Arrgghh, Sky stole my LNB!

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › Arrgghh, Sky stole my LNB!

Antzzz

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#24961 7-Aug-2008 22:07

Got a basic MCE 2005 Freeview setup going, DVB-S using an old dish that came with the house (origin unknown) and bought a new LNB to replace the one on the dish that was stuffed. Has been running pretty well for the last year or so until last night we come home and find that it has no signal.

Had a look at the dish, hello, there is a different LNB on it and a splitter has suddenly appeared. Seems that our new neighbours downstairs have got Sky installed, and the installer took it upon themselves to use our dish, and my LNB is nowhere to be seen!

Called up Sky and after much mucking around their CSR found the installation record and left a message for the installer, promised to call me back so we could work out what has happened to the LNB. 24hrs later and no call, so I call Sky back. This time their CSR can find no record of the installation (not my installation so I don't have a customer number) and won't escalate it to a supervisor unless I can give them a customer number. Arrggghhh!

Neighbours aren't usually home when we are so haven't been able to get any reference for the job from them. They've only just moved in and probably aren't aware that we were using the dish/LNB.

So Sky are pretty arrogant - seems they just assume any dish and LNB belongs to them and they can do with it what they like - without asking permission! Though I guess I should be grateful they put in the splitter and didn't just disconnect me...

Crazy thing is my LNB worked just fine so they didn't need to even install their own - could have just put in the splitter and no-one would have noticed!

Took me a couple of hours of mucking around getting MCE going with the new LNB as the LO frequency was different, had to dredge up all the registry stuff to sort that out.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant... Guess it's a warning for those out there with Freeview living in a building with multiple residents...

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#155074 7-Aug-2008 22:23

Antzzz: Got a basic MCE 2005 Freeview setup going, DVB-S using an old dish that came with the house (origin unknown) and bought a new LNB to replace the one on the dish that was stuffed. Has been running pretty well for the last year or so until last night we come home and find that it has no signal.

Had a look at the dish, hello, there is a different LNB on it and a splitter has suddenly appeared. Seems that our new neighbours downstairs have got Sky installed, and the installer took it upon themselves to use our dish, and my LNB is nowhere to be seen!

This problem was bound to come up eventually. I think most people here who have sky, or have had it in the past, figured out that the dish is owned by SKY. Always was, and always will be. Just because the previous subscriber has moved out does not remove ownership of that dish.

It was unlucky for you that this happened, but there are no surprised faces here.

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bazzer

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#155110 8-Aug-2008 08:14

Antzzz: So Sky are pretty arrogant - seems they just assume any dish and LNB belongs to them and they can do with it what they like - without asking permission! Though I guess I should be grateful they put in the splitter and didn't just disconnect me...

Probably the dish is one of theirs. I'd be a bit annoyed if I'd installed a dish myself and that had happened, but they know which dishes are theirs (I'm guessing) and they'd have just assumed (quite rightly) that the LNB was theirs too. I wonder if somewhere on the Sky installers forum there's a guy saying "So homeowners are pretty arrogant - seems they just assume any dish and LNB belongs to them and they can do with it what they like - without asking permission!". What made you think you could mess with their equipment in the first place? I doubt you would have seen the satellite dish on the chattels list.

I agree with rscole86 and I think we'll be hearing more stories like this in the future. I seem to recall in the MySky HDi thread someone wondering what would happen to his LNB when he got HD installed. I think it's his dish too, so that's an extra twist. My guess is Sky would want to install their own dish as well?

CYaBro

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#155115 8-Aug-2008 08:28

Does seem wrong that Sky can do what they like to the dish.
Fair enough if the person/s who originally had Sky digital installed still lived there but when they moved out they would have informed Sky of change of address or cancellation of sub.
Sky then had the oppurtunity to go and retrieve the dish if they so wished.
As they didn't and the new owner has moved in I would say that Sky now have no right to go on to the property and do anything with the dish.
There would have been nothing in the sale & purchase agreement of the property saying that the dish is not included.

Now if it is a rental property then that's a different story.

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tonyhughes

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#155124 8-Aug-2008 08:52

CYaBro: There would have been nothing in the sale & purchase agreement of the property saying that the dish is not included.

Excellent... so I now own:

My Sky dish & LNB
All water, power and phone connections, pipes, junctions, meters, anywhere on my property
And any other item on my property at 5pm on the handover day that was not specifically mentioned in the sale and purchase agreement

I think you *may* actually find that you cannot simply make laws up, and that SKY still own their dish.

If an item is not listed as chattels, it is generally *excluded*, however, I do not think the chattels thing even applies here, as chattels is generally about defining/passing ownership of an item from the old owner to the new owner.

Old owner never owns the SKY dish, so cannot give ownership to new owner by way of listing it in a S & P agreement.

OP should not be surprised at his LNB going walkies, but should get it back. I do not think SKY *stole* it, but simply took it away, rather than leave on the ground, when they installed the LNB that they needed to do their install with.

Antzzz

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#155126 8-Aug-2008 09:02

Bazzer - the dish was one of the chattels on the house - the house is rented (by me) but was sold to a different landlord a few years ago and at the time I saw the purchase agreement, fairly certain that the dish was listed... Which is in itself interesting, looked a few properties for sale over the years and noticed that the dish is usually listed as a chattel even when it is quite possible that Sky own the dish.

In any case the LNB is definitely mine - I bought and paid for it as the original one was stuffed.

Definitely I think we'll be seeing more of this as more people get Freeview - perhaps Sky will be a bit more pro-active in the future about removing "their" dishes.

jpollock

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#155129 8-Aug-2008 09:12

Actually, I'm pretty sure you do own all of that stuff. Post demarcation point, it's yours. If the company doesn't remove it when service is terminated, it can probably be considered "abandoned".

I know I paid to:

replace the electric meter, which was then certified by the company.
replace the sewer pipes to the street
replace the water pipes to the street

So, yes, I own them, they're mine. They may have to comply with regulations, and have little tags
on them that say "I haven't been tampered with since I was certified", but that doesn't change that
I own it.

Just like I own the coax, power, and cat6 wiring inside my house.

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Jaxson

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#155131 8-Aug-2008 09:13

This has always been a laugh.
I guess as the new owner of the property you could contact sky and ask them to come and remove their sht from your property.
Sky have made this a problem by their decision not to remove their old gear after you disconnect.
I'm sure this has led to some frustration on their part as their dish equipment receives from the same satellite as freeview, so most people have scored a free dish to use another service on.
Funny argument, but yes it goes both ways. It always belonged to sky, but they don't seem to want it back anyway.

bazzer

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#155148 8-Aug-2008 10:09

Jaxson: It always belonged to sky, but they don't seem to want it back anyway.

I would say the reason is that it's easier for everyone if they just leave it there. You move in to a new house and the dish is already there, Sky just has to come and plug a decoder in and you're good to go. Or even better, you take your old decoder to your new house and sort yourself out for free. If they have to keep taking down and putting up the dishes there'll be higher install costs for everyone to make up for it.

I'm pretty sure it costs Sky more than $49 (or even $99 that it used to be) to get installed in new premises, but that's OK because they make it up a bit on the "easy" installs. I've heard of people who have taken their dish down and hidden it so that when Sky comes to do the install they'll have to put up a new dish and that makes them feel like they got better value out of their install fee!

The problem is Freeview now uses the dish too. Sky wouldn't be too happy, but as long as you don't mess with it, it's not a problem.

Antzzz: I saw the purchase agreement, fairly certain that the dish was listed... Which is in itself interesting, looked a few properties for sale over the years and noticed that the dish is usually listed as a chattel even when it is quite possible that Sky own the dish.

That's funny. I've never seen the dish on the chattels. Real Eastate agents are usaully pretty clued up in that respect and know it's owned by Sky. Ideal solution would be Sky contacts you when you move in a asks if you want Sky and offers you a cheap install. If you say no, they come and take the dish away. If you later want it installed you pay a heftier install fee to cover it.

allstarnz

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#155152 8-Aug-2008 10:41

i understand exactly why you're grumpy, it sucks when you spend that money to hook up the LNB to a Sky dish.

but at the end of the day, I understand Sky do own the dish, so the techie wouldn't have thought twice about replacing the LNB.

Bung

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#155160 8-Aug-2008 11:03

jpollock: Actually, I'm pretty sure you do own all of that stuff. Post demarcation point, it's yours.

Consumer's advice is that power meter ownership is complicated, the meter could be owned by the householder, the lines company, an electricity retail company (not necessarily the one you are using) or a metering company.

tchart

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#155179 8-Aug-2008 12:24

LOL, doesnt everyone already know the dishes are Sky's?

As for removing them the techs (no offence as I realise its not their fault) generally get the job done aso quickly as possible and normally dont do the best job they could (since they arent paid to do this). I expect it they went around removing old dishes everytime someone moved, the cost would be more than the dish is worth as well as leaving holes in your roof/wall where ever which could leak and pave the road to law suits.

IMO your are probably lucky they didnt have you up for tampering with their dish.

If you are lucky enough to get your LNB back they might want to know where their one is!

Bung

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#155182 8-Aug-2008 12:37

tchart: LOL, doesnt everyone already know the dishes are Sky's?

Everyone keeps repeating that which doesn't necessarily make it true. A response to one of Jama's Geekzone blogs suggestted that there was a case in AK where an abandoned dish was deemed a chattel of the house but didn't give any references.

Regs

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#155193 8-Aug-2008 13:12

Bung:
tchart: LOL, doesnt everyone already know the dishes are Sky's?

Everyone keeps repeating that which doesn't necessarily make it true. A response to one of Jama's Geekzone blogs suggestted that there was a case in AK where an abandoned dish was deemed a chattel of the house but didn't give any references.

was the dish stamped with a serial number? anything to identify it as the property of SKY? just because a dish used to exist on a site doesnt mean the wind didnt blow it away ages ago and you put your own dish up.

if i ever get sky connected at home i wonder if they will re-use my self-installed dish (dont even start on discounted installation, that will never be dicounted more than it is), or put another sky owned one up instead...

my house had no aerials on the roof when i moved there and it looked like had never been one.... only a lightning rod!

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Jaxson

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#155206 8-Aug-2008 14:11

Kky does this deal where you can get a sky dish installed and a digital decoder that only works on the prime station for $149. (This is so they can pretend Prime is free to air everywhere and not put it on freeview in my opinion). This is for people who can't get uhf prime, like most of the middle of Wanganui for instance. Anyhow I checked up on this cos my parents already have an existing sky dish installed but can't get uhf prime. Still want $149 for a tech to come and do nothing more than plug it in and turn it on.

Whilst it's easier for sky to install at an existing installation, it's of no benefit to the customer whether it's pre existing or not. I wonder if there is a law about something being unclaimed for a certain period of time. I mean if I leave an aerial at a house I leave, can I really expect to go back and rip it out 5 years later just because I didn't specify it was a chattel to be transferred when I sold the house?

Antzzz

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#155207 8-Aug-2008 14:12

tchart:

If you are lucky enough to get your LNB back they might want to know where their one is!

There's a familiar name, still got your BE300 tchart? :)

The old (dead!) LNB is sitting in a drawer, was going to re-install it on the dish when I eventually move out...

The dish has nothing on it saying that it is the property of Sky - on balance of probabilities it could be, but given that apparently the last record of an installation they have at the property was 1995 (does that pre-date Sky digital?) it could have come from anywhere.

Not sure what the legal situation is regarding abandonment of property is, but leaving something on somebody else's property for 13 years and expecting just to come back to it is a little extreme!

After talking to my neighbours and getting their account number I'm finally getting somewhere with Sky, just trying to contact the installer to get the LNB back from them. Sky have now acknowledged that they should have checked properly before messing with it, particularly since the dish is attached to our part of the house!

By the sounds of things even if the dish was purchased by me the outcome would have been the same though, and this is what I find frustrating.

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