trouble with installer

[87hardbody]

Hello, I am a former directv customer of over 4 years, I switched over to dish network about 2 weeks ago and the wife can't stand it, I re-ordered direct tv and the installer came out today to install it, this is where the problems began, the installer tells my wife it will cost us $240 to install as it will be a custom install with 4 new cable drops, and because I have the dish network wiring I guess it is more complicated for him plus we live in a mobile home and I guess he doesn't want to install direct because he's going to have to go under the trailer and get dirty!!. I spoke to this guy on the phone and told him we don't want to have to pay anything extra, he's telling me he can install the new dish and run cables to my living room for the new HD/DVR receiver I ordered and than we can work out the rest of the install. He told me to call customer service to discuss a credit for his install charges, I called direct tv and they couldn't pull up my order because the computers were being updated. I call the installer back and tell him to hold off on the whole install as we don't want half the system installed, he says ok, about a half hour later he calls me and tells me he took care of it again pushing the half install, he said my work order has been cancelled and I can re-order thru the company he works for, he explained that he can set up the HD/DVR and than he will call his company and set up my new package, this didn't sound right to me so I again told him to forget about the whole thing for now.

Quick background, when we had directv installed 4 years ago we paid ZERO for the install and the installer had no problems at all, now this guy wants to charge to install the system, he also told me that I need to cancel dish first before he can install directv, sorry this is so long, does this sound weird to anyone else or is it just me??

I notified Directv about what this guy was trying to do as to going thru "his company, etc" and have a new appointment this Saturday when I will be home.

What do you all think about this installer??

 

[charper1]

To me it sounds like this guy wants to reuse all your current RG6 runs so he can be in and out in a flash; BUT you still have DISH running on them, so this means he is being required to do his actual "DirecTV free install" and run the new free RG6 which he does not want to do so he is trying to BS his way out of the job if he can't do it HIS WAY? Does this sum it up? If so, he is lazy and want to turn a quick job to get more under his belt IMHO; I understand WHY, but to not agree with his method.

 

[Big Dawg 23]

Since I lived in a Mobile home previously here is my question/suggestion. Why not have him install the dish and they tuck the cable into the skirting? To enter the home drill through the side of the house very low where until you walk by it you don't see it? Or option two right before he shows up unhook Dishnetwork and his excuses are gone.

 

[William1]

Why not just contact DTV, and arrange it through them? I agree with the other posters, this guy sounds fishy and lazy.

 

[memory]

Hello, I am a former directv customer of over 4 years, I switched over to dish network about 2 weeks ago and the wife can't stand it, I re-ordered direct tv and the installer came out today to install it, this is where the problems began, the installer tells my wife it will cost us $240 to install as it will be a custom install with 4 new cable drops, and because I have the dish network wiring I guess it is more complicated for him plus we live in a mobile home and I guess he doesn't want to install direct because he's going to have to go under the trailer and get dirty!!. I spoke to this guy on the phone and told him we don't want to have to pay anything extra, he's telling me he can install the new dish and run cables to my living room for the new HD/DVR receiver I ordered and than we can work out the rest of the install. He told me to call customer service to discuss a credit for his install charges, I called direct tv and they couldn't pull up my order because the computers were being updated. I call the installer back and tell him to hold off on the whole install as we don't want half the system installed, he says ok, about a half hour later he calls me and tells me he took care of it again pushing the half install, he said my work order has been cancelled and I can re-order thru the company he works for, he explained that he can set up the HD/DVR and than he will call his company and set up my new package, this didn't sound right to me so I again told him to forget about the whole thing for now.

Quick background, when we had directv installed 4 years ago we paid ZERO for the install and the installer had no problems at all, now this guy wants to charge to install the system, he also told me that I need to cancel dish first before he can install directv, sorry this is so long, does this sound weird to anyone else or is it just me??

I notified Directv about what this guy was trying to do as to going thru "his company, etc" and have a new appointment this Saturday when I will be home.

What do you all think about this installer??

He is wanting to get a sale so he cancels your order and has you order through his company then the company and him get money for that and then for the custom install thats pretty goofy cause I have never had to charge custom for a mobil home I mean you romove skirting and run lines and put it back simple. Just call DTV and get someone else this guy is just trying ot pad his pockets

 

[87hardbody]

Thanks for the replies, I did contact DTV and requested another installer, I have a new appt. for tomorrow (saturday morning), since I will be home, my wife is about fed up with everything after the Dish fiasco of 3 trips in a week to get Dish installed. DTV also said they would note what this installer was trying to do and notify his company.

"Since I lived in a Mobile home previously here is my question/suggestion. Why not have him install the dish and they tuck the cable into the skirting? To enter the home drill through the side of the house very low where until you walk by it you don't see it? Or option two right before he shows up unhook Dishnetwork and his excuses are gone."


Originally my DTV dish was installed on the side of our shed, the Dish installer mounted their SD dish in it's place and the HD dish on a pole, the installer that was here the other day was going to mount the new dish on another pole as he said it was larger and too big to mount on the shed wall. There is no problem getting the cable into our home, if the dish is installed where the 1st guy said all that has to be done is run the cable (s) about 6' under the grass to get to our deck from there it would go under our deck and than there is full access to under the trailer, no holes need to be drilled, in fact all the rooms getting receivers allready have holes in the floors for the cable.

The second cust. serv. rep I spoke to the other day told me the "custom install fee's" are up to the installers and they are not required to go in crawl spaces, etc with out charging extra if they want to. but as I said in first post, the original installer did the whole job himself with no problem and no extra fees!

Will update tomorrow after the new guy comes, please cross your fingers this guy/gal is normal. thanks

 

[87hardbody]

sorry forgot, the install was arranged thru DTV

 

[iwc5893]

The second cust. serv. rep I spoke to the other day told me the "custom install fee's" are up to the installers and they are not required to go in crawl spaces, etc with out charging extra if they want to. but as I said in first post, the original installer did the whole job himself with no problem and no extra fees!

Will update tomorrow after the new guy comes, please cross your fingers this guy/gal is normal. thanks

That is correct...a DirecTV free standard installation includes running the cable through one exterior and one interior wall. Going through a floor is not necessarily covered by this. DirecTV can not dictate to their contractors what rates are charged outside of a standard installation.

That being said, I generally preferred going under a house (if the crawlspace was in decent shape) because it meant I didn't have to spend time mounting the cable to the house. I always left about 10 feet of extra cable under the house for the unexpected, and it looked better.

IMO, what was said about the installer trying to make the sale sounds like the truth.

 

[87hardbody]

I agree about the sale, when he called me back he told me my work order was in the trash that he called somewhere and took care of it, that I had a "clean slate with DTV" and should order my pkg, thru his company, he also told me he lived close by in case there were any problems,

Tomorrow if the installer has any problems going under the trailer I'm going to offer him that I'll run the cable under our trailer, I have no problem going under there. but hopefully I will get a honest installer and can get this all installed, will update tomorrow afternoon, thanks

 

[87hardbody]

Hello, DTV is installed finally!!, installer wanted $50 to run a cable into my living room but I told him I would do it and he was fine with that, I ended up running a few more cables as he said he (they) don't use the diplexers anymore to run cable tv and the sat signal thru 1 cable ( that's how it was done originally back in 2004 when DTV was first installed), no big deal I had to run a few extra cables for the cable tv. I also removed all the dish network cables and cleaned up the mess under the trailer and labeled all the cables while I was under there.

The only other thing he wanted to charge me for was to mount the dish on a pole, but I at least got him to lower the price from $75 to $50, thanks for all the replies, so glad to have DTV again,

 

[87hardbody]

is the HR22 a good receiver?

 

[Van]

Yea its a good receiver. Im curious, did you get a charge for an early cancellation of the dishnetwork service and how much did you have to pay directv to re-establish service after cancelling and then coming back a few weeks later?

 

[87hardbody]

I called today to cancel dish, I had a $115 bill pending which included Decembers bill which I wasn't going to use plus the $240 cancellation fee, after cancelling the rep told me the final amount I owe was $217.14.

i didn't have to pay DTV anything to come back, they told me when I cancelled that my account would always be available if I wanted to come back, all I had to do was place a new order, I placed a new order instead of just coming back with my previous pkg because I wanted to add the HD/DVR I didn't have HD before, so I spoke with someone in the win back dept, I chose the new HD/DVR and told them I wanted to use the 3 existing receivers I had already (2 SD & 1 SD DVR), than I chose a pkg and set up an appointment for the install, they reactivated my account, no credit check needed and I still have my same billing cycle date.

 

[Steven210]

Hello, DTV is installed finally!!, installer wanted $50 to run a cable into my living room but I told him I would do it and he was fine with that, I ended up running a few more cables as he said he (they) don't use the diplexers anymore to run cable tv and the sat signal thru 1 cable ( that's how it was done originally back in 2004 when DTV was first installed), no big deal I had to run a few extra cables for the cable tv. I also removed all the dish network cables and cleaned up the mess under the trailer and labeled all the cables while I was under there.


Just curious, what did you need extra cables for? I had my wireless internet and cable running through a diplexer before I purchased D*. My installer said I couldn't run my internet and the HD/DVR through the same outlet and didn't offer extra cables to try and get it to work. Just wondering if that will do the trick so I can call him back over and get it done. And to think, I grilled him a good Jalepeno n Cheese burger with some smoked sausage for his work. Oh well...

 

[87hardbody]

I needed 2 cables to each DVR, I only had one going to each TV where I wanted the DVR'S to be installed since I had Dish network installed previosly, than because he said he couldn't use diplexers I had to run 3 cables to 3 tv's for the cable tv, as we also have cable tv in addition to DTV,

I think the reason he couldn't use diplexers has something to do with the multiswitch, I was reading the manual for the multiswitch and it said not to use them with certain receivers