Getting the CSR runaround... is this true?

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madpoet

Too Much Hi Def!
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Mar 3, 2004
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Vernon, CT
So when I moved into my new place the installer put the dish in what I consider to be a bad location with trees. It was November though, so of course all the signals were fine. Now that they are in full bloom I've lost half my signal strength on 110. It's down in the 30s-40s while all the rest of my channels are at 90s. The CSR is telling me that there are all sorts of things it could be like the built-in multiswitch, and they want me to pay $70 to come out. I consider this ridiculous. Their guy put it in the wrong place. Am I nuts here?
 
While the installer may not have paid attention, you signed the work order approving the dish location. Since you said that you thought it was a bad location why didn't you say something then? The $70 charge seems justified in this case.
 
I did say something. But as all the transponders were at 90+ without leaves on the trees, I didn't exactly have much of a leg to stand on. I'm willing to fight D* on this one, but before I get too bent I want to be sure that a bad multiswitch in the dish wouldn't be causing this. In my mind either the transponder would work or it wouldn't. And even if it is a bad multiswitch you'd think there would be some sort of coverage since it's been installed 6 months.
 
Beavis said:
While the installer may not have paid attention, you signed the work order approving the dish location. Since you said that you thought it was a bad location why didn't you say something then? The $70 charge seems justified in this case.

You're kidding right? It's not the customer's responsibilty to know where to put the dish to get the best signal....that's the whole point of having it installed.
 
It is unlikely that it is a problem with the multiswitch. A multiswitch issue would likely result in complete loss of signal, not a knockdown to 30-40%.

Installers are supposed to make sure that their installation location will be good for at least 1 year, but obviously that doesn't always occur.

Since you did sign the work order though, you may not have a leg to stand on to fight with Directv. I'm not really sure what recourse you have here.
 
do you have the protection plan? if not get it and wait 30 days and the service call should be free.
also....
when you had it installed you both "though" that the location was fine, getting signals in the 90's, ect... so you signed off saying so. well things do change! even though you signed saying the dish was in a good location, what if the situation was diffrent and instead of the trees getting leaves again, your neighbor puts up a fence, bush, tree, in a area that when it was installed nothing was there and thus no forceable issue wil LOS.
 
Call Customer Retention Dept, and see what they can do for you, they can get someone sent out to move it to where you wanted it.

I would have had them come out right away, but you didn't so they will have to deal with it now.
Make sure you explained that you did not want it there originally.

Jimbo
 
If it was an HSP then call the HSP to warrant their work or you will escalate to DirecTV. They should take care it.
 
Ok... customer retention once again proves to be the only recourse ;). The dish protection plan costs $6 a month and has a 1 year comittment, so right there it's more expensive than a service call. Add to that you still have to pay $30 for a service call even with the plan and forget about it.

However... the retention rep said "Wait, all you want is the dish moved? We do that for free." Dish relocation I guess it's called, and I have one scheduled for Tuesday morning. So thanks for the suggestions guys.
 
Beavis said:
While the installer may not have paid attention, you signed the work order approving the dish location. Since you said that you thought it was a bad location why didn't you say something then? The $70 charge seems justified in this case.

How is the average user supposed to know where the dish is supposed to go?:eek:
 
madpoet said:
Ok... customer retention once again proves to be the only recourse ;). The dish protection plan costs $6 a month and has a 1 year comittment, so right there it's more expensive than a service call. Add to that you still have to pay $30 for a service call even with the plan and forget about it.

However...


FWIW, I've been w/D* & had the protection plan for well over ten years, & have had many service calls, i.e. re-alignments, multiswitch failures. lnb failure & stb failures, & have never paid one cent--other than the monthly fee ($6 or $8).
 
Just telling you what the rep told me... monthly fee, yearly comittment, and I still would have to pay $30.
 
scotsmanron said:
How is the average user supposed to know where the dish is supposed to go?:eek:

Believe it or not, 10 mins or research & work, knowing your home's layout, and a $10 heading compass, will allow anyone to figure it out. It really isn't as hard as people try to make it sound.
 
I wonder what professional installer that gets paid good money working for an HSP ...would do something stupid as to put a dish in front of a tree?... I guess a very good tec
who is very experienced.:devil:
 
It seems to me, is that some (not all) installers may think that if they put the dish in front of a bare tree (no leaves), that by time the leaves come in, the 30 days or whatever will be up, and hopefully the customer will call them back when the leaves come in, so the installer can charge a dish relocation fee, which is what I think stevo/65 is alluding to.
 
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damaged said:
It seems to me, is that some (not all) installers may think that if they put the dish in front of a bare tree (no leaves), that by time the leaves come in, the 30 days or whatever will be up, and hopefully the customer will call them back when the leaves come in, so the installer can charge a dish relocation fee, which is what I think stevo/65 is alluding to.

What i meant ...is that experienced tecs working for an HSP at the wages HSP`s are paying tecs these days is hard to find.

The customer got a" rookie installer"

So the customer gets screwed and has to pay the fee for a rookie mistake

Who loves ya BABY!......... Directv
 
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stevo/65 said:
What i meant ...is that experienced tecs working for an HSP at the wages HSP`s are paying tecs these days is hard to find.

The customer got a" rookie installer"

Gotcha, I stand corrected.
 
a little bird told me that... if a tech rep at dtv sets up a service call that needs a dish relocation the tech will not get paid for it, I think they get paid less than 20, so they won't do it, the trick is to find a rep that uses uncommon sense knows that you would get a signal w/o leaves in nov and now that the leaves are out you get no signal, there is no way a tech representative can fix this, you need to got to customer installation support for a dish relocate try to get the tech on the phone to do a transfer where the rep puts you on hold and contacts a rep in cis and explains the sfss is caused by a greedy or stupid tech that put the dish in front of a tree, no fault of yours and would have been counted as a incomplete install which tech dept can take care of within 90 days of install , failing that ask for a sup at cis if the dummy at cis can't figure this out, a little bird told me that he feels like he is surrounded by monkeys in cubicles at dtv,
 
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