Dish Network Install Story - Curses!!!

[Guy Owen]

After 50+ years of no Cable TV of any kind, I decided to buy a High Definition TV two years ago. Waited a full two years before I decided to spend money on -- of all things -- TELEVISION.

I tried to get VOOM -- installer said trees were in the way in every spot in my yard. Bummer!

Next, I ordered Dish Network. First installer was young and only with them 6 months. You could tell he was not much interested in working that day. Shuffled his feet the entire time. Hands in pockets. Little talk. NO LADDER on the truck. Rented van -- said Dish was out of ladders and vans. Had to wait for another van WITH a ladder. Hmmm. Interesting.

That installer was about the same. Shuffled along. Not responsive. They did try to install on my roof as I asked, but had no supports for the coaxial cable to nail into the outside walls. One had a drill, but no battery. Neither one had an extension cord. Neither one had a level to make sure the support pipe was straight. Dropped 15 nylon ties in the yard. Got the dish on the roof and swung it around left-to-right, back-and-forth rather rapidly. Announced I had "no signal". Refused to try other locations. Left me sad and frustrated after 3 hours.

A friend at work said "Call 'em again and ask for an experienced person." These two gentlemen were as eager to please as you could imagine. Worked every bit of four hours. Got satellite 119 in at 123 out of 125 bars. Could not get 110 at all -- I figured out they had the skew wrong, but it took them 3 hours to listen to me.

Moved the dish three times before they discovered their mistake. Both 110 and 119 are coming in at around 110 to 123. Had no level. Had no sledgehammer to drive the post (they were using a cinderblock as a hammer) -- borrowed my equipment. This took 3 hours of fiddling in 90% humidity. Went to register my receivers -- one was pre-registered to someone else. Had to wait another 45 minutes for them to run and get a replacement. Took 6 hours, total -- but, by God, they got it installed! I love 'em for that effort!

Went back to work, anyway, and worked until 7PM. Went to dinner. Washed the car for an upcoming trip. Got a 6-pack of beer and hurried home to finally sit down at 9:30PM to watch my first High Definition TV -- and I've never ever had so much as Cable all these years!

Walk in the front door.
Guess what?
The electric was completely out due to heavy rainstorms in the area!!!
Hee-hawwww!!!!
Joke's on me!


I gave up.
Went out to a local bar until 11:30PM.
Waddled home, and the electric was on.

But I was too drunk to figure out how to use the freakin' Remote Control!!

 

[SimpleSimon]

Unfortunately, that's a typical installation story.

 

[PSB]

Sorry to hear this all too common story, it seems its all flakes out there installing satellite these days...the school break does not help much, another satellite installer with no ladder, or hammer, or nail clips, how many holes do you have in your roof now? Time to call the head office and claim them for a new roof!

 

[JohnDoe#2]

It would be interesting if you would post your location and the name of the company that did the work. Did they leave you a copy of the work order?

 

[Guy Owen]

The first guy came in a rented van and was wearing a Dish t-shirt. The next guy came in a Dish van, wearing the same t-shirt. I assume they were with the same company. The second two guys arrived in a Dish van wearing Dish polo golf shirts and immediately made a firm commitment to me that they'd get it installed. They already had the spot scoped out before I got home. Except for the skew mistake (the newest of the two set it at the wrong angle but they never officially admitted it to me), they might've been finished in an hour. But I'll say this... I think they would've stayed until dark trying to figure it out.

 

[GaryPen]

Did they bump into each other a lot, poke each other in the eyes, and say things like "Knucklehead", "Why I oughta", and "Nyuck nyuck nyuck"?

 

[PSB]

That T-shirt must really stink by now!

 

[Guy Owen]

Come to think of it, there were a few "Nyuck-nyuck"s!
I thought I was having dejavu when the second crew arrived two days later and the first guy starts trying to put the post in the ground with his hands. Then he gets out the cinderblock to use it as a hammer.

I asked why they used that and he said on flat roofs in DC they just fill them with concrete and they work great -- without drilling into the roof! What the hell do I know?? A windstorm doesn't move them?

But then no extension cords and no levels really surprised me. During the conversations, they said "If the dish or pole is out of alignment even 1/4" you get no signal." Hmmmm. Now I understand!

 

[Chuckster]

I thought I was having dejavu when the second crew arrived two days later and the first guy starts trying to put the post in the ground with his hands. Then he gets out the cinderblock to use it as a hammer.

I find this a little hard to believe.

It would be interesting if you would post your location and the name of the company that did the work. Did they leave you a copy of the work order?

I am intersted in this info also.

 

[PSB]

Reminds me of the install I done the other day, it was a four receiver DirecTV system, when I got there as soon as stepped out the truck I knew it was not going to work, even if the dish was placed at the highest point on the roof there were VERY LARGE trees just next door, I tell the customer and they tell me they have a garage way round back, I get my satellite finding tool out and sure enough I have enough clearance to give the customer years of trouble free satellite TV, it would NEVER have worked on the home, so I start to plod away with the install. I notice a truck pull up to the neighbors home (closer to the trees) Two Dish installers get out and have the dish on the roof before I can even tune in the DirecTV dish, I said nothing but they seen me watching them.....their dish is up there in seconds flat, buzzzzzzzz a whole in the wall appears and they shove the cable right in, I am still pointing the dish and cabling it up to local and NEC code, with a ground cable also to dish, the neighbor has no such luck, no grounding at all, but that was the least of his worries. So the "installers" seem to be having a problem pointing the dish (the elevation for dish is lower than DirecTV is this area) I head in to my customers home and proceed with the install, I returned to my truck for some materials, now both of them are on the roof, they just cant work out why they have no signal right up against the biggest trees I have seen in my life, long story short they pack up and leave with the dish pointing east! I will say one thing for them, they were really fast : )

 

[Guy Owen]

Oh, yeah! I didn't mention my discussion concerning where South was -- and why I did NOT have to have the dish pointing due South. One comment told it all when the first Installer was on the roof. The second guy is on the ground and shouts up at him "Do you see the shadows of leaves from the tree on the dish?" "Yes..." "Then come on down. He'll never get a signal if you can see any shadows!"

Then I ask him why he's pointing it due South and he says "Because that's where 166 degrees is." I said "You aren't looking for 166 unless you work for Voom. You need to be between 236 and 245 here in Hyattsville, according to your website -- more Southwest." "No," he says, "you're thinking of DirecTV. Dish has to go due South to 166 degrees."

How could I argue?

 

[Guy Owen]

Speaking of grounding, if they attached it to the foundation of the house, is that enough? I think I need to drive a typical grounding rod and reattach... yes?

 

[PSB]

A 8' ground rod MUST be bonded to the house service grounding point, its not to code if its your only grounding point.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Speaking of grounding, if they attached it to the foundation of the house, is that enough? I think I need to drive a typical grounding rod and reattach... yes?

No that's not enough. If the house's ground rod isn't close enough, a new one is probably called for.

 

[DishSatUser]

Happily my installation story was better, but........

My uncle in Montanna is a professional Satellite installer (and with all of the several hundred miles that his coverage is, cannot afford to simply return to a customers site due to poor installation) and had me come along during a vacation I was visting family on.

Based on that experience, I prewired my new home up to the isolation block on the outside. I then simply told the installer where to place the dish, and were to connect to on the isolation block.

In any case, all grounding and everything else were preset and didn't require experience on the installers part.

That said, the E* truck was fully stocked with parts, ladder and equipment. I thought that the installer was very professional. Cable used was also of high quality and matched the quad shielded RG6 that I had to the point of connection.

Unfortunately, this sounds as the exception and not the norm. Or, perhaps seeing that the installation to connect to was high quality knew that a shoddy install would have resulted in a call and made sure to be of like quality to reduce the quibble.

If the quality of installation could be of high quality and uniform and consistant throughout the US, cable companies would truely quake with fear.

 

[gpflepsen]

If the quality of installation could be of high quality and uniform and consistant throughout the US, cable companies would truely quake with fear.

This echos the posing made in this thread: http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=19969

A quality job may cost a bit more, but the dividends pay more in the long-run.

 

[santiclaws]

The guys who did my install did not seem to have a really good deal of experience. The install took forever--I think they must've been at my house for 7-8 hours. I was at work, and my wife called me at luch and kept calling in with progress. They were still there when I got home.

That being said, you could not fault these guys' work ethic. They were NOT leaving until everything was installed and working. This was Christmas Eve day (at least it was day when they started) and their entire office left, their wives were calling their cells, wondering where the hell they were, and they were still at my house slaving away. We felt real bad for them, but really appreciated their honest effort. I, as most people, can forgive the lack of experience if I see that the person is trying awfully hard. Didin't make up for losing a chunk of their Christmas Eve, but at least they got a tip.

 

[Guy Owen]

It's not connected to a ground point, ground block or any rod. All they did was screw the connector to the foundation cinderblocks.

Also, when the first installers were trying to get a signal, the one guy was standing directly in front of the dish while he was on the ladder swinging it back and forth. I'm sure his standing in front of it was blocking it completely. He said "Only if I'm between the LNB and the dish itself."

Yee-haaa! This story gets better all the time! Yes?

 

[gpflepsen]

dopes . . .

 

[maximum]

Wow, and I was complaining about how bad the cable holes in my wall looked. Guess I should consider myself lucky. My installer must have been pretty experienced because he couldn't get the receiver to download the software, so after a couple of trys he went out the the truck and got another receiver. He said it happens some times with this particular model and that's why he always brings a spare. He hooked up the 2nd one and it worked fine. Sure saved him a lot of time.