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Hello!

I'm new to this forum, but I recently went through a unique installation experience, and wanted to get some feedback from the experts.

I currently have Comcast TV, works as would be expected on all cable jacks within my home. I ordered Dish with one Hopper, two Joeys, and a slingbox. The technician showed up to start the install, and after walking around and looking at the house he ultimately said that he could not install the system because he didn't have appropriate access to the cable lines he needed. I ended up having to cancel my order, and continue with my Comcast service.

I'll explain what we ran into as best I can.

All the cable in my neighborhood is underground, my house was built in 1988 but I just recently purchased it. It is a two-story house with a finished basement. On the outside of the house there is a cable line coming up from the ground that connects to a two-way splitter that is attached right to the siding. One of those lines connects to another two-way splitter that is connected to the siding. The resulting three cable lines all run into the house at a location that would be in the basement and near where the electricity comes in. That is all that is visible from the outside.

On the inside, the only access to view the area that the cable comes into the house at is at the electrical box. The box is in a 'cabinet' type of enclosure behind the drywall, so using a flashlight you can see about 6-8" to the right and left of the electrical box. Where the three cables should be coming in to the basement, there is only one cable visible that comes in to the basement and goes up through the floor to the main level. No other cables were visible, and there was no real access to that cable, you could just see it from behind the drywall going up.

There are no other visible cable lines in the entire house. There are no junction boxes or access to any cable at all other than what I described above (and except what you could obviously get to at the jacks). The installer said the only option he had was to run cable all over the outside of my house and punch holes in my exterior walls in each room we wanted a hopper and/or joey. That wasn't going to fly, so my only option was to cancel the order.

Does anyone have thoughts on this experience? I recently moved out of a house that was built in the late 1800s and I was hoping that I wouldn't run into these "unique" situations anymore, but it appears I can't outrun them!