I had a call this morning to a council bungalow. Occupier was mid 80s.
Moved in a year ago, couldn't get the telly to work, instead of calling
the council he called in a local TV shop. They said the communal system
wasn't working, communal systems never worked, so the only answer was
Sky. So they took £150 off him for what turned out to be a very old Sky
box and matching dish. No Sky card, no Freesat card, so ITV was Central
W and BBC1 was London. The Skybox packed up last week and someone
advised him to contact the council. The TV socket was working fine. It
was a total con.

Private customer this afternoon said 'Do you know anything about burglar
alarms?"
"Not really." But of course she persuaded me to take a look. The alarm
was dead. The psu for the panel had died. Instead of the normal 12V
battery there was a 6V one, badged as Honda! The battery had oozed ****e
all over the place and the panel was damaged.
"How long did it work after it was installed?"
"Oh, not long, but they wouldn't come back, so we left it. But there was
a break-in down the road last we so..."

Paul went out to a communal that serves a small housing estate. The
fault was that the trunk cable was severed. Someone had decide to board
the loft out. Unsure of the purpose of the 11mm diameter cable that
crossed the loft he had cut it off at both ends leaving about an inch.
Lucky it wasn't mains! Without Paul saying anything the bloke said,
"Tell [the housing association] to not bother sending me a bill because
I've been out of work fifteen years so they won't get a penny. They've
tried it on before. No chance."

On the way home I called in at a neighbour whose bedroom TVs had stopped
working. I idly did an autotune in one bedroom and was surprised to see
a succession of pictures across the VHF and UHF bands. Some were the
camera in the baby's room, some were the Sky box output. But no DTT.
Turned out the toddler had pulled all the wires out of the telly and the
skybox and the DVD player so mum had just pushed them back anywhere
where they'd fit. She didn't bother mentioning that this incident had
occurred in the afternoon of the day when the the bedroom sets had
stopped working when they'd tried to use them in the evening. This was a
system done by me and every cable was labelled. She'd plugged the one
labelled 'aerial for TV set' into the RF in socket on the Sky box and
'Sky box out' correctly into RF2. Since I always combine sat box outputs
with the aerial feed (via filters) rather than daisy chaining through
the sat box this created a feedback loop, driving the amp crazy. With
only two analogue channels the result was a series of spurious signals
across the band, and the DTT totally bolloxed. The living room TV was
HDMIed from the Skybox and the didn't use DTT, so was unaffected.

Bill

Its amazing how people who otherwise seem intelligent seem to have problems
with wires, even if they are labelled.
I experience this whenever my cleaner needs to get at certain things. Even
mains plugs plugged to sockets so the lead is stretched when there is
obviously a closer socket.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...
I had a call this morning to a council bungalow. Occupier was mid 80s.
Moved in a year ago, couldn't get the telly to work, instead of calling
the council he called in a local TV shop. They said the communal system
wasn't working, communal systems never worked, so the only answer was
Sky. So they took £150 off him for what turned out to be a very old Sky
box and matching dish. No Sky card, no Freesat card, so ITV was Central
W and BBC1 was London. The Skybox packed up last week and someone
advised him to contact the council. The TV socket was working fine. It
was a total con.

Private customer this afternoon said 'Do you know anything about burglar
alarms?"
"Not really." But of course she persuaded me to take a look. The alarm
was dead. The psu for the panel had died. Instead of the normal 12V
battery there was a 6V one, badged as Honda! The battery had oozed ****e
all over the place and the panel was damaged.
"How long did it work after it was installed?"
"Oh, not long, but they wouldn't come back, so we left it. But there was
a break-in down the road last we so..."

Paul went out to a communal that serves a small housing estate. The
fault was that the trunk cable was severed. Someone had decide to board
the loft out. Unsure of the purpose of the 11mm diameter cable that
crossed the loft he had cut it off at both ends leaving about an inch.
Lucky it wasn't mains! Without Paul saying anything the bloke said,
"Tell [the housing association] to not bother sending me a bill because
I've been out of work fifteen years so they won't get a penny. They've
tried it on before. No chance."

On the way home I called in at a neighbour whose bedroom TVs had stopped
working. I idly did an autotune in one bedroom and was surprised to see
a succession of pictures across the VHF and UHF bands. Some were the
camera in the baby's room, some were the Sky box output. But no DTT.
Turned out the toddler had pulled all the wires out of the telly and the
skybox and the DVD player so mum had just pushed them back anywhere
where they'd fit. She didn't bother mentioning that this incident had
occurred in the afternoon of the day when the the bedroom sets had
stopped working when they'd tried to use them in the evening. This was a
system done by me and every cable was labelled. She'd plugged the one
labelled 'aerial for TV set' into the RF in socket on the Sky box and
'Sky box out' correctly into RF2. Since I always combine sat box outputs
with the aerial feed (via filters) rather than daisy chaining through
the sat box this created a feedback loop, driving the amp crazy. With
only two analogue channels the result was a series of spurious signals
across the band, and the DTT totally bolloxed. The living room TV was
HDMIed from the Skybox and the didn't use DTT, so was unaffected.

Bill

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
Its amazing how people who otherwise seem intelligent seem to have
problems with wires, even if they are labelled.
I experience this whenever my cleaner needs to get at certain things. Even
mains plugs plugged to sockets so the lead is stretched when there is
obviously a closer socket.

Brian


My favourite in this category was the labs of a communications company I
worked for about 25 years ago. They got a new building and there were
sockets everywhere, with mountains of kit plugged in. . Some were labelled
"normal" and others [usually used for instruments] had filters and were
labelled "clean". Guess what the cleaner did when s/he started work in the
evening...

Well obviously plugged the cleaner into one marked clean. its logical.
The label should have said musical instruments only.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"R. Mark Clayton" wrote in message
...

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
Its amazing how people who otherwise seem intelligent seem to have
problems with wires, even if they are labelled.
I experience this whenever my cleaner needs to get at certain things.
Even mains plugs plugged to sockets so the lead is stretched when there
is obviously a closer socket.

Brian


My favourite in this category was the labs of a communications company I
worked for about 25 years ago. They got a new building and there were
sockets everywhere, with mountains of kit plugged in. . Some were
labelled "normal" and others [usually used for instruments] had filters
and were labelled "clean". Guess what the cleaner did when s/he started
work in the evening...

She didn't bother mentioning that this incident had occurred in the
afternoon of the day when the the bedroom sets had
stopped working when they'd tried to use them in the evening. This was a
system done by me and every cable was labelled. She'd plugged the one
labelled 'aerial for TV set' into the RF in socket on the Sky box and
'Sky box out' correctly into RF2. Since I always combine sat box outputs
with the aerial feed (via filters) rather than daisy chaining through
the sat box this created a feedback loop, driving the amp crazy. With
only two analogue channels the result was a series of spurious signals
across the band, and the DTT totally bolloxed. The living room TV was
HDMIed from the Skybox and the didn't use DTT, so was unaffected.

Bill

Sounds familiar. Neighbours asked me to look at their lounge TV which had
lost all DTTV (no analogue here.) No other TVs in the house.
Signal readings on my meter were all really low but from ground level the
aerial appeared intact, though the downlead appeared to be trapped under a
roof tile.

Whilst checking the lounge outlet connections the wife casually mentions
that they need to buy a new TV for the new loft room conversion as they had
the electrician fit an aerial outlet in there. Alarm bells ringing, I ask to
see new room. Removing a panel in the same wall as the new aerial outlet
offered a view of the downlead appearing, entering a plastic Y splitter and
exiting again under the tiles. Sure enough, when they thought about it the
TV had stopped working after the electrician had called!

Signal level direct from the aerial was marginal, so I fitted a variable
gain amplifier and screened passive splitter to rectify matters.

On Tuesday, January 24th, 2012, at 01:58:43h +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

So they took £150 off him for what turned out to be a very old Sky
box and matching dish. No Sky card, no Freesat card, so ITV was Central
W and BBC1 was London. The Skybox packed up last week ...

Did he have a receipt?

J G Miller wrote:
On Tuesday, January 24th, 2012, at 01:58:43h +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

So they took £150 off him for what turned out to be a very old Sky
box and matching dish. No Sky card, no Freesat card, so ITV was Central
W and BBC1 was London. The Skybox packed up last week ...

Did he have a receipt?
No. They took cash off him. He did tell me which firm it was though.
Trouble is it was a year ago, and it would be his word against theirs.
And of course, he just wants to forget it.

Bill

On 24/01/2012 08:47, Brian Gaff wrote:
Its amazing how people who otherwise seem intelligent seem to have problems
with wires, even if they are labelled.

I've come across people that don't understand the difference between
'Input' and 'Output', yet don't have problems with 'Way-In' and
'Way-Out' down the local supermarket. I tried comparing both as an
analogy to help explain things, but that has ended up in them looking at
me oddly, like I'm speaking Martian.

--
Zarg C

On Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 22:41:07h +0000, Adrian C explained:

yet don't have problems with 'Way-In' and 'Way-Out' down the local supermarket.

I guess that they must not be that squeamish.

Is it available on DVD now?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_Out_%28TV_series%29

QUOTE

a snake slithering up a carpeted staircase inside a suburban home,
a disembodied brain in a jar (William and Mary),
a headless woman strapped to an electric chair,
with a light bulb in place of her head (Side Show)
and half of a man's face erased (Soft Focus).

UNQUOTE

On Tuesday, January 24th, 2012, at 22:19:10h +0000,
Bill Wright explained:

Did he have a receipt?

No. They took cash off him.

I just do not understand why people are prepared to hand
over cash without a receipt. Somebody who is eighty-years
old plus will have lived through the 1930s which would
have taught them a thing or two.

Trouble is it was a year ago, and it would be his
word against theirs.

Without a receipt then there is no evidence that the
alleged store even sold him the goods.

And of course, he just wants to forget it.

Which is what the shysters rely on -- people are too
"ashamed" to admit that they have been conned.

Same story as at that elderly housing complex where you
said many of the residents had been conned into paying
for totally uncessary antenna installations at completely
exorbitant prices.