Dish service call experience

[dishdude]

Background - I installed a 1000+ on my parent's chimney 10+ years ago with a DPP44 in the attic connected to a 622. I'm out to visit them last week and everything works great (they're 2,200 miles away) the day after I leave the system goes down. I play tech support and know things are bad when the check switch starts 1 of 38.

I call Dish, fake pretending to do the idiotic things they ask - unscrew all the coax wires and screw them back in? That's just begging for the system to never work again! I get them to schedule a service call for the next day, enroll them in Dish Protect, and waive the $10 tech fee - I didn't even have to ask - can't ask for more!

Tech shows up, swaps the DPP44, injector and power supply, no signal. Says he need to leave to get permission to go on the roof? (!?) and get the right dish so he doesn't need to remount it on the side of their house. This makes sense - using the existing j-mount an eastern arc dish would hit the side of the chimney so they'll need a western arc. Tech never returns or calls! My Dad calls in, they give an $18 credit and reschedule for Sunday.

This is all second hand, but is it true a Dish tech can't go on a roof without supervisor permission?

Tech was probably wondering how this antique system was even working, ungrounded and with hex crimp f-connectors! The chimney is vinyl siding too! Waiting to hear how this plays out tomorrow. I've installed all their systems since their 119 only model 2000 back in 1997.

 

[HipKat]

It's true., Several years ago, walking on roofs was shut down. It USED to be the only way to do a roof walk was with fall protection, but the last year, it seems managers can walk on lower pitched roofs. I don't think this affected retailers, so they may want to see if there's one in the area they can hire. Grounding, as long as I've been here, has never been required if a ground point was more than 20' away from a ground block, but those connectors are a QA fail now

 

[TheForce]

HipKat-

About a dozen years ago one of my employees decided to get Dish and claimed he saved money buying his own DVR and dish. The salesman sold him all the proper stuff. He asked me to help with the install and when I surveyed his property, to clear the trees, I mounted it on the roof of his two story 4 plex building. He said he had landlord's permission. All was fine for a year and then he decided to call Dish and do an upgrade. The installer came out and said he wasn't allowed to install on buildings and had to put a pole in the yard. The only clear sight to the sky was about 75ft from the building. He simply laid the coax on top of the lawn and up the side of the building to the second floor apartment window. Couple months later the landlord had his lawn service guy in and ran over the cable. Call Dish out and you'd think they would trench it under the lawn but they just laid it on top like before. Called Dish after it was chopped up a second time and this time just a week later Dish refused to repair it and cancelled the account. He moved away a few months later anyway. Fast forward to my daughter's place who just got DirecTV. They had an old dish mount on the wall of the house from owners before along with coax wiring. It was old DirecTV too. But the installer said he was required to put a pole in the yard, but at least he buried the coax and then ran it to their DVR in the house. The interesting thing is the installer said he had to call in another crew to do the ditch. The Dish is about 8 ft from the house.

As I get older, there may be a day when I can't climb up on a roof to work on my system and if I have to have one of these installers in, I will just cancel and stick to internet programming services. It seems that is the way of the future anyway. I now have Netflix, Amazon and Hulu along with many other services for half the price of Dish monthly billing. The DVR and 30 second skip is what keeps me with Dish. I appreciate liability issues but given a choice, I may be forced to say good bye to satellite as IPTV gets better and lower cost. Image quality of IPTV is superior to Dish but operation convenience is still awkward.

 

[navychop]

I expect IPTV to get more expensive, as content owners try to cash in. Today, IMHO, they are offering loss leaders.

 

[JSheridan]

I expect IPTV to get more expensive, as content owners try to cash in. Today, IMHO, they are offering loss leaders.

Kind of reminds me of the old animated show 'The PJ's' where Smokey the pusher says with a smile 'first one's free'.

 

[budda]

My understanding is the installers are not ditch diggers. Some installers will do ANYTHING. But you pay extra for that. Not included in the free install or general service. If you need a tower? A trench. Special brackets, whatever. That stuff is not free. I am not in the Satellite industry. But I am a service tech in another field. It amazes me how people old and young people alike expect so much from a retailer or service provider. Never thinking what would be reasonable or right. Just make me happy or I'll write a poor review! Customer is always right even if It's just wrong. Yes you don't get,if you don't ask. But use a little common sense. 75ft cable on the ground? Does a sat tech even carry a trenching shovel. Couple months later? Wow. Who at that house looked at that cable laying on top of the grass and said. This is good to go! If the cable was still on the ground twice. And got damaged twice. Maybe the guy who wanted it to work should have handled it? Make an effort. Something? You can get anything done. You just have pay for it. Imagine that? Wisdom and intelligence. Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit bowl. Just saying. Peace

 

[MitchDeerfield]

Did you know that watermelon is a vegetable? Now you know.

They are in the cucumber family.

 

[HipKat]

Umm, wow, wrong. Dish regards a pole as the last line of mounts in the mounting hierarchy. Now, a lot of techs realize that to set the dish up on a temp mount until Dig Safe/Julie shows up at the initial install, then a return visit a week later to do the pole mount means getting paid extra for that first install. It seems back in the day, a LOT of techs did this. I hear it all the time when I go to old installs on a pole - "the tech said it HAD to go on a pole" with clear LOS from the roof. Also, yes, we are ditch diggers. Cable trench is part of a pole mount. 1st 50' is free and over that is a one time $50.00 charge, but cable MUST be buried. Now I had some co-workers who went to Florida last year the hurricanes and to a T said the work they saw there from the local techs was not good in most cases. I get it, stucco houses, clay tile roofs, etc make it harder and sometimes impossible to mount to the structure, but with an assortment of options, Fascia mounts, Corner mounts, etc, many times there's a way around a pole. Besides, when I was in Florida back in the construction days, between sand and water, I'd think pole mount would be a horrible way to go in may parts of the state

 

[navychop]

I’d ask how you’d mount on adobe, packed earth, or straw/hay homes, but would such people HAVE Dish?

 

[ChadT41]

I’d ask how you’d mount on adobe, packed earth, or straw/hay homes, but would such people HAVE Dish?

I’m in AZ, with both clay and Pack earth homes, and to answer your question, YES. Lol. Can’t say I have ever seen a straw house in my life, however. Maybe in Germany I did.

 

[dishdude]

Inserter was bad, they're back up and running. Tech sold them a surge protector for $30. Guess I'll replace the dish with a 1000.2 next time I'm out there so they can get rid of that stupid switch and inserter. I never liked those 1000+ dishes, they were like an erector set that was rushed to market in typical Dish style.

 

[budda]

Umm, wow, wrong. Dish regards a pole as the last line of mounts in the mounting hierarchy. Now, a lot of techs realize that to set the dish up on a temp mount until Dig Safe/Julie shows up at the initial install, then a return visit a week later to do the pole mount means getting paid extra for that first install. It seems back in the day, a LOT of techs did this. I hear it all the time when I go to old installs on a pole - "the tech said it HAD to go on a pole" with clear LOS from the roof. Also, yes, we are ditch diggers. Cable trench is part of a pole mount. 1st 50' is free and over that is a one time $50.00 charge, but cable MUST be buried. Now I had some co-workers who went to Florida last year the hurricanes and to a T said the work they saw there from the local techs was not good in most cases. I get it, stucco houses, clay tile roofs, etc make it harder and sometimes impossible to mount to the structure, but with an assortment of options, Fascia mounts, Corner mounts, etc, many times there's a way around a pole. Besides, when I was in Florida back in the construction days, between sand and water, I'd think pole mount would be a horrible way to go in may parts of the state

We don't know if the tech offered to bury it for a charge. Which I said. Installers will do ANYTHING thing like towers and ditches cost extra. You know like $50.00 more. We don't know if diggers hot line was called (Required in some states)and never showed up? Maybe the installer just didn't follow thru. We do know the rg-6 cable sat on the ground for month. How can anyone expect nothing would happen to that cable? Sometimes you have to make a call or take action. And is Wisconsin good luck to any ditch digger in February. Every install can be different. If there is no communication. Should you just assume it's right? Or maybe ask a question? A simple conversation. A few questions goes a long way. Peace

 

[Claude Greiner]

I expect IPTV to get more expensive, as content owners try to cash in. Today, IMHO, they are offering loss leaders.

I expect the internet providers like AT&T, Comcast and Spectrum to get pissed off and start treating competing IPTV traffic different.

Then either charge the IPTV Providers more money or the customers more money.

Of course the IPTV service offered by the ISP’s will be a better deal.

 

[Claude Greiner]

First of all I don’t blame the techs for not going on roofs. A customers Tv is not worth risking my safety.

As a retailer I won’t even get off the ladder in most cases unless it’s a single story ranch home with virtually no pitch.

If the Dish is in an inaccessible location, then installing a new dish is the right thing to do.

As far as burying the line, that’s the installers responsibility. There is no dig crew that comes later to do it. That’s an excuse from the installer NOT to do their job.

The only companies that have separate DIG crews are the cable and phone companies. NOT ATT/DIRECTV.

 

[ChadT41]

It’s not a separate crew, but DigSafe has to be called and lines marked first.

 

[NYDutch]

Over the years, I've probably run at least a couple of miles of orange RG-6 or 11 laid on top of frozen ground. After the thaw, I'd go back and bury the cable using a manual and/or power lawn edging tool to make a narrow 6" deep "slot", pushing the coax down with a thin blunt piece of hardwood attached to a handle. Just walking along the slot afterwards would push the sod back in place. The only call back for buried cable damage I ever had was caused by a guy cutting the wire with a shovel when he was digging to find out where it was. He wanted to run an Ethernet cable in the same place...

 

[Bobby]

Over the years, I've probably run at least a couple of miles of orange RG-6 or 11 laid on top of frozen ground. After the thaw, I'd go back and bury the cable using a manual and/or power lawn edging tool to make a narrow 6" deep "slot", pushing the coax down with a thin blunt piece of hardwood attached to a handle. Just walking along the slot afterwards would push the sod back in place. The only call back for buried cable damage I ever had was caused by a guy cutting the wire with a shovel when he was digging to find out where it was. He wanted to run an Ethernet cable in the same place...

I have always thought it was a good idea to place plastic conduit in that ditch and then put the wire, any kind of wire, in it as opposed to direct burial. Your last scenario would have a better outcome with conduit.

 

[dishdude]

First of all I don’t blame the techs for not going on roofs. A customers Tv is not worth risking my safety.

As a retailer I won’t even get off the ladder in most cases unless it’s a single story ranch home with virtually no pitch.

If the Dish is in an inaccessible location, then installing a new dish is the right thing to do.

As far as burying the line, that’s the installers responsibility. There is no dig crew that comes later to do it. That’s an excuse from the installer NOT to do their job.

The only companies that have separate DIG crews are the cable and phone companies. NOT ATT/DIRECTV.

At least half of the dishes I installed had to go on the roof. I was in hilly Western Pennsylvania, the elevation on 119 was only 29 degrees and 24 for 129! It didn't take much tree to cause LOS issues.

 

[NYDutch]

I have always thought it was a good idea to place plastic conduit in that ditch and then put the wire, any kind of wire, in it as opposed to direct burial. Your last scenario would have a better outcome with conduit.

Of course conduit would be better protection, but that wasn't what I was getting paid to do. I did run the coax for the permanent dish at our Adirondack cottage in conduit, but since our "daily use" dish gets relocated regularly, that cable always just lays on the ground of course.

 

[TheKrell]

Did you know that watermelon is a vegetable? They are in the cucumber family.

Boo hiss to that idea! From here: What's the Difference Between a Fruit and a Vegetable?

Botanically speaking, a fruit is a seed-bearing structure that develops from the ovary of a flowering plant, whereas vegetables are all other plant parts, such as roots, leaves and stems. By those standards, seedy outgrowths such as apples, squash and, yes, tomatoes are all fruits, while roots such as beets, potatoes and turnips, leaves such as spinach, kale and lettuce, and stems such as celery and broccoli are all vegetables.