoying as we'd planned to get a load of shopping and chores done in the morning.

The installers didn't turn up until 11:55 - definitely weren't Sky's own as they turned up in an estate car . Almost as soon as he got through the door, the lead guy was telling me that he could set up a second room for £60 as opposed to £80 from Sky - so much for planning to offer him £20 to cable up the bedroom.

To say they seemed to be in a rush was an understatement - I don't think they were on site for more than 20 minutes and left a used cable reel on the front lawn, as well as what looks like some sort of cable tidy for the LNB on the driveway.

What's worse is that they didn't ensure that the record functions on Sky+ were working before going. The guy called them up and said it was being prcessed through but that it could take up to four hours for it to activate because the call centre was busy. He pressed pause on the remote which brought up an error message on screen and said that if it was still bringing that up after 4 hours, call the telephone number listed on the message.

Anyway, the gf and I go off and do our shopping and chores we had planned to do in the morning. We get back and I try activating the pause live TV fuction but get the message from earlier. I wait until the four hours have passed and ring customer service to get the function activated. It then transpires that the unit actually has a fault.

The guy on the activation line passes me through to a guy called Pete in technical support who takes me through doing a reformat of the hard disk. However, the record functions still don't work even after I go through this. Pete tells me that it's a knackered hard drive and the installer shouldn't have left until he'd ensured that this was working. He's now supposedly trying to sort me a replacement ASAP, as the first date his computer was giving him was January 10th!

All in all, not overly impressed right now - I know I can't blame Sky as such, since it was a sub-contractor that messed up, but you'd hope that sub-contractors would have to be properly vetted so that stuff like this doesn't happen.

[jelly]

why cant u blame sky ?? if there subcontracting to companies they should ensure there stilkl doing a grade 1 job im getting it installed on the 30th and not sighning for diddly squat till it in and working, did u get a new box or a re conditioned 1????

[martian1]

Just had sky+ installed today with multiroom. Nearly a disaster but turned out great. Proper sky installer on a probation period [due to be offered full time employment within a week ] he was a stickler for everything being done by the book and a lovely guy. He phoned night before to arrange install today between 11am-2pm, ended install at 6.30pm
He had to go on my neighbours garage roof to install dish etc , i couldn't believe he would use eye bolts a harness and hard hat not far to fall at all. Anyway my neighbour was out so he left ,came back at 4pm still no neighbour left again both dissapointed. He said he had one more call then home and left saying he didn't know who i would get to install next time
Neighbour arrived i phoned him and he came back did a fantastic proffesional job [even though he was out tonight and running late] put dish up in pitch dark installed downstairs and up, even said he would try and set up for best signal possible and here is the bonus...
I was due to get amstrad boxes.... he told me night before and i gave them the saying my parents had one and it was trouble he basically told me hard luck all i have i kept calm and left it at this, when he was doing install he mentioned boxes and let slip call before mine was a knackered amstrad i said well this will be me in a
couple of weeks he then said... well do you want amstrad or PACE i cannot guarantee it won't give you problems but i am in a hurry now and the firmware upgrade i do is a lot quicker on pace boxes. so my patients payed off picture is fantastic, he also gave me the number of a sky contracted installer who would do me an exrta room [for my HC] link up. So my initial thoughts of oh a jobsworth were not justified his work is checked [even installing dish bolts into cement is a no..no] he wants to keep his job so does the buisness. If i was you i would get onto sky and demand a sky installer to fix problems..pull their work to bits write a list tell them my install was a relatives and why didn't you get this service.. and for gods sake be pleasant and patient [but dissapointed] Good luck m8t

[cerebros]

Originally Posted by jelly

why cant u blame sky ?? if there subcontracting to companies they should ensure there stilkl doing a grade 1 job

Did you read my last paragraph? My main beef is with the sub-contractor, but I said SKy should be ensuring any sub-contractors they use are up to the job.

im getting it installed on the 30th and not sighning for diddly squat till it in and working, did u get a new box or a re conditioned 1????

Well I assume it was new - it came in a box with all the accessories still in the protective coverings, and when the sub-contractor was finishing his work sheet he had to take some stickers from the box and stick them to the carbon copies - the box had a full compliment when he arrived.

Besides, if the box looked like it was re-conditioned I'd be kicking up a hell of a stink with Sky, as at no point during the order process was I told I would be receiving 2nd hand goods.

[cerebros]

Oh, and just to add to my annoyance, the SCART cable that comes with Sky+ isn't fully wired, as I got a weird yellow sheen to the picture when I switched the picture output to RGB. Thankfully I was able to replace it with one of my Thor SCARTS which I had been using to connect my Nokia 221T to the TV, so RGB goodness can be seen.

[cerebros]

Getting even more unimpressed now

The phone line quality on the phone in the lounge has gone straight downhill since Sky+ was installed (the upstairs phone is fine). During the Arsenal Vs Chelsea match today whenever I pressed the red button I got the "please wait" message for a few seconds before getting a "Technical Fault, try again later" message. Plus sound and picture occasionaly freeze for about 7 seconds on some channels (Sky 1 & Channel 4 so far).