Dish Installer took my stuff

shrike3000

Well-Known SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Nov 15, 2006
31
0
I had a fairly annoying experience recently with my DISH install. I have been a Dish customer since 2000. Up until now I have owned all of my equipment, bought it all straight up. I decided to get the 622 lease deal and got the free install along with it. The installers come out and take down my 2 Dish 500's with Quad LNB and 2 Single LNB's and put up a Dish 1000. I was happy with the install and after they leave I go outside to put the Dish's they took down in the garage. They were gone. They took my old dishes, lnb's and switches.


This really annoyed me, as I owned that equipment and they never asked if they could take it. I have always done my own installs in the past, I own 6 Receivers with only 4 active. I have no idea when or what i might want to do with my equipment in the future, but its my equipment to decide. The fact is now I have decided to reconnect one of my deactivated receivers and need the equipment to hook it back up. I ended up calling them the day after the install to ask them to bring back my stuff. The CSR said they would have the local office that did the install (It was a real Dish Installer, not a subcontracter) give me a call. For about a week I kept calling and kept getting told they would have the local office call me to no avail. I was finally able to get the number from the CSR for the local office so I could bother them myself. I called and worked with them for another week until finally this morning the installer comes back out to my house this morning.


He walks up to the door and hands me the lnb's and turns around to leave. He is obviously annoyed and pissed off. I say that I also had 2 Dish's. He says that he might have one in the truck. He goes and gets one dish and sets it on the porch then turns to leave without saying anything. I then remind him that I had switches as well. He says "Oh you mean those little things that attach to the cables?". This was the guy who installed my new Dish 1000. This guy knows what a switch is and he knows that I had them and that he took them. Why the heck is he screwing around with me? He says he doesnt have any and I say that I need them. He calls his boss on his cell phone and then goes to his truck and gets them for me.


I know there are alot of Dish installers who come to this site. Can someone explain to me why this guy was so pissy and upset about me wanting to get the equipment back that I own? Why was he jerking me around like that? Do Dish installers get a bonus or something for collecting the old equipment?
 
Usually it is spelled-out on the work orders whether we take a receiver back to the shop or leave it for the customer to mail back to Dish Network.

But as far as dishes, LNBs, and switches go, it isn't really spelled-out and can get into a gray area. Most of the time the equipment is leased and we are expected to bring it back.

All I can suggest is if a customer owns the equipment (like I own my own dish and receiver), let the technician know upfront.
 
Usually it is spelled-out on the work orders whether we take a receiver back to the shop or leave it for the customer to mail back to Dish Network.

But as far as dishes, LNBs, and switches go, it isn't really spelled-out and can get into a gray area. Most of the time the equipment is leased and we are expected to bring it back.

All I can suggest is if a customer owns the equipment (like I own my own dish and receiver), let the technician know upfront.


Yeah, it wasn't so bad that they took it. It was more all the attitude I got while trying to get it back. Like I was a terrible inconvenience to them. I guess maybe I was.
 
Yeah, it wasn't so bad that they took it. It was more all the attitude I got while trying to get it back. Like I was a terrible inconvenience to them. I guess maybe I was.

The installer that works in my area has an hour drive to get to my house and an hour back to his base of operations......

I bet it would be "annoying" if he had to drive back out to my house to drop something off!
 
The installer that works in my area has an hour drive to get to my house and an hour back to his base of operations......

I bet it would be "annoying" if he had to drive back out to my house to drop something off!



Yeah, I told them I would go pick it up from them but they said No.
 
NEVER leave an installer, plumber, etc on his own at your house. I always stay with them till the end and make sure everything is the way I want it before I sign off on anything. I sometimes even help , since I learn a lot by observing and pitching in where needed.
 
NEVER leave an installer, plumber, etc on his own at your house. I always stay with them till the end and make sure everything is the way I want it before I sign off on anything. I sometimes even help , since I learn a lot by observing and pitching in where needed.

You make a great point. I won't make that mistake again.
 
I would make the following suggestions:

1- Let the installer know upfront what is yours and whats is leased. That way, there is no misunderstanding.

2- Before the installer starts the work, get his CELL phone number and information about the company he works for. An id or business card would be good also.

3- Before signing the work order (after completing the installation job), check to make sure everything looks fine. Make sure all wires are tidy and no trash left around.

4- Then, if you have an issue with an installation, call the installer directly. Usually they will work with you to resolve the issues without any delays.

Most installers have good intentions and are hard working people. But, nothing is perfect.

Good luck.
 
I had a Dish 1000 upgrade the other day and the tech took the old Dish 500. I didn't care since the Dish 1000 upgrade didn't cost me anything.
 
I had a Dish 1000 upgrade the other day and the tech took the old Dish 500. I didn't care since the Dish 1000 upgrade didn't cost me anything.

Do you have extra receivers that you may want to eventually hook back up without having to buy a new dish or pay for a new installation? I do.
 
The installer should have at least asked for those dishes, switches, and lnbf's instead of just taking them. I always ask for the dish and never just take it because I know it is their property. I do know that Charlie in the past stated that the old dish is yours if you do an upgrade to a new one since the pay is not much, that it was part of your pay. I only heard that once and that has been a while. This was around the time when SuperDish upgrades were starting in 2003. Still, if a customer wants to keep his dish it is his to keep unless you state to the person beforehand that he has to give up his old dish to get the new one or if the person needs that dish for some reason (travelling, another receiver not connected, etc).
 
One point is dish requires a LNB be RA'ed for the dish1000 upgrade. If you don't ra a LNB dish will not pay for the upgrade. Weather the customer owns it or not.

So if the installer does not RA the old LNB he will get charged back for the cost of a Dish1000. That means they work for nothing on that job.
 
Whenever I do upgrade, almost always standard practice is to remove all the old equipment. There have been times that I had left existing equipment in tact due to the way it was mounted - for example 100' on a radio tower. I'll leave it, I'm not climbing to get it, I'll just document it on the service agreement.

As to attitude you recieved, who knows maybe he was having a bad day, girlfriend giving him headaches, dog died? Regardless as said a few times already, all that stuff should be declared up front during the job survey otherwise standard practice is to return it.
 
When I took the upgrade, the installer said that the deal required him to take the old equipment. Didn't matter if I owned it or leased it, that if I wanted the deal then I had to give up the old equipment.

But when he looked at it and saw it was all old Legacy gear, Legacy LNBs and SW21 switches, he wasn't too interested. Said he had a pile of that stuff back at his office that he couldn't get rid of. I let him pick and choose what he wanted. The stuff was of no use to me since the upgrade gave me Dish Pro Plus LNBs.

I also kept my old D500 & D300-61.5 setup and let him keep the D1000. I had no use for it. Although Dish believes I have a D1000 and am getting 129 because that's what the workorder said and it was never changed.
 
One point is dish requires a LNB be RA'ed for the dish1000 upgrade. If you don't ra a LNB dish will not pay for the upgrade. Weather the customer owns it or not.

So if the installer does not RA the old LNB he will get charged back for the cost of a Dish1000. That means they work for nothing on that job.


My Dish 1000 upgrade has already been posted to my account. The cost $0.00
 
I could understand if that was the deal I agreed to in the first place. That's fair. If they say you get a Dish 1000 installed but I have to take the Dish 500 I probably would have called the Dish CSR to try and work with them on that and if it had to be done I would have done it. That's all fine and upfront.

I am over it all now, I was really upset when it went down but now I can see both sides and for all I know the guy was just having a bad day.
 
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