Direct TV Installer won't install-What can I do?

[Kathleen Anthony]

I had an appointment today for getting Direct Tv installed. The guy showed up, looked around and said "The trees are going to block it, you can't get it installed here." He left. I called Direct TV they said they will try to send someone out within 72 hours to confirm what he said or not.

The thing is, I have had Direct TV here before. For a few years. It worked fine. I live in an apartment building and there are people all around me who have Direct TV. You can see a Direct Tv Dish right on the side of my building from someone else. We asked the tec. to just put our dish next to that one. He said no because it will block their access.

In my opinion the guy just couldn't be bothered to do the work today.

Direct TV doesn't seem to care. They seem to be more concerned with backing up their tec.

What can I do? I can't figure out how to speak to anyone there who could do anything.

Any advice?

 

[texasbrit]

Wait for the next installer. If he does not show, call back to DirecTv and ask for a supervisor to visit.
The comment about blocking access is IMHO a load of BS.

 

[Drucifer]

I had an appointment today for getting Direct Tv installed. The guy showed up, looked around and said "The trees are going to block it, you can't get it installed here." He left. I called Direct TV they said they will try to send someone out within 72 hours to confirm what he said or not.

The thing is, I have had Direct TV here before. For a few years. It worked fine. I live in an apartment building and there are people all around me who have Direct TV. You can see a Direct Tv Dish right on the side of my building from someone else. We asked the tec. to just put our dish next to that one. He said no because it will block their access.

In my opinion, the guy just couldn't be bothered to do the work today.

Direct TV doesn't seem to care. They seem to be more concerned with backing up their tech.

What can I do? I can't figure out how to speak to anyone there who could do anything.

Any advice?

What a putz!

 

[goaliebob99]

Worse case if they truely cant get you a satellite signal, they can hook you up with DirecTV now.

 

[Zashel]

i've been on the other end of this conversation. a few pictures would help. its possible the guy who showed up actually has a moral compass and is trying to save you a future headache. i've been to places that 100% should NOT have had service installed. not saying thats what happened, but a picture would help clear things up.

just remember to remain calm. a pissed off tech can either A) confirm no line of sight, or B) do a crappy job and cost you your safety deposit. if they're feeling petty anyway.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Techs are lazy, especially when it comes to apartments.

Find a local dealer.

 

[Jimbo]

Techs are lazy, especially when it comes to apartments.

Find a local dealer.

Once again, that's a really broad brush your using to describe ALL techs.

 

[Blackloz]

If there is already existing dish's up could the tech not add a multi switch to one of them and run your setup off an existing dish? Although I guess they would need to find out what equipment was connected to it already.

 

[Zashel]

If there is already existing dish's up could the tech not add a multi switch to one of them and run your setup off an existing dish? Although I guess they would need to find out what equipment was connected to it already.

thats also a great way to get a service call generated. and D* watches those numbers pretty closely.

 

[cinsu]

Techs are lazy, especially when it comes to apartments.

Find a local dealer.

And again, guarantee yourself the worst possible service. I have never seen a dealer do a job correctly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hutch1814]

Techs are lazy, especially when it comes to apartments.

Find a local dealer.

No longer an installer but I actually kinda took offense to this comment. Not all techs are bad, not all techs are there for just a paycheck. I actually done my best every time. You never know if you'll see that customer again, and, I wouldn't do anything to a customers home I wouldn't do to my own. If I felt like it was a bad idea I told them and refused.


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[dishcomm]

Techs are lazy, especially when it comes to apartments.

Find a local dealer.

U&mm I take umbridge with your use of a broad brush..
You may have had recalcitrant techs that don't want to make any money under your employ, but please do not make unsubstantiated generalizations.
Lemme tell you something, Mister.....Apartments SUCK. Number one, the management company makes or breaks the tech and the customer. Around here, the majority of the middle to upper end apartment complexes limit placement inside the exclusive living area of the tenant Second, most management companies forbid modifications, penetrations or any kind. And roughly half of them do not allow any type of permanent attachment to railings, balconies or decks.
Dish tosses in their two cents with approved/unapproved equipment. And of course grounding is nearly impossible.
We went round and round with this crap every time a new GM at the local Dish in house tech office was hired. We had one GM who stated in his view "all jobs can be grounded" and wtih that he issued an edict that if an apartment job was not grounded, it was a fail. When asked about the issues regarding apartment management decisions and rules, he didn't want to hear it. He of course was a numbers guy. All he cared about were the numbers. Essentially he was telling us to tell the management people to pound sand. That guy didn't last long. Then the next guy wanted everything done by the book. Letters of permission, no tripods. no non-pen roof ( sled) mounts and no C- clamps. He said if apartment mgmts did not allow permanent type mounts, don't do the job. His approach was to avoid trouble calls. He was a new connect, mover guy, He did not want techs out on the road doing TC's for installs that were set up for failure. He wanted the techs to bring in revenue. He was also a numbers guy, but in a good way.
So you see, there sir, we did not walk away( at least I didn't) from apartments out of laziness( I wanted to make money), it was due to the rules set up by Dish.
Now, to protect myself and my income, I would not do any job until the customer could produce a letter of permission. Or a verbal OK from a manager.
Quite frankly, the moment I drove into an apartment complex for an install, before going to the customer's apartment, I would stop at the manager's office to make inquiries. If they gave the go-ahead, I got a letter from them. If they said no-go, I got that letter as well. One copy for our office and one for the now pissed off customer.
Now, on our retail jobs, we did not have to knuckle under to Dish's install matrix. So we got 'em in. But, for non permanent mounts, we had the customer sign off and agree that if the system stopped working due to the antenna being tampered with, bumped into or moved in anyway, we would charge them to realign the antenna ONCE free of charge then after that the fee was $60. Always with a letter of permission.....

 

[dishcomm]

If there is already existing dish's up could the tech not add a multi switch to one of them and run your setup off an existing dish? Although I guess they would need to find out what equipment was connected to it already.

That woulsd be the case in these apartment complexes where the majority of the tenants were Latinos. We'd see like 10 dishes on the wall or on poles. Cables just hanging all over the place. A real mess. Most of these places were dumps anyway, so nobody cared. I would not do those though. If I could not do a spec install, I walked. Fortunately I did not work a very apartment heavy area. Thank goodness.

 

[Claude Greiner]

U&mm I take umbridge with your use of a broad brush..
You may have had recalcitrant techs that don't want to make any money under your employ, but please do not make unsubstantiated generalizations.
Lemme tell you something, Mister.....Apartments SUCK. Number one, the management company makes or breaks the tech and the customer. Around here, the majority of the middle to upper end apartment complexes limit placement inside the exclusive living area of the tenant Second, most management companies forbid modifications, penetrations or any kind. And roughly half of them do not allow any type of permanent attachment to railings, balconies or decks.
Dish tosses in their two cents with approved/unapproved equipment. And of course grounding is nearly impossible.
We went round and round with this crap every time a new GM at the local Dish in house tech office was hired. We had one GM who stated in his view "all jobs can be grounded" and wtih that he issued an edict that if an apartment job was not grounded, it was a fail. When asked about the issues regarding apartment management decisions and rules, he didn't want to hear it. He of course was a numbers guy. All he cared about were the numbers. Essentially he was telling us to tell the management people to pound sand. That guy didn't last long. Then the next guy wanted everything done by the book. Letters of permission, no tripods. no non-pen roof ( sled) mounts and no C- clamps. He said if apartment mgmts did not allow permanent type mounts, don't do the job. His approach was to avoid trouble calls. He was a new connect, mover guy, He did not want techs out on the road doing TC's for installs that were set up for failure. He wanted the techs to bring in revenue. He was also a numbers guy, but in a good way.
So you see, there sir, we did not walk away( at least I didn't) from apartments out of laziness( I wanted to make money), it was due to the rules set up by Dish.
Now, to protect myself and my income, I would not do any job until the customer could produce a letter of permission. Or a verbal OK from a manager.
Quite frankly, the moment I drove into an apartment complex for an install, before going to the customer's apartment, I would stop at the manager's office to make inquiries. If they gave the go-ahead, I got a letter from them. If they said no-go, I got that letter as well. One copy for our office and one for the now pissed off customer.
Now, on our retail jobs, we did not have to knuckle under to Dish's install matrix. So we got 'em in. But, for non permanent mounts, we had the customer sign off and agree that if the system stopped working due to the antenna being tampered with, bumped into or moved in anyway, we would charge them to realign the antenna ONCE free of charge then after that the fee was $60. Always with a letter of permission.....

I never said all techs where lazy, but a majority of them are especially when it comes to fulfillment work.

All during the summer I stayed busy doing perfectly normal jobs that the Directv fulfillment contractor blew off.

Very rarely I would ask for permission forms unless there where zero dishes.

Permission I mostly considered looking at every other install in the complex and using that as a rule as what was allowed or was not allowed.

As far as dealing with management, I tell the customer their rights and what they need. They can go get a letter of permission from their land lord or management.

The customer has more leverage with their land lord than we do anyways.

Going to the management office to seek permission first? Yes it looks like your trying to do the right thing, but you know dam well 9 out of 10 times they are going to tell you no when given an option.

If you go and install it and there are other dishes there, rarely will you ever have to come back and redo the install.

In my 18 years I think I might have had to come back 3 times to move a dish after the fact.

One of those 3 times I didn't go back because the customer was about to get disconnected for non pay and I told them I would be out to move it when the bill was paid

 

[dishcomm]

I never said all techs where lazy, but a majority of them are especially when it comes to fulfillment work.

All during the summer I stayed busy doing perfectly normal jobs that the Directv fulfillment contractor blew off.

Very rarely I would ask for permission forms unless there where zero dishes.

Permission I mostly considered looking at every other install in the complex and using that as a rule as what was allowed or was not allowed.

As far as dealing with management, I tell the customer their rights and what they need. They can go get a letter of permission from their land lord or management.

The customer has more leverage with their land lord than we do anyways.

Going to the management office to seek permission first? Yes it looks like your trying to do the right thing, but you know dam well 9 out of 10 times they are going to tell you no when given an option.

If you go and install it and there are other dishes there, rarely will you ever have to come back and redo the install.

In my 18 years I think I might have had to come back 3 times to move a dish after the fact.

One of those 3 times I didn't go back because the customer was about to get disconnected for non pay and I told them I would be out to move it when the bill was paid

This is what you posted. "Techs are lazy, especially when it comes to apartments.".

Now, with regard to letters or permission....It is up to you if you wanted to accept that liability of installing a piece of equipment on someone's property without their consent. We were issued a RULE....DON'T DO IT.....
I was a contractor. And I was essentially on my own if I decided to take the risk. So, I didn't take the risk. I don't need that crap. I am not taking the risk of getting hauled into court to answer a $5,000 lawsuit ( inflated) for a $90 job. Not doing it.
Going to the management office sort of forced their hand. They would hand me their rules and I handed them a copy of SHRVA. Yes, i kept those with me. And for the most part, that exchange got me the go ahead to get the job done. As long as I went with the SHRVA rules.
As far as getting burned...Happened just once. I got an angry letter sent to my office regarding a non pen mount on a balcony that the management claimed did not fit the aesthetics of the community..Or some such. My boss goes looking for the job file. No letter. SCORCH.....Never let that happen again.

 

[Zashel]

Techs are lazy, especially when it comes to apartments.

Find a local dealer.

I never said all techs where lazy, but a majority of them are especially when it comes to fulfillment work.

you see the confusion here... you said neither ALL, or SOME. and since most of us know your background, it sounds like you're saying all.

All during the summer I stayed busy doing perfectly normal jobs that the Directv fulfillment contractor blew off.

Very rarely I would ask for permission forms unless there where zero dishes.

Permission I mostly considered looking at every other install in the complex and using that as a rule as what was allowed or was not allowed.

because you KNOW the other techs all talked to management and did the install to the best of their abilities... The jobs i ususally wanted to punch people in the face were most often apartments for either bad mounts or bad cable runs. at least the permission form means there was an effort to put someone elses property above your own interests.

As far as dealing with management, I tell the customer their rights and what they need. They can go get a letter of permission from their land lord or management.

The customer has more leverage with their land lord than we do anyways.

Going to the management office to seek permission first? Yes it looks like your trying to do the right thing, but you know dam well 9 out of 10 times they are going to tell you no when given an option.

so you KNOW management is going to say no, and you install it anyway?

If you go and install it and there are other dishes there, rarely will you ever have to come back and redo the install.

In my 18 years I think I might have had to come back 3 times to move a dish after the fact.

One of those 3 times I didn't go back because the customer was about to get disconnected for non pay and I told them I would be out to move it when the bill was paid

theres a lot of customers who have no IDEA that you are not employed by directv, so they call directv's number and now it becomes someone elses problem.

 

[raoul5788]

This is what you posted. "Techs are lazy, especially when it comes to apartments.".

Now, with regard to letters or permission....It is up to you if you wanted to accept that liability of installing a piece of equipment on someone's property without their consent. We were issued a RULE....DON'T DO IT.....
I was a contractor. And I was essentially on my own if I decided to take the risk. So, I didn't take the risk. I don't need that crap. I am not taking the risk of getting hauled into court to answer a $5,000 lawsuit ( inflated) for a $90 job. Not doing it.
Going to the management office sort of forced their hand. They would hand me their rules and I handed them a copy of SHRVA. Yes, i kept those with me. And for the most part, that exchange got me the go ahead to get the job done. As long as I went with the SHRVA rules.
As far as getting burned...Happened just once. I got an angry letter sent to my office regarding a non pen mount on a balcony that the management claimed did not fit the aesthetics of the community..Or some such. My boss goes looking for the job file. No letter. SCORCH.....Never let that happen again.

SHRVA? You mean OTARD, yes?