about a week or so ago, I had a very light rain come through my area, and experienced rain fade with VOOM, my signal went from 96, down to 68, and was completly screwed til the rain subsided. Then signal went right back up to normal. So I called VOOM, and they told me, that it's most likely my reciever, and they would send someone out to swap it out for a new one. Well an installer came, (he was very nice, but annoying) he literally spent about 45 minutes, just staring at my HD channels, in amazement and commenting how good they looked. Constantly changing through them, and finding a movie he likes, and then going on about that particular movie, or show that was on at the time. I was getting irritated, but I stayed calm in hopes that the gentleman would find a problem somewhere. Well, he finally decides to check signal strength, and says well, I don't see a problem with you're reciever, "you've got the highest signals I've ever seen with VOOM". "the best I've seen was a 45". I tell him about the software update we just recently had, and that iit changed the scale. He tells me that this is news to him, and he will keep it in mind on the next install. Doesn't VOOM let installers know about this type of thing? You would think that it would be very important to know during an install? Anyway.... the guy then decides to go up and check the dish out. As soon as he gets up there, he yells down, "I've found your problem". I say great what is it. "a missing bolt in the base of the mount" he yells back. I look at him a bit puzzled, and asked what did that matter since there was 3 there,. and it is very secure, (I've been up there myself, and that dish doesn't budge btw). He then tells me to put my signal meter on the tv, and watch as he violently shkes the dish to, "reinact a rain storm wind". I find it kind of funny, and I watch as the signal stays in the mid 90's as he's out there trying to shake the dish. I go back outside, and asked if he was done, because I don't see a differnece, and besides I have heavy winds here all the time, and that's not the issue I have with VOOM, *it's rain fade*. He continues to tell me that he thinks that was the problem, so he adds another bolt, and says, "there that should take care of the dish moving in the rain. after climbing down, I told him about how others have had the same issue with VOOM, great signals in perfect weather, but when the slightest rain comes, the signal is shot. And that some folks were fixing there problems by installing bigger dishes. He looks puzzled at me, and says that he's never heard of using a bigger dish to help with rain fade, and that he doesn't think that would work. He kept insisting that my problem was due to the missing bolt, so I finally just gave up with him so he would just leave already, because by this time he had been here close to 2 hours, and all he did was put in a bolt. Now I think I will order a larger dish, and just install it myself.
I swear, theres nothing worse than a clueless know-it-all.
