SKY+ introduce a friend £60 installation free ripoff

fznuk

After reading an article i decided to go with the recommend-a-friend to SKY+ deal to get myself a free Sky+ box but didn't read the extra small print in that i would have to pay £60 installation! All the new customer paid was £30 for the lot. now i don't get it as i recommended the friend, been a good paying customer for years and i get the bad deal?!

I tried to negotiate with them but i got nowhere, they just said that's the deal so like it or lump it. unfortunately i live in a bad TV area with no Freeview expected until November at the earliest, and even then it will be half freeview due to the poor relay transmitter

All i am left with is SKY.

Also, Im in a first floor flat (converted magistrates court) so at the moment share a communal dish (too high for normal installation i think) but got permission to install my own dish at 1st floor level. I also have a second hand SKY + box already but when i went to install it my dish hit a snag...a chimney pot in the way as i got half my channels. speaking to a SKY engineer i would need them to come out to check my line of sight with their more sophisticated sat finder and checker. So this is why i went for the deal above. They even want me to pay-up the £60 first to come and just check i CAN have another dish installed where i want it?!

Should i just cancel my sky and then go for a free offer?!

any help or advice would be appreciated

all the best.

Simon.

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

Unfortunately it is in the small print and is part of the T&C's of introduce-a-friend.

You can't call it a rip-off just becuase you didn't notice it.

Also be aware that if the chimney pot turns your install into 'non-standard,' you may have to pay even more.

wa1shy

no its a rip off because even if you have Sky + like i do and all you need to do is swap the boxes over they still charge you a £60 installation fee

i have been through it with them today i am more than capable of unplugging 3 cables and plugging them into a new box and yet they want to charge me £60 to do my own work.

and if anyone is wondering my other sky box is faulty so rather than spend £199 i introduced a friend

in my instance they will be using that £60 to claw back some of the money from the so called Free Sky + box so i would recommend everyone just have the vouchers

wa1shy

oh just spoke to them again and they have said that its to cover the 12 month warranty on the box as well

norbet

A possible reason for the charge is because they "require" an engineer to perform the install. No matter how simple it may seem to you to do it, others may struggle. If during the install it turns out the dish is mis-aligned or the cabling or LNB faulty the £60 will ensure you have a working system when the engineer leaves - doing it yourself could mean more of a headache. The engineer will also pair the viewing card to the box- which although you could do yourself would result in more calls into the call centre to do the pairing (many engineers use a PDA to do this task).
Another point, how to you expect them to get the new Sky box to you? They're unlikely to post/courier them out? It'd open up a minefield of customer enquiries.. "where's my box?", "how do I" etc

So yes for an easy install where the dish, cables and everything else is all in good order - £60 may seem a lot - but for instances where something's not right - it soon becomes reasonable value.