Had to cancel Voom installation

[venom]

OK, so here my story.

I have been reading up on Voom and I finally decided to take the plunge (especially with the new deal). I live in a tall condo bldg in downtown Seattle. I called up customer service and made sure my concerns were addressed before I actually placed the order:

1. Because the new deal is a 6 month committment, I wanted to make sure I could recieve local channels OTA. The service looked up my address (and cross referenced it with antennaweb.org or whatever) and said that based on my location and direction my condo was facing, I'd be able to get local channels. I asked her if I could cancel if I didnt get the channels, and she *explicitly* said that in the case that I was not satisfied with the installtion and the reception of local channels during the install, I could refuse it on the spot. Note: I double verified this in the cleanest possible language (ie the installer would come and install and if I didnt get all the channels I wanted, I could refuse the install)

2. She said the dish also should not be a problem.

Well, so I was super excited. Install was going to happen on sunday (someone from Installs Inc). Anyways, the guy called me on Saturday and basically had a very skeptical attitude.

1. He said he knows my location and said that it didnt matter if I was high up. If I did not have a clear view to the south-east, the dish would not work. I told him I can see the south-east perfectly (mt ranier for those of you who live in seattle). He asked me if I can see 10 degrees east of that. I told him, I have no clue what that means and he should just come here and check it out. He asked me if there were any buildings and I told him there were the dowtown buildings, but they were all 6 blocks away...he said something about them being a mile away...

2. I asked him about locals and he said that he cannot guarantee that all locals would work. I told him about the conversation I had with customer service and he said that once he gets the antenna installed, he will not be stay around to see if it actually works. ie. anything from no channels to all channels could work. This sounded way off then what I was told by Voom. I was pretty nervous about locals not working and me being locked in for 6 months since I would have "accepted the install".

Anyways based on the above and the fact that the install guy did not sound overly enthusiastic, I just cancelled the order.

Does anyone here have any advice for me (I would really like to get Voom if possible). Additionally does anyone in Seattle have it, and if so, what is your experience like?

Thanks.

 

[wobbie]

Check with Voom or your local state office about getting out of contacts when purchased over the phone or internet. I believe you should have at least a three day grace period to cancel. Then if you want to have the installer come back and install the system and see if it works. If not then cancel within your grace period. Tell the installer when he calls what you are going to do, he should still get paid for the install even if you decide to cancel. Remember, your not locked into a contract if you don't sign one.

 

[riffjim4069]

You can alway refuse to sign for the final product if Ole Lazy Arse doesn't get your system working to your satisfaction. At this point, I would tell VOOM what happened and request a different installer. I'm sure someone in the Seattle "In Your Area" thread can make a referral.

 

[Bilodeaumj]

I would call VOOM and demand that you get a different installer. I had a similar problem with a bad attitude with an installer (not in Seattle) who wasn't able to get my OTA. I almost canceled service altogether but I got out someone VOOM friendly and have all my OTA's. It seems that some installers are against VOOM just becuase...

 

[Sean Mota]

venom,

here are some questions:

Where are you planning to install dish and antenna? Balcony? Local reception is very "iffy" when it comes to any location. It is not a guaranteed. You need to be prepared to be either dissapointed or surprised that you've got locals. It is a hit or miss. This is why I find it quite amusing that CSRs are guaranteeing locals when it is not a given.

One thing you can do to see if you can get your local: find a friend or a relative who has an hd box for OTA and get a antennas from RS or a silver sensor to see if you can get any reception. Remember silver sensor antennas are only good for UHF. If you cannot find a loaner, go to best buy or any store that has one of these (make sure that they have a return policy with no questions asks (I know Radio Shack and Best Buy does)). You can play with these to see whether you can get any reception.

That's not the ideal way but it is the only way I would do it just to see if I can get locals. Regarding the satellite, that's a little more difficult and would suggest you to go to the local forum here and check the seattle thread to see what type of difficulty anyone has encountered in seattle getting voom.

 

[venom]

I called up Voom and they patched me directly to Installs Inc and they said that they have found me a different installer, so I guess I will try again.

I did not expect to get all the locals, but I was expecting the installer to honor the "if you are not satisfied you can request an uninstallation for no charge" which the installer did not seem to care about. Anyways, I verified with Installs Inc directly this time and they said that the new installer will honor that. So I guess we will see how it goes...

Thanks all.

 

[venom]

Sean, the answer to your question: Yes, the balcony.

 

[SeattleVoomer1]

Another Seattle VOOMer weighs in.

You should be able to get the sat from downtown but it depends on how high your condo balcony is and if their might be a taller building such as the Columbia Tower in your line of sight to the sat. Where exactly do you live? Condo on the waterfront?

I doubt OTAs should be a problem. Channels 4, 5 and 9 are on the hills around you. Channels 7, 11 and 13 are problematic. Check out antennaweb.com before your installer comes. You may have a problem since your the stations are located all around you. Multipath may rear its ugly head. What OTAs do you really want?

Try to find out exactly who your installer is. This is critical. When we first signed up we had a couple of "winners" and their supervisor was worse. Hope you get Rob Merino. He saved VOOM's bacon with us. Professional, knowledgeable and friendly. He's coming back out here on Wed. morn to install a 24" sat dish. Oh, and make sure you are getting the 24" dish rather than the 18" so you won't get rain fade. Our ZIP code and I'm sure all others in the Seattle area are getting "automatic" (if you call) upgrades.

And lastly, enjoy VOOM! We've been enjoying it since early Dec. last year.

Yes, I'm watching the reprogrammed Bravo channel as I type this under rainy Seattle skies, Gill

P.S.: If your installer, Installs, Inc. and VOOM's CSRs can't resolve any problems you might encounter post to Wilt on the Yahoo/VOOM forum. He is VP for engineering at VOOM and cares about customers.

 

[venom]

Thanks for the awsome insight SeattleVoomer1. I live in Belltown on the 22nd floor (not quite waterfront). My view faces downtown and ranier, so I wonder if the columbia tower will be in the way...

As for OTA: I would like to get Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS. UPN and WB are preferable, but not an absolute requirement.

I did request a 24" dish...we will see if thats approved.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for a good installer