HD reciever problems

[Loren99]

Hi,

My name's Loren and I just joined this forum. My parents have a 5 LNB satellite on their roof for their HDTV and it hasn't worked properly since day one. Its unable to recieve half the HD channels and 3 test channels. All the other channels pixelate and the voice studders. We've had 8 service calls on it (including 3 no-shows) and no one has been willing to get on the roof to try re-aiming it. They change cables which are obviously still good and say it should be fixed. The last service tech came out, looked at the install and said he'd never seen an install so lazy. He promissed to come back today, remove the old satellite, wire all the sets into the new one and reaim the dish. He never showed. Customer service claims the service call has been closed. They've rescheduled a service call for later in the week, but this level of incompetance is unbelievable.
Does anyone know how to get out of the contract so we can switch to FIOS? It seems to me that D* has failed to fulfill their end of the contract, but they want to charge us a large penalty to discontinue service which isn't watchable. Thanks for any info on canceling, or any info on how to get better reception with what we have.

Loren

 

[Jimbo]

Didn't D* 's contractor put it up there in the first place ?
They should have no problem getting up there to re aim it if thats the case.
Personally I would ask them to take it off the roof, tell them that you cannot get to it to clean it off if nessasary (snow).
Tell them to patch the roof for you Correctly, and move it to a better location on a pole on the ground (if acceptable for you, and if there is a clear openning).

Don't be pissed with D*, remember 90% of the installs are contractors, maybe more.
So the missed appointments are not nessasrialy D* fault, but thier contractors, give them a call as well.

The beginning of your post sounded like we were going into therapy

Make a few calls, get this straightnened out and let us know how you did.

Jimbo

 

[Loren99]

Sorry about starting my post like that. I got a message at the top of my screen which said "You haven't posted before, introduce yourself..."

Anyway, none of the contractors have been willing to go on the roof since the first one who put the new dish up, and I've spent hours on the phone with Directv. I think the best placement for the dish would be near the top of the chimney where the old dish is, but the installer left the old one where it was and bolted the new one to the roof. The last contractor said he didn't have a tall enough latter with him to get to the dish on the chimney. Just out of curiousity, is it normal for them to leave the standard sets on the old dish and hook up the HD set on the new dish?

I can understand contractors being late, but when you have to take off work and then they don't show, its frustrating. At this point I guess all I can do is see if the next contractor can fix the system.

Loren

 

[Jimbo]

Sorry about starting my post like that. I got a message at the top of my screen which said "You haven't posted before, introduce yourself..."

Anyway, none of the contractors have been willing to go on the roof since the first one who put the new dish up, and I've spent hours on the phone with Directv. I think the best placement for the dish would be near the top of the chimney where the old dish is, but the installer left the old one where it was and bolted the new one to the roof. The last contractor said he didn't have a tall enough latter with him to get to the dish on the chimney. Just out of curiousity, is it normal for them to leave the standard sets on the old dish and hook up the HD set on the new dish?

I can understand contractors being late, but when you have to take off work and then they don't show, its frustrating. At this point I guess all I can do is see if the next contractor can fix the system.

Loren

Can you try a different contractor ?

As for leaving the old dish, if it is mounted to the roof they will often leave it, so they don't have to deal with holes being patched on the roof.

Is there NO other place to put this dish ? and why can't they put the new dish where the old dish was ?

Jimbo