Not all installers are created equal.

coinmaster32

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 25, 2010
916
14
USA
I called the installer "Galaxy 1" back because my video keeps going blocky every now and then. It did it on both receivers, so I was pretty sure the dish alignment was at fault.

I compared my signal with a few other dish customers with a EA setup, and on some transponders my signal was up to 12 points lower. I knew then and there the dish was not peaked.

So guy comes out last night, hooks his meter up inside and goes "Oh, your signal is PEAK, it's great". Then he goes on to brag "Out of the 100 techs working, I'm ranked 10, so I know what I'm talking about".

This is the same guy who installed the dish, and he spent (not joking) 6 seconds peaking the dish.

So this morning I go outside while someone is inside watching the receiver's signal meter. The transponder I was on had a signal of 38, which normally should be in the low 50s.

I moved the dish up and down by pushing gently on the LNB arm. As expected, the signal JUMPED up into the 50s.

So no, the dish is NOT peaked.

I called Galaxy 1 back, and asked to have a different tech sent out to have the dish peaked.

Lesson learned, if your installer does not do something right, don't be afraid to ask to have a different one sent out.
 
coinmaster32 said:
I called the installer "Galaxy 1" back because my video keeps going blocky every now and then. It did it on both receivers, so I was pretty sure the dish alignment was at fault.

I compared my signal with a few other dish customers with a EA setup, and on some transponders my signal was up to 12 points lower. I knew then and there the dish was not peaked.

So guy comes out last night, hooks his meter up inside and goes "Oh, your signal is PEAK, it's great". Then he goes on to brag "Out of the 100 techs working, I'm ranked 10, so I know what I'm talking about".

This is the same guy who installed the dish, and he spent (not joking) 6 seconds peaking the dish.

So this morning I go outside while someone is inside watching the receiver's signal meter. The transponder I was on had a signal of 38, which normally should be in the low 50s.

I moved the dish up and down by pushing gently on the LNB arm. As expected, the signal JUMPED up into the 50s.

So no, the dish is NOT peaked.

I called Galaxy 1 back, and asked to have a different tech sent out to have the dish peaked.

Lesson learned, if your installer does not do something right, don't be afraid to ask to have a different one sent out.

You should ask em where their trouble shooting guide is.....lol
 
Seems that the guys that bragg are the worst offenders with work quality. I can't stand someone tooting their own horn especially when the job is not rocket science to begin with. Glad you were smart enough not to fall for his BS.
 
Some of the best quality work on my house has come from the guys that barely have a word to say (the type many would label as unfriendly). I'm always weary of someone who brags but he was probably honest or else he'd have placed himself at number 1 out of 100. :)
 
The two I recently had were OK. The main guy was pretty low key, and did a great job (Ive done enough of my own work to know). The other guy, who I think was related and a ride along (he talked rolling and totaling his Dish van not too long ago) was a doofus and talked to much. He did good work though, and clearly explained the Dig Safe situation to me.

The biggest issue I ever had was in Virginia. The guy installing was kinda young and cocky. After he hooked up my 722k, it just rebooted itself for no reason, then was OK. Before he left it rebooted itself two more times. I asked about it, because if it was me I would have put it back on the truck and got another, but he did not seem concerned. Well, about 30 mins after he left it took a dump.
 
I had my Hopper installed right after the role out. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but when I saw that the only way he could get the system working was two dishes which kind of messed up the system, I was so thankful for DIRT to assist me and get a new tech to get it right
 
After seeing the problems many people have on this forum, I sometimes wonder if they were created by a poor install. My 2 Hoppers, 2 Joeys have been working very well. I have 2 problems though, rebooting the OTA module and the FF an Rewind problem I see many complaining about. I blame those problems on software, not the install. I worked on the Railroad for 35 years (retired now) as a 2 way radio repairman, phone equipment installer and LAN installation. I learned if you dont put something in correctly and take short cuts you are going to have problems on down the road. I had a very good installer, I watched him. Dish came back to my home later to do some kind of a upgrade and the installer asked who put your system in. I mentioned his name and the installer said you had the best.
 
Well today the field service manager came out, and repeaked the dish, he said it was 10 points off on some stations.
 
Galaxy 1 is a subcontractor. Depending where you live you can always request an internal technician. Some places though are RSP (regional service provider) territories where there are no internals. Sorry to hear about your issues with the technician.
 
Galaxy 1 is a subcontractor. Depending where you live you can always request an internal technician. Some places though are RSP (regional service provider) territories where there are no internals. Sorry to hear about your issues with the technician.

And you can encounter the same situation with an internal tech. It makes no difference. Our area has internal techs that can't figure half this stuff out. They're good at making up some excuse about not being able to ground, needs to go back to installing company, can't find address, job going to to take too long, etc, just to be able to kick it over to a subcontractor. So don't believe that you're necessarily going to get something better just by requesting an internal tech.
 

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