Well, it certainly wasn't perfect. No surprise there. But it ends well, so I reckon I'm happy.
My first inclination after buying a house was to move the stuff myself and just change my billing address with Voom so I wouldn't have to deal with the army of retards that would surely be enlisted to actually make the switch. Decided against it because I'm lazy, inexperienced with sat installs, and was quite busy at the time with the move and all. Figured I'd just pay the $125 and have it done right (fully expecting there to be problems along the way!).
I called well in advance -- almost a month, I think -- to schedule the transfer with Voom. They set it up for Monday December 27 . De-install and install were to be done one right after another. Take down the old stuff (after the hell I went through to get my upgraded antenna, no way I'm leaving it!), drive it over to the new place, install it and voila! -- reVoomin'!.
Yeah, right. No show on the 27th. Call. They say, whoops we scheduled it with a guy who has the day off. So sorry. Try again. But we can't do 'em both on the same day after all. Anyway, to make a long, ridiculous, and familiar-sounding story a little shorter suffice it to say that although it did take a million and a half phone calls, I finally got on the schedule for a de-install on the 30th and the install on the yesterday (3rd).
De-install was real smooth. I had already taken the receiver over to the new place (why risk letting them keeping it and replacing it with one that might not work?), so all he had to do was grab the big ol' antenna off the roof. He did. And he let me keep it and bring it over to the new place (same theory as with the receiver - why risk it?). He was a little confused over how to do the paperwork without being able to deactivate the receiver, but musta figured something out.
Install was slightly less smooth. Showed up late. OTA didn't work at all at first (finally figured out just had to reboot the box--it worked - now getting even stronger signals than before). The dish had to be aimed the old-fashioned way (he on the roof, me inside, two cell phones) because he left his digital meter thingy at home. Best we could get was an 85. I told him it needed to be repeaked to get into the mid 90's or so. He said he'd come back after he did his next install. I didn't hold my breath, especially after the weather turned crappy. But he was true to his word, and came back and did it even though I wasn't home by then. Good deal.
Frustrating, yes. But hey, I'm Voomin' again! And after having spent eight days with nothing but on-again-off-again-locals-only-through-rabbit-ears I've decided that for all of Voom's retarded practices and the complete morons (actual installer excepted - he did good work) at my local installer's, it's worth it. To me anyway.
My first inclination after buying a house was to move the stuff myself and just change my billing address with Voom so I wouldn't have to deal with the army of retards that would surely be enlisted to actually make the switch. Decided against it because I'm lazy, inexperienced with sat installs, and was quite busy at the time with the move and all. Figured I'd just pay the $125 and have it done right (fully expecting there to be problems along the way!).
I called well in advance -- almost a month, I think -- to schedule the transfer with Voom. They set it up for Monday December 27 . De-install and install were to be done one right after another. Take down the old stuff (after the hell I went through to get my upgraded antenna, no way I'm leaving it!), drive it over to the new place, install it and voila! -- reVoomin'!.
Yeah, right. No show on the 27th. Call. They say, whoops we scheduled it with a guy who has the day off. So sorry. Try again. But we can't do 'em both on the same day after all. Anyway, to make a long, ridiculous, and familiar-sounding story a little shorter suffice it to say that although it did take a million and a half phone calls, I finally got on the schedule for a de-install on the 30th and the install on the yesterday (3rd).
De-install was real smooth. I had already taken the receiver over to the new place (why risk letting them keeping it and replacing it with one that might not work?), so all he had to do was grab the big ol' antenna off the roof. He did. And he let me keep it and bring it over to the new place (same theory as with the receiver - why risk it?). He was a little confused over how to do the paperwork without being able to deactivate the receiver, but musta figured something out.
Install was slightly less smooth. Showed up late. OTA didn't work at all at first (finally figured out just had to reboot the box--it worked - now getting even stronger signals than before). The dish had to be aimed the old-fashioned way (he on the roof, me inside, two cell phones) because he left his digital meter thingy at home. Best we could get was an 85. I told him it needed to be repeaked to get into the mid 90's or so. He said he'd come back after he did his next install. I didn't hold my breath, especially after the weather turned crappy. But he was true to his word, and came back and did it even though I wasn't home by then. Good deal.
Frustrating, yes. But hey, I'm Voomin' again! And after having spent eight days with nothing but on-again-off-again-locals-only-through-rabbit-ears I've decided that for all of Voom's retarded practices and the complete morons (actual installer excepted - he did good work) at my local installer's, it's worth it. To me anyway.
