new installation: VOOM/locals, how to avoid the $199 fee?

[juangomez]

Hi all,

I finally pulled the trigger and I have the installer coming over in a couple of days (for a 4 TV installation.)
I live in SF area, when I made the order they said I may need a 2nd dish for locals and it will be free. I asked for VOOM and they said a $199 charge would apply for additional dish installation. I ordered the locals, but I didn't order VOOM although I want to get it. I still have the old VOOM dish on the roof.

My question is:
1.- is there any way to avoid that $199 fee for the voom dish? I don't really care about locals via dish since I can get them OTA. Could I ask the installer to point the sat to 61.5 (already pointing there) instead of having it pointed to the 148 (I think this is the location for the SF Bay Area locals).

2.- Also, I only have room for 2 dishes, regular + voom (already installed), so if the above cannot be done, should I just drop the locals and do the voom installation myself? in this case, will the installer (I'm having a 4 tv installation: 942, 811, 510) bring a switch able to support the voom addition later?

I would really appreciate any suggestion.
Thanks a lot in advance.
= J =

PS: I'd love to have that dish 1000 already working/announced by Dish, that way I could have my locals + voom all with one dish in my location!

 

[Spike]

He is going to have to have a switch with him to do your installation anyway. You can turn the dish to 61.5 for Voom by yourself. I would recommend getting a satellite finder for right around $12 though. Finding satellites is a lot easier if you have one.

Then just call customer service and have them end your locals and add HD and VOOM, since you can't just add VOOM separtely.

 

[OoTLink]

You can still keep the locals, since all but one channel in the SF area is on 110/119 and not 148.

 

[satelliteinstaller]

Try to work a deal with the installer.He might hook you up for a couple bucks on the side

 

[styxfix]

You should be able to pick most of the VOOM channels and your "other" bay area locals channels at the 129 sat. The installer will probably not know anything about it since it's still not "offically" there but I would try to convince him that this would best for you. Only bad thing is there's no CBS-HD channel on the 129 sat which you should qualify for, but there's an NY CBS-HD on the VOOM 61.5 Sat and there's an LA CBS-HD channel on the 148 at which has your "other" locals.

 

[smokey982]

Where can someone buy a satellite finder?

 

[juangomez]

You can still keep the locals, since all but one channel in the SF area is on 110/119 and not 148.

That is great! I didn't realize that most locals are on 110/119.

He is going to have to have a switch with him to do your installation anyway. You can turn the dish to 61.5 for Voom by yourself. I would recommend getting a satellite finder for right around $12 though. Finding satellites is a lot easier if you have one.

If the switch is just the same, that would be awesome, I can probably talk to the installer and see if he can just leave it in 61.5. I wouldn't even cancel the locals, I'd just add voom (since i already ordered the hd package).

You should be able to pick most of the VOOM channels and your "other" bay area locals channels at the 129 sat. The installer will probably not know anything about it since it's still not "offically" there but I would try to convince him that this would best for you. Only bad thing is there's no CBS-HD channel on the 129 sat which you should qualify for, but there's an NY CBS-HD on the VOOM 61.5 Sat and there's an LA CBS-HD channel on the 148 at which has your "other" locals.

But I would still have two dishes, right?
It would be great if I could get one of those dish 1000 so I could pick up 110/119/129 with only one dish. I don't care that much about CBS-HD if I can just pick it up OTA as I do now.

Thanks everybody for your suggestions!
= J =