£400 to repair my connection to the Satellite? Is this right?

[chrisjie]

I live in a 4 story apartment/townhouse. There's 3 ports in the wall. One for Sky, one for freetv and one for Radio.

Sky came around and said none of them worked (I don't even have freetv reception). They said it was the landlords responsibility to repair the connection to the shared satellite on the roof.

My landlord got a quote of £400! to repair. And wanted us to pay half. Surely it doesn't cost £400 to wire a cable down from the roof to the sockets already in the wall?

Also legally I think the landlord has to pay all of it, because the sockets being there mean that the tenant expected them to be connected (we did, atleast to freetv!)

Any advice? I might call the engineer they got the quote from and ask them to explain....

 

[segel]

£400 haha, that would sounds ridiculous to someone that can repair it themself. Obviously who ever told you that price thought they might be able to take advantage of someone that doesn't no how to repair themself. That price is a joke mate, if these companys are charging these prices and it was infact £400 and someone isn't trying to do you over, no way would i pay that price, the these companys take the piss mate.

If i was in your shoes mate, i would do some research and learn how to do it myself, and to be honest with you mate it's not all that complicated, however you live in a 4 story apartment and you have a landlord.

Mate on top of the 4 story building is the roof flat? and can you get access to it by stairs leading up to the roof, if so then there will be hardly much of a risk oposed to somehow climbing up to the roof via a ladder, you said there's a dish already up there, that is shared, does that mean that out of everyone in the building that the sat signal is being shared to your the only one that is not getting any signal and your the only person that has to pay half, sounds abit strange to me mate.

If there's already a dish up there, and other people in the building are recieving signal then all the engineer would have to do is either replace your damaged cable and run another one from the lnb on the dish or if the lnb is full, change the lnb to something that will allow you to have a feed, an octo lnb (8 way) could be needed. Wouldn't take even a hour to do. Haha £400, I would call the engineer mate, and see what he says!

 

[StuDaBear]

is it just the 1 persons system not working then?

 

[chrisjie]

It's just my connection. Sky already said there is a working communal dish.

One thing is they said to be able to record channels we are not watching is we need 2 lines. We only have one socket, so the engineer said he would have to install another one. However Sky said if I want I can just have one line, I can get HD, but only record what I'm watching. This is OK with me, and would probably make the quote cheaper?

Should I call another engineer and get a quote to compare to before ringing him? I re-read the quote, he said labour was one whole day! No freaking way!

Also, won't be able to do it myself. I don't have access to the roof.

 

[digidude]

if theres only 3 or 4 flats, with one point in each flat, you could wire the whole building with what you have for less than £100

one dish with quad LNB, one TV aerial, one radio aerial, 2 4 way splitters (one for each aerial), 4 diplexers to put the satellite and terrestrial signals together on one cable, one for each flat, and 4 outlet plates, one for each flat

if only yours aint working, id imagine its either the wall plate itself, the connection into the rear of the wall plate, or the diplexer on the other end of the cable leading to your flat has gone faulty.

With the cost of equipment m8, the whole building could be wired for Sky+ and freeview, with ALL new equipment, and as long as its not a huge place, and the livingrooms all have one outside wall, could be done in a day

check your tennancy aggreement m8, as if the system is communal, then its the landlords responsibility to keep it running, as itll be a small part of the rent that makes up a yearly mantinance fee for it

but for the size of the system you describe, £400 is being taken for a ride, even £200 sounds steep, for what is possible just a dodgey connection

 

[chrisjie]

Ok. I chekced the agreement. They have to maintain all existing electrical and mechanical fittings. So the sockets are existing, which means they ahve to pay.

So fair enough, they don't have to install ANOTHER line to be able to record seperate channels. But they do have to repair the existing 1 line for Sky. I will go back to the landlord and quote our agreement AND tell him to get another quote from someone who isn't taking us for a ride.

 

[halfman halflager]

some landlords are fair but there are also a few sharks around my mate has had no tv for over 3 months as a storm knocked the aerial out of allignment he has asked and landlord said nothing he can do as insurance does not cover act of god block of 8 little flatlets he told him he is responsible under terms and conditions landlord said if you wait it will be done for free under the digital switchover sceme as he (the landlord) can claim for it and all rooms can then get freeview our area gets switched off between aug and november.
i told my mate keep at him as for freeview he would still have to buy a freeview reciever or tv anyway
if it seems dear the land lord may have bumped the price up or got a higher quote this happens a lot as i have been asked for inflated quotes before in my previous employment .
and the landlord will then tell you they will pay half third or whatever where the actual quote may have been doubled and then it looks like he is doing you the favour when you could be paying for all the work and a bit more