CA -SoCal Inland Empire

[hunters]

I'm in Moreno Valley in the Box Springs area and was installed yesterday. VOOM satellite is coming in fine. OTA locals are not coming in at all using the standard issue antenna.

Called customer service to have an upgraded antenna installed and got an appointment for 10 days out. Such a shame, I knew that I would need an upgrade from using antennaweb.org website. Apparently it is VOOM that requires the installer use the standard antenna first and only if that does not work will they alllow an upgrade.

When I called for the upgrade the rep used the antennaweb.org website to check availability of digital locals same as I had already done. Why oh why did they not check this in the first place and send the appropriate equipment? The info was right at their fingertips. DUH!

Now I'm a somewhat dissatisfied customer as I had to wait on hold for over a half an hour to speak to customer service about the antenna, have to wait another 10 days for the upgrade and must waste another day off from work waiting for the installer before I have a fully functioning service.

This all should be taken care of before the initial installation. VOOM is wasting money by having to pay for another installer call and my time off is being wasted as well. I also am having to pay for cable (which I had planned to cancel today) in order to get the lacking channels. Grrr.

I know this is a relatively new service but I doubt I'm the first that has had this experience. Hopefully in 10 days this bad taste will leave my mouth.

 

[Seawaves]

Did the installer run a cable for the OTA only (without a diaplexer) that would also help. I'm in Santa Monica and have a signal strenght of 75 with my own Weingard installed.

Send an email to Wilt to get upgraded.

 

[CraziFuzzy]

one of the problems with contracting out the installs like Voom has done, is that they don't have as much leniency in policy, like the OTA antenna issue. The contracts provide for the standard antenna that they bring out first, and then it falls under a service call if it does not work. Hopefully, as order volume increases, more install options will become available. Or even better if local installers will be able to sell voom like they do with directv and dish, so every install can be a custom one. Again, this will take some time as volume and popularity increase.

 

[hunters]

I see no need to bother Wilt with this. I am getting an upgraded antenna. My problem is the inefficiency. A waste of time and money for both parties.

I did my research ahead of installation and read about the diplexer problem and signal decrease with it installed. I checked antenna web and found that I would need a stronger antenna. This was communicated to the installers office and noted on my work order before his arrival. Still he arrived with the standard antenna. I requested that my installer run a second homerun line directly from the antenna to the box, actually to the amplifier and to not install the diplexer. He was trying to work with what they gave him. It cost me an extra $75 for the second line but these efforts were still not enough to bring in the local channels.

This problem could have been solved by simply having the company check antennaweb.org before the installation and having appropriate equipment on the installers truck. Perhaps an extra 5 minutes worth of effort on VOOM's part, saving me and them time and money resulting in a happy customer.

Instead they have a frustrated customer. Sigh.

 

[hunters]

Update Bye Bye VOOM

Today the installer from Installs,Inc. arrived as scheduled and on time. In his van he had a Radio Shack antenna rated for 90 miles and a large mounting pole. Unfortunately his best efforts were unable to bring in my local channels. Antennaweb.org indicated I could get 22 channels as did the VOOM mapping. Box Springs Mountain in northwest Moreno Valley and a neighbors tree were impossible to overcome impediments to the signal. Without OTA reception I decided to have VOOM removed.

I could not see paying for 2 services, well actually 3 if you count my NetFlix DVD rental subscription. The costs were going above our budget. I'm bummed that VOOM relies only on the OTA antenna. I'm disappointed that antennaweb didn't take into consideration the terrain and I got my hopes up.

I liked VOOM initially but after just 2 weeks I was sure tired of the constant repeats of HD programming. I may return to VOOM at a later date if they run local channels on the satellite, add HGTV, get more HD and fix the problem with the box locking up when changing channels. I'm not holding my breath, the cable will probably be here with HD before that happens or another satellite company will increase their HD content.

I knew VOOM was in its infancy and was making improvements. It was an experiment that cost me $75 and 3 days of my time for installation. I might have hung in there a few months hoping for improvement but the lack of OTA was the deal breaker. Bye Bye VOOM.

 

[chrisc909]

New to voom as well. I also live in the Inland Empire. North San Bernardino to be precise and have Voom installed for about 2 weeks. No OTA's at all. Anyone else out there getting any OTA's in San Bernardino. Antennaweb.org only shows 1 digital channel. Local PBS 26, but this does not show up on my receiver or on Vooms program guide for my area. However their guide shows a lot of locals from L. A. First installer installed standard Winegard with no luck. Called Voom and was told that we would need a better antenna and would set up another appointment. Second installer showed up with no other antenna and tried to aim the original. No luck. I like the quality of HD, but can't live without locals. Football is coming and 2 and 11 are mandatory. Also would like to catch the Olympics in HD. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[hunters]

It would seem that VOOM didn't take into account how many clients could not receive OTA via antenna when they planned their business model. The customer service rep and her supervisor suggested that I keep a basic cable package for my local channels instead of cancelling VOOM. Unfortunately Adelphia cable is my provider and their bottom of the line Classic non digital cable service costs around 48 bucks per month. When added to the VOOM cost it would be over 100 per month without any premium channels. Just didn't make sense in my budget.

Adelphia keeps promising they are coming soon to my area with HD but soon to them is equivalent to years. Next on my list is to investigate other satellite providers that carry HD and locals.

VOOM goofed by not carrying locals on satellite.

 

[Ilya]

Unfortunately Adelphia cable is my provider and their bottom of the line Classic non digital cable service costs around 48 bucks per month.

I had Adelphia in Cleveland and they offered a Broadcast-only plan (SD) for $5-6 or so. They usually don't advertise those local-only plans, as they don't make much money on them. But call Adelphia and ask this specific question. They might have something like that in your area too.

 

[hunters]

Adelphia called

My cable company, Adelphia, called me last week. Seems they now offer CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, PBS, ESPN and Premium movie channels in HD in my area. The first 5 (local channels) are being offered in a package for 9.95/mo which includes the special receiver box. The remaining channels have additional individual pricing. No committment required so I will give them a try.