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

GATownsend

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Sep 26, 2007
17
0
Sagamore Hills, Ohio
Ok....this has got me really steamed. Dish started acting up after a storm on Tuesday. Called for service and the earliest they could get us in was Friday between noon and 5pm. I take a vacation day today to sit around and wait for the knob to show up.

Well, at 3:30 the local place calls and says he'll be here by 5pm. At 5:30 I call Dish customer service and ask where he is. The put me on hold and call the local guy. Come back and say he's running late, and say they can't give me a time when he'll be there because the local place's computers are down. I mention to the guy that I've been up since 5am (we have 3 kids age 3 and under), and that I took a vacation day to be here for this. He apologizes, etc. We hang up.

Well, at 7:30pm I call back and ask what the heck is going on. CS rep puts me on hold to check and disconnects me. While I'm calling back the local place calls to tell me it will be another 2.5 to 3 hours before they'll be able to get to my house, but they will still come if that's ok. I keep my cool - but NO, that is not ok. My wife just about falls out of her chair that they expect us to have some repair guy running around at 10:30pm at night. What kind of morons are these people? But here's the best part: I can reschedule for next Wednesday...that's the earliest they have available. I tell them that's unacceptable and I expect someone here at 8am on Saturday. No dice. 8am Wednesday or nothing. I say no thanks and tell them I'll call Dish and deal with them.

Call Dish and get a lot of "I'm sorries" and "thanks for your patience", but basically told the same thing. 10:00pm to 10:30pm tonight or Wednesday morning, that's the best they will do for me. I ask why he thinks this is reasonable resolution for me after I have taken a vacation day and have to do it all again. No answer. I tell him to schedule it for Wednesday, but told him if someone wasn't here by noon it would be in a box on the front porch for them, and that I was also going to call the "other" satellite company and if they could schedule a new install before Dish could be here for a repair, they other guys would be getting my business. I then ask to talk to his supervisor. He asks me why I want to talk to the super and I tell him because I'm not satisfied with how my situation has been handled. Ok...please hold.

Now, keep in mind that other than asking the local guys what kind of crack they're smoking expecting me to have a repair person running around at 10pm, I've kept my cool and generally not been too testy with them. I wait for the super for quite a while. Naturally when he picks up I get a dial tone (second time tonight they've done that to me).

I then call back the local (their # is in the caller ID) and tell them that they had better be absolutely positive that they tell this knob not to show up at my house tonight. If someone rings my doorbell tonight I will be calling the cops. I think I flustered this woman a bit because my anger was finally starting to show a bit.

So here I sit. Dish is throwing up switch errors (I have a 625 DVR and Dish 500 with a DPP Twin), and one line out of the dish only shows signals from even-numbered transponders and the other only shows signals from odd-numbered transponders (sounds like a bad switch?). I can't get a darn thing at all to show up on TV2. The transponders that do show signals come in fairly strong (70-75 on the new meter), but only a handful of channels can actually be watched on TV1 without dropping. Luckily we still have one or two things on the DVR we haven't watched yet, and a few of the kids favorite movies.

I'm so irritated. I can't believe they missed the appointment window by 5 hours and aren't going to do anything to try and get this fixed before Wednesday. I've never had anything like this happen before. Wife and I just went over the local cable and other sat co's channel line ups. I had the other sat service for 9+ years before switching to Dish - I bet I could get a pretty sweet deal for coming back...I might just give them a call to see what they'll do for me.

Is this standard operating procedure, or do we just have really bad local service in my area? I'm just floored they wanted to come out here at 10pm. I have a 3.5 year old son and 20-month old twin girls. There's no way I want someone screwing around in and out of the house that late at night, but then to expect me to wait 5 more days is nuts.

Anyone have any suggestions besides sit back, drink a beer and enjoy the 10 or so channels that ARE working? :)

Thanks, and sorry for the long rant,

Gary
 
I would reset the receiver, clear the switch matrix, hook up the cable again and see what the check switch said. Sounds like probually the dish got knocked out of alignment, or the LNB is bad. Sorry to hear this horror story. I agree dish makes people do things (customers and techs) that cross the line. That is why I am no longer a tech and also the reason I install and purchase my own equipment. I realize that doesnt help you much at the moment. If the above does nothing you could read up and repeak the dish. Cant hurt much if it is already out of line.
 
Hey WiCkeDuDe,

Already did all that - should have mentioned it in my post....I was too busy on my rant. Reset the receiver a few times. Disconnected and ran switch test to clear it, then hooked back up and got bad switch again. Played around with the alignment a bit, too. Manged to get that improved just a bit, but still have same problems.

Thanks,

Gary
 
You have my sincere sympathy. I went through hell for over a week when I recently did an upgrade. No shows/no calls for set appointments, a bad initial install and 5 days and literally hours of phone time to finally get it resolved and the billing is screwed up. Dish does have the best product and the best pricing but their customer service has gone not only to India but to hell. If someone had told me the crap I would have to withstand to get an upgrade done I would never have believed them. I've been a Dish customer for almost 10 years and it never used to be like this. I did some shopping as well but Direct TV would have cost me a bundle for what I wanted and the local cable company would have been a bunch more for alot less. Now that the equipment is FINALLY installed properly its great but I wouldn't ever go through the hassle again. My health is worth more than the damned TV. Good luck to you.

Ed
 
Man that sucks to hear. I think that would push me to switch to DirecTv or a cable company.

I've been pretty lucky with techs here. Always on time and doesn't take a week to get anyone here.

Posts like this make me want to pick up some spare parts (LNB, Switch, etc...) to have on hand so I don't have to wait for a Dish guy.
 
I understand where your coming from, but in fairness I doubt it's not the "knobs" fault. Most likely got hung up on a fancy dancy install, when the route was made there was probably a work order that could have consisted of a 1 room install for standard programming but then it was totally the opposite, could of been a 4 reciever HD 200' pole mount with 6 extra mirrored outlets, or could be new techs in the area that were having trouble or bad equipment and so on........

At least they would have still came even at 10:30, that shows alot of effort in order to get your tv up and running. It's service you never know what your going to run into.

You might just have a bad connection somewhere in the system.
 
You have no idea the kinds of problems a tech can run into in the course of a normal day.

I agree with the last poster....at least he was willing to come out at that late of an hour.....should have let him come... probably just a bad lnb.It might have taken 15 minutes and you would have had tv.
 
I have been pretty lucky with all of my installs and service calls here but i have seen some real bad install storys here in my area also so i do wish you good luck with getting your system fixed.
 
I would have waited until the tech showed up. You should be lucky the tech even made an attempt at all. They are usually busy during their shift. He might have gotten stuck on an service call. I would just put the other shoe on and think what you would have done in his situation. Was he working on prev job where the receiver wasnt working? Was the customer missing some programming? At least the tech had some courtesy to get his work done and taken the iniative to make the offer to do the job at 1030pm. Give them credit for what they do!! I haven't had a problem so far! Just hang in their! One thing I do is I go to the tech support title link thing on the website and it helps with any problems or errors with the equipment. You might have been able to fix your own isssue within the wait time for the tech. Thats just a tip for the future.!!!
 
Man that sucks to hear. I think that would push me to switch to DirecTv or a cable company.

I've been pretty lucky with techs here. Always on time and doesn't take a week to get anyone here.

Posts like this make me want to pick up some spare parts (LNB, Switch, etc...) to have on hand so I don't have to wait for a Dish guy.

I'm glad that Directv and cable, for you are always there when you want. You are just one of the lucky ones. For the most part things don't work that way. Get out there and do it and find out.
 
I'm glad that Directv and cable, for you are always there when you want. You are just one of the lucky ones. For the most part things don't work that way. Get out there and do it and find out.

I understand things are the same way all over. And if I did have bad experiences like the orginal poster did, I would ditch E*.
 
You have no idea the kinds of problems a tech can run into in the course of a normal day.

I agree with the last poster....at least he was willing to come out at that late of an hour.....should have let him come... probably just a bad lnb.It might have taken 15 minutes and you would have had tv.

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.
 
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 was going to say the same thing but thought maybe I was missing something or looking too deep into this. It does seem like people are saying in this thread that we should be lucky that techs show up at all:rolleyes:.

I'd LOVE to see the look on the face of my boss/clients if I told them. "They should be lucky I even did my job at all.....They don't understand what I have to do all day and the things that cause delays". I get paid to deal with such problems. If I have to push a deadline, i'm in direct contact with my boss/client and ensure that my boss/client is satisfied with my service.
 
Some of you techs really crack me up with what you think customers should put up with.
I agree... Seems some forgot that the original appt was from noon to 5pm. It got delayed and delayed multiple times. I can just see it, he accepts the 10:30 and we all know what would have happened !
 
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.


Um, taking the day off from work for what in the OPs case amounted to no reason totally sucks. That being said, I would be elated that they were still willing to come out at 10:30pm. To me, if my service goes out I want it back ASAP, but I am a TV freak.

Wonder if the OP would have accepted an initial 10:30pm Appt, or if it was the 5 hour delay irritation that put him off. Again I'd have stoked to be able to get my serivce back on (hopefully) that night.
 
I would probably accept a plumber or electrician, in an emergency, at 10:30pm or pretty much anytime. I (probably) wouldn't accept an appt for cable TV, satellite, home telephone, etc at that time.

Again, his original appt was noon to 5pm. The tech had something scheduled in the morning and I'd guess it was one appt or at most, two. What's the min time slot for work, be it repairs or installs ?
 
Each job type consists of a certain amount of units. A service call consists of 12 units, in theory 3 12 unit jobs can be scheduled in the am, realisticly 1 of those 12 unit jobs could be alot more then bargained for.

Typically I would recieve a 12 unit and a 30 unit in the am, followed by a 18 unit plus a 22 unit.

12 unit = service call
30 unit = 4 room install
18 unit = 1 room install
22 unit = 2 room install

You can't just add 12 more units to the next days route, it doesn't work like that. Calendars are built ahead of time for the next days routes. That is why it could not be rescheduled for the following day. CSR's can not overide that calendar. There have been some bad CSR's that would intentionally build a work order out for a 1 room install KNOWING that the customer wants a 4 room install just to meet the customer's demands of "I can't wait or I'll goto D*" attitude. So they'll work the system in order to squeeze it in just to make that one customer happy but yet someone else eats it down the line. Done seen it many times.

If they started allowing to just be there the next day in the OP situation as an example that then there would be a whole heck of alot more complaints of people having missed their install window.

It's not a utility as some sort of think where if there's a power outage at 2 am a crew is going to roll due to a lights out, it's entertainment.

Juggle 13+ million subscribers in your own hand, you need to follow a system in order to serve everyone. Cheating the system adds to a percentage to it but the facts are that you many encounter some bumps down the road. Ya'll have been stuck in traffic before on your way to work to find that you were late.

Bottomline: they were still willing to come, plain and simple - on a friday night at that.
 
You don't get it do you? Ya'll must have zero experience in service/installation. Each job is not the same. If it was then everything world be picture perfect. We'd all have our installs set in stone, it's not a production line.

You can't drop one customer at hand because another says your needed here. You wait your turn in line.

For those that can't reason with that then I don't know what to tell ya besides sh*t happens and it will happen again and again.
 

129 versus 61.5

Simple question...

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