Not sure about other providers, but I know Comcast just gives you a date, no time. how it was when I had Comcast some years ago.Not sure about DTV.
Just to inject my opinion here and obviously you're free to do as you'd like but if you're changing to what you hope is better overall system with a potentially lower bill for 1 - 2 years, do you really want to sacrifice that because a tech ran into a landslide prior to your getting connected?
I mean, I do see your point, but it's like a woman I talked to the other day that was going to switch to another provider because her bedroom TV (joey) has been pixelating for a month. She's never called to have a tech visit, just decided it's Dish that's bad when in fact it's a technical problem that can be fixed. I told her to just call and get it fixed. 2 days later I saw her and she was happy again.