Sky boxes must (now) be connected or they will charge a penalty...

shortchanged_2

When I had my multiroom box installed by the engineer he didn't even offer or suggest connecting the box to the telephone line.

Hence he left no telephone cable to be able to connect to the phone line.

I have not heard anything from sky in 18 months of having a multiroom and I will just inform them that they will have to supply me with phone cable if they want me to hook up to the phone line as I am not funding it out of my own pocket.

TheBoyandMe

My mum had it installed last year and was told the same thing. The same with multi-room. We've not got ours hooked up, it hasn't been connected for five years.

jenhugs

Seems many people have been told the same thing and not had their boxes connected to phone lines. Surely they should be responsible for joining the boxes to phone lines. The one in my back room has been connected to a phone line, (this is the second box to be installed.) So why does one engineer do one thing and the other another? There should be basic procedures that need to be followed. Not some people have phone lines installed others haven't.

Tropez

jenhugs wrote: »

Seems many people have been told the same thing and not had their boxes connected to phone lines. Surely they should be responsible for joining the boxes to phone lines. The one in my back room has been connected to a phone line, (this is the second box to be installed.) So why does one engineer do one thing and the other another? There should be basic procedures that need to be followed. Not some people have phone lines installed others haven't.

Yes, the installer should be responsible. The problem is though that some of them (never any I've dealt with I must say) are either lazy or forgetful or possibly think that because you have to sign off on the work anyway, which the last time I did it basically listed everything the installer was supposed to do, including connecting the boxes to the phone lines, there isn't much comeback against them. They're not going to pay double if and when Sky discover the boxes aren't connected and if the customer tries to finger them they've got signed documents which state that they did the work.

It's a double edged sword - you have a few lazy installers who just want to get to the next job quicker because they have bonuses to earn, and you've got customers who have signed agreements which they shouldn't have because they haven't actually understood the terms of what they're signing. This is likely because Sky advertise their services as being simple and easy so it is easy for the customer to forget to scan over the terms to make sure they know what they're required to do.

I also think that possibly the wages that are paid to the installers is part of the reason. I have no current figures but I have seen it quoted as being £15k basic, rising to a potential £22k with bonuses based on 8 to 10 installations per day (unsure as to how old this data is). That £7k extra is a huge incentive for an installer not to be late on a job and to make sure all are done each day and as a result they may cut corners either deliberately or through sheer forgetfulness chasing that bonus but if the customer is signing off on the work as "complete" then there is an onus on the part of the customer to make sure it actually is.

spike7451

Tropez wrote: »

Yes, the installer should be responsible. The problem is though that some of them (never any I've dealt with I must say) are either lazy or forgetful or possibly think that because you have to sign off on the work anyway, which the last time I did it basically listed everything the installer was supposed to do, including connecting the boxes to the phone lines, there isn't much comeback against them. They're not going to pay double if and when Sky discover the boxes aren't connected and if the customer tries to finger them they've got signed documents which state that they did the work.

It's a double edged sword - you have a few lazy installers who just want to get to the next job quicker because they have bonuses to earn, and you've got customers who have signed agreements which they shouldn't have because they haven't actually understood the terms of what they're signing. This is likely because Sky advertise their services as being simple and easy so it is easy for the customer to forget to scan over the terms to make sure they know what they're required to do.

I also think that possibly the wages that are paid to the installers is part of the reason. I have no current figures but I have seen it quoted as being £15k basic, rising to a potential £22k with bonuses based on 8 to 10 installations per day (unsure as to how old this data is). That £7k extra is a huge incentive for an installer not to be late on a job and to make sure all are done each day and as a result they may cut corners either deliberately or through sheer forgetfulness chasing that bonus but if the customer is signing off on the work as "complete" then there is an onus on the part of the customer to make sure it actually is.

Nail on head! After I was made redundent from VM,I walked straight into an Sky Installers job.It was like taking a step backwards for me & becoming an NTL Installer again,although on a far less basic level.Forget everything I'd learnt about attenuation,the cable network,return & forward path,mux,linecards ect,Sky was just bung it in & move on.Not to mention a big pay cut as well.

As well as this,Sky gave you a certain 'points' worth of work to do per week (70 points:Service call-1 point/Standard install-3 points/Sky+ & relocate existing box(multiroom)-4 points) & if you failed to meet that target for whatever reason (no one home,cancelled on doorstep ect) & failed to make up the shortfall,they took the money from your wages.So say you did 65 points,you'd be paid for the 65 less the 5 points you missed so in reality,you'd be paid for 60.

I remember one 'fault' at Sky I went to.It was to move a dish up three feet,a simple 20 minute job.The was a Sky bloke from the same company as me at the job a couple days before & he'd rescheduled it & told the customer 'it wasn't his job to move the dish,he'd get someone back to do it as he wasn't paid enough to do it'
I puled him about it in the yard the next day,his answer was he couldn't be bothered.He was paid the same rate as me.

A frequent fault I went to was the is a little 'pin' that locks the LNB onto the dish arm,without this pin,the cable,vibration,wind ect,will push the LNB out of the dish arm,resulting in loss of channels.quite often the installer couldn't be bothered to fit the pin.

I stayed there for just under a year before leaving,I hated the job not so much for the work,hell it was easy enough,but for the intense pressure you were put under & sheer incompetence/laziness of the other installers.

jenhugs

Yes completley understand that these Sky guys are pressurised to complete a number of job. It seems the way of the world forget customer service, my husband is calling Sky at the weekend to cancel. At the end of the day we have had two Sky guys out and not one of them bothered to sort out the line. I guess we could just cancel mutli room as we don't really watch sky in the other room now, but it is the bloody principle now!!