Dish expects me to wait until 10:30pm for tech to arrive

[Hall]

I've said this before, but Dish's arrangement with installers SUCKS. You should be hourly employees, with company-provided vehicles, fuel, and tools. There can still be reasonable timeframes for various jobs, i.e. a 2-room install, standard dish, etc, etc should take "x" hours; a dish re-alignment should take "x" hours; and so on. If a tech arrives for a service call and things start falling apart, call the supervisor and explain what's going on, i.e. why a 30-min job will now take 2-3 hours. If you have a tech who constantly take 2x longer than normal, fire them. That will take care of any who try to "milk" their hours.

 

[lakebum431]

Very cool webbydude! That shows what a great place this is. I hope it all works out. Let us know Gary.

 

[GATownsend]

And just on a side note....I could start a thread 2-3 times a week about customers who didn't keep their appointments........didn't have the courtesy to pick up the phone,they wasted my time and money...so it is a two way street.

Hearing that burns my biscuit more than getting the treatment I got. Honestly, how inconsiderate can people be? I always treat service people that come to my house with respect, and I expect the same from them. I try to give them as much information as possible to allow them to do their jobs quickly and efficiently, and not get in their way.

It IS a two-way street....

I need to stop here or I'm going to turn this into a "what's wrong with the world today" thread!

Regards,

Gary

 

[jokeworm]

No. No trouble at all.

Quick - clone webbydude and distribute him nationwide

Nice job :up

 

[GATownsend]

It's FIXED - Thanks WebbyDude!

Very cool webbydude! That shows what a great place this is. I hope it all works out. Let us know Gary.

Well, just wanted to let everyone know, I talked to WebbyDude last night and we set up for him to be here at 11am this morning. He was incredibly professional on the phone, and gave me his name and tech ID# so I could confirm his employment to appease my wife.

He showed up right at 11am as promised, and the Dish was working again at 11:30am (probably would have been sooner if I hadn't BS'd with him so much!) As I suspected, it was the LNB/switch assembly that needed to be replaced. He fixed it up and was out of here in time to make it to his next appointment on time. Picture is beautiful again and signal is nice and strong.

My wife was so happy he was coming here on a Sunday she ran up to Target before he came this morning and got him a tin of chocolate covered pretzels as a thank-you. While my wife and kids don't watch a whole lot of TV, it's still a bummer not having it around with three kids age 3 and under for her to deal with every day.

I'm one happy camper and want to give a big THANK YOU to WebbyDude for stepping in to get it fixed. My wife and I are going to type up a letter to mail to his employer letting them know how happy we are and what a great job he did. Stepping up like he did was above and beyond the call of duty. How refreshing to have such a great resolution to something that started out so badly.

Thanks again WebbyDude!

Regards,

Gary

 

[rcdallas]

Well I agree with everything said. Floaters do need to exist, for the most part the problem is Dish themselves, way up in the upper, upper part of management. We know it's not the installer.

If techs could take their vehicles home AND being stocked with equipment they could be on call, funny how my former neighbor would be on call with his comcast van for an outage or what not. I know all Charter employees are required to take their vehicles home.

Dish is too damn cheap where they make their takes share rides where your flipped flopped into other vehicles on odd days then you have to waste time reorganizing it because the last guy was a pig that only "day stocked" instead of having a vehicle assigned exclusively to each tech.

It's something that needs to be addressed.

It might end up raising costs initially, but in the long run it could keep customers...... I don't know I'm not a bean counter.

 

[rcdallas]

Thumbs up Webby

 

[Mike_H]

...
And just on a side note....I could start a thread 2-3 times a week about customers who didn't keep their appointments........didn't have the courtesy to pick up the phone,they wasted my time and money...so it is a two way street.

Unfortunately, the way the world works is that it isn't a two way street. Like it or not, dish installers work in the "service industry". When you are in the service industry, you get what you get, and regardless you need to smile and be helpful and treat every jerk just like they were the best customer you've ever had all the while acting professionally.

For people that can't find a way to deal with that responsibility, they really should be doing a different job. And I can't imagine why installers put up with the kind of stuff they are asked to put up with and get paid as little as they do.

 

[rcdallas]

Yes, customers are what makes a company, customers do come first - but please do include the reality factor here.

I can just see the bling bling smile of Billy is going to have on his face when he's tramping over the 5 ft pile of underwear with skid marks with the fly's buzzing in a circle with the stench of sour milk to get to your tv as he tries to walk around the pile he ends up stepping in a pile of moldy dog crap.

The reality factor does not give a license to blow everyone off with rudeness, handling it professionally though is right.

 

[topcat0399]

Interesting that the guy that was willing to come out even at that late hour was "the knob" yet all of this is dishes fault. Even now Im deciding to care LESS about helping everyone I can and care MORE about getting home at a decent hour and screw everyones frickin tv until tomorrow.

 

[memory]

You are seriously saying someone should be allowed to come at 10:30 at night??? That is rediculous as hell! Of course things can happen, as customers we need to realize that but at least they could have offered to come first thing the next morning and take care of the problem.

Some of you techs really crack me up with what you think customers should put up with.

I have customers accepting appointments between 6 and 8 in the morning and after 8 I mean most people dont know the things that can happen and yes some installs run into some big complications and you never ever know what each job will throw at you but I am sure that tawhite is a professional and meets all his deadlines with no problems and is the perfect little lemming where he works

 

[memory]

Customers already have to give the installers a 5 hour window to show up and the installers expect even more slack?

LOL...give me a break.

The phone company gives you a bigger window than that

 

[okiekevn]

if the tech is coming that late, it is most likely a subcontracter, as dns techs do not usually work that late(i said usually, there are always exceptions). chances are, if you switch over to direct, you will have the same company picking up their contracts and running the same crap. i am not making an excuse for dish, cause it sux. i know i would rather be told in advance they are coming at 10 pm so i know i dont have to use a vacation day. but with the current demand, the techs are scheduled for way more jobs a day then they should be.

 

[heywire]

The other thing to remember is that we are hearing LOTS of complaints about the installers...maybe even hundreds... but there are millions of installs we haven't heard about that went just fine. Take mine for example -- the original install earlier this year went quick, the techs (one was a trainee) were very nice and didn't seem to mind bs'ing with me about how everything was hooked up and how it works. They were on time and out of here just as fast. Fast forward a few months, I decide to go HD. The tech comes out, luckily it's just a receiver swap because I already had the 110,119,129 sats. Hooks up the receiver and it just keeps rebooting -- some sort of recovery screen. It's obviously bad, so he runs back to the warehouse (one exit down the highway) and brings a new one. Hooks it up, and all is well. So there are two POSITIVE experiences with "Digital Dish" of Ohio...

On a side note, I have had NEGATIVE experiences with Time Warner's sub-contractor, the local heating and air company, carpet cleaning company, etc... the list goes on. It's unfortunate, but the service industry is about anything but good service.

 

[webbydude]

Well, just wanted to let everyone know, I talked to WebbyDude last night and we set up for him to be here at 11am this morning. He was incredibly professional on the phone, and gave me his name and tech ID# so I could confirm his employment to appease my wife.

He showed up right at 11am as promised, and the Dish was working again at 11:30am (probably would have been sooner if I hadn't BS'd with him so much!) As I suspected, it was the LNB/switch assembly that needed to be replaced. He fixed it up and was out of here in time to make it to his next appointment on time. Picture is beautiful again and signal is nice and strong.

My wife was so happy he was coming here on a Sunday she ran up to Target before he came this morning and got him a tin of chocolate covered pretzels as a thank-you. While my wife and kids don't watch a whole lot of TV, it's still a bummer not having it around with three kids age 3 and under for her to deal with every day.

I'm one happy camper and want to give a big THANK YOU to WebbyDude for stepping in to get it fixed. My wife and I are going to type up a letter to mail to his employer letting them know how happy we are and what a great job he did. Stepping up like he did was above and beyond the call of duty. How refreshing to have such a great resolution to something that started out so badly.

Thanks again WebbyDude!

Regards,

Gary

It's customers like Gary that makes my job worthwhile. Not only was he kind, courteous, and had a very firm understanding of what he actually got from Dish...but him and his wife gave me chocolate covered pretzels !! (actually, the girlfriend and her daughters managed to steal most of them from me...LOL)

Snacks aside, it was the overall attitude that him and his family presented that reminded me why I stick with this job. A paycheck is one thing...but seeing and hearing customer satisfaction (smiles on the adults...laughter and grins from the children), THAT's what keeps me going.

Bottom line, I'm glad that I not only got your system up and running in a relative short-time, but that I helped to show that Dish (employees, contractors, et al) can be a good thing. Enjoy

 

[RedWings]

The phone company gives you a bigger window than that

I can't remember the last time I had to contact the phone company for anything. And before moving into my GF's house a year ago, i've only had a cell phone. Landlines are pretty much pointless.

 

[RedWings]

The other thing to remember is that we are hearing LOTS of complaints about the installers...maybe even hundreds... but there are millions of installs we haven't heard about that went just fine. ....... .

I second that.

My original install was a breeze. He didn't call before he came but showed up right on time. He threw up the dish and had me running in less than 30 minutes. We BS'd a little and I told him about my plans for a new deck so i'd have to move the dish in the near future. He left a large amount of extra cable so when I moved the dish, it would be a snap.

Fast forward a few months and my deck was done and also was gifted a new HDTV. So I had a tech come out to throw up another dish and move my original dish. On time and called right before. This tech was just as fast (probably thanks to me helping out with running some cable) and was in/out quick.

Third tech came out because I was having some issues with one transponder. Again, the tech was on time and was in/out quick. Turns out my 61.5 dish moved a tad.

So all three of my experiences were really good. Friendly guys that got the job done and were in/out real fast. Can't ask for more.

They all worked for VIA satellite.

 

[broncobri5]

late install

As a former TWC contactor, I have one thing to say; as much as you don't want an install done at 10:30, the installer REALLY doesn;t want to be there. I was a very good, clean, profesional installer that ended up working many latre nights.

I don't know how it works with dish, but with TWC contractors had to handle the surges of a popular campaign, or when a bunch of company techs were not working for one reason or another. Company techs will get paid overtime for working late, but the service provider pays the contractor per job.

When the numb buts that I worked with screwed up, and ended up at one job all day. Someone else would have to pick up thier slack.

As an installer I would recomend anyone (customer) in this situation to reschedule. No matter how good a tech is, they will rush things that late.

 

[technoguy]

It's customers like Gary that makes my job worthwhile. Not only was he kind, courteous, and had a very firm understanding of what he actually got from Dish...but him and his wife gave me chocolate covered pretzels !! (actually, the girlfriend and her daughters managed to steal most of them from me...LOL)

Snacks aside, it was the overall attitude that him and his family presented that reminded me why I stick with this job. A paycheck is one thing...but seeing and hearing customer satisfaction (smiles on the adults...laughter and grins from the children), THAT's what keeps me going.

Bottom line, I'm glad that I not only got your system up and running in a relative short-time, but that I helped to show that Dish (employees, contractors, et al) can be a good thing. Enjoy

Way to go Webby!!:up:up:up

 

[rcdallas]

A paycheck is one thing...but seeing and hearing customer satisfaction (smiles on the adults...laughter and grins from the children), THAT's what keeps me going.

Damn straight :