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What price for an aerial installation?

What prices have you been quoted and paid for an aerial installation?

What prices have you been quoted and paid for an aerial install
Published on by on UK Free TV
In responses to the guideline I posted about how much having a new aerial fitted should cost, Ian Grice posted: "£40-£50? Every aerial fitter I contacted wants at least £150+VAT considering you can get a class 3 aerial for under £10 and a class 2 for under £15 and cable is 40p a metre why are they charging so much for 30 minutes work?"

OK, for some places putting up a TV aerial is hard work, such as multi-story properties. As many people will simply be exchanging a Group A, B, C/D, E or K aerial for a wideband type, often without changing the supporting pole or cable, a high price cannot be justified.

I am concerned that some companies will exploit vulnerable groups (such as the elderly).

So, I what prices have you been quoted for aerial installations? What price have you paid for installation?

Do you know of any companies to avoid? Do you know of any companies that are good value for money?

Or do you work for a great aerial installation company?





Your comments: most recent posts are at the bottom

firstFirst comments prevEarlier comments  ◊  Later commentsnext Latest commentslast

Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

lesnicol
Saturday 27 March 2010 11:10AM
Mark - Aberfan. - As I sat in my neighbours lounge relaxing with a large "Dram" for my troubles and keeping my mouth tightly shut, I watched in amazement as this guy took a further fifteen to twnety minutes navigating the Panasonic Viera's menu until he managed to locate and set the HDMI port!!!
Mark Aberfan Aerials
Saturday 27 March 2010 2:46PM
Hi Guys,

I got some great photo's of this bodge job, they had modified (broken) a mk4 quad to fit it on a mk1 dish, so this resulted in it having to be replaced when we fitted a new mk dish.

Panasonic tv's have among the easiest & most logical menu systems on the market, you got to wonder if some of these guys need help getting dressed in the morning !

Mark Aberfan Aerials
M
Martyn
Thursday 15 April 2010 11:55PM
Guess this guy didnt hear about Rod Hull`s fate :(
www.gazettelive.co.uk link icon Gazette Live - News - Breaking news - Middlesbrough man in roof rescue drama
Briantist
Friday 16 April 2010 6:49AM
Martyn: Oh dear, at least he didn't fall off.
S
steven morris
Monday 19 April 2010 6:27PM
this is A A DIGITAL AERIALS we fit tv aerials all round the west midlands the rough price of a aerial to br fitted on a chimney would be £ 90 all in if u went for a bench mark aerial the cost would be rough £ 120 fully fitted steve
B
ben,channelwise
Tuesday 20 April 2010 1:29PM
i myself started as a subbie to sky,and i must admit the posts above are spot on,you wont get a quality install done by most of those guys,they cant aford to hang around on a job and thats not the right way to go,ive been working for myself for 4 years now and doing a nvq since last october,i would charge 80 to 100 for the dish move depending on what equipment was needed,and our aerials range in price from 90 to 140 inclusive of vat,cant believe how many cowboys are out there ripping people of!
S
steve
Wednesday 21 April 2010 7:13PM
hi i am self employed aerial fitter in walsall,west mids , i install freeview aerials £60 all in with new mast , chimney lashing , cable & fixings guaranteed.( strong signal area's)
no need to be paying silly money for an aerial....some of the big companys really to take advantage ,digital aerial no such thing...........
S
steve
Wednesday 21 April 2010 8:41PM
£60 all in sounds like a bargain!
J
Jordy
Tuesday 27 April 2010 5:21PM
As a long time Aerial Engineer - I see some really good jobs, some terrible and others were just damn right stupidity makes you almost speechless... I know quite a few Sky Installers who work directly for Sky and 99% of their work is spot on. Problem is for 1 decent installer is about 6 muppet's pretending to know what they're at.
I was called to a set of new build's, letting agents freaking out as the tenants are moving in. Sky contractors have been in to install 1 dish/ box to 1 point. Simple stuff, cable run disappears up the wall through a vent and up in the loft space. The vent duct was broke as the installer forced a cable through it, cable when found was kinked in 5 places and hidden under some insulation, wasn't even connected to the existing point. Then we move onto property two had to be the same guy, all the same hallmarks, this time he'd popped a hole and dropped the cable run. This house was to have the kitchen on an RF2, there was already a return run. He popped a hole in the kitchen ceiling, clipped the cable to the the back side of a cupboard door, Yes the cupboard door would no longer close as there was cable clipped to it ffs... The cable was pulled up onto the NEW worktop's and clipped to the worktop and left. There's time i have to ask for inner strength... There was a fellow who has worked for Sky for years at a property just down the road i called him in to have a look at the handy work of someone working in his name, it's just shameful... Its in-experience and a knowledge gap, it was less time consuming to do the job properly...
P
phil
Wednesday 12 May 2010 1:00AM
For some reason people will go to high street retailers and buy a so call indoor digital tv aerial and pay up to £40.00 for an aerial that never works properley, but then they'll call an aerial company out and only expect to pay £60.00 for a man to drive out, get his big ladder off+stays,drill a hole 1 meter high in the wall, insert an eye bolt, strap the ladder down, carry cat ladder up to roof strap it to the main ladder and thats all before hes assembled the aerial. TV Aerials installed to 1 room should cost from £120.00 & £49.99 for extra outlets.
G
Gareth
Wednesday 12 May 2010 10:58AM
Steve, I need a aerial installed in cannock, any contact number for yourself?
D
daen rollason
Wednesday 12 May 2010 1:49PM
my name is dean i have been in this trade for 5 years now and i 2 have seen some awfull installs how these guys gey away with it its beond me i charge £70 to £120 depending on what materials needed and £30 for further point,s it,s descusting what some people charge and the subbies for sky well there are some good engineers but yhey keep getting pay cuts so they do as little as poss. anyone in the west midlands needs to talk or descuss any work they want doin just email me thanks
Briantist
Wednesday 12 May 2010 1:54PM
daen rollason: Sorry, posting of email addresses is not permitted.
D
daen rollason
Wednesday 12 May 2010 1:54PM
allso when having a new aerial done please make sure they have ID they should be part of the. RDI. registered digital installer, to install aerials there is a web site to check anyones ID
Briantist
Wednesday 12 May 2010 2:01PM
daen rollason: Yes, indeed, see Digital TV - Registered Digital Aerial Installers .
A
a a digital aerials
Wednesday 12 May 2010 8:07PM
aa digital aerials are based in the west midlands our aerials start from £ 80 and can go up to £ 120 all depends on where u live and ur signal whats in uyour area we are rdi reg all work comes with 2 yr gtt we do a same day service free call out and quotes call steve today on ---
L
leon delin
Friday 14 May 2010 12:00AM
Me thinks health & saftey getting in way. Saw avc bolt a ladder to a wall & fasten on with saftey harness, hard hat , eye protection. Took 30 min to put his ladders up. Funny thing was you could have stood on a chair & reached the sat. they have a quickie course on installations & call them selves engineers. The other cowboy have a go's will come unstuck when someone asks for their insurance. I work for myself in the lake district & some of the jobs are hard work due to the mountains. Its bad for the customer that these cowboy can do a poor job then have to call an honest firm to sort it out for them. It makes me mad.
L
leon delin. delins aerials, cumbria
Friday 14 May 2010 12:38AM
I have been in this trade for 15 years, my family over 40 years. TV Aerials fully fitted including heavy duty steel mast, cable ,connectors lashings etc from £ 80.00 up to £ 140.00. Your better off contacting your local installers than going to a larger company who sell poor quality materials for maximun profit. After all the smaller companies value there customers & hope to get any other work required in the future. good customer service is paramount to a small company. Sky / AVC are that big they dont give a toss just think about £ $ Just one on cowboys, had to go to two old folks homes to give price for digital upgrade, All that was required was the boxes retuned & an aerial repair for around £ 120.00. The warden was so releived as the last quote was from what i thought was quite a respectful company for £24.000. His website must be www.Imarippingcowboy.com wish I could name him for all to see but dont fancy going court for slander. if your gonna buy an aerial system do your homework first then you have questions to fire back. If he stutters when asked then hes lying. send him packing back tp the prairee he trotted up from. Any questions I will find your answer as i have an electronics/computer/professor who knows more than avc lads put together.
T
Tom
Sunday 16 May 2010 7:26PM
The reason you have to pay prices that seem high is for the risk that an arial installer has to take every time he goes up a ladder.Its a very dangerous job if it was easy we would all do it ourselves £150-£200 is a fair price taking in all that the job entails.
Ps im a window cleaner so i know the risk envolved
J
Joe
Monday 17 May 2010 11:50PM
Hi Karen, was the job more like £430 +VAT? with regards to your comments, A quad lnb ws used because sky + was already in place and another cable was required for freesat. The dish also needed a new bracket as it was going from a ground mount to a wall mount at your request. The orginal cabling was re sited from running along the garden to the peak of the caravan, and then a new cable run for the freesat box. The total cost of the freesat box is £99, not unreasonable as it is the only 1 of its kind to have a RF2 out, aswel as downloading over 250 channels instead of your usual 120. Labour was charged at £65 an hour for 2 engineers,not unreasonable by anymeans. The cables were hidden, even with the effort of running them under the caravan as to uphold the aesthetics of the mobile home. The standard of the work was second to none and it has all been working fine. Like some1 has already said...you get what you pay for. Would you prefer some1 did it for £80, left cables draped all over the place and it stopped working after 3 weeks? I think not. The engineers who carried out your work were CAI registered and RDLIB members. The company in question has been established for 25 years and are trading standards buy with confdence registered. You have been completely unreasonabe in your comments and have mislead people on this forum. Our call out fee covers an hours labour and you wont find a more experienced company. I am only glad trading standards agreed with me....just bare this in mind..."you get what you pay for!"
J
Joe
Tuesday 18 May 2010 12:04AM
with regards to the forum question...
All prices depend completely on the equipment you are being quoted for! There is not 1 price for an aerial installation. An average price is about £150+VAT but this is only to 1 t.v. It also depends what area you live in! If you live right next to the crystal palace transmitter thn you could recieve digital from a coat hangar (ALMOST!)But if you live in a hilly area, for instance Buckinghashire, the standard of equpment you have to use increases dramatically!For instance a 45 elment aerial is needed. Alot of these companies quoting you £80+VAT are using a 10 element £1.50 aerial and making more thn a company charging £150+VAT. Also beware what you are quoted, ask if it includes fitting? Ask them to name the equipment, vision, labgear and antiference are all good solid brands. Avoid companies such as sky, AVC and aerial force at all costs, their standard of work is appauling and their customer service is awful. Aerial force are the sky of the aerial industry. Make sure they are CAI, RDILB registered ad preferably trading standards registred. I hope this helps.
J
Joe
Tuesday 18 May 2010 12:28AM
And if any1 wonders how i know karens case so well it is because we have had so little complaints to trading standards since i have been with the company (over 3 years)that i recognised it straight away, i just hope other hard working honest people dont get caught out by you.
S
Scott Capper
Wednesday 19 May 2010 11:21AM
Hi I'm Scott from futureproof homes and I install an aerial with a feed into one room from £75. The aerial and cable are both CAI approved, I'm based in the High Peak, Derbyshire. I also do Sky contracts and at the moment you get the box free and it is £30 for a standard install this is for a Sky+ HD box and the HD pack (£10 per month) is optional. Even with out the HD pack you can still watch Luxe HD, channel 4 HD, ITV HD & BBC HD. I also mount TV's on the wall and the prices start from £60 including the bracket, I've checked out some companies and they charge around £120 and you have to supply the bracket I don't know where they get their prices from but there I joke. I have the reputation of my business to keep so all work is done to a professional standard and guaranteed for a year.
J
Jordy
Thursday 20 May 2010 11:01PM
A story about the professionalism of First Line Digital...

I was sitting at services on the M4 this afternoon off Junction 19 just north of Bristol. I spotted two First line Digital vans parked up beside what looks like an insurance company building of some type. Two of their employees/ contractors had a step ladder perched along a wall with the fellow in full harness PPE gear attempting to screw a bolt into a T bracket about 3ft above his own height. He then took an sds hammer drill and after some time drilling upward pulled a whack of masonry out of the wall along with the bracket. The second guy returned ushered him down, by this stage another ladder had been put up they secured a step ladder with an eye bolt but not a triple ladder. Still couldn't get this, so continued to watch as these CAI attributed installers prep a Unix 52 on a 10ft pole with a large masthead?? onto these two T & K brackets about 9ft off the ground. Roughly about a foot of clearance between the brackets, it looked like a UFO had landed on the side of the building. As these two gents were walking aimlessly around the car park i'm assuming they were trying to work out the baring of Mendip using the motorway, not a meter in sight between the pair of them began turning the aerial with the reflector sandwiched against the wall but no they forced it round and tightened it and went inside the building, the directors were pointing downwards into McDonalds. We sat on as the aerial was doing somersaults and twisting against the brick work. A dish appeared and reel of cable, the dish went onto the pole and again was tight to the wall. He then proceeded to take a pair of snips and bang a large dint into the corner of dish, pulled the dish reflector back onto itself aligned the dish and locked it off. I assume he aligned it as it was left with three cable runs hanging off a quad lnb. The vans left at this stage and do not know if the job was ever completed...

I lack the words to explain how atrocious this install looked and was carried out. It was even clear to the un-trained eye, I'd love to know if it's still up. The distinct lack of concern showed by these two individuals working for a large company backed up by CAI/ RDI membership is nothing short of completely appalling.
Les Nicol
Friday 21 May 2010 7:38AM
Jordy
Pity you didn't manage to video this -- Sounds like it could manage an episode of "Rogue Traders" !!
C
Chris
Friday 21 May 2010 10:18AM
Wow oh my goodness. I take it we can all avoid Firstline Digital then?
Maybe they will show up on Rogue Traders some day.
Mark Aberfan Aerials
Saturday 22 May 2010 9:49AM
Hi all,

This company is well known here in south wales as they are sky's prefered business partner, they were the company who were resposible for the mk4 quad on a mk1 dish attached with red insulating tape that i mentioned on the last page, a install so bad i took photos of it.

Here is a link to a page of a sub con who had to take them to court to get his money from them.

www.neroaerials.co.uk link icon http://www.neroaerials.co….htm

The funny / sad thing is when i type in firstline dig into the google search in my toolbar, google offers up firstline complaints as the fifth most popular search option !

Mark Aberfan Aerials
C
carl boulter
Wednesday 26 May 2010 9:13AM
Some people do exploit people as many don't need aerials, but the transmissions for digital are the main reason most people struggle to get digital reception.If they put the transmitters right first before addvertising digital the complaints about it would be minimal.
K
keith edwards
Wednesday 26 May 2010 3:41PM
Hi All

Just had a new digital aerial etc fitted to chimney and new cable etc into new TV in the spare bedroom today.
I live in York and it cost £150.00.
2 guys for 1 hour - really neat and tidy, tiuned up on time and very professional.
Not worth the hassle of trying to do it yourself at that price.
Cheers
D
Dave
Tuesday 1 June 2010 10:22AM
I find some people extremely ignorant...anybody that thinks an aerial install takes 1/2 hr doesn't know what hes talking about....a decent aerial installation from scratch to one point should average £100 - £170...time taken for the job for one guy would be 1hr(simple job) - 21/2hr(tough&safe job). Galvanised brackets, aerial etc used trade price £20 - £60...Door to door ie travel to job&return, customer care...showing how to operate new tv etc etc....and solicitors charge £85-£160/hr.to right a letter!!..no risk to life?? We have overheads, insurance, advertising, vans, equipment.... I am a sole trader and need to take over £1000 / month before i even make a profit its not easy...get in the real world
K
kieth jessop
Tuesday 1 June 2010 10:21PM
I personally would rather pay for a job well done, within reason.
I live in leeds and had Crown Aerials out, 3 points for freeview....£175.00
I was more than happy with the service, the young man showed me how my new T.v.`s work and was there for approx 2hrs...and he turned up when he said!!!
thanx crown aerials
the installers number is 07979 464508 and i would personally recomend them.
(they also did my mother-in laws for £80!!).
P
pete
Wednesday 9 June 2010 6:44PM
Dave, 1k a month before a profit ?? if i turned over 1K a week i'd barley make a profit. :-o
J
Jordy
Friday 18 June 2010 11:14AM
Sky Homes Department have been very active in selling this 1 dish - 4 box solution previously they wouldn't have touched high rise blocks with a barge pole... This particular block has a communal system in place fed to modular outlet plates carrying 2 sat feeds, UHF and phone... My initial thought they've just connected the boxes to the plates no the letting manager says "You better come out and take a look at this" That's were "Oh my f*ck" entered my head.

I arrive on site, spot four large runs of cable going up then across then up a bit more, they duck behind guttering and re-emerge before coming back down and spread 1 into each apartment below a window. Walk round the apartment can't find a dish, back side of some guttering is 4 frayed cables followed what looked like clip holes in mortar to a small outhouse used for storing bins, find the dish lying in the out building with the wires cut. We later discover the owner of the bottom apartment cut the cables with a hedge cutter and pulled the dish of his wall after he came home from work and found it on his porch wall. The cables must of stretched across the walkway between these two buildings at some point.

Bemused i went up to meet the unhappy residents who had sky hd boxes installed had paid for sky plus subscriptions with single feed mode switched on to make the boxes work then these two lowlifes scarpered...

Briantist
Tuesday 22 June 2010 8:21AM
Jordy: Another horror story! I take it from this that Sky Homes subcontract these installations, but have no quality control?

What did you do to fix it?
M
Mike C
Tuesday 22 June 2010 11:26AM
2 sky subby idiots plonked a sky dish in the middle of the bay above the lounge window at my adjoining neighbours house - despite the protests of his wife ! These guys must be bloody imbeciles to leave such monstrous looking dish installations with no thought whatsoever to the aesthetics of what they had just done (they cited H&S to her when she protested). I told her she should have just told them to leave without fitting it when it was clear what they intended to do. Her Hubby paid £90 privately to have it moved to a less obvious position
S
sparky
Tuesday 22 June 2010 1:58PM
pensioner just paid two hundred and fifty pounds for aerial and booster am in shock
Briantist
Tuesday 22 June 2010 5:39PM
Mike C: Sky did have an excellent reputation, why have things changed?
M
Mike C
Wednesday 23 June 2010 12:09PM
Briantist - I suspect it has to do with the miserly rates that Sky pay their fitting subbies to do the job - so they will use the shortest wire length possible and most convenient low place to put a dish to save time. (My daughter has a dish set @ 4' up a wall - albeit it is in an out of the way place & not on full view).

I would quibble with your 'excellent reputation' tag - which I have expounded on before in these comments columns. They are rip off merchants in my book with an arrogant attitude - expensive monthly subs to watch endless repeats. I did one year with sky - and bought the kit - no subsidised package deal - and then switched to a european HD stb with motorised dish. I can now watch 16 satellites plus Freeview and Freesat - from one stb and no subs !
Briantist
Wednesday 23 June 2010 2:11PM
Mike C: The 'excellent reputation' referred to the installation quality, rather than programmes on the platform.

Back in the old analogue days, only the tree-killing cable companies had a worse reputation.
S
shaz
Thursday 1 July 2010 3:13PM
I bought an aerial for £30 last year and put it in the loft and ran a cable down the front outside my house and into the living room i was pleased that i done the job well, Then every time traffic went by or when i put on my washing machine i got alot of breakup in the picture quality and if i slammed the front and back door i lost the picture altogether - I got fed up going up into the loft moving it back to find a new signal and better picture, then after a few months i was not getting nothing at all i lost all my freeview digital channels" i could not get them back at all just had poor quality analogue.....(I was fed up and pi55ed off to say the least.. So i rang some company and the said £69 on the phone for fitting a roof top aerial not including parts - when they came round they said £149 with new aerial, wire, cable clips, and one man an hrs work, and 1 year guarantee. It took 3o mins not an hr. I do feel the man was very professional and pleasent and there is no more messing with the aerial or picture breaking up, But i do feel a bit pi55ed off at the thought that they cant be honest and give you a price over the phone! They wait till you book then they come round to tell you the price first. I had a quote for £120 last week so i could of saved a bit.
B
Brian Flannigan
Thursday 1 July 2010 4:31PM Downpatrick
We looked in the local paper for an Aerial company to replace our Aerials and put the Sky in round our house. Called Phoenix Aerials and Satellites, the guys name was Sean who we know now was telling porkies about what we needed. He wanted £300+vat when asked he couldn't produce a registered vat number the price was for the whole job but bits kept being added, i told him if he did a good job i was fine with the price and we agreed. We got concerned when a large drill came out of his van and began drilling through the backs of the electrical sockets. There was white cables protruding from these live electrical sockets and when i asked for them to be tidied up he stuffed the cables into the wall and screwed up the plates on the wall. The guy was up in my attic and i heard loud thud like banging the drill bit came through the ceiling in the kitchen, then the aerials came into the house and up the stairs, i told then they were go onto the roof, he exclaimed this wasn't possible even though every other set of aerials on our road points the same way. The final straw came when he made offensive comments in front of my wife i then asked him to pack up his tools and leave. He did so but only after demanding £60 for his apparent bother.
This bad story is however in stark contrast to when we were offered the number of another local company by one of our neighbours who had praise for this firm. We called and Jo from Visual Aerials was very helpful came to give a free estimate and tried his best to repair the poor work from before. He arrived again as promised and worked to a high standard charging £187 for the work providing a guarantee, invoice and a registered vat number. I was very pleased in the end but am also critical of how these rogues can get away with this shocking behaviour, i also feel sorry for companies such as Jo's who suffer from the poor reputation of others. Is there not some point or reference system trading standards could introduce so that the ordinary consumer knows who they can trust their homes to and who should be avoided.
S
sharealam
Thursday 1 July 2010 5:26PM
shaz name and shame the aerial company on this website,dont let them get away with it,they will do it to someone else.
Mark Aberfan Aerials
Thursday 1 July 2010 9:47PM
Hi Brian Flanigan,

To make sure that other companies of the same or similar name dont get their reputations tarnished, could you state what town / area you live or the company comes from.

Mark Aberfan Aerials
Mark Aberfan Aerials
Friday 2 July 2010 4:14PM
Hi Brian,

Sorry about my misspelling your name (blush blush)

Mark Aberfan Aerials
S
steve h
Tuesday 6 July 2010 10:24PM
shaz, you have answered your own question. the firm that gave you an honest quote on the phone didnt get the job, but the firm that gave you a low "starting from" price got your money. its just a sales tactic as you are more likely to say yes to the higher price when they are on your doorstep. but the honest installers lost out.
Mark Aberfan Aerials
Wednesday 7 July 2010 5:55PM
Hi Steve H,

Im afraid your probably right, We see cowboys advertise aerials from £15, what they neglect to say is that to get a aerial for £15 the bracket has to already be there as does the cable run & the "installer" has to already be on site doing a full price other job. but of course the cowboy get the first call & the decent reputable installer dont even get a chance to quote.
Our aerial installations start at £65 which is well under the price quoted by digital uk the bbc & the cai, but we still get knocked back by customers who expect a aerial fitted for £15!
What pisses me off is that when we get called out to do the job properly for a fair price after a cowboy has cocked it up, is that often the customer has a terible grudge which is for some reason is taken out on us because we are also aerial installers.
No one wants to take ownership of their own lack of judgement. Do these people still believe in the tooth fairy & father christmas ! how could anyone expect a aerial fitted for £15
There is no disrespect to shaz in my post as i believe she was quotes a fair starting point price but as we dont know what extra work, equipment was needed on the job its impossible to know if the price increase was justified of not.

Mark Aberfan Aerials
J
Jordy
Thursday 8 July 2010 10:19PM
Brian - What did you do to fix it?

Well firstly we pulled down the cable runs and tried to make good any damage. A building contractor was brought in to make good the wall. We had previously fitted the communal system (4 multiswitches fed by a V5-204 splitter, 80cm dish - standard IRS setup) to this property so knew two spare ports on the multiswitch were available for two of the flats. The other two flats were fitted with stacker/destacker units and all's well that ends well...
A
Alan Rowe
Wednesday 14 July 2010 8:11AM
You can get aerials for £5, cable for 10p a metre, clips for 50p. That adds up to approx £7.50 so £10 for someone on the national minimum wage should cover the price of an installation.
This price does not include for a van+diesel+ insurance+tools+advertising+ 1yr guarantee+sickness benefit after falling of someones roof in a gale, and last of all but the most important, BLOODY EXPERIENCE!!!
M
Mike C
Wednesday 14 July 2010 11:31AM
as ever in life - you get what you pay for - and cowboys abound in every trade & with a downturn in most business areas the 'cowboys' will turn to the 'in trade' which looks easy, small outlay and people ignorant technically - so bullshit baffles brains - and heyho you have a new business with a large audience
N
Neil
Thursday 15 July 2010 8:29PM
Hi, I was a franchisee for Firstline Digital I started up with them, sadly the bad few create a bad reputation for some excellent enginneers. I am now a subbie and very reliable, my charge starts from £65 for a single cable aerial installation, and i can guarantee it takes longer than 30mins when done properly. every job is different though.
K
K Shah
Monday 19 July 2010 1:25PM
My TV aerial detached from the chimney due to bad weather. I contacted Aerialforce with their "Fitted from £65" campaign.

The appointment was made for between noon and 4pm with the engineer due to call 40 mins before arriving.

Well 3:20pm and no engineer or phonecall so I called them. I was told someone would chase the engineer and call me back. I got a call at 4pm saying he would be there in half hour (which he did).

Current set up was a TV Aerial (pretty standard digital aerial nothing out of the oridary, no amplifier and we pick up all the freeview channel quite clearly).

Anyway this chap looks at the roof and also the connections in the loft. does not check signal strengths in the area (I thought they would do that to see what sort of aerial was needed).

Goes back in his van and comes back 4 mins later with his quote.

£305. I almost fell of my chair. I said you are having a laugh, right ? He said no.

So looked at the quote in more detail

£89 for the aerial - so I said to him, if I were to buy the high end aerial directly then it would cost me no more than £50. He said well this is not the high end aerial and the cost is still £89.

£16 for a mast - I have no idea about the cost of these so said nothing about it.

£8 for two new bolts to attach the new mast to the existing brackets on our wall.

£55 for cabling - so I remembered that when we moved in we bought a reel of this aerial cabling for £10 and this nice fellow was going to charge me £55 for 2 meters, so I asked whether it was made of gold or silver and he said "no, it is our standard cable".

£89 for an amplifier. So I said, we don't have an amplifier right now and even if we got one from B&Q it would be £10-£30 so not sure why you want to sell me something I don't need and at 3 times more than I would pay if I bought it directly.

Then there was VAT on everything making it £305

So I asked him how we got from £65 to £305. He said that well I have to fit it all so it would be more. So I said £65 was a fitted new aerial including VAT so you can sell me the labour costs twice. To cut a long story short. Aerialforce is out there to rip people off who are unaware of how much this should cost. They are selling you things at ridiculously inflated prices and also things that you simply may not need. BEWARE !!!!!
Mark Aberfan Aerials
Monday 19 July 2010 7:02PM
Hi,
SOME of the companies that have massive adverts in the yellow pages, a local phone number for every "local area" member of every trade body massive internet presence etc, pay their aerial fitters a (very) basic wage which gets topped up by commission on sales. Some of you may remember the company on rogue traders where the companies top guy was the one who sold the most kit, he was caught on video "fixing" a distribution amp in a loft with a hammer. The fault was a duff connection in the living room.
The only thing i can advise is to ingnore the size of the advert , badges logos ticks the too good to be true deal etc & get recomendation from a frend, family neighbour for a unbiased reference.

Mark Aberfan Aerials



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