What your antenna installer won’t tell you

salesperson on phone

TV Antenna installation can often appear like a fairly simple task, yet there is a lot of hidden catches, requirements and important things every customer should know before hiring an antenna installer.  From legal requirements to protect yourself and your home, to warranties and fine print there can be a lot of things to watch out for that may cause you grief in the short or long term.

Is Perfect Reception Guaranteed?

When you turn on the TV most times, you expect to flick to your favourite channel without an issue.  This normally is the case if you have a brand new TV antenna or have no issues
with your installation.  In the case that you have just built a house and need to get an antenna installed, you expect that everything will work perfectly as it is new.  This is not always the case
as if the antenna is not placed high enough, or the installer is cutting corners by using cheap cable and connectors you may have signal problems all which you cannot prove.

The second situation is in older homes where you may be having reception problems due to an old damaged antenna.  The customer would normally call a technician and ask how much is the cost to replace the antenna.  The issue is while the antenna may be renewed, there can be any amount of faulty connections, splitters, wall points and other equipment anywhere inside the roof that can cause reception problems in the future.  Most antenna installers will only replace the antenna (as asked) and not advise the customer of any other works to be done, or that may require to be done.

Ask your antenna installer will guarantee you perfect reception.  If the answer isn’t exactly a yes, find yourself another installer.

Will there be any additional costs?

A common practice among many larger antenna installers in Perth is to come in with a cheap and cheerful attitude often at an attractive price to stand out among others.  The issue is everybody needs to win jobs, then make their job pay off.  Most of this is done by hidden costs such as the requirements for boosters to be installed, larger masts all without the customer being told clearly on the phone or email.  This is common practice of many mobs with vague generic sounding business names.

A common example and often an easy moneymaker is a newly installed antenna to replace a broken old one.  If the customer still experiences TV reception issues later on after working well for a while, the installer is called back to look further into the issue to find a rusted splitter of some 20 years old in a hidden location.  $100 + Parts and what not later is one of many more to come service calls to replace defective components which should have been replaced the first time.  You will never know the real cost of getting perfect reception without a guarantee

Terms and conditions

Better known as fine print all for a good reason.  Many companies have terms and conditions which use every trick under the sun to reduce their accountability should anything go wrong.
Some of these terms and conditions may have disclaimers that make their selling points and guarantees worthless, or even smartly attempt to work around certain laws.  Below is a excerpt of the T&C’s used by a few antenna installation companies who clearly have little or no regard to their customers properties where work is completed

tv antenna terms and conditions

The real reason for the free inspection

Unless you are getting a quote for a multi-story, multi-million dollar development there is rarely any benefit to you for an on-site inspection.
While most installers who have years of experience are able to tell from a few questions over the phone such as what type of house you have
and previous experience with the reception quality in your suburb, they will know over the phone what your requirements are without a need for
inconvenient site visits simply for the purpose of a quote

The simple fact is these site visits are an easy way of getting themselves through the door to convince you to hire their services on the spot and is a well
known and used tactic.