News

The following News item is taken from my
"Cowboys & Bodgers Gallery"

I've placed it here in my News section as it's perhaps the worst TV Aerial installation I've ever seen.


Location - Westlands, Droitwich. 8th September 2016

Complaint - Water flowing into the TV Aerial socket in the lounge, also intermittent break up of TV picture.

Fault - My elderly customers informed me that they had called a Worcestershire based TV Aerial company out a little less than 3 years ago as they were going to switch from SKY to Free-view and would need a new TV Aerial.

Unfortunately this cowboy of an installer couldn't be bothered to remove the redundant old Aerials which were no longer in use, one of which was in excess of 45 years old, instead he just slotted a new HG 5 Aerial in between the two old existing ones. For reasons of interference the recommended distance between Aerials should be 3 feet but in this example they were just a few inches apart, at best.

The bottom Aerial (seen in my image above) was loose and able to swing in the wind, along with the rusty, undersized pole and bracket which only had 2 bolts instead of 4 which was barely holding this leaning, heavy weight monstrosity to the wall, it was in real danger of crashing to the ground with all the possible consequences that could entail.

What makes this Aerial installation much worse is the fact that because of the unusual layout of the properties attached to and surrounding my customers home on the Westlands estate meant that the 3 Aerials were directly above a neighbours front door.

Other mistakes were also made during this shoddy, and possibly dangerous installation but are too long & complex for me to go into detail here suffice to say that this cowboy didn't even change the 40 plus year old brittle TV coax which allowed rain water to enter & flow down into the lounge TV socket.

Apparently the rip off merchant had the nerve to charge £150 and was gone in 30 minutes.

Remedy - Removing the 2 ancient Aerials I was able to re-use the 3 year old HG 5 Aerial but I upgraded the pole for a larger diameter and fixed a new galvanised bracket securely to the wall, running a new length of coax from the Aerial via the customers 4 way masthead amplifier to the existing power unit / TV in the lounge which immediately cured the water ingress and poor TV reception problems and much more importantly, also made the installation safe.

I actively encourage my customers to follow me through my fault finding process or even the installation of a new Aerial or Dish.

I'm always very happy to explain what I'm doing and why, although, it's not so easy if I'm in a difficult to access loft or at the top of a ladder / on a roof, especially in winter, even so I'm comfortable and not at all perturbed in any way by anyone who is willing to watch and ask questions.

(Please read some of my testimonials HERE for conformation of this)

From personal experience I would always recommend anyone who invites unknown trades persons into their home to carry out any sort of short term remedial work, to check and see if they would mind you observing them at work, this request should not cause any alarm to the genuine and professional but may upset the unscrupulous, should they object I would then be suspicious!