Social Feed

I had Voom installed August 19, 2004. The installer did not want to even try to get the OTA working. He told me it's just not going to work. The antenna he installed was a Winegard Sensar GS-2200 (amplified - with internal pre-amp). He made sure he was right since the multiswitch utilized did not pass voltage from the STB to the OTA antenna. I purchased a Winegard power supply for $20. I installed it between the antenna and the multiswitch.

I got marginal results. I could receive WWL (CBS) out of New Orleans all the time. I could get WDSU (NBC) about 50% of the time. I could not get WGNO (ABC) or WVUE (FOX) at all.

I called Voom and Installs Inc. and had them schedule an OTA upgrade. This started in August. It was scheduled and canceled (at the last minute) many, many, times (I lost track but at least 7 and as many as 10).

In the meantime I started having complete loss due to rain on the sat. side. I called and scheduled to have the dish upgraded as well. These calls were combined (OTA u/g and Sat. u/g). DON'T DO THIS. It was used as an excuse multiple times (the installer has the OTA antenna but not the Sat. dish and visa versa). I asked them to check the ship date and tracking information on the shipments to the one installer in Louisiana. They told me they could not do this. I honestly feel the installer just didn't want to come back here (I live 20+ miles south of Houma in Cocodrie).

Although I stayed calm (on the phone anyway), I continued to call. I asked Installs for a supervisor and got the manager of customer service. He understood my issue and told me he would authorize the installer to purchase a dish locally. Still nothing 2-3 weeks later (except scheduled then canceled installs).

I started calling the Installs manager of customer service every day leaving him a calm but firm message "I'm going to continue to call you every day and leave you a message so you can get this corrected".

Well, I received a call last week and they scheduled it for the morning Monday October 18. At 10:30 on Monday I called Installs since the installer did not show up yet (and I suspected he was not going to show). They called the installer and he told them he still did not receive the dish. The CSR at Installs told me she did not believe him but she couldn't do anything except reschedule me. I asked to speak to the manager of customer service. I got his voice mail and explained the issue.

I then called VOOM customer service, asked for a supervisor and got one. I explained the whole issue to her. She kept me on hold for a while but came back about 5 - 10 minutes later and told me the the Installs customer service manager was already aware of the problem and was personally working on it.

He called me back Monday afternoon to let me know he has taking care of the issue. However, he stated that since antennaweb.org shows me in the violet area they will not be able to do anything about the OTA issue. I told him that antennaweb.org is fairly conservative and that the terrain between me and the stations in New Orleans is flat and mostly marsh/water. I also told him my house is on pilings and the ground floor is 20 feet above sea level. He said he had his supervisor of installs for this area look at it and it just wasn't going to work. Antennaweb.org shows the New Orleans stations from 52 to 60 miles from me. I said OK upgrade the dish for now (it's scheduled for tomorrow morning).

With regard to the OTA, yesterday I purchased a Winegard HD7084P (~ $130) and a Winegard AP-8275 pre-amp (~$80). I temporarily installed this antenna and pre-amp off the walkway to my deck. I hooked it up and did a scan. I now receive 16 OTA channels (some are .2, .3. etc.) from New Orleans.

It took pictures of the OTA scan and am going to e-mail them to the Installs manager of customer service (along with the invoice for the antenna and pre-amp). I am going to ask him to reimburse me for them.

We'll see what happens.