Read About My Nightmare As A Dish Network Customer!

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I have had Dish for years, no problems except for I am over on receivers and I am having a hard time getting them to allow me 7.
 
Wow! That is a terrible install!! As fast as they have grown I would hope installs like that are minimal. My friend had damage to his home also but it was resolved within a week although I believe it was from a Dish installer not a 3rd Party.
 
We have a special name around our shop for customers like this.

The Urban Princess... :dev
 
I haven't really comprehended the whole story yet, but it seems to me that you are mad at the wrong people. Shouldn't you be mad at the install company that was contracted by dish?
 
Like I said in the reply to the OTHER thread the original poster started:

If you signed off on this at the time of install and then decided to take issue with it months later then you dont have a peg-leg to stand on.

Complaints about micro scratches on furniture MONTHS after an install. It just doesn't fly.

The only thing you MIGHT have on this installer is the lag bolts through patio decking instead of a rafter. BUT it is no way roof damage. The complaint is merely cosmetic.

Like others have said, decking penetrations are common and if you signed off on it then it is your loss. I have on rare occasions had to do similar roof penetrations between rafters due to water damage on the rafters themselves. So without seeing your whole home site I simply can not side with you nor the installer on this. But from your delay in the complaint process I am inclined to side with the installer.

Not to make any accusations here BUT.... We often get similar complaints at our shop of customers accusing installers of damages MONTHS after an install. And 99% of the time the complaints are scams.
 
Complaints about micro scratches on furniture MONTHS after an install. It just doesn't fly.

You're right it doesn't fly. If any installer did that to my property I'd have handed his ass to him. Those are far from "micro" scratches as you put it and show a total disregard for customer property. If anyone else can manage to put equipment in an entertainment center without causing any damage a paid installer damn sure better be able to take the extra minute to be careful.

The only thing you MIGHT have on this installer is the lag bolts through patio decking instead of a rafter. BUT it is no way roof damage. The complaint is merely cosmetic.

With a statment like that it damn near sounds like you know jack squat about construction if you can't see the damage that has and will cause later down the road. It's, again, another example that the installer doesn't give two rips about customer property and the damage they caused. Depending on how the deck is designed it can be a roof for whatever is below as well. If anything the installer should have looked at what he had to deal with and adjusted accordingly. We had a damn good installer when our's were put in and he had enough forethought to see how long the lag bolt needed to be. In doing so you could see no protruding and potentially dangerous lag bolts on the other side of the install. It's one thing to be good and fast but another entirely to be fast and no damn good.
 
The pictures don't show where the bolts come through, but it looks to be under the patio where nobody can see them anyway. I hardly consider that damage. As for the cabinet, a small bottle of Old English will take care of that.
 
First of all installers are not paid to move your furniture, we don't move them because than we are liable. If you have sensitive equipment and an expensive entertainment center pull it out and make it accessible. This customer doesn't claim to do either. Now the installer (contractor) should have asked them to disconnect the cables so they wouldn't be bothered. And yes this sub par contractor is an unprofessional idiot and he did damage the entertainment center. As far as being through the patio roof if it could not go in a different spot he should have hit the rafters with the lags. The customer is at fault as well here all he had to do was say leave, I want somebody who is more professional.
 
I know I am going to get flamed for this, but...

I am disgusted by the total lack of respect you so-called "professionals" are showing here. This idiot of an installer showed an utter disregard for this man's property. It doesn't matter WHAT or HOW LITTLE damage was done to his furniture, it is inexcusable and you people are passing it off as "so-what".

"Oh, that's no big deal, just use a little retouch or whatever".

THAT IS TOTAL B.S.

And not that any of you care, but I would not recommend any of you to install a damn thing!
 
Several years ago, I was a senior escalation tech support agent for a major PC manufacturer. My primary responsibility was to deal with customers who were so P.O.ed that felt the need to write into the president of the company. In my experience, about 40% of the time, the customer had a legitimate gripe. The company boned them in some way, shape or form. In those circumstances, I had no problem doing whatever it took to rectify the situation for the customer, often ordering a new PC to replace the problematic one. About 20% of the time, the customer was a full-on crackpot. Just completely off base in their claims. The remaining 40% was pretty tricky. Often, there were mistakes made by the company, but these small mistakes were turned into huge issues by impatient, misinformed customers whose expectations of the product or service were way out of whack with reality. These customers were not well-informed consumers and rarely read their manuals, service contracts and other T’s and C’s.
In my view, the original poster certainly falls into the last category. The installer certainly made mistakes and did sloppy work. But… this certainly is a fine example of how to make a bad situation worse. While the original poster will certainly find a sympathetic ear or two among the Dish bashers, a closer examination of the poster’s website will reveal a lot of self-inflicted damage. First, always remember that you are dealing with low to mid-level functionaries in the Dish Network chain o’ command. These are not the movers and shakers of the company, but mostly decent people trying to help out when they can and not get burnt out dealing with loud mouth louts most of their day. The attitude you take into this is critical. I too had an issue with my local installer (helpful hint: don’t contact the installer directly, instead contact Dish and let them arrange for an installer. That way, Dish can exert more control over the installer, though Dish should be more stringent about who can install.) But, when I had my problem, I took a much more rational approach when contacting Dish. It took some patience, and I had to work my way up the chain of command a bit, play the game, listed to the scripted responses. But, I knew where I stood and I did not expect too much assistance from the front-line support.
From reviewing the rant on the original poster’s website, I see lots of warning signs. The whole article has a certain “Dish network is out to get me” paranoid streak. The whole, “update sent out by DISH NETWORK that in effect ended up giving the model 522 receivers a virus” is pure fantasy. There is bad luck, and then there is dumb luck. This strikes me as a perfect case of the latter. Some people simply bring bad things on themselves through the attitude they take. Spend the time to read your contracts, T’s and C’s, manual, service agreement, what ever documentation comes with the product or service. Be a good consumer and look out for your rights and prevent a problem before it occurs. There’s still a chance things won’t work out in your favor, but by doing so, you greatly increase your odds of having a successful resolution.
 
Bravo a little more well put than I put it. This customer is crying a river if you pay a kid to handwash your car and he scratches it twice would you continue to let him wash the car? I deal with damage claims for a vast area and have noticed about 30% are legit. The other ones are just out for something free. One guy actually claimed that since we hooked up dish now his 1978 TV won't see channel 3. One of my guys is certified to do TV repair and guess what the guys TV took a dump but he wanted us to buy him a brand new TV. Sent him a nice letter saying we were denying it, he said I will see you in court, said fine if that is the course of action you want. Never heard about it ever again
 
sheridan said:
I know I am going to get flamed for this, but...

I am disgusted by the total lack of respect you so-called "professionals" are showing here. This idiot of an installer showed an utter disregard for this man's property. It doesn't matter WHAT or HOW LITTLE damage was done to his furniture, it is inexcusable and you people are passing it off as "so-what".

"Oh, that's no big deal, just use a little retouch or whatever".

THAT IS TOTAL B.S.

And not that any of you care, but I would not recommend any of you to install a damn thing!

I'm not going to flame you but I suggest you go back and read my post sir. I have the utmost respect for the original poster, he was wronged by the installer and should be compensated fairly. Did he have $300 actual damage or is that an estimate of damage he came up with off the top of his head? I in no way shape or form condoned anything that installer did. In fact I think the yahoo should be run out of the satellite business. I understand the customer is upset, but I also pointed out had he been anywhere near that upset as the event unfolded before his very eyes he with a simple word ("stop") could have done something at that point to either prevent it from happening or atleast kept it from getting worse. I for one will not do a roof mount, even over a deck or patio. They may not leak today, tomorrow or even next year, but eventually they will leak. I think even suggesting a roof mount (mounting the mast directly to the roof) shows a reckless disregard for the customer's property.

While others may present this customer is some kind of whiner, it is my opinion that he has legitimate claims & damage. But at the same time I do agree with the others that he should have got the ball moving on those claims much sooner. As for the amount of damage claimed as to the real dollar loss, I'd have to side with the others. If clearer photos of the furniture were available I might change my stance on that part, but as far as the damage to the roof, it is in a none vital area and should be patched up fairly easily once the mast and lag bolts are removed (nowhere near the $300 total damage as stated).

Do I want to do your install, only if you want me to do it. I can not make someone like me or my work, they either do or they don't. But I do make it my goal to walk away from each install with a happy customer in my wake. And I have done a fairly good job of that for the past two years. Only one customer complaint to date and that was because I refused to dig up and remove a Primestar pole (that the D* dish was mounted atop) when the customer's dish needed to be relocated because of a big oak tree which had grown up in front of her dish over a 7 year period. Of course she claimed that her tree hadn't grown an inch in the past 7 years but that we instead had moved the satellite in the sky, her friend verified this because she had to have dish realigned a month earlier (this were two old women and the spring storm season was the cause of her friend's need realignment). She felt it was therefore my responsibility to remove the ugly Primestar pole, once the dish was placed on a new pole twenty feet away. Those Primestar poles are huge beasts with a hundred pounds or more of concrete at the base, I wasn't removing that thing with anything I had on my truck and surely wasn't going to risk damaging my truck to try and pull the pole out with a rope or chain. Of course the company saw things my way and said that I was not authorized to remove that pole from the customer's yard stating that eventhough D* had bought out Primestar years earlier, the pole once planted in the customers yard became her property.

So you want an install done right and you live in my area (north Alabama), give me a call. But don't call me if you want an old Primestar pole removed, because I'm not going to do it.
 
sheridan said:
I am disgusted by the total lack of respect you so-called "professionals" are showing here. This idiot of an installer showed an utter disregard for this man's property. It doesn't matter WHAT or HOW LITTLE damage was done to his furniture, it is inexcusable and you people are passing it off as "so-what".

Where are the damages?!?! The original poster surely hasnt proved a thing, except for posting blurry pictures of an entertainment center and whining about the cosmetics of using lag bolts on the decking of their patio.

Let us come back down to reality here for a moment.

Do you seriously think the satellite or any industry for that matter will just throw money away to idle claims made by any Urban Princess that whines about any inane blemish they notice months after the fact???

This is exactly the reason why all installation outlets have customers sign off on an install as soon as it is completed. It is a release from liability. It keeps customers from damaging their own property (or even worse feigning damages) and then months later try to lay the blame on any company that performs said service.

If there is some furniture damage then from those photographs it is minimal. No where near $300. Be disgusted all you want. What I find equally disgusting is people like the original poster want to try and scam that much money out of an installer months after the fact by blatanly exaggerating damages that are nothing more than normal wear and tear.
 
MustangLX89 said:
With a statment like that it damn near sounds like you know jack squat about construction if you can't see the damage that has and will cause later down the road.

You're joking right? Lag bolts through roof decking is damage?!

Besides it is pointless. It doesnt matter jack diddle squat what you call it now or think it may do later. If a customer signs off on it at time of install it is his/her own problem.
 
The attitude that I have perceived from reading these posts, and thus, my opinion, is that several of you have the attitude that stuff like this (alleged, happy?) is going to happen, it's no big deal and the public should accept it and move on.

Well I say, there is no excuse for the way this idiot (allegedly) treated the customers furnishings and I do not agree with the way some of you seem to treat it so cavalierly.

The customer should have thrown this fool out on his ass.

Whatever your gripe is; whether you feel he has waited too long, is exaggerating his claims, or is an "Urban Princess", that is no excuse for the comments, "so he scratched your funiture, so what?" "Put a little Old English on it, use a touchup stick, or whatever." That, sirs, no matter what else you may believe or disbelieve about his claims, is not the attitude of someone I would want in my home, or office, for that matter.
 
Sheridan, I agree with you, they should have thrown this fool out. But, hey I'm guessing they were looking to save a buck or two or were switching from DirecTV because DirecTv would'nt give them a FREE DVR. Looks like the dish is on the overhang and easy access, and I would bet that their furniture was already scratched, why wait 5 months to raise a stink. Dufoenet, get a life.
 
Zooz said:
If a customer signs off on it at time of install it is his/her own problem.

What the heck are you talking about? As you should know, sometimes the customer is NOT up the installer's arse and doesn't even realize the damage until everything's said and done. I'm sure this lady didn't see the lag bolts and say "oh, that looks beautiful, where do I sign off on this?". No she probably realized it after the fact because I think most times when the installer is UP ON THE ROOF, the customer is INSIDE the house because there's no way they can even see what the guy's doing up there.

And even all that aside, I still disagree that it's her problem because "she signed off on it." Because after the guy did the work, even if the work is BAD, she would STILL have to sign because he just left an 811, 522, LNBF, switch, and dish at her residence. So even if the job TOTALLY SUCKED, she would HAVE TO sign off and at best try to work it out with E* later. What's she going to say "I'm not signing" and then the guy will say "then I'm not leaving the equipment" then she's stuck there fighting with this guy about him having to go back up on the roof IN THE DARK to try and take the equipment back. She was just totally left in a bad spot and did what I imagine 90% of the public would do. I look at signing off on the job like signing for a traffic ticket. It's not an admission of guilt, just to acknowledge that you got the ticket. By your reasoning if he burned down her house and then she signed for the gear, it's "not his problem." Come on.

Also, if she didn't sign, and the guy took his equip. back, what proof would she even have that the guy was there and did the damage? The fact that she signed ends up covering her arse. The job is clearly botched. Why stick up so hard for shoddy installers?
 
The Installer who installed my Dish In Jan did the samething. Its on the edge of the roof and has 4 lag bolt screws protruding thru the roof.
I noticed it after the installer left and couldn't understand why they didn't drill the screws into the rafter instead of thru the thiner roof meterial.

It looks like crap but I didn't consider it would cause any real damage other than
I was worried a High wind would rip it right out of the plywood and shingle roof.
I also figured if it was mounted higher on the roof I wouldn't see the screws but they would be there and if the screw holes caused a water leak thru the roof I was better off having it installed where it was.

Could it be installed with only two lag bolt screws into the Rafter or would you still need the other two installed thru the Roof?
Im wondering if I should have the dish remounted so the bolts go into the rafter or just leave it as is.

Dish has to send someone back out to Ground the System as the first installer never grounded anything.
 
I'd like to say thank you to all of you who read my post and my web page. It seems that the posts that favor my opinion far out number those who do not. I am amused by those who live in some far away state and have opinions about WHAT my cabinet looked like prior to the installation when they have never been in my home, nor have they seen my cabinet in person. The reality is, it shows a lack of intelligence when someone can say they bet the cabinet was scratched BEFORE the installer came out when they have no grounds to make such a statement because they don't know me nor did they see the cabinet before the installer got his hands on it. If you can make predictions like this, perhaps you are psychic and should buy lottery cards.

Another post on this thread stated an installer is not obligated to move furniture. I certainly agree that an installer is NOT obligated to move furniture. That is why if you read my article you will note that I didn't intend for him to TOUCH my cabinet in the first place. That is why we asked him to install the receiver on the floor in FRONT of the cabinet because I intended to put the reciver in the cabinet myself after he left. My only intentions were for him to put in the dish and hook up the receiver to see if he had signal, and NOT to place it in the cabinet for me! The only reason the cabinet was touched by him in the first place was because he was attempting to cheat me out of cable because he was too lazy to run his own, and that is the truth. It was more convenient for him to use DirecTV's cable when in reality he didn't even know that I wasn't still using my DirecTV system. It is possible that one has two services at once because I have and still do. The truth is, he had no reason to touch the furniture AT ALL! He was told this before he came and numerous times while he was in my home.

We did order him to stop and even went so far as to call Dish Network in front of him to complain. At no time was it expressed to me by him or by Dish Network that I would get another installer if I desired. I was told that if I requested a different installer I would be charged for a separate service call. It is for this reason that we had to finally give in and allow him to use an existing DirecTV cable run. He complained that it was dark so he had to go home and couldn't finish the job. There was only one bedroom left to wire but he wanted to come out the next day to finish the job which would result in a separate service call. He made this very clear. This was yet another attempt to scam me for money. He claimed it was too dark to run a NEW cable even though I had new cable coming and there was only one cable left to run. There was no excuse for complaining about running out of daylight because he didn't even get to my home until 30 minutes before sunset when he knew he had an install and three rooms to wire.

The fact is he was lazy and wanted to pocket money that he probably wouldn't even have told his manager about. When we complained to Dish Network about this while he was still here, they said that we had to have him finish the job because he was contracted to do the job. So for those that say I should have made him leave, I certainly see your point, but I was told by Dish Network that I had no choice but to let him finish the job. They offered no alternatives. If I could have demanded another installer then this information was not volunteered to me for I did ask. If this was wrong, I had no way of knowing because at that moment I could only go by what they were telling me.

The one thing I have noticed, as was pointed out by other posters who agreed with me, is that most of the negative responses came from fellow dish installers. This does not suprise me because there is an old saying that you don't sh*t where you lay and you will naturally stick up for your fellow installers. However as other posters pointed out, by doing so you are stating that us "whiney" customers should expect rude behavior and shoddy installs from a group that should be insured, bonded & licensed. I guess I committed a crime by expecting someone who claimed to be a professional to actually be one. If an installer takes no more pride in their work than to excuse scratches no matter how minor they THINK they may be than I hardly think they are in the right business. Of course I am sure they would not hold these same opinions if a cabinet they had bought days before for this particular install would've been damaged in their home. Then on the other hand, I can understand where some people wouldn't care if their furniture had scratches or not, and that is why some people live in homes, while other people live in trailer parks.

The one thing I do want to make clear or perhaps I did not make clear enough, is that I did NOT wait until five months to register a complaint with Dish Network. It took me five months to put it up on the internet. I did this out of frustration with getting no where with this non-caring company. We called Dish Network and started complaining while the installer was STILL in my home. I did fight with him voicing my objections where he proceeded to ignore me as if he was deaf and in fact the install was not completely finished by him which resulted in having to have two other installers come out after him to finish the job. The second installer came out to put in a second dish because the first installer failed to tell me I needed a separate dish to get two of the local channels that was not received on the main dish. The third installer came out to fix the dish the original installer did not install properly! This visit came out of my complaints to Dish Network about the damage and the fact that my menu consistantly contained "no info". He verified that I was getting half the signal I was supposed to get and that the entire system was installed improperly. So in fact, he did leave before the install was completed and to answer any other questions, at no time was I asked by any of the installers where I would like to have the dish installed. If the proper bolts were used, I hardly think that they needed to be that long and yes I could cut them off myself but considering the amount of money I was paying to Dish every month, I really don't think I should have had to complete the job when the installer was paid to do the job.

I complained about the damage after the installer left because I didn't notice the scratches while he was there nor did I go out and look at the roof until later that night because I was too frustrated from trying to get him to finish the job in the first place. The only thing on my mind was to get him to finish so he could get out of my house as quickly as possible. He did nothing but argue with me about not wanting to finish the job while he was sitting his uninvited rear end on my sofa rather than working and between talking to him and trying to pass messages back and forth between him and Dish Network who I had on the phone who really had the time to notice anything while he was still there? Once I did find the damage I contacted Dish Network IMMEDIATELY and have been TRYING to resolve this issue since November of last year. Since then we have gotten nothing but the run around and have went through a countless number of Dish Network "executives", never being able to talk to the same person twice.

So, I apologize if I did not make it clear in my article but I did NOT wait to file a complaint for I have been complaining ever since I filed my first complaint and have been doing so steadily every other day since November! I am constantly being told that they're going to take care of it and they never do! As a side note, I have had Dish Network executives on the phone who have also agreed that negligence was done before and after seeing the photos, but that's as far as it has ever went. Considering the fact that employees and executives of Dish Network have agreed that I should not have had to go through what I went through, I hardly think someone not involved with this issue should say I have no right to complain!
 
unfortunately i have to get on the quasi defensive again.

You were told they would charge another service call fee... well clearly this installer did not take pride in his work and so i think i woul dhave plunked the 100 down for the service call if i could avoid the headaches of this. Honestly you act like there were no options when there were. if it costs money it costs money. when i bought my big tv i bought a 5 year warranty... yes i spent extra money for peace of mind... but the cost has already been recovered when my green tube went kaput.

My points were that you signed the contract... even if you hhadnt signed it you would have a leg to stand on but you signed the contract taking away all legal liability of the installer.

Im not a dish installer... i have installed a few dishes but i am here to help people.... heck look at my previous posts i do my best to help people.

I do consulting work... when i am in someones home i am polite and couteous and avoid doing damage at all costs. I do agree that this yahoo should be drummed out of the business... but i also belive that the fault lies somewhere in between yours and his.
 
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