Loading ...We’ve heard plenty of stories about the main retailers telling consumers in-store misleading and inaccurate information on the new Freesat service, but Currys have gone one further by publishing a product on their site that we just couldn’t ignore.
Currys have made available (albeit ‘out of stock’) an installation package for £79.99 plus £6.99 delivery. Fair enough you might think, but its what the package is and suggests that really got us started.
It seems that the package does not include a dish, LNB or cable; they simply come out and plug the existing cables into the Freesat Digital Box for you, as if thats so hard to do yourself. So what are you paying £79.99 for? Very little it would seem! All retaillers are meant to be offering a installation service, this isn’t one and hopefully Freesat are taking note.
Also, they make mention to you needing a Sky Digital dish; sure Freesat won’t be too happy about that, not apart from the fact there’s no such thing as a Sky Digital dish, merely a dish suitable for receiving channels through the Sky Digital platform.
Visit the installation product and see for yourself.
Update (16-May-08) – It would seem that Currys have now updated the product to include installation of a dish etc, in line with the other retailers. The link above now takes you to the correct product.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Thankfully it’s “out of stock” (oddly), so hopefully people won’t get ripped off by it immediatly. In the meantime, watchdog, or something similar? Try to force it off their site before they have “stock”?
Crap like this is beyond belief, and should be fought against by those who know better.
UnknownSpammerQuote
May 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
And they’re charging £6.99 for delivery? You’re paying twice for someone to come to your house! Shocking!!
Rich MercerQuote
May 14th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I always have detested and always will detest Currys.
Paul.Quote
May 14th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
With some misgivings, I paid a “Standard Installation” charge when I picked up my Humax box last week from Comet. The sales assistant seemed to think I had to have it and that they would install a dish and connect it, regardless of the fact that I already had a dish.
PLUS HD (albeit limited for now!).
I already have a freesatfromsky dish, so what I actually need is a second feed from it, presumably entailing swapping out the lnb. I checked out the Comet small print and was ready to “cancel and claim a refund”.
My hopes rose, however, when the install people rang (just within the stated 48hrs) and said ‘no problem’ to a second or third feed and that they would put in a quad lnb. No mention of extra money at that point either. They also said something about two dishes not being within planning regs or something – which was fine by me!
When the installer arrived this morning, he said he only had instructions to do a standard, single feed installation and hadn’t time to do more, but at least he didn’t try to put in a second dish and didn’t ask for extra money, as the original Sky installers did …( our dish is high up to get a clear view of the satellite over nearby roofs and trees).
I am finally in the position of being able to watch one digital channel and record another without forking out a subscription other than the license fee
SimonQuote
May 14th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
well perhaps we should all boycott currys for this shocking rip-off-£80 just for screwing an f socket into a frresat box and plugging a scart/hdmi cable to your tv is money for old rope to these crooks
darnall42Quote
May 14th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Has anyone made freesat aware of what currys are doing
zubQuote
May 14th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Hahaha that’s unbelieveable. Why would you pay someone £80 just to plug in a box?
MattQuote
May 14th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
perhaps Murdoch has got shares in Currys!
Al CatrazQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 7:28 am
I was in a Curry’s store yesterday and was told the same. I needed the £79.99 instalation package even though I already have SKY installed.
When I questioned this, the sales person said that they had to install a ‘special’ adapter that came with the installation package. When I questioned him further on the adapter he said that actualy it came with the freesat box and I could possibly install it myself if I didn’t want to use there fully trained, professional installers.
I think I know what the ‘special’ adapter does now. It extracts £80 from your account for nothing!
Freesat need to be aware of this practice as it is maring their reputation and product.
TimQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 8:50 am
I see today they have announced the closure of 77 shops because business is bad – not surprised if they rip customers off like this
BobQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Im with you darnall42. The majority of readers of this blog probably shop in Currys from time to time, lets just all decide not too.
Btw – do they sell extended warranties with the install too? You know – just incase the f connector falls off.
DazQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Freesat seem pretty useless all round. I thought they owned the Freesat trademark, but they don’t seem to have made any attempt to stop Sky from using it, which they should have done months ago if they wanted to prevent confusion.
RichQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 9:43 am
i went in to currys in leeds on a retail park. what a joke. the salesman sought advise from a store expert(not sure what in).i was told i could only buy with an installation. i asked what his reasoning was. well its a different satellite!!! when i told him where in the sky the signal comes from, he then said oh yes but you need a quad feed lnb. after stopping laughing i told him i worked for a euronics dealer at which point he went to play with his ipod or make coffee.
i went over to comet. although the salesman admitted he hadnt been trained, he did establish with the manager that i could buy the box without installation.
so much for freesat thinking that comet and currys where the best way of getting freesat to the masses lol
dave smith
dave smithQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Until very recently, the John Lewis website was offering a £50 service to “check” whether your existing satellite dish was suitable for FreeSat, but with no further details of what the “check” would entail.
ChrisQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Sounds to me like the retailers have been given very little information, and are covering their backs…
LucyQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Simon – can you explain to us how you get more than one feed from a dish to enable you to watch one channel while recording another? I’m not a techie, so layman’s lingo please!
LucyQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Lucy – In very simple terms, your satellite dish has an arm and a block on it, the block is called an LNB. Most standard install LNB’s have a single port, to allow a single cable to be plugged in and the other end plugged into your satellite receiver. To obtain a second feed you need an LNB with more than a single port. The most common is a QUAD LNB which gives 4 ports. You’d need to install one and add the additional cable as required.
adminQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 11:44 am
When I first heard about Freesat (from a Saturday paper flier) I found your site through Google. A lot of usefully banter and was looking forward to launch day.
I bought a LCD TV when my old “weighs a ton” black one packed in. I have never subscribed to Sky and therefore I don’t have a dish.
2 days after launch, I went to my local Argos at Fosse Park, Leicester. The guy didn’t know about Freesat but the screen told him 2 weeks delivery at the store. So I went next door to Currys who had Humax HD boxes on the shelf at £150!
I ordered the £100 installation package as well, which they said I would have to pay the installer for. They contacted me later and said I would have to pay Currys. Although they had already sold a couple of boxes, mine was the first installation package they had sold which was for the following Monday PM. They had had a few hour’s training but were still on a learning curve.
They supplied me with a full installation spec by TechGuys for the 3 installation packages. The 3rd one, £50, was for an upgrade for PVRs when they become available which I decided to have when the installer came. He arrived on time and did a very professional job (the dish is the same size as a Sky one). There was no problem doing the upgrade while he was there and I paid by card over the phone.
He left me watching BBC HD, so full marks to Currys and TechGuys.
PS. The £20 extra for installing the dish I thought was good value. I agree the £80 package for plugging in the existing cable and setting up is excessive. This could be that they think most customers already have a dish.
TonyQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Seems a search for ‘freesat’ (and also the original link) no longer brings up those ‘install’ items lol… I’m sure it’s not related but I did email them yesterday pointing out the obvious claim of profiteering from the general public’s lack of knowledge of freesat – I also pointed out that sites such as this (and others) had noticed the items and it would not look good for Currys in terms of customers looking for information on the new service..
TimQuote
May 15th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
and Comet told me I must order a dish as well as pay for the Humax box … so I went to Argos and bought my Humax HD box.
ZoeQuote
May 16th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Seems like (some) stores are filing the information vacuum with lies to maximise their profits – if there were any kind of information advertised to the general public then there would be less chance the stores could get away with it.
TimQuote
May 16th, 2008 at 11:31 am
!!! UPDATE !!!
It’s now been changed to include the dish and full install:-
http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@2112569772.1210937362@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccddadeedjikhjfcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=174387&category_oid=
* Freesat dish and installation
* Installation of cables and box connector
* Suitable for standard & high definition
* CAI approved dish and cable installation
* For property up to 3 storeys high
Excellent – hopefully by flagging it up we did something good – or maybe it’s a co-incidence.
TimQuote
May 16th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I’ve got the opposite problem – having reserved a box at Argos last weekend, they told me that I could order installation when I came to collect. When I did, they told me that Argos are not offering installation and I was on my own. Hm. Perhaps that’s a blessing in disguise!
JonathanQuote
May 16th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Hi Jonathon. As the install is basically the same as sky (in terms of the dish etc) maybe there’s someone in the yellow pages that might be able to help – most probably cheaper than £80 just to stick a mini-dish up to – hope you get it sorted.
TimQuote
May 17th, 2008 at 7:10 am
This will probably get deleted as spam, but I’ve just seen Humax HD boxes here: http://www.spectrum-skytv.co.uk/
GilgongoQuote
May 20th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
well reading all the posts about installation i agree the sales people in shops have had poor training .But £80 for a full dish install and cabling and set up is a small price to pay for peace of mind . Try using an independant from the RDI website or IDSC there you can get a local professional within 5 miles of your post code Iam a rdi fitter with the price of fuel; insurance and cable costs going up £80 fitting wont be around long i agree if you have a dish setup diy the box
good luck and dont get ripped off by cowboys
johnQuote
May 21st, 2008 at 7:45 am
June 29th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Dont be suprised if the engineer you get does a lame job, The retailers give the jobs to outside companys, who subcontract the jobs to the engineers who end up receiving about 20 quid for freesat,
You dont have to buy the install from curry/comet you can use independent companys who wont be in such a rush to bang your install in ,because they dont have to do 10 jobs a day to cover fuel, vans, insurance, and stock before they see a profit
BTW how many of you were sold a scart lead or HDMI cable the comet/currys bloke said you needed despite the fact the boxes come with perfectly good ones!!!
bee meQuote
July 8th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Dont be suprised if the engineer you get does a lame job, The retailers give the jobs to outside companys, who subcontract the jobs to the engineers who end up receiving about 20 quid for freesat,
These lame engineers you are talking about have had training so they could get there licence to install Freesat. They do a proffesional job and yes they are getting ripped off by big sub contractors that have been awarded the contract to do work for places like Currys and Argos.
tonyQuote
September 10th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I have seen many installations done by so called CAI proffesional installation engineers and alot of them are shocking. The trainign course for CAI is about 2 days and just about anyone could do it even a trained monkey. I agree with Tony you are much better getting an installation done by an independant person who will at least spend a bit of time doing the job right.
DannyQuote
September 10th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Although i am not saying they are all bad but it is hit and miss whether you get a good one or not. Insependants are more to run cables throgh attics for example where as someone working for a large company won’t probably be able to because of health and safety regulations and will probably just las them across your roof. If the engineer could go int your roof space they probably wouldn’t because they don’t care about your install they only care about getting as many jobs as possible done in a day. But who could blame then the money they are getting paid.
DannyQuote
September 15th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
buyers beware – if you have a tv with integrated freeview (IDTV) you do not need a freesat set-top box which most retailers seem to ignore and try and sell you. IDTV requires only the dish and cable connection to your tv.
froggyQuote
September 15th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
To clarify that point, the television must have Freesat in-built to not require a seperate box, not Freeview built-in. Currently certainly Panasonic models are the only ones with Freesat built-in.
adminQuote
October 27th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
i work for comet in leeds. when freesat launched there was a handfull of staff trained by freesat so i know and understand what is needed. unfortunatly not everyone got that but my staff know who to ask if in doublt. iain
iainQuote
December 4th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Am having a dish installed next week by an independent company who are RDi approved, rather than go to one of the retailers, in the hope i get a better job done. They couldn’t give me a quote over the phone (why??), but insisted that they would have to check out exactly what i needed on site first. Can’t wait to watch HD from next Friday if they don’t charge me over £100.
Just how much cable do they allow you at point of installation?
markQuote
January 25th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I have just installed my own humax foxsat PVR. With little experience I cant believe how easy it was! I already have a Sky+ box. so the dish has a 4 way LNB fitted. (or 4 outputs from the dish to the reciever) I bought 2 sat cables from Argos and screwed one end into the 2 free outputs on the dish. then routed the cables down the wall with some clips. I drilled 2 holes through the wall into the lounge and fed them through and connected to the reciever. It took less than an hour and cost about 25 pounds. Its that easy!!
The Humax Foxsat PVR is absolutely superb!! a bit pricey but worth it.
Darren SaleQuote
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:48 pm
does your freesat pvr work ok with your sky+ ? if your recieving problems with picture etc you need a seperate dish as sky + boxes n freesat pvr boxes dont like each other and tend to conflict with each other
jdseasiderQuote
March 10th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
There is no conflict whatsoever between Sky+ and Freesat on the same quad LNB.
The outputs are independent and you certainly dont need another dish.
If you wish, you can swap the LNB for an Octo and have up to four PVRs or eight standard boxes, or any combination.
DaveQuote
March 24th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
On saturday purchased freesat box, and took out their instalation package. Today installers came to fit the dish and set up freesat box. I live in a standard sem, and aske for the dish to be placed on the back of the house, TV in front room.
Told by installer I would have to pay £35 + Vat (£41.13) if over 20 metrs cable were used, which I paid.
After installer left I looked expecting to see where cable had been clipped onto gutter facier, but there was none.
Only conclusion I could draw was that it had been put into the gutter.
I returned to Curry, and expressed my concerns to assistand, who said ‘anything the installers did would not suprise him’, and was refered to customer service desk.
This is where the ‘fun’ started. Explained the above issues, and was told I was only allowed 20 mts of cable, over this I had to pay. And I should contact the installers with my concerns.
Having forcefully explaining that I wanted them to speak to their installers, as my contract was with Currys, reluctanly this call was made.
The installers would come to check the cable installation, however if it WAS up to heir standards it would cost me almost £50. I refused to pay this and await my window cleaner looking at it for me.
At the point of sale I was never told of only being allowed 20 mts, so as far as i am concerned it was a breach of contract. I will persue both issues under the sale of goods act, together with the fact I was told the installation was nothing to do with Curry’s.
TrevorQuote
December 29th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
I have freesat installed (box and dish) on one tv. I now want it installed on another tv in another room. What do I need to do?
JenniferQuote
March 24th, 2011 at 8:18 pm
The easiest way is to use a video/audio sender, but you will only be able to watch the program tuned in, on your box in the other room, although you can use your remote to change channels from the second TV.
Egon FlaschbergerQuote