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janitor · #11 14-06-09, 09:18 PM

I've had some atrocious cabling jobs, although this has always been by subbies.

alanjrobertson · #12 15-06-09, 09:10 PM

Right, a bit of an update

I've spoken to Sky and they've said there's no problem with the pay £25 and remove the obligation for a phone line for non-multiroom. They also said there isn't a problem going for a chimney install as long as this is requested at the time of ordering (and he said I could always call them if any problems with doing this on the website).

With regards cabling, as others have said they won't do any internal drilling, etc. and they would normally just run the cable down the drainpipe from the roof, round the side of the house and drill through into the living room. He said if we'd already done the internal drilling and run a piece of string for them just to pull through that'd be fine (and less work for the installers). We've now been down under the house and found the relevant entry points at the bottom of the drainpipe and at the floor near the TV but I was wondering if it would be easier just to run the cable ourselves - i.e., to go out the skylight, throw cable over the side, feed it in under the house and up into the living room, then they'd just have to attach the dish to the chimney, cut the cable from the reel and attach to the LNB, and fix the cable to the drainpipe.

Overall this would seem to be a minimal amount of work for the installers so probably something they'd be happy to do.

Does anyone else have experience of this and if so which cable would they recommend? From what I've read it sounds like the WF100 foam-filled 'shotgun' cable seems to be the one to go for & TLC seemed to have a reasonable price for it:
Twin Satellite Cable Foam Filled - Black

Thanks

Edit - on closer inspection, it looks like the TLC cable may be slightly thinner than this one -
http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page8.htm#WF100twin (I see they do cut lengths up to 20m). Does it look like a better quality option?

GSMGuy · #13 16-06-09, 09:05 AM

Alan, just run the feed ropes, the installer should be happy to let you pull the cable through when he gets there - Less work for him, and you save the cost of the cable...

Mike

Mr Neil 89 · #14 20-06-09, 05:55 PM

Try an independent company, from experience I found them better and cheeper at sky installations.

If you live in Birmingham or around the West Midlands try these guys:

Thats who I used they did a great job, hope that helps.

alanjrobertson · #15 04-07-09, 11:24 PM

Just an update on this. Given the high quote previously mentioned we thought we'd try going with Sky direct. Booked for last week with the Special Heights Team requested. The chaps came on time but found they couldn't quite reach. They then said we'd need the Special Heights Team!! Turns out the call centre had completely ignored what I'd said and just booked the normal installers. Spoke to a supervisor who promised to call back within 15 minutes with available dates - four days later still no phone call! Have tried calling back mutliple times (got the supervisor's Agent ID when I spoke to him) but despite being passed between various offices no-one seems willing to help find a suitable installation date (I'd specifically taken time off work for this date, can only do a few specific dates over the next month and apparently Special Heights don't work weekends). My folks are unsurprisingly now just considering cancelling the whole thing.

On the upside did the phone extension under the house myself with a £5 kit from eBay so that's one less hassle if we do still go ahead!

PS - does anyone have a name/number of someone helpful/suitably senior at Sky CS that I could call to try and sort this out? The usual call centre staff simply say 'the matter has been escalated, wait for a call back'!! (please PM me if you don't want to post the name/number in the public forum)

bubblegun · #16 09-07-09, 01:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alanjrobertson

Just an update on this. Given the high quote previously mentioned we thought we'd try going with Sky direct. Booked for last week with the Special Heights Team requested. The chaps came on time but found they couldn't quite reach. They then said we'd need the Special Heights Team!! Turns out the call centre had completely ignored what I'd said and just booked the normal installers. Spoke to a supervisor who promised to call back within 15 minutes with available dates - four days later still no phone call! Have tried calling back mutliple times (got the supervisor's Agent ID when I spoke to him) but despite being passed between various offices no-one seems willing to help find a suitable installation date (I'd specifically taken time off work for this date, can only do a few specific dates over the next month and apparently Special Heights don't work weekends). My folks are unsurprisingly now just considering cancelling the whole thing.

On the upside did the phone extension under the house myself with a £5 kit from eBay so that's one less hassle if we do still go ahead!

PS - does anyone have a name/number of someone helpful/suitably senior at Sky CS that I could call to try and sort this out? The usual call centre staff simply say 'the matter has been escalated, wait for a call back'!! (please PM me if you don't want to post the name/number in the public forum)

Unfortunately Sky+ install dates are kinda scarce at the moment. It depends on your postcode area as to what dates are available. Booked two different jobs the other day in Birmingham area and first dates were 29th September!!!

I can't remember the correct customer relations e-mail address.

alanjrobertson · #17 09-07-09, 08:46 AM

Still never got a call back but finally spoke to someone helpful in customer services so booked in for a couple of weeks time.

bubblegun · #18 14-07-09, 03:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alanjrobertson

Just an update on this. Given the high quote previously mentioned we thought we'd try going with Sky direct. Booked for last week with the Special Heights Team requested. The chaps came on time but found they couldn't quite reach. They then said we'd need the Special Heights Team!! Turns out the call centre had completely ignored what I'd said and just booked the normal installers. Spoke to a supervisor who promised to call back within 15 minutes with available dates - four days later still no phone call! Have tried calling back mutliple times (got the supervisor's Agent ID when I spoke to him) but despite being passed between various offices no-one seems willing to help find a suitable installation date (I'd specifically taken time off work for this date, can only do a few specific dates over the next month and apparently Special Heights don't work weekends). My folks are unsurprisingly now just considering cancelling the whole thing.

On the upside did the phone extension under the house myself with a £5 kit from eBay so that's one less hassle if we do still go ahead!

PS - does anyone have a name/number of someone helpful/suitably senior at Sky CS that I could call to try and sort this out? The usual call centre staff simply say 'the matter has been escalated, wait for a call back'!! (please PM me if you don't want to post the name/number in the public forum)

You'd be surprised how many agents don't know how to book an SIT install!

You need to set Chordiant job booking for:
block of flats; above 2nd floor; access restrictions don't matter; whatever parking restriction there are (if any).

Then book the job and then reschedule job and magically the SIT diary is selected in the bottom corner. So you just select the rest of the correct details for the job install and don't change the SIT preference and then choose the preferred install date and time slot.

This is the easiest way for sales to book an SIT (special install team) install, but I await any corrections from anyone who works in install.

XXX

bubblegun

alanjrobertson · #19 27-07-09, 09:36 PM

Thought folks might like to know the final outcome...

Special heights team (private subcontractor company, not Sky engineers) arrived today as promised. They managed to get the dish on the chimney and I then fed the cable under the house as previously mentioned. Excellent signal strength and the new phone extension I wired in under the house seemed to do the trick too!

Overall ended up costing minus £20!! (after being mucked about so much initially Sky refunded the £30 install and credited £20).

Thanks again to all those who provided advice - much appreciated