Slimline HD Dish Upgrade Story

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William1

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 24, 2007
164
5
Central Virginia
First real post for everyone. Thought Id share the rials and tribulations I encounterd having the dish upgrade done. I live in Virginia.

Back in the beginning of August, I contacted DTV for the new dish. Earliest appt. I could get was for 9/24! Ok, I accepted the fact there might be thousands of dishes being swapped out, hence the delay, plus the new channels were not on yet so no matter. I told the CSR the dish was on the roof of a three story home and would need a 40' ladder. I was assured this was noted on the RO. I also told them I use a OTA too and would need wire pulls done to enable continued use of the OTA as many of you know, you can no longer use a diplexer with the new channels and a H20 or HR20. I was told no problem.

My appt was set for between 6AM and 8AM, of course the installer did not call till after 8. No surprise there. I asked him to be sure and have his ladder. He stated all he had was a 8' step and was coming anyway. Nearly as soon as he was out of his truck, came the 'No Line of Sight'. I asked why, seeing I have had a 3 LNB oval for over seven years. Told me I cannot see the birds. I knew he was ful of it. Said nothing he could do, but would have a second opinion done by his supervisor. He went to state his supervisor would call that morning to arrange a stop by and that I did not need to be there. I told him I wanted to to discuss the install. Needless to say, no call from the supervisor. At noon, I started to call DTV. Many calls to them and the install contractor, I suddenly realized it was 5:30PM!!! Still, not a signle satisfactory response.

About 8 that night, a district manager from the installer called me. He had been reviewing the days call log and was astounded by the number of calls from me so he felt a contact was warranted. I explained all of the above to him. He stated this is not the type of service he can tolerate and would resolve it for me. He assured me a installer would be at my home at 1PM the following day (the 25th.) Well, at 1PM, guess who called, the original installer!!! I called the District manager. The installer was recalled, and I was apologized to. He stated the top supervisor and installer would come out later in the day. He asked me what I wanted done. I told him about the new dish, the 6X8 Zinwell, double runs through the walls from the attic to the first floor living room and so on. Oh yeak, bring a 40' ladder!

At 4:30, two trucks appeared. The supervisor (Rick) very affable fellow, assured me I was going to be a happy customer and told me to ask all the questions I wanted and to feel free to follow them about.

The dish was up and aligned in 30 minutes, hitting 97 to 100 on all transpionders! Best I had had with my old dish was 90, with most in the low 80's and a few in the 70's. Another hour went by and my little 'wiring board was redone with all the new parts. He connected a double to the existing singe cables and pulled it down to the second floor outlets no problem. By 7PM, the second floor was all done. The run to the first floor became a nightmare. As they pulled the double down, the cable ends seperated. Now a fish was needed. Was not easy and this took over two hours. Finally, at 11:30PM, they finished up.

I had gotten up at 3:30 AM that day (for no good reason, I am just an idiot) so I was exhausted. But my new dish is installed, new runs in place. Just waiting for the new channels... any day..... any day.

Purpose of this lengthy is not to give up. You are the customer. You are the one paying the bills of all the DTV employees and contractors. They work for you. Call. Call again. Keep calling till you get what you deserve. A shame you have to do this but it does pay off. Oh yeah, DTV is giving me a $10/mo credit on the bill for six months as a 'sorry for the problem) reperation.
 
I had a simlar thing happen to me and when I have a chance I will share it with you all.
 
First real post for everyone. Thought Id share the rials and tribulations I encounterd having the dish upgrade done. I live in Virginia.

Back in the beginning of August, I contacted DTV for the new dish. Earliest appt. I could get was for 9/24! Ok, I accepted the fact there might be thousands of dishes being swapped out, hence the delay, plus the new channels were not on yet so no matter. I told the CSR the dish was on the roof of a three story home and would need a 40' ladder. I was assured this was noted on the RO. I also told them I use a OTA too and would need wire pulls done to enable continued use of the OTA as many of you know, you can no longer use a diplexer with the new channels and a H20 or HR20. I was told no problem.

My appt was set for between 6AM and 8AM, of course the installer did not call till after 8. No surprise there. I asked him to be sure and have his ladder. He stated all he had was a 8' step and was coming anyway. Nearly as soon as he was out of his truck, came the 'No Line of Sight'. I asked why, seeing I have had a 3 LNB oval for over seven years. Told me I cannot see the birds. I knew he was ful of it. Said nothing he could do, but would have a second opinion done by his supervisor. He went to state his supervisor would call that morning to arrange a stop by and that I did not need to be there. I told him I wanted to to discuss the install. Needless to say, no call from the supervisor. At noon, I started to call DTV. Many calls to them and the install contractor, I suddenly realized it was 5:30PM!!! Still, not a signle satisfactory response.

About 8 that night, a district manager from the installer called me. He had been reviewing the days call log and was astounded by the number of calls from me so he felt a contact was warranted. I explained all of the above to him. He stated this is not the type of service he can tolerate and would resolve it for me. He assured me a installer would be at my home at 1PM the following day (the 25th.) Well, at 1PM, guess who called, the original installer!!! I called the District manager. The installer was recalled, and I was apologized to. He stated the top supervisor and installer would come out later in the day. He asked me what I wanted done. I told him about the new dish, the 6X8 Zinwell, double runs through the walls from the attic to the first floor living room and so on. Oh yeak, bring a 40' ladder!

At 4:30, two trucks appeared. The supervisor (Rick) very affable fellow, assured me I was going to be a happy customer and told me to ask all the questions I wanted and to feel free to follow them about.

The dish was up and aligned in 30 minutes, hitting 97 to 100 on all transpionders! Best I had had with my old dish was 90, with most in the low 80's and a few in the 70's. Another hour went by and my little 'wiring board was redone with all the new parts. He connected a double to the existing singe cables and pulled it down to the second floor outlets no problem. By 7PM, the second floor was all done. The run to the first floor became a nightmare. As they pulled the double down, the cable ends seperated. Now a fish was needed. Was not easy and this took over two hours. Finally, at 11:30PM, they finished up.

I had gotten up at 3:30 AM that day (for no good reason, I am just an idiot) so I was exhausted. But my new dish is installed, new runs in place. Just waiting for the new channels... any day..... any day.

Purpose of this lengthy is not to give up. You are the customer. You are the one paying the bills of all the DTV employees and contractors. They work for you. Call. Call again. Keep calling till you get what you deserve. A shame you have to do this but it does pay off. Oh yeah, DTV is giving me a $10/mo credit on the bill for six months as a 'sorry for the problem) reperation.


Definatly not a basic install, i am surprised no custom labor was involved!!
 
Well, if the work had been done at the time of the original; appointment, I was more than willing to pay the additional cost. Although, when I made the appt., I was told the wire pulls would be included as the upgrade meant I could no longer diplex.
Had the installer not made a lie (he could of simply said he did not have the ladder/ability to do a roof top install) and the appt. rescheduled, then I would of still not had a problem. Had I not gotten a run around trying to get a straight and truthful answer, had the supervisor caller as they were supposed to. I would not of had a problem paying for extra work.
The install contractor did the right thing. They apologized and did everything possible to return me to being a satisfied customer.

Too bad the CSR's at both DTV and the install companies have no way to escalate a call. Too bad they are paid minimum wage and tend to do minimum work. Too bad the management of these CSR's execpt 110% out of these people but give them no way to push a issue up the food chain.

The moral is, if you do not get treated as you should, the only way to get resolution is to call and call and call, as apparently the call logs are the only way management can readily identify a problem.
 
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Well, if the work had been done at the time of the original; appointment, I was more than willing to pay the additional cost. Although, when I made the appt., I was told the wire pulls would be included as the upgrade meant I could no longer diplex.
Had the installer not made a lie (he could of simply said he did not have the ladder/ability to do a roof top install) and the appt. rescheduled, then I would of still not had a problem. Had I not gotten a run around trying to get a straight and truthful answer, had the supervisor caller as they were supposed to. I would not of had a problem paying for extra work.

but then i was thinking that too.
 
I too live in Virginia and had a slimline install done in March. Things were great I thought after it was installed. We got a nice rainstorm and the dish was knocked out of alignment. They sent a tech out and he realligned the dish. Two days later the HD channels were pixelating so I called back. They sent another tech out that said the dish need to be braced, so he added 2 braces to the dish. A week later same problem again with the pixelation. Another tech was sent out and he simply said that I needed to spend $2,000 to remove trees from around my house because it was a line of sight issue, and then left my house. The rep assured me before he left my house that his surpervisor would call me. A call which I never received. I called back upset and after speaking with a D* rep that got in touch with the tech that came to my house she decided to roll another truck. The D* rep thought that the MASTEC rep was rude to her and just didn't want to work. So next guy comes out and says that it's a line of sight issue and it's going to cost $75 to move the dish, but he doesn't have the equipment on board to move the dish. So we call D*. The rep there just argues that it is $75 to move the dish and that because it will leave holes in the roof I will have to call after the damage is done and file a damage report, which could take up to 30 days to fix. I managed to get transferred to retentions. The retentions dept. suggest I find my own contractor to install the dish then they will pay for it but only if it fixes the problem. Instead of taking this gamble he thought the best idea was to just cancel my account due to line of sight issues.

Maybe an hour or 2 later MASTEC finally calls because they have been notified that my problem was escalated. They assure me that they can fix the problem without a doubt. I tell them that they need to tell D* why I had to cancel my account and they need to get out to my house within 30 minutes. Surprisingly enough they call me back and say that they have handled everything with D* and the tech will be to my house in 5 minutes. The tech shows up and amazingly enough it's the same tech that said I needed to spend $2,000 to move trees! However, this time he says that he "vaguely" remembers me and that he is here to fix the problem. He climbs up on the roof and moves the dish repairing all the holes in the roof. Then he aligns the dish properly and comes to the ground. He discovers that the dish was never grounded properly and fixes that problem. Now since the dish has been moved and properly set up I have had no problems! It's amazing though, the calls and headaches that you go through to get things done right.

As a last note directv did end up charging me $75 for a service call, however after a quick phone call to a rep that looked at the notes and problems on my account that charge was removed and I am once a very happy D* customer. Only took about 65 days to get everything fixed right!
 
Sad you have to go through all of this headache just to get a guy or company to do what the claim they will do. It has to cost a lot more in the long run being so callouse.
 
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Well, if the work had been done at the time of the original; appointment, I was more than willing to pay the additional cost. Although, when I made the appt., I was told the wire pulls would be included as the upgrade meant I could no longer diplex.
Had the installer not made a lie (he could of simply said he did not have the ladder/ability to do a roof top install) and the appt. rescheduled, then I would of still not had a problem. Had I not gotten a run around trying to get a straight and truthful answer, had the supervisor caller as they were supposed to. I would not of had a problem paying for extra work.
The install contractor did the right thing. They apologized and did everything possible to return me to being a satisfied customer.

Too bad the CSR's at both DTV and the install companies have no way to escalate a call. Too bad they are paid minimum wage and tend to do minimum work. Too bad the management of these CSR's execpt 110% out of these people but give them no way to push a issue up the food chain.

Yhr moral is, if you do not get trated as you should, the only way to get resolution is to cal and cal and call, as apparently the call logs are the only way management can readily identify a problem.

OTA cable runs is not part of the standard install, and if I had been there, you would have been writing me a check to run the cable. D* can not tell it's contracted companies what they can and can not charge for on anything outside of the standard installation.
 
OTA cable runs is not part of the standard install, and if I had been there, you would have been writing me a check to run the cable. D* can not tell it's contracted companies what they can and can not charge for on anything outside of the standard installation.

I know, DTV did not tell the installer to do the OTA. They were to note it on the request, I originally expected to pay for it.

The first installer refused to do the dish upgrade.
The supervisor never called.
No one would give me any concrete info.
Finally, a senior level manager at the installers saw the call log and contacted me. He had his team run the OTA as a courtesy to try yo make up for all the hassles I went through.
 
Purpose of this lengthy is not to give up. You are the customer. You are the one paying the bills of all the DTV employees and contractors. They work for you. Call. Call again. Keep calling till you get what you deserve. A shame you have to do this but it does pay off. Oh yeah, DTV is giving me a $10/mo credit on the bill for six months as a 'sorry for the problem) reperation.

In re-reading this post/thread, I can't believe I missed this.

1) As an installer, I do NOT work for you. I work for a company that works for D*, that is providing you a service. You are a customer of D*, not me.

2) What you deserve is a standard installation. Nothing more, nothing less. A standard installation is NOT done exactly the way you want everything, including every screw clip or cable run. While we try and take these into consideration, we only have to meet the requirements that D* puts on us.

3) Why in the hell is your dish mounted on the roof of a 3 story house? Was it a LOS issue, or did you request it there? BTW, at my company, a 40' ladder job means that two techs have to be assigned since one is required as a safety man. Personally, I probably wouldn't have done the job either. I'm not lugging a 25 lb, 33 inch kite up a 40' ladder...it's not safe. My health is worth a lot more than your TV.
 
RE:
1) If not for DTV customers, that pay DTV, who in turn pay you, you would not have a job as an installer of DTV, so actually, you do work for me. I am the customer. If the service DTV provies is unsatisfactory (either by direct employees or by contractors), they lose customers. They in turn do not need installers. So in a round about way, you do work for the customer, in this case, me. I too am a contractor, a computer programmer. My primary customer, the one I care about, is the client. The consulting company that hired me comes second.

2) I agree, a standard install is all I was supposed to get. No argument there. But the installation company dropped the ball. They had to now do more than a normal job to retun me to being a happy customer. They (management of the installer contracting company) offered to do the OTA runs.

3) Yes, it had to be on the roof due to a line of sight. My previous dish was there too. I also agree it is at least a two man job. LOL, I do not even climb ladders! Point was, I made this clear to DTV when the appt was made. I told the installer this when he called. He came anyways. His response upon arrival was not "Gee, we are going to need a ladder and a second tech, have to reschedule" which would of annoyed me, but I would of fully understood. He told me there was no way I was going to get a signal, a lie. He never called the company to let his supervisor know of the problem. Both DTV and the contractors CSR's would do nothing when I called them. It was only when senior management reviewed the call log that night, that something was done, that someone got off thier duff and tried to actually help.
 
In re-reading this post/thread, I can't believe I missed this.

1) As an installer, I do NOT work for you. I work for a company that works for D*, that is providing you a service. You are a customer of D*, not me.

2) What you deserve is a standard installation. Nothing more, nothing less. A standard installation is NOT done exactly the way you want everything, including every screw clip or cable run. While we try and take these into consideration, we only have to meet the requirements that D* puts on us.

3) Why in the hell is your dish mounted on the roof of a 3 story house? Was it a LOS issue, or did you request it there? BTW, at my company, a 40' ladder job means that two techs have to be assigned since one is required as a safety man. Personally, I probably wouldn't have done the job either. I'm not lugging a 25 lb, 33 inch kite up a 40' ladder...it's not safe. My health is worth a lot more than your TV.


Sounds like I'm a lucky new D* subscriber who just had a pole mount Slimline done last month that included 75' of cable burial, going thru a crawlspace in my cellar and up thru the floor to my audio rack. He spent 3 hours on my system,,,,,,no charge! I expected $100 anyway but he was more interested in a long term subscription than a few extra bucks. I gave him $10 anyways. I expect to pay much more tho. :)

Robin
 
I had to go to a private contractor for my Slimline install. D* came out but was unable to do the job, too high and too steep of a roof pitch. It was a gable mount but the installer would have to be able to stand on a small section of roof to do the work and, admittedly, doing that on a 35% pitched roof with a 2-story drop to a concrete driveway wasn't exactly something I would be excited about doing. Initially the local D* didn't want me to cancel the order which was install a new dish and then a new HD DVR. Of course, he's all ready to come back in 3-7 days and install the HD DVR....fat chance as there I was in the driveway with no idea whatsoever about how or where I was going to find a private contractor. Tried a company of electrical contractors who advertised they did all sorts of wiring, including TV cabling but no luck. My solution was to call a local surround sound theater company and ask them if they knew an installer. Yep...they sure did and Bob was out this past Wednesday and did the job. Now this is a guy who loves high work and does everything from dish installs like mine to replacing bulbs in 300 foot radio/TV towers. He has the equipment and the experience. Cost me $250 plus parts but it's up there and working like a charm with high 90's across the board for signal strength. The HD DVR? That's back ordered locally and it'll be a couple of weeks before I get it.
 
In re-reading this post/thread, I can't believe I missed this.

1) As an installer, I do NOT work for you. I work for a company that works for D*, that is providing you a service. You are a customer of D*, not me.

2) What you deserve is a standard installation. Nothing more, nothing less. A standard installation is NOT done exactly the way you want everything, including every screw clip or cable run. While we try and take these into consideration, we only have to meet the requirements that D* puts on us.

3) Why in the hell is your dish mounted on the roof of a 3 story house? Was it a LOS issue, or did you request it there? BTW, at my company, a 40' ladder job means that two techs have to be assigned since one is required as a safety man. Personally, I probably wouldn't have done the job either. I'm not lugging a 25 lb, 33 inch kite up a 40' ladder...it's not safe. My health is worth a lot more than your TV.

I totally and 110% agree with this:up:up:up:up

I had a customer the other day who was totally livid that I would not get up on his roof and here is why!!!!! The roof pitch was a 8 12 pitch BUT the shingles on it were the Cedar shake shingles and there is no way I was going to climb up on those and of course he is going the route with D* to get someone up there I mean I offered a free pole mount since the roof wasnt safe and he was totally against that and wanted it on the roof so I politly said have a nice day!!
 
He said it's a LOS issue though. If the roof's the only place with a clear LOS, then the roof is where it's gotta go.
 
Also, (installers) please do not take things out of context.
The inital installer did not want to go on the roof. Instead of saying he did't, did not have a ladder, needed a second tech, even though I told thie job was a roof install to DTV, the installed said it was a LOS issue, even though there was an existing 3LNB dish there. I would of completely undertstood if the guy said he did not do roofs. I do not go on them, so I can relate!
I would of been upset that the roof requirement had not been communicated down the chain, but not with the tech.
I was upset with him because he lied to me and did not report the problem to his supervisor.

DTV/Mastek sent two guys, the following day. One had no problem with the roof. Had the old and new dishes done in 30 minutes.

Need to read the whole story.....
 
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