Home Up Front Payment

What they said about us.....



"The robust installations are a good advert. A no-nonsence approach."

Tim Jenks
Senior Executive
Confederation of Aerial Industries



"This is a company that has been built up on a solid reputation.

I am fortunate that I know Woking Aerials work, his reputation goes before him. Any person employing Woking Aerials is assured of a job well done.

Again being able to see work close up shows that Alan provides a service which is to be envied.

The system viewed by me was very impressive...."

Chris Glover
Inspector
Confederation of Aerial Industries



"This assessment was carried out as an NVQ assessment session.

I observed Alan, visit a domestic property, qualify the customer, fault find/diagnose the reception issue, and install a complete new aerial system.

This was done to an exceedingly high standard."

Kevin Dawson
Assessment & Training Executive
Confederation of Aerial Industries


Kevin has been the UK TV expert for ITV's 'House of Horrors' & BBC's 'Rogue Traders'


                   City & Guilds Qualified


Surrey County Council Trading Standards Approved

Up Front Payment



There appears to be a new trend being set whereby some companies are asking for a payment in advance when you book an appointment with them.

Well let us just say that these companies are in the minority and that there are plenty of companies, like ours, who do not ask for any up front payment before the engineer arrives at your premises, and the following is why we are highlighting the new Up Front Payment trend.

 

We were recently asked by a Guildford Letting Agent for whom we have work for many years, to attend a house in the Boxgrove area of Guildford.

 

Bear with us, this is how the story goes.

A new tenant rents this house and plugs the TV into the TV aerial socket on the wall and receives a 'No Signal' message on the screen.

As the tenant put it to us, 'Not wanting to look stupid to the letting agent or the landlord I called in an aerial company'

So the tenant Googled a local aerial company and gave them a call, they agreed an appointment and asked for an 'Up Front Payment' of £36.00 to cover the 'Service Call', materials were to be charged as an extra and paid for at the time.

 

By the way, although the tenant Googled a 'local aerial company' a 'National Aerial Company' took the call, although the tenant wasn't aware of this at the time.

For those who may not understand, when you phone an aerial company and they answer 'Aerials', instead of Sidney Aerials, Wellington Aerials, Woking Aerials (just had to throw that one in), we know you are calling a National Company because they have so many BT phone numbers going back to a central location, they don't know where you are calling from. So if they answer 'Aerials' I think they have duped you already.

So the engineer arrived and having tried to tune the TV and having taken a look at the aerial in the loft, decided that there must be a fault somewhere and that the answer was to install a new 'High Gain' aerial in the loft for a cost of £216.00

This was £216.00 PLUS the £36.00 already paid, £252.00 in total.

Well being as this was a rented house, the tenant/customer was unable to authorise the new installation and so the engineer went on his way.

The tenant then contacted the letting agent who then contacted us.

We went to the property and went into the loft. We found a 10 element aerial in the loft facing the Guildford transmitter. From the aerial was a coaxial cable which fed a 2 Way Splitter.

Disconnecting one of the feeds from the splitter we measured the output on a Spectrum Analyser, 53dBmV

The required level to feed one TV is 48dBmV

So the fault wasn't in the loft with the aerial or the splitter, it was elsewhere.

Or engineer went into the lounge and measure the output from the wall socket...zero.

He removed the wall socket to find that the coaxial cable from the loft wasn't connected to it, but also the the centre screw had been sheared off rendering the outlet plate useless.

He installed a new outlet plate and measured the signals, everything was fine. He tuned the TV and received all the available channels.

Job done, problem solved.

We sent the letting agent a bill for our Service Call plus materials, £81.81p

 

Now had the original engineer investigated the problem further, he should have found the fault and replace the outlet plate, but how can anybody survive charging £36.00 for a service call, they can't.

It is our opinion that some companies charge a stupidly low initial rate to entice the public to use them, (carrot and the donkey) then once they have got you, they might try to sell you equipment, as in this case, that you really do not need.

 

If an aerial company ask for an 'Up Front Payment', hang up and go elsewhere, they are in the minority.