What is considered standard installation? Sat dish on roof plus cables down through walls to each receiver? Or is that not "standard"? My friend was charged $125 for something i'd consider standard.
Standard installation
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The standard install is known as quick and dirty. Put a dish on the roof, aim it, punch a hole thru the outside wall, shove the cable in the hole, hook up a DIRECTV box, activate it, get out fast. They charge extra to do a good job, like fishing cables in walls, mounting the dish on a pole, the professional install.
what was he charged extra for?
When they did my install originally they put the dish on the roof, ran 4 cables to 2 DVR's (SD setup only) with 2 being through a drop ceiling
I haven't pay for an intalation yet in 10 years with D*. Next time negotiate with the CSR your instalation. They work with you, specially if you are a good custumer.
The dish on the roof was part of the standard installation. IF the roof required a forty foot ladder that was an extra. Running cables inside walls was an extra.
Connecting to existing, prewired interior runs is standard.
Joe
It varies per area and retailers get to play by different rules.
Pole mounts are free in my area.
But when we could charge for them, we could charge up to $75
Does not have to be a roof for it to be standard either.
Pretty much any and every dish mount for us is standard no matter what type of mount or how high it is mounted.
Standard cable runs in my area include single penetration (one wall or floor) but I personally will not charge if I have to drill through a couple walls.
(Also, I do not consider drilling in to a crawl and then through a floor as 2 penetrations but somebody I guess could)
Wall fishes are extra.
We charge $50 each for a wall fish.
Again, not every company plays by the same rules.
Best advice I could give is if you think they are bogus charges, then call D* and ask.
If they are bogus the tech will have to bring the money back.
If not then they can explain.
Pole mounts are free in my area.
But when we could charge for them, we could charge up to $75
Does not have to be a roof for it to be standard either.
Pretty much any and every dish mount for us is standard no matter what type of mount or how high it is mounted.
Standard cable runs in my area include single penetration (one wall or floor) but I personally will not charge if I have to drill through a couple walls.
(Also, I do not consider drilling in to a crawl and then through a floor as 2 penetrations but somebody I guess could)
Wall fishes are extra.
We charge $50 each for a wall fish.
Again, not every company plays by the same rules.
Best advice I could give is if you think they are bogus charges, then call D* and ask.
If they are bogus the tech will have to bring the money back.
If not then they can explain.
Roof mount of the dish is considered standard. A customer requesting a pole mount because he does not want a roof mount is considered a custom installation for which he is charged. If LOS cannot be gotten from the roof then the pole mount is supposed to be done at no charge. With respect to cableing, if service is needed in a room that is not prewired then there is not supposed to be a charge to get a line there, but that line will be brought in through the floor of a crawlspace, down through the ceiling from an attic or through an exterior wall in slab homes. Wall fishing or crawl fishing will cost you. Providing an outlet in a different location in a room that already has one is a "convenience outlet" and there is a custom charge to install. Often comes down to the technician you get that day. If he has had a not so profitable day or week he may be more inclined to do a little extra and not charge for 15 or 20 minutes extra work rather than walk away from an install empty handed after a customer balks at paying for custom work. Some guys will not do custom work without charging and is within his rights to do so, regardless of how much a customer complains. If a customer says " I'll call DTV and we will see about this" then they will be promptly told that custom charges apply. DTV does not state clearly enough IMO that it is a Standard Installation that's free
See, we can't charge for pole mounts period since they supply the poles. Which I think is BS because we used to be able to charge up to $75 with 20ft of burial included when we paid $10 for a pole. (Basically I would much rather buy the pole and charge).
Cable burial we can still charge for over 20 feet and wall fishes we can still charge for.
However, I pretty much just avoid custom labor now since they make us run it through our HSP who keeps 30% even though they have nothing invested in it. Which also means I have to keep up with it and track it to make sure I get paid, then if I do get paid 10% gets pulled out for insurance, and uncle sam also then takes his piece.
Which means a $50 wall fish after my HSP turns in to $35 minus 10% for insurance (if I get paid at all) making it $31.50 minus taxes. Which means I am lucky if I see $20 by the time I am done. Pretty sad if you ask me that the HSP can take a percentage of my money when I pay for all may materials and gas and it is my time as I am not paid hourly.
Cable burial we can still charge for over 20 feet and wall fishes we can still charge for.
However, I pretty much just avoid custom labor now since they make us run it through our HSP who keeps 30% even though they have nothing invested in it. Which also means I have to keep up with it and track it to make sure I get paid, then if I do get paid 10% gets pulled out for insurance, and uncle sam also then takes his piece.
Which means a $50 wall fish after my HSP turns in to $35 minus 10% for insurance (if I get paid at all) making it $31.50 minus taxes. Which means I am lucky if I see $20 by the time I am done. Pretty sad if you ask me that the HSP can take a percentage of my money when I pay for all may materials and gas and it is my time as I am not paid hourly.
kjuled,
You gotta be in MASTEC land,
Care to guess how it would proceed if and when you drill a water pipe or dig through a phone or gas underground service? I would ask for (demand) an insurance certificate from your HSP showing you as a covered entity. If they refuse stop giving them your custom money.
Then, again, IF, you are an employee......you do not buy anything. IF they are withholding taxes and paying 1/2 your SS then they do get all the custom work but you are paid by the hour to do it...however long it takes. What you cite has some contradictions. The HSPs cannot have it both ways.
Joe
Yup, I am a sub for mastec (not an in house sub).
No worries, I don't run jack sh.. through mastec.
I will not do it at all before I make them a dime of custom labor.
No worries, I don't run jack sh.. through mastec.
I will not do it at all before I make them a dime of custom labor.
Joe,
It's not just mastec, all the HSP's and RSP's are pulling the same crap now.
Their argument is that you would not have gotten that custom labor if we did not give you the customer.
But it is funny how if anything happens they take no heat for it. They do expect it both ways. That is the reason they are all being sued, and state and federal goverments are up the butt's about the abuses, and non-payment of taxes!
LOL, seems I recall a place or 2 like this from my bachelor days, ever heard of Hammerjacks in Baltimore?............
LOL, seems I recall a place or 2 like this from my bachelor days, ever heard of Hammerjacks in Baltimore?............
Hammerjacks bit the dust about five years ago. It was one of many businesses that were moved to make way for parking for the two sports barns. Great tailgating parties for the Ravens and the Orioles...but thousands of jobs were run out of town for the sports complex. Go figure!
Joe
Actually the customer is not theirs. Their customer is Directv. Both you and the HSP are free to offer your services to anyone. You might have a hook in them for defrauding you out of any part of the custom work.
Good luck,
Joe
Iceberg said:
Thanks for the replies.
This was a new install for a newly constructed residence that already included a centrally located cable distribution box. Installer said "that wouldn't do". He put the dish on the roof, fed cables to attic. Dropped 4 feeds, one to each room (1 HD, 3SD) . Fish lined one (that I could see) to the living room and placed the wall connection right next to the original wall connection.
I noticed that other neighbors had their dish on a mast next to their houses.
ERGGGG!
New Guy strikes again.
New construction with at least single homerun + ethernwt & external, down the wall ceiling, = new guy.
You are still wrong. Suck it in! Competent people will not do sat work. Tough sh*t!
Joe
New Guy strikes again.
New construction with at least single homerun + ethernwt & external, down the wall ceiling, = new guy.
You are still wrong. Suck it in! Competent people will not do sat work. Tough sh*t!
Joe
You can't negotiate intalation, instalation, or installation with the DIRECTV CSR what an installer does or doesn't do when he's standing in your front yard.
If you are insisting on a pole mount, want all the wires fished inside the walls, etc.., the CSR can't get that for free.
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