Beware of the Sky (Sierra) Installer

Timmy

I arranged for my parents to have Sky installed and was paying for it all myself (had told parents that no payment was due to installer). He arrived on Friday from Sierra, an English guy for Norfolk(?) who's been in Ireland for 14 years. He conned my parents in paying 25euro for the phone cable. The bast**d was so nice to my parents that they even gave him a tip for his efforts.
He put the 25euro on the receipt but didn't sign it (surprise).
I arrived at the parents to discover this after he'd been and immediately got on to Sky. They started with "its not our problem" until I did the "I know lots of people in Sky trick" which I actually do. He did an about turn and they are arranging a credit.
I wont tout the errosion of moral fibre in society line but hope that Sky do something about this.

Just letting you guys know

dmeehan

anything outside the "standard install" will have to be paid for
but i dont see why connecting a (required) phone line falls outside the remit of a standard install

Timmy

It was as standard as they come, the phone point is about 10 feet away. Just some git taking advantage,

Sent a letter to Sky this morning looking for a hangin!! Can't wait for the response

dmeehan

Can't wait for the response

be sure to post it here:D

Tony

Originally posted by Timmy
It was as standard as they come, the phone point is about 10 feet away. Just some git taking advantage,

Sent a letter to Sky this morning looking for a hangin!! Can't wait for the response

I'm not excusing the guy but if you knew the crap money they (sierra) get paid it might go some way towards explaining the motivation to do this. Sky set the install rates here and then introduced mandatory phone connection without any increase in install payments.At present we are trying to get sky to say in detail what they consider a "standard" installation to be, that way everybody knows where they stand and most importantly customers know what to expect with no surprises. So far Sky have failed to do this.

Tony

Timmy

got money back but no apology. damned if thats good enough so will update you all when off. apology received

Capt'n Midnight

RE:At present we are trying to get sky to say in detail what they consider a "standard" installation to be,

Can you just hijack the standards the UK installers use for SKY and tell SKY that. - must be a price list somewhere - extras - per 10 m cable - phone extension over ...

Only problem is if you guys start undercutting each other on this you'll end up like the UK hauliers where margins were so tight that any change in costs drove loads of them to the wall - still the abuse SKY get from cheapo installs should force them to pay a fair price..

Tony

I was not referring to pricing, I was referring to length of cable runs distance from phone point etc, very easy for some sales person in Scotalnd to say "oh yes the installer will do all that" they are not the ones who have to install the system. UK installers have no set standard either for installation. Sky are immune to abuse, once you are signed up they will simply refer any problems back to the installer/retailer. I 'd would rather not do a job than do a bad one.

Thanks for your comments

Tony

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
RE:At present we are trying to get sky to say in detail what they consider a "standard" installation to be,

Can you just hijack the standards the UK installers use for SKY and tell SKY that. - must be a price list somewhere - extras - per 10 m cable - phone extension over ...

Only problem is if you guys start undercutting each other on this you'll end up like the UK hauliers where margins were so tight that any change in costs drove loads of them to the wall - still the abuse SKY get from cheapo installs should force them to pay a fair price..

LFCFan

the chaps that installed my system just left me a huge amount of cable for the phoneline for me to run later on. They fixed the connectors alright and tested it but that was it. They weren't too bothered with lengths. They also had a right aul go at some poor unfortunate dope in Sky because the callback on the box wouldn't work and when they rang sky to activate the account yer one said that they couldn't do it from there even though it was the same number these chaps always rang to get it done.

byte

How come the line wasn't connected properly? And did you get up and running after the fiasco?

LFCFan

Originally posted by byte
How come the line wasn't connected properly? And did you get up and running after the fiasco?

well running the phone line to the jack in the hall means going across the living room and it would look awful so I just told them to leave the cable and I'd do it myself. I've only just realised after only now trying to order a PPV movie that the box can't connect so there may be something wrong with the modem. Have to get them out to sort it now.

eirebhoy

I'm getting Sky Digital installed tomorrow, how long do they usually take to install it?

LFCFan

Originally posted by eireboy
I'm getting Sky Digital installed tomorrow, how long do they usually take to install it?

if there's nothing unusual about the install it should only take 30 -45 minutes.

Grayarea

Originally posted by LFCFan
I've only just realised after only now trying to order a PPV movie that the box can't connect so there may be something wrong with the modem. Have to get them out to sort it now.

If you have the digibox connected to a Eircom ISDN plug and play analogue port, your digibox modem is probably OK. It's a fault in the modems design in that it does not correctly identify the ISDN adapters analogue dial tone (which is within the spec), basically a cheap and nasty design.

Grayarea.

LFCFan

Originally posted by Grayarea
If you have the digibox connected to a Eircom ISDN plug and play analogue port, your digibox modem is probably OK. It's a fault in the modems design in that it does not correctly identify the ISDN adapters analogue dial tone (which is within the spec), basically a cheap and nasty design.

Grayarea.

Nope, just a normal auld PSTN connection. It recognises that it's connected in the system settings the online light comes on when I try to connect to anything but then it dies and says there is a problem connecting.