CK

Apr 14, 2024

Negligent at Best, Cowboys at Worst.

My mother-in-law has dementia and occasionally forgets how to use the TV; one afternoon she came to me saying that the TV was stating there was no signal, so my wife and I visited to find that she had merely flicked it onto a different input channel. We checked the set-top box, ensured there was a good signal, re-tuned the channels to make sure they were up to date, put it back on the correct input and all was well. The next day we received a phonecall from her stating that she'd had the same problem again, but that we shouldn't worry; She had called an engineer round to see what the problem was and to put it right. We were confused, as we knew everything was working fine when we left the previous day, and we were confident she'd simply changed the channel again, so we asked to speak to the engineer, who confirmed his name was Mike Harris of 'Aerial Express' (which I believe he is affiliated with). According to Mike, there was 'water in the ingress', which caused us concern, as the word 'ingress' is the act of entering something (ie. there is evidence of water ingress inside) and thus this statement made no sense. We asked for clarification on whether he was referring to the LMB - 'yes' he replied, but it was alright - he could repair (ie. drain) it for the reasonable price of £360. This IMMEDIATELY rang alarm bells; firstly the LMB is weather-proof. Secondly he didn't seem to know what it was that had water in it. Thirdly, in order to have found water inside, he would have had to open it and drain some (if not all) of the water out already, and we struggled to see how this process could cost £300+ to complete. Lastly, even if he was telling the truth, and the LMB was full of water, beyond repair, the cost to replace the LMB is around £30 for a decent one, and the procedure to fit it can be performed in under an hour. This would have easily been the cheaper and better long-term solution to the apparent issue, and we can only assume Mike wasn't aware of this, something we found unacceptable in his professional position. When we challenged him on his diagnosis, stating that all was fine the previous day (with no rain between), and she had likely just changed the channel, Mike said he would phone the office to see if he could get a discount, before handing the phone back to my mother-in-law and walking out of the room. As we questioned my mother-in-law on the issue further, Mike re-entered the room, in a time period almost impossible for any meaningful phonecall, and proudly announced that he could repair the LMB for £260. This to us was the final straw; he'd managed to cut the price significantly, without any effort on his part or pressure from us to do so, suggesting strongly that he knew he was overcharging for the job. At this point we politely declined and asked him to leave immediately, and a couple of minutes later, he did. We organised to visit my mother-in-law the next day to understand what had happened and what the engineer had done. On arrival, we examined the FreeSat box and found that the coaxial lead had been removed from the rear of the box, with the centre pin bent. We checked the LMB/dish and saw no problems or signs of water. After straightening out the coaxial lead, screwing it back into position and re-tuning the FreeSat box, everything was working as it should have been. Criminally inept, or just plain criminal. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.