frustration... please help

[DWS44]

The problem is "no phone connection" in new houses. Often we are a day ahead of phone co.

Inwo has it - I just did one today. No landline until Wednesday.

...and then you've got these crazy people like me that CHOOSE not to have a landline.

Luckily I've never had any problems caused by not having a landline, since I agreed to pay the $4.99 BS fee upfront. Original install included a 322, and later replaced with a 942. When I first fired up the 942, I got the huge screen about connecting a phone line, but when I called to activate it, the screen was gone before I had completed the call.

 

[wobbie]

Cobra, do you install?? Nothing wrong with charging a customer for the phone line as long as the system is sold correctly and they are aware of the phone line requirement. Heck I used to to some work for a DirecTV provider here in the area, not only was the pay low, but they expected me to put phone lines in for every reciever free of charge to the customer and use my material. Now I am subbibg foir the local cable company and getting paid for phone lines.

 

[OoTLink]

row: If you're one of those people who charges people $20 for diplexers so you can finish your job quicker, you need to be beat upside the head with a 942.

'sides, how much do you expect to be paid to install dishes? 90 bucks an hour? That's only understandable if you get like 10 hours of work a week.

Out here the cable company has a reputation (or so it seems) for what I like to call jetsetting -- they'll drop off the boxes and run and they get paid for installs that way!

Maybe you should get a job with our local comcast

wobble: what cable company requires their boxes to be connected to phone lines?

 

[webbydude]

wobble: what cable company requires their boxes to be connected to phone lines?

I was just going to ask the same thing. I thought every cable company was able to receive and transmit on the cable lines, nowdays. Hence eliminating the need to run a phoneline (PPV ordering) for the digital receivers

 

[SimpleSimon]

I was just going to ask the same thing. I thought every cable company was able to receive and transmit on the cable lines, nowdays. Hence eliminating the need to run a phoneline (PPV ordering) for the digital receivers

Well, not EVERY cable company, but I've still never heard of one that required a phone liine hookup.

How many of you subs are making $90.00 an install let alone an hour?

Yeah, I can gross as much as $175+supplies if I sell the account.

 

[webbydude]

When cable first introduced digital receivers, most cable companies weren't able to send AND receive info thru the coax/fiber infrastructure. To alleviate that problem, the original General Instrument cable boxes used a phoneline to dial back to whatever headend whenever a customer selected a PPV movie. This was how they were able to order movies.

I know it was a pain then, as it is now with Dish and Direct, to not only run coax but to also run phoneline or a wireless phonejack. Fortunately, both Adelphia and Time Warner, here in Ohio at least, would pay extra for digital installs VS. an expanded basic install.

 

[wobbie]

Sorry guys, here in Omaha, Cox is the local cable providor and they also offer telephone and internet service, so when I go to install cable service I usually have the phone install with it and usually internet. All three products net me around $95 plus any additional outlets or phone lines pay extra.

 

[davidmn999]

I understand that the easiest way to fix this problem is whenever you're activating, mention that there's not a phone line hooked up to the receiver. Ok, that is the most reasonable way to fix it. The thing is, that yesterday it happend again to me and I had to spend over an hour while they were transfering me to the right person to do the by pass... even doing it by their way, is too slow... I've been searching on the internet and asking other instalers and nobody knows how to get around this... this is frustrating... here's when I miss directv

 

[supereal]

Many customers have chosen to drop their land line in favor of wireless (cell). Without the ability of the receiver to "call home", it can't relay PPV data, and the customer will be hit with the fee. Around here (Iowa), we have a very cheap "lifeline" rate that will work.

 

[Van]

Ok david it shouldnt be that hard, when you talk to the csr to activate the account it should go something like this after you confirm the phone number for the account.

" Hi this is david and I have an account to activate and I need to have a phone line bypass code put on the account for the dual tuner(s), there arent any phone jacks within a reasonable location to the receiver to access and the customer is aware of the $4.99 monthly fee associated with this issue."

I do this each time I have a no land line service or no nearby phone jack issue and Ive never had to wait more than 5 mins after the activation for the phone connection window to go away.

 

[SummitAdvantageRetailer]

Check for dial tone before installing! Do it as a part of pre-site survey before starting any work. That CAN be a deal-breaker for some customers if they didn't know about the $4.99/mo. access fee for not having a phone line connected.