I did not read this part of your post the other day, so I would like to address it. Direct gives 125' of cable per drop. If you exceede that you will have to pay for it. and around here it happens alot. If you need it buried you have to pay for it.
Installers have been cut to the bone on payments from Dish and Direct. They are not going to give you the world anymore just to get you installed. Both providers have also gone to the HSP/RSP installation companies. These companies have made it so that almost no real installer will do the work at the price they pay any longer. What you have now are a bunch of newbies that have no experience, they slap the system in and move on to the next one. Sure there are a few that do a good job, but they don't last long as these companies are nothing more than meat grinders.
Is this any different than the cable companies? I am in the Tampa Bay region of Florida and if you have Bright House cable, it is rare to get a Bright House cable tech out for a new install. They outsource to an outfit called Knight Enterprises here. Some of the techs are horrible.
When I had DirecTV installed in spring of 2008, they drove up in a DirecTV van but it was a third party company like you speak of. The guy did an excellent job and he kept promoting his company, saying if I needed anything else as far as repair or whatever, call them direct. Maybe they do a good job so they know they will have your business again if you need something.
In 2007, when I had Dish installed, I got a eastern European fella that spoke horrible English. He too was a third party company. He was unprofessional in both his dress and his attitude, and of course the poor English. He drove a beater truck or van that was not marked with Dish Network.
In Nov 2008 I had FIOS installed. They were Verizon union employees and drove a Verizon truck. The tech came right out and told me I shouldn't have mentioned the "new wiring" on the phone, as he would have done it and reported it differently so I wouldn't have had to pay. but there was nothing he could do since I already asked for new wiring.
The bottom line is I always get new wiring. I am OK with them going along the side of the house under the eves or under the house. I don't expect anything fancy like fishing the walls. I know how hard running cable "can" be. But the way I see it, living in an under $300K house, do I really care if there is wire along the outside if it is nicely tucked under the gutter? I mean, if I had a million dollar home I'd probably get four coax drops run to each TV and Ethernet all over the house. I'd do it professionally, not by the DirecTV or cable installers. No offense to them, but like you yourself said, you aren't getting the best techs to do the job.
I am moving next week and I will settle for outside wiring to my two HD-DVRs. I'm not going to ask the guy to fish it or do anything fancy. But I do expect new wiring. I mean, I will have DirecTV and the cable company for Internet. That is two providers right there. I will also get FIOS again as soon as it is available at that address (3 providers using coax), and lastly, I will use the existing wiring for my closed circuit security camera network.
I will say that I have argued with techs from cable that thought they could use the existing wiring. They get annoyed that they have to run new, but you just tell them "that is in use already." Just because the previous owner used that wiring doesn't mean they have ownership of it. In the end they always install new.
i rather have one wire per dvr than than two. if you ever had 4 dvrs that would mean 8 coax lines. i rather have a cleaner neater install.
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