Ok, just want to say sorry for the long post in advance, but I had to vent a bit and share my experience... With that in mind please proceed 
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This is basically my story, the story of an HD fanatic like you, simply in search for "more" HD, Ok so it goes like this:
Once upon a time, a princess... Uhm sorry hehe
I've always wanted HD, I'm a total nut for it and the more the better I've always thought, but how or where to get it?
Well, last year DTV finally launched their HD package (yeah $10.99 a month for 4 channels) so like many more I was pretty exited about getting HD from a more reliable source (non-OTA) so I went ahead and got D* for the sole purpose of having HD, I had just recently bought my Hitachi 57SWX20b and ISF'd that sucker so all I needed was that crisp, crystal clear picture which we all have come to love and swear by.
So I thought to myself, D* is the answer, but oh boy I was in for a ride
That's where things started... D* has been a total nightmare for me when it comes to customer service; the installation was a nightmare because they were new to HD so I kinda forgive them a bit (at that time when I subscribed, they had HD for a mind numbing 2 days). The reps had no idea what High Definition meant or had any idea if it was even offered, again I think they were new and there is always growing pains at these stages so hey its cool...
Well it took me about 4 hours on the phone with them because they would NOT send me the right dish (the newest 3 LNB dish is required for HD with D*) long story here in shot they wanted me to "BUY" an extra dish and pay extra for that.. Heck no, after a lot of "talking" to their CSR's I finally got them to send me the right dish.
After a year of service with DTV I have no regrets, they are a good service provider even though they have kinks and their CSR's which are not the best, but the main reason I'm going to V* is that they have what seems like a better deal when it comes to those of us "nuts for HD"
...So I called to cancel DTV and got the retention department (its funny all the stuff they tell you to not switch to voom, lots of miss information) they really push to make you stay and I don't blame them it's a business, but they do blow a lot of smoke and throw some rocks when they talk about voom and how bad it is compared to D* which would throw your normal consumer off.
When canceling my DTV I specifically told them that I wanted it cut off on the 29th of Jun, they said yes no prob. "thanks for calling DTV have a nice day, blah blah blah."
Next day I get to my house (the 21st) and DTV has been cutoff, I was really surprised considering how much I stressed that I wanted the cutoff date to be on the 29th. So I called them and they not only cut me off prematurely, but that they required a year commitment to re-activate my receiver. Tsk, tsk...
Really stupid on their part...
That's not to say voom hasn't been somewhat sketchy from the start, I don't have it installed yet, it's scheduled for today as a matter of fact, but getting there has been a bit hard.
I'm a web designer/graphic designer and I do travel a lot so I had to plan in advance to get V* installed, the scheduled appointment that came up on the website was Sat 26th of this month... I couldn't be happier, I was on my way to "more" HD
I've been reading this forum and I saw a couple of post that said that you had to be on top of the installation cause it was a problem pretty often... So better safe than sorry, I called the installer after getting the number from V* but their computers were down and they couldn't verify my appointment, so I asked if they could give me a call back to verify everything.. (Going to the next day) that call that never took place so I decided to call them once more... I must have been on the phone with the CSR for a good hour because "the computer was slow" and she couldn't find the information at all, so I was instructed to call V* directly, to my great luck the CSR I got was new, it was actually like her second or third call (god bless her)
Well she finally told me after a while that the installation order had been rejected by the installer because I'm out of their area and the next available appointment was July 5th, needless to say I was never notified, so I was pretty upset because I had made plans to not go out of town that weekend. So I asked to see if I could talk to her supervisor and she put me on hold a good 15mins, she finally came back with great news telling me she had contacted another installer and that they would do the install on the original date (Sat, Jun 26th) and to my amazement, I got a call on the other line and guess who it was....
Turns out it was the installer calling to verify everything, he promptly put me on 3-way with another guy and we all agreed on the installation date, but he didn't have Sat open, so he offered to do it today instead from 2pm to 6pm, I was overjoyed
I went back and thanked the CSR, on my way home I got a call on my cell, I was driving so I didn't answer (don't drink and drive and don't talk n drive)
I got home I checked my voicemail and it was the installer and he only left a number to contact him back to, so I though, great. Just call him and make sure he has the right address etc, well turns out the number he provided was a fax line
So again, wanting to know what he wanted, I called voom which then transferred me to the installers main office I think, which told me yes, it was indeed a fax line but that he would look to see if he could contact the guy that was doing the installation to see why he had called me. He came back and told me he had a cell phone # but he couldn't give me that, but he was calling him and then telling him to call me... So he said ok, I'm going to "vacate this line" so that you can get the other call, I said thanks and bye..
Well again, another call never returned
move on to next day...
I called that fax number (the one originally given to me) again and someone picked up and said "Hello" then I said my name and that I was trying to confirm my appointment and check to see what was what the installer wanted to contact me for because I never got the call, then out of nowhere *click* so I though, ok the call got dropped, I called back immediately and nobody picked up, it went to voicemail, so I just left my address and phone number so that the installer could call me back and to make sure he had everything he needed for which he tried contacting me for in the first place(correct address etc)
So now we come to today after all that mess up there and I'm still really looking forward to the new service, but the way that the installation process has been handled has been a nightmare, I don't even know if the guy is showing up or not, still don't know anything from him...
We'll see today from 2pm to 6pm. Hopefully Voom will be in my house crossing fingers here and I'll be glad to give the installer a beer while we both watch some crystal clear stuff for a bit, it has been quite a trip..
Or the installer wont show up as I suspect
Thanks for reading this mini-book and I look forward to being part of the voom family, in this case, I hope the "saga" doesn't continue and I can just sit back, relax and enjoy the beauty of high definition in all its glory...
Thanks guys for having a great site full of information and great community
Sincerely,
Another HD nut
__________________________________________
This is basically my story, the story of an HD fanatic like you, simply in search for "more" HD, Ok so it goes like this:
Once upon a time, a princess... Uhm sorry hehe
I've always wanted HD, I'm a total nut for it and the more the better I've always thought, but how or where to get it?
Well, last year DTV finally launched their HD package (yeah $10.99 a month for 4 channels) so like many more I was pretty exited about getting HD from a more reliable source (non-OTA) so I went ahead and got D* for the sole purpose of having HD, I had just recently bought my Hitachi 57SWX20b and ISF'd that sucker so all I needed was that crisp, crystal clear picture which we all have come to love and swear by.
So I thought to myself, D* is the answer, but oh boy I was in for a ride
That's where things started... D* has been a total nightmare for me when it comes to customer service; the installation was a nightmare because they were new to HD so I kinda forgive them a bit (at that time when I subscribed, they had HD for a mind numbing 2 days). The reps had no idea what High Definition meant or had any idea if it was even offered, again I think they were new and there is always growing pains at these stages so hey its cool...
Well it took me about 4 hours on the phone with them because they would NOT send me the right dish (the newest 3 LNB dish is required for HD with D*) long story here in shot they wanted me to "BUY" an extra dish and pay extra for that.. Heck no, after a lot of "talking" to their CSR's I finally got them to send me the right dish.
After a year of service with DTV I have no regrets, they are a good service provider even though they have kinks and their CSR's which are not the best, but the main reason I'm going to V* is that they have what seems like a better deal when it comes to those of us "nuts for HD"
...So I called to cancel DTV and got the retention department (its funny all the stuff they tell you to not switch to voom, lots of miss information) they really push to make you stay and I don't blame them it's a business, but they do blow a lot of smoke and throw some rocks when they talk about voom and how bad it is compared to D* which would throw your normal consumer off.
When canceling my DTV I specifically told them that I wanted it cut off on the 29th of Jun, they said yes no prob. "thanks for calling DTV have a nice day, blah blah blah."
Next day I get to my house (the 21st) and DTV has been cutoff, I was really surprised considering how much I stressed that I wanted the cutoff date to be on the 29th. So I called them and they not only cut me off prematurely, but that they required a year commitment to re-activate my receiver. Tsk, tsk...
Really stupid on their part...
That's not to say voom hasn't been somewhat sketchy from the start, I don't have it installed yet, it's scheduled for today as a matter of fact, but getting there has been a bit hard.
I'm a web designer/graphic designer and I do travel a lot so I had to plan in advance to get V* installed, the scheduled appointment that came up on the website was Sat 26th of this month... I couldn't be happier, I was on my way to "more" HD
I've been reading this forum and I saw a couple of post that said that you had to be on top of the installation cause it was a problem pretty often... So better safe than sorry, I called the installer after getting the number from V* but their computers were down and they couldn't verify my appointment, so I asked if they could give me a call back to verify everything.. (Going to the next day) that call that never took place so I decided to call them once more... I must have been on the phone with the CSR for a good hour because "the computer was slow" and she couldn't find the information at all, so I was instructed to call V* directly, to my great luck the CSR I got was new, it was actually like her second or third call (god bless her)
Well she finally told me after a while that the installation order had been rejected by the installer because I'm out of their area and the next available appointment was July 5th, needless to say I was never notified, so I was pretty upset because I had made plans to not go out of town that weekend. So I asked to see if I could talk to her supervisor and she put me on hold a good 15mins, she finally came back with great news telling me she had contacted another installer and that they would do the install on the original date (Sat, Jun 26th) and to my amazement, I got a call on the other line and guess who it was....
Turns out it was the installer calling to verify everything, he promptly put me on 3-way with another guy and we all agreed on the installation date, but he didn't have Sat open, so he offered to do it today instead from 2pm to 6pm, I was overjoyed
I went back and thanked the CSR, on my way home I got a call on my cell, I was driving so I didn't answer (don't drink and drive and don't talk n drive)
I got home I checked my voicemail and it was the installer and he only left a number to contact him back to, so I though, great. Just call him and make sure he has the right address etc, well turns out the number he provided was a fax line
So again, wanting to know what he wanted, I called voom which then transferred me to the installers main office I think, which told me yes, it was indeed a fax line but that he would look to see if he could contact the guy that was doing the installation to see why he had called me. He came back and told me he had a cell phone # but he couldn't give me that, but he was calling him and then telling him to call me... So he said ok, I'm going to "vacate this line" so that you can get the other call, I said thanks and bye..
Well again, another call never returned
move on to next day...I called that fax number (the one originally given to me) again and someone picked up and said "Hello" then I said my name and that I was trying to confirm my appointment and check to see what was what the installer wanted to contact me for because I never got the call, then out of nowhere *click* so I though, ok the call got dropped, I called back immediately and nobody picked up, it went to voicemail, so I just left my address and phone number so that the installer could call me back and to make sure he had everything he needed for which he tried contacting me for in the first place(correct address etc)
So now we come to today after all that mess up there and I'm still really looking forward to the new service, but the way that the installation process has been handled has been a nightmare, I don't even know if the guy is showing up or not, still don't know anything from him...
We'll see today from 2pm to 6pm. Hopefully Voom will be in my house crossing fingers here and I'll be glad to give the installer a beer while we both watch some crystal clear stuff for a bit, it has been quite a trip..
Or the installer wont show up as I suspect
Thanks for reading this mini-book and I look forward to being part of the voom family, in this case, I hope the "saga" doesn't continue and I can just sit back, relax and enjoy the beauty of high definition in all its glory...
Thanks guys for having a great site full of information and great community
Sincerely,
Another HD nut
