Sky Install. I Suspect My Customer Is Going To Be Dissapointed

[ProDave]

The big new build that I've had on the go for 2 years (slow self build) is just about complete now and they are moving in for christmas.

Being in the middle of nowhere (even by what constitutes nowhere up here) there's no terrestrial tv reception at all so it's all satellite.

So I cabled the house with plenty of satellite coax from each room up into the loft.  Originally planning to fit a dish with a quatro LNB and multiswitch so they could have as many satellite feeds as they wanted.

So last week I say "do you want the details of the dish and stuff to order" (self build means they can get the VAT back so they are buying all the kit)

"No we don't need to. Sky have done us a good deal.  For £49 they are supplying us two more boxes and will install it all"

So I tell them, you do know Sky's idea of "install" is clip the cables around the outside of the house and drill through the wall right by the tv.  They won't be interested in using the cables that feed up into the loft, they won't even enter a loft space unless it's boarded and has lighting.

Oh.

And Sky won't supply a quatro LNB and a multiswitch.

They will now have 4 sky+ boxes (their original 2 and the extra 2 sky are supplying for this deal) So that's going to take ALL the feeds of an octo LNB, the largest sky will fit.

So what about the other bedrooms where they want freesat boxes?

The best compromise I have been able to offer them is to set up two of the bedroom sky+ boxes in single feed mode, to free up 2 feeds for the freesat boxes.  and I'm cabling from the marshalling area in the loft to the gable end, so the sky monkey just has to fit the dish and connect it, all the cabling is done.

I just feel it's a shame the customers won't listen and get the job done properly.  People have no understanding that a £49 install by Sky is going to be carp, and woefully short of what they really want.

Perhaps when they get it all working, and realise the limitations, I may be ripping it out and fitting the proper multiswitch system at a later date.

 

[Steve3948]

Dave - I assume you have taken 2-Sat Cables to each room from your multi-switch location and then either a 4 Core Multi-switch cable to your dish location or 4 singles.

The reason I ask is I had a similar installation last year, we put the 80cm dish with quatro LNB and connected to multi-switch, also connected all outgoing to rooms.

When the Sky guy turned up we just pointed him to the 2 F sockets in the rooms where the Sky boxes had to go, he was happy as Larry saying it was the easiest job he had in ages, it was all done for him.

 

[ProDave]

That was what I was hoping to do.  In fact there are 4 cables to the living rooms, and 3 to each point in the bedrooms.

But the silly customer won't pay for the dish, LNB and multiswitch, because the sky man "will take care of it all"

I had half a mind to just leave them to it and wait for the scream when the sky man turned up and started clipping cables around the outside of the house.

But I thought better of it, and decided to route 8 cables out from the loft to where the dish will go and connect them up, bypassing (for now) any multiswitch.

 

[Steve3948]

You just cannot help some people Dave.

With our install we installed 2XSat100 for Sky, 1XSat00 for Freeview and 2XCat5 FTP for Data/phone or Sonos Sound.

Maybe when they have it up and running for some time they may want to put it right.

 

[batty]

Dave you have to remember you are up north now the scotch are the worst for wanting a cheap job.

 

[ProDave]

I got called back to this job today.

the sky man came yesterday and installed the dish to the cabling I had prepared.

But two out of the 8 feeds did not work.

One was my error and I'm happy to own up.  One room had two feeds but only one connected in the loft, and yes, I had fitted the single F socket to the wrong one in the room.

The other I had no signal even on the cable from the dish at the marshalling point in the loft.

So up the ladder and check the dish. on at least 2 of the F plug connections there was no sign of the coax braid wire to make contact to the plug body. So I re made all 8 connections and all now working.

I was about to walk out the door "oh there's a problem with the phones, the broadband keeps cutting out"

A quick look showed the 4 sky boxes all plugged in WITHOUT ADSL filters.  I unplugged the sky boxes and broadband behaved.

"Where shall I get some filters from"

Phone sky and tell them to post you the filters they should have fitted.

And to anyone thinking of taking up a "too good to be true" sky offer of two additional boxes for £49 including installation.

The two NEW boxes are NOT PVR's so no recording capability.  Sky just want your extra £10 per month per multiroom box, and quietly forget to tell you that although the multiroom boxes are HD, they are NOT PVR's.

I did say at the outset my customer might be disappointed.  And yes they are now tied into a 12 month contract for these new multiroom boxes, so that's £240 they have to pay sky before they can even think about cancelling them.

Makes the cost of a quatro LNB and multiswitch look much more reasonable now.

 

[Steve3948]

Nice one Dave, we can only try to help these people, if they won't listen they only have themselves to blame.