My Last Day With Dish

[duckydan]

Today is my last day with E* due to the incompitent installer they sent me today.

On Friday my VIP 722 blew and wouldn't even power on. I called tech support and was told that they would waive all fees (including the $5.99 service plan) and would be out today.

The tech came out today while I was out on an errand and the first blow came when he told my wife "You will need to pay $5.99 for the service plan and the cancellation fee of $25 should you decide to cancel it" (not true as the $25 does not begin until February... but I digress)

Next he took out my broken 722 and hooked up the new one. He then asked my wife for the tv remote to set it up.....

side story time: last year I paid to have my tv calibrated and have not changed it since

... he then went into the picture settings, set it to sport, reduced the brightness from 100 to 95, and set it as my preference overwriting my calibration settings!

I get home and have a picture that is so bright and with white balance off so much that it looked like a white screen with some colors on it. I called up E* to complain and was told "it will take 3-4 weeks to investigate your claim and then we can proceed from there. Please do not change your settings from where they are until we inspect them. This could take 1-2 weeks pissed as all hell I asked for someone higher up to try to make sense of this bull as I was about to blow a gasket. The supervisor told me that was they best I could do and they would need to see it exactly as it is or else there was nothing they could do.

I was not going to keep my tv with these settings for 2-4 weeks so they can "evaluate my complaint" and when the company the installer worked for called us we were told that "we should have specified our wishes when the installer got there." I told them I was under the impression my wishes were for a working receiver and nothing else.

As a result, despite my disdain for Comcast, they will be out tomorrow to do an install.

 

[SolApathy]

If it makes you feel any better the original installer at my house tried the same thing. I walked in the room & he was adjusting settings. I was like "WTH are you doing"? He told me he was optimizing the picture quality for Dish broadcasts...


I asked him if he had the equipment to properly calibrate a TV & he said "what, the settings"? I told him to leave it alone right as his buddy walked in & he said ok & then proceeded to save the preference.

His pal asked him wth he was doing (at the same time I was yelling at him).

Bottom line, they ended up paying (at first they offered a service credit) for a tech to come back out and do the calibration again.

 

[Jeff0575]

if you are leaving dish because of the installer changing some settings on your tv then to me sounds like you were looking for a reason to leave dish anyways and you found your reason. other wise you would change the settings back as they were and just call and complain to the installer that did the changes.

 

[digiblur]

Wow...now that sucks...an installer toying with your settings of your A/V equipment when it was simply a receiver swap.

 

[Ilya]

Sorry to hear about your problem. Here are some points though:

1. I bet that the only settings that the installer changed were user settings. Most likely just brightness and contrast. I doubt he ventured into the Service Menu as most calibrators would do.

2. It's always a good idea to record those settings after the calibration, so you could easily restore them. Too late now, but keep in mind for the future.

3. Call your calibrator. Chances are he wrote down his settings and might be able to help you restore them over the phone.

4. In most TV sets calibration is done for each input independently. So your settings for DVD/Blu-ray should not be affected.

5. I don't know how consistent E* receivers are, but it is possible that you would've had to change the settings anyway after replacing the receiver.

6. Remember, the installer was just trying to help. He didn't know that your TV set was professionally calibrated. You should've told him. This is not something that he could've guessed...

 

[webbydude]

Sorry to hear about your problem. Here are some points though:

1. I bet that the only settings that the installer changed were user settings. Most likely just brightness and contrast. I doubt he ventured into the Service Menu as most calibrators would do.

2. It's always a good idea to record those settings after the calibration, so you could easily restore them. Too late now, but keep in mind for the future.

3. Call your calibrator. Chances are he wrote down his settings and might be able to help you restore them over the phone.

4. In most TV sets calibration is done for each input independently. So your settings for DVD/Blu-ray should not be affected.

5. I don't know how consistent E* receivers are, but it is possible that you would have to change the settings anyway after replacing the receiver.

6. Remember, the installer was just trying to help. He didn't know that your TV sets was professionally calibrated. You should've told him. This is not something that he could've guessed...

+1 :up

 

[digiblur]

if you are leaving dish because of the installer changing some settings on your tv then to me sounds like you were looking for a reason to leave dish anyways and you found your reason. other wise you would change the settings back as they were and just call and complain to the installer that did the changes.

He said he paid to have it calibrated so he would have to get someone to come back out.

 

[digiblur]

6. Remember, the installer was just trying to help. He didn't know that your TV set was professionally calibrated. You should've told him. This is not something that he could've guessed...

I would be pissed if I caught the guy changing my settings on my A/V receiver or TV. I would have instantly kicked him out. That is not his job to adjust my TV....I don't recall seeing this step in the 722 installation guide.

 

[Ilya]

I would be pissed if I caught the guy changing my settings on my A/V receiver or TV.

Me too! So, I would've made sure to tell him that in advance, to prevent such situation.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Two lessons to be learned:

1) NEVER leave the house on a day a tech is coming to install something

and

2) NEVER, EVER, under ANY circumstance, leave it to your wife to let the guy in to do an install. EVER.

And that includes anything technological. Seems like I remember a similar situation with Elwaylite and the packing of his tv before his move.

 

[SolApathy]

if you are leaving dish because of the installer changing some settings on your tv then to me sounds like you were looking for a reason to leave dish anyways and you found your reason. other wise you would change the settings back as they were and just call and complain to the installer that did the changes.

\


I guess you have never had a professional calibration done. It isn't cheap.

 

[duckydan]

Well to answer a few points...

1 - I was not looking to leave. I'm actually the reason my company kept dish when it came time to determine our 2010-2012 budget. I was just extremely pissed that after spending the amount I did that he would go into setup and change stuff.

2 - the way he changed my settings was use the sports setting as a base and turn brightness down slightly so as a result my advanced settings (r,g,b, etc.) were overwritten. As far as I know there is no way to protect it but I will be searching.
3 - installer was due between 10 and 2. I got back at 10 and he was already done.

4 - as for inputs I only use one for hdmi as everything runs through my receiver. That said I tried the other inputs and it appears static on all inputs.

Lastly i was extremely pissed when I got home but moreso that the tv is virtually unwatchable and they want me to just leave it as is until they "get around to inspecting the damage."

I've already called the guy who did it and he'll be out shortly after comcast leaves (with minimal charge if I fix his laptop) but it's a matter of principle (why should I give a company $200+ a month after ppv event fees if the best they can do is get around to fixing it. It's not about the money as much as the lack of common courtesy from the companyArMy least I got an apology from the installer's company secretary but eventhat was three hours too late. My wife swears she only gave him the remote because he had to "adjust something to get it to work" and once she saw what he was doing it was too late.

I've defended dish as much as I could at home and work but once you do stupid (I.e. A d* installer Using svideo to hook up my HD box) you're off my list.
(sorry for misspellings Im typing from an iPhone)

 

[cditty]

You did the right thing. They pissed you off and you spoke with the pocketbook.

 

[Stargazer]

They should be made to pay for recalibration of your televison.

Is there a website that shows the optimal settings on televisions so that you can calibrate yourself? I try to calibrate the analog televisions but these new ones take a bit more work it seems with the additional settings that you have.

 

[sam_gordon]

They should be made to pay for recalibration of your televison.

Is there a website that shows the optimal settings on televisions so that you can calibrate yourself? I try to calibrate the analog televisions but these new ones take a bit more work it seems with the additional settings that you have.

There are websites that will have "general" settings, but each TV (even with the same model number) panel will be slightly different. Professional calibrators use special equipment to get the "perfect" picture.

That being said, I think instead of kicking the installer out of the house, you should have had him commit (either in writing, or by calling his supervisor with you in earshot) that he changed your settings.

I am also surprised whoever you hired to calibrate your set wouldn't keep copies of the settings. Even if he has to come back to get to the service menu, it shouldn't be the cost of a full calibration.

 

[tvropro]

If anyone ever messed with my settings, he would be leaving my house with broken fingers.

 

[nsafreak]

Can completely understand why you're leaving, don't know whether or not that would cause me to leave but it'd definitely would tick me off if the installer tried anything. My A/V setup is a little bit on the intimidating side though so most technicians do not attempt to mess with it.

I do have two questions for the op though:

1) Why didn't the original calibrator leave behind the setting changes he made to your setup? All of the ISF certified technicians that I know of always leave a full printout of the before and after settings to the TV set that they make both in the factory menus and to the user accessible menus.

2) Why did you elect to have a technician come out and replace the receiver instead of having Dish overnight you a replacement? Not saying what you did was wrong but as picky as I am about my setup I prefer not to have the technician touch a thing on it. The techs that I've had come out to install receivers have been perfectly happy to let me hook up the receiver to my setup while they're busy running cable to the satellite dish.

General response to folks about calibration:

A properly calibrated set can not be duplicated just by copying the settings that somebody else has on their calibrated set, even if its the same model. A professional calibrator also takes into account the room that the TV set is in and how it will affect the picture with things like lighting in the room.

 

[dishcomm]

Today is my last day with E* due to the incompitent installer they sent me today.

On Friday my VIP 722 blew and wouldn't even power on. I called tech support and was told that they would waive all fees (including the $5.99 service plan) and would be out today.

The tech came out today while I was out on an errand and the first blow came when he told my wife "You will need to pay $5.99 for the service plan and the cancellation fee of $25 should you decide to cancel it" (not true as the $25 does not begin until February... but I digress)

Next he took out my broken 722 and hooked up the new one. He then asked my wife for the tv remote to set it up.....

side story time: last year I paid to have my tv calibrated and have not changed it since

... he then went into the picture settings, set it to sport, reduced the brightness from 100 to 95, and set it as my preference overwriting my calibration settings!

I get home and have a picture that is so bright and with white balance off so much that it looked like a white screen with some colors on it. I called up E* to complain and was told "it will take 3-4 weeks to investigate your claim and then we can proceed from there. Please do not change your settings from where they are until we inspect them. This could take 1-2 weeks pissed as all hell I asked for someone higher up to try to make sense of this bull as I was about to blow a gasket. The supervisor told me that was they best I could do and they would need to see it exactly as it is or else there was nothing they could do.

I was not going to keep my tv with these settings for 2-4 weeks so they can "evaluate my complaint" and when the company the installer worked for called us we were told that "we should have specified our wishes when the installer got there." I told them I was under the impression my wishes were for a working receiver and nothing else.

As a result, despite my disdain for Comcast, they will be out tomorrow to do an install.

Tech here..
I am flabbergasted.
The tech had no business tampering with your settings. That was unecessary.

 

[dishcomm]

I would be pissed if I caught the guy changing my settings on my A/V receiver or TV. I would have instantly kicked him out. That is not his job to adjust my TV....I don't recall seeing this step in the 722 installation guide.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHH......Dish management may see this thread and make these adjustments policy..

 

[whatchel1]

Why would he have changed anything. Are you sure the tech did it or could something have been done by someone else?