Another comment on Dish Installers

[Tom Bombadil]

I had a Dish Installer drop by today. First time ever in my 7 years with Dish. I installed my D300 in 1998, upgraded it to a D500 in 2001 and then re-installed my D300 to point at 61.5 earlier this year.

I have also installed my own 4000, 4900, 7100, 510, and 811 receivers. This time I was upgrading to a 942 and Dish insisted that an installer had to come. Well, I went ahead and installed my 942 a couple days before the appointment and had it up, activated, and running. I tried to cancel the "installation" but Dish wouldn't allow it.

So the guy shows up in a Dish van. Said he had been an installer for a couple of years. He didn't have anything to do once he got here, except they told him to pick up my 811 and take it. They could have shipped me a box to do the same thing, but I didn't care one way or the other.

While he was here, he had to fill out some paperwork, like writing down the receiver and smartcard numbers, which I had already phoned in. And he had to take signal strength readings, which I had also phoned in. He took them from transponder 11 from 61.5, 110, and 119.

What I thought was humorous was that when he took the reading from 61.5, which was a 97, he whistled and said, "I didn't know it could peak that high from this location." Which means that he has never tweaked any of his installations as much as I did mine.

He also asked me why I had one pointing at 61.5, "To get international channels?" No, I said, to get VOOM. "VOOM?" he asked. He didn't know what VOOM was. I guess installers don't have to know the channel lineups, but I had expected some glimmer of recognition.

Perhaps he was an okay installer, but I would expect any installer working on my setup to optimize for signal strength, or at least get within a handful of points. Any less is sloppy work in my book. I'm sure glad I put in my own dishes.

 

[BrettTRay]

Thats what always pisses me off when i'm at our local office. Some of the installers don't know none of the new technology and none of the new channels that are out. You would think that if someone was doing this for a living that they would try to keep up to date on the new channels and equipment that is and has came out so that they wouldn't look like a dumb ass when a customer asks them about it. Thats whats wrong with some of these fly by night installers these days, they take no pride in their work.

 

[Van]

The thing you dont see though is that the information on all aspects of a receiver, switch, lnbf, channels, satellites, coax, ect ect ect, are not always given to us or only given to us in condenced form like cliff notes, and at times is incorrect.

But I would say that Tom's installer was either full of chit about his time as an installer for dish or had been doing mostly directv installs if he was a sub. What he was correct on was needing the receiver information and the signal strengths even though Tom had called them all in already. And yes even though Tom may be qualified enough to do his own installs Dish does not want any customers to do self installs anymore as it voids the equipment warranty and can lead to other issues such as damage to the system and even the structure or worse the customer. Remember this is a country where you can take to court the fast food resturuant for your placing a hot cup of coffee between your knee's and spilling it on yourself and win because your ignorant.

 

[AndyOI]

I also had an installer drop by today for a Superdish Upgrade. He walks in and is ready to hand me the adapter "I asked for." Now correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no need for any adapter in a Superdish install, simply the new dish and a DP34. When I told him I wanted the upgrade he started fooling around with a compass and told me he had the dish. He goes out to his van and comes back telling me he didn't have the mounting kit or LNBs for the dish so I'd have to reschedule. Now I'm curious as to why someone would bother bringing a dish without the install kit??

 

[sA :: Shaggy]

I thought it was all in the same box like the Dish1000. so he was trying to give you used or he didnt want to do the job.

 

[Van]

nope its not shaggy, superdish parts come in seperate box's, reflectors 4 to a box, skew plates 4 along with feed arms and hardware, lnbfs and shrouds 4 to a box, mast's and support struts 2 to a box.

dish pro adapters are used on all 4 digit model receivers to adapt them to the dish pro system.

 

[dturturro]

Just out of curiosity, what is everyone's closest major city (if you haven't already listed it)? I'd like to know which offices can't train their techs.

 

[sA :: Shaggy]

wow that seems kinda stupid, but hey I didnt come up with it.

 

[BrettTRay]

The whole superdish kit about a year ago did come with everything that is needed (reflector,arm,lnbs,DP34,mast,shroud,manual,bolts,etc.). When did they change it.

 

[OoTLink]

Coulda swore dishes came with the pole/bolts/etc and the LNB was seperate.

Guess they changed that.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Dish does not want any customers to do self installs anymore as it voids the equipment warranty ...

No it doesn't.

 

[AndyOI]

I don't quite understand why dish doesn't like self installs. When I first set up my system they had a free install, but I didn't want to wait so they paid me $100 to install it myself. I wish things were still like that.

 

[BrettTRay]

they used to let people do self installs but alot of these people thought that they could install it themselves and had all kind of proplems. Could you imagine having to schedule service calls for all these people that are pissed because they can't watch tv and they want it done NOW. It doesn't make good business sense at all for a company to let people do there own installs because of how advance these setups have got in the past years. It would be a nightmare. Think of all the phone lines that would be tide up because BillyBob can't get his Superdish sighted in!!!!!

 

[AndyOI]

they used to let people do self installs but alot of these people thought that they could install it themselves and had all kind of proplems. Could you imagine having to schedule service calls for all these people that are pissed because they can't watch tv and they want it done NOW. It doesn't make good business sense at all for a company to let people do there own installs because of how advance these setups have got in the past years. It would be a nightmare. Think of all the phone lines that would be tide up because BillyBob can't get his Superdish sighted in!!!!!

I just hate the fact that a company doesn't believe its customers are smart enough to hook up a simple dish. Maybe they aren't for all I know... I hooked up our dish at 14 (with some slight help from my dad). Since then I've rerun the wiring myself several times. It's going to take me forever to get a superdish installed with their "professionals" yet I could easily do it myself.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I had never done anything like a dish installation in my life before I was shipped my startup D300 package. It came with an installation video. I watched it twice and then went out and put it up. Worked perfectly. The mounting post is still there, now with a D500 on it instead of a D300, the grounding wire is still in place, and the same RG-6 is still in the ground and into my house. Not counting the time it took the day before to dig a hole, a trench, and mount a post, installing the dish and running all of the cable into my house took less than 40 minutes. It was very easy. Pointing the dish and locking it into place took about 5 minutes - using a compass and having never done it before.

But I can imagine how many thousands of botch jobs that Dish has had to go in a fix.

 

[dturturro]

I just hate the fact that a company doesn't believe its customers are smart enough to hook up a simple dish. Maybe they aren't for all I know... I hooked up our dish at 14 (with some slight help from my dad). Since then I've rerun the wiring myself several times. It's going to take me forever to get a superdish installed with their "professionals" yet I could easily do it myself.

Well, after a few thousand trouble calls where the customer couldn't figure out simple things like "keep power supply plugged in", "turn TV on" and/or "if the satellites are in the sky, why can't I cut the cables to the receivers and get the signal wirelessly like my laptop" it's kinda understandable that E* would rather do it themselves.

 

[AndyOI]

Well, after a few thousand trouble calls where the customer couldn't figure out simple things like "keep power supply plugged in", "turn TV on" and/or "if the satellites are in the sky, why can't I cut the cables to the receivers and get the signal wirelessly like my laptop" it's kinda understandable that E* would rather do it themselves.

Lol I suppose I understand now.

 

[Van]

Ive had customers swear up and down that I could put the dish in theyr attic and it would work because either someone they knew was doing it or someone said they could do it. I had an engineer tell me that I was going to put his dish in the yard on the east side of his house 4 foot off the east wall and 15 feet north of the southeast corner and that the dish would see the 121, 119, 110 sats without any problem and mind you this is a 2 story home and he is an engineer. Others have said that satellite doesnt use cables, or that I could just use the phone lines, that they knew more than I did because they ran theyr own lines and spliced them together using wire nuts and electrical tape, splitters always show up on self repairs, they have no idea who moved theyr dish from one side of the house to the other but it must have been them pesky kids next door, that the receiver is also supposed to be a dvd player, oh and Im sure I ordered service from directv and the number I called was 1-800-333-DISH to order directv.

 

[xcableguy]

Thats what always pisses me off when i'm at our local office. Some of the installers don't know none of the new technology and none of the new channels that are out. You would think that if someone was doing this for a living that they would try to keep up to date on the new channels and equipment that is and has came out so that they wouldn't look like a dumb ass when a customer asks them about it. Thats whats wrong with some of these fly by night installers these days, they take no pride in their work.

Don't blame the installers, blame Dish Network. It's their responsibility to see that their employees are properly trained, equipped and up to date on the latest channel information. Hell, I'm a retailer, and I get way more information from this forum than I do from Dish Network.

 

[RIRWIN1983]

why cant i get the signal wirelessly like my laptop, lol kiddin

Well, after a few thousand trouble calls where the customer couldn't figure out simple things like "keep power supply plugged in", "turn TV on" and/or "if the satellites are in the sky, why can't I cut the cables to the receivers and get the signal wirelessly like my laptop" it's kinda understandable that E* would rather do it themselves.