Digital Aerial

Flower-power22

I was wanting to have a digital aerial installed. I contacted a local company - Smyths aerials in Ballymena. The lady on the phone said that she would get an engineer to call and to budget about £100. I thought that was ok and agreed. She then asked me to pay £45 over the phone and the remainder to the engineer on completion. No problem. Engineer called and done some kind of test. This took 5 minutes max. He told me that we were unsuitable for the aerial. Our only option would be Free Sat. This would cost around £200!! I initially agreed but after some thought said to my other half we would be better to get sky multi room. It would be a lot cheaper. Sky were offering free installation and setup, the only cost was £10.25 a month. I then called Smyths to see if I could get a refund for the £45 as the engineer was unable to complete what I had initially wanted, to be told this was a call out fee!!!! WHAT £45!! FOR 5 MINUTES!!! I said that this was not told to me in the beginning about the call out fee, the lady said that she would trace the call and ring me back. When she returned the call she confirmed that I had been told about this!!

Can I get a copy of this call for my own sanity?? Do I have a leg to stand on? :mad:

ballyblack

Some say the when analogue is switched off the digital signal will be boosted so most people will be able to get digital thru an aerial.

"Turning off the analogue signals will make it possible to boost the strength and coverage of digital terrestrial services"
http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/transmitternetwork/what__and__why




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saverbuyer

Flower-power22 wrote: »

I was wanting to have a digital aerial installed. I contacted a local company - Smyths aerials in Ballymena. The lady on the phone said that she would get an engineer to call and to budget about £100. I thought that was ok and agreed. She then asked me to pay £45 over the phone and the remainder to the engineer on completion. No problem. Engineer called and done some kind of test. This took 5 minutes max. He told me that we were unsuitable for the aerial. Our only option would be Free Sat. This would cost around £200!! I initially agreed but after some thought said to my other half we would be better to get sky multi room. It would be a lot cheaper. Sky were offering free installation and setup, the only cost was £10.25 a month. I then called Smyths to see if I could get a refund for the £45 as the engineer was unable to complete what I had initially wanted, to be told this was a call out fee!!!! WHAT £45!! FOR 5 MINUTES!!! I said that this was not told to me in the beginning about the call out fee, the lady said that she would trace the call and ring me back. When she returned the call she confirmed that I had been told about this!!

Can I get a copy of this call for my own sanity?? Do I have a leg to stand on? :mad:

Did the original call give you a warning to say the call could be recorded? For example "for training and quality purposes" if not they shouldn't be recording you.

If they have recorded you then yes you can request using a Subject Access Request for a recording of the call as per the Data Protection Act.

D.A.

£200 for Freesat? That can't possibly be right, given that a basic Freesat receiver can be bought for around £40-50? Fair enough, you'd have to pay for the dish and installation, but it still sounds a bit extreme to me.

To quote from joinfreesat.co.uk:

How much does it cost?
A one-off payment will get you the lot. You pay for the digital box (from around £50); and the satellite dish and installation (from around £80). There is a selection of digital boxes available with a range of functionality to deliver additional benefits, such as personal video recorders (PVR – Freesat+), high definition (HD – Freesat HD), standard definition (SD – Freesat) and TVs with Freesat receivers built in (IDTV). NB: You will still need a satellite dish if you purchase a TV with an in-built Freesat receiver.
Are there any ongoing costs?
No! Freesat is just that, a free service. Once you’ve purchased the equipment, its all free, forever.

So that comes to around £130 in total, which is almost equivalent to 1 year of Sky.

By the way, there's no such thing as a digital aerial - it's only a normal aerial which would be capable of receiving a weak signal (which the Freeview signal will be until switchover in 2012). Once switchover happens, you may not have to change your aerial at all.

If I'm not mistaken, there are a few extremely knowledgeable people on this forum who'll point you in the right direction.

Flower-power22

Thanks guys.
We just have sky installed in our house. It was a new build so we never got round to putting an aerial up, just the sky dish.
The only reason that we need an aerial is because santa is bringing a TV for our DD!!

No i wasn't prompted that the call would be recorded at any stage!!

I have also been on to Digital UK website and checked my address and they seem to think i'm fine for an aerial using the Divis transmitter! Do you think Smyths Aeirals were just changing their arm?

I have called them and requested the call to be sent via email and I also asked for the reading that the man took when he came. They have agreed to forward these, so i'll wait and see if it ever arrives.

D.A.

If you already have the Sky dish, there's no way at all that Freesat would cost £200 - your only cost would be to buy the Freesat box, and the basic ones are around £40-50.

If you want Freesat in more than one room, there's likely to be a small additional cost, as you'll probably have to change the LNB on your dish and run the cable to the extra rooms (assuming of course that your system wasn't already installed for Sky multiroom).

So yes, it does look to me as if they were chancing their arm to a degree.

saverbuyer

D.A. wrote: »

If you already have the Sky dish, there's no way at all that Freesat would cost £200 - your only cost would be to buy the Freesat box, and the basic ones are around £40-50.

If you want Freesat in more than one room, there's likely to be a small additional cost, as you'll probably have to change the LNB on your dish and run the cable to the extra rooms (assuming of course that your system wasn't already installed for Sky multiroom).

So yes, it does look to me as if they were chancing their arm to a degree.

If you have the sky dish and box you can get a freesat card from sky for £25

absoluteutopia

Most of the lnbs on the dishes have 4 connections, just buy her a freesat box from argos for under £30 and get some coax and 2 connectors and youll have her up and running in minutes

spike7451

absoluteutopia wrote: »

Most of the lnbs on the dishes have 4 connections, just buy her a freesat box from argos for under £30 and get some coax and 2 connectors and youll have her up and running in minutes

Not true.A single LNB is fitted on install UNLESS the customer has Sky+/HD or Multi Room,that also depends on the age of the install & weather the customer has upgraded to Sky+ or not.

As for Smyths,it does sound to me like they were trying it on.One of the first things you should do is look on the CAI website & do a search for installers in your area,(Smyths are members of the CAI) & use one of the ones reccomended.
If you have a complaint about a member of the CAI,then they have a complaints proceedure for that;

http://www.cai.org.uk/about-the-cai/about-the-cai

D.A.

saverbuyer wrote: »

If you have the sky dish and box you can get a freesat card from sky for £25

Note that Freesat from Sky is a different product from Freesat. Virtually the same end result though, although I would be tempted to get away from Sky if at all possible.

Flower-power22

The engineer did mention that day that my dish was rusty and that this would effect the signal! So he would be replacing it. Not sure if this was necessary.