All posts by steve h
Below are all of steve h's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
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. yes, paula has had her electric cut off .... did a job for a customer yesterday, they were complaining of picture break up on itv channels . they had a fairly new aerial and booster already so just turned their aerial towards lark stoke and retuned and all was well. their next door neighbour had exactly the same trouble so there is a problem with sutton. this was between pershore and worcester, arond 35 miles from sutton. 250 is a bargain for 5 rooms. what were you expecting to pay? hi ian i have been installing for over 20 years and i am doing 99 pound installs myself to try and stay in business. in my area there is a lot more competition from new firms, mainly ex sky guys who have moved in to aerial fitting.most customers dont care if you are using galvanised brackets and heavy duty masts they just want the cheapest deal so i try and do a nice job but keep my costs down. when quoting on the phone i would stress that you are giving an accurate price rather than the big boys tactic of giving a starting from price. i went to an aerial job last saturday where the customer had been quoted 500 pounds for an aerial install to one room. to be fair they did come down to 400 for cash! we did it for 150 for class 2 benchmarked aerial. what gets me is we had a neighbour of an old lady we did a repair job for accusing us of being rogue traders because we charged 75 pounds to fix it which is exactly what we quoted on the phone. sometimes you just cant win
bry so someone came out and did what you asked and only charged 45 pounds? sounds like a bargain to me! read jordys post if you want to know what rip off means. mike i would say sutton coldfield is too far away from bromyard to get a reliable digital signal, over 50 miles i would say. i know it is possible to receive signals from either wrekin or ridge hill transmitters and they have higher digital signals since last month as well pmullans, i think the council have got their wires crossed and are talking about the regulations about satellite dishes. when sky started over 20 years ago their dishes needed to be 60cm so that was the size deemed acceptable. most councils nowadays turn a blind eye in these days of bigger polish dishes etc unless some busybody complains mazbar and kb, i work in the midlands and most of my local transmitters have switched over. just had a very quiet week , as you say an aerial falling down or leaking water will still be good enough to work whereas in the past it would have resulted in a job. plus add in the fact that people havent got the money to spend. things not looking too bright. worst week in 20 years to be honest dont think even that would help mazbar, its not like the good old days now with so many people having sky, often people just leave their aerial dangling for six months before getting someone round to remove it! years ago a good storm would keep us going for a fortnight. on the subject of the helpscheme we went out to a job yesterday where they connected a freeview box and tried tuning it in to a transmitter that isnt even digital yet! dont think even that would help mazbar, its not like the good old days now with so many people having sky, often people just leave their aerial dangling for six months before getting someone round to remove it! years ago a good storm would keep us going for a fortnight. on the subject of the helpscheme we went out to a job yesterday where they connected a freeview box and tried tuning it in to a transmitter that isnt even digital yet! kb i think people who see your van wouldnt care these days as mobiles are now accepted as the norm. sounds like a nice van but i would be careful with the magnetic signs i have lost a few over the years! and they can cause rust spots underneath when its wet tom i think that was a popular van for aerial fitters as it wasnt too high to get the ladders on and i think a sliding door on each side? by coincidence i had an old toyota van that also went to africa apparently. i once bought an old van from someone in the local paper . it seems the m o t was a bit dodgy as the police condemned it at the roadside and said i couldnt drive it any further. we still made it to the job carrying all the ladders and kit! to be fair kb what ian is saying is that the average price of a house in an area is a good indicator of an average price of an aerial install. there are always installers who will try to be the cheapest in their area but in a place like london where the cost of living is higher there is only so low you can go and stay in business. there is a north south divide on aerial prices for that reason i think anyone who reads back through this thread would now have a good idea of prices in their area. of course your mate down the road can do it cheaper because he hasnt got the overheads of running a business. i have been installing for over 20 years but what i now find is frustrating with all these rogue trader type tv programmes is that some customers will not listen when you try and give advice to help them, they assume you are not being honest. i had a guy last week who didnt want to know about a log periodic type aerial which would have given him great reception, he wanted a 48 element high gain one which someone else had told him he needed.we did it his way but had a few channels missing due to signal overload which we managed to sort out in the end but sometimes you just cant win read my post at the top of the page lads, sometimes you just cant win! the customer isnt always right apart from the price issue might i suggest that customers check that their installer still accepts cheques as a form of payment before having the aerial fitted. the cheque card guarantee scheme ended last year so for most small firms to have to gamble on whether the cheque will clear is totally unfair and a threat to their business. there are more rogue customers than installers! clair dont forget you could carry on using your current box if you want to, even if you cancel your sky subscription the main thing the public need to understand when getting quotes for aerial work is that a " starting from" price, often given by the big national aerial firms to get their foot in the door can often double or treble. a local installer will normally be able to give you a more accurate and realistic price 
23:10
