How do I report a bad installer?

[texasdiver]

Does anyone know if there is a formal procedure for reporting a bad installer to DirecTV?

I just switched from Dish to DirecTV and they guy was out yesterday for my "free" Circuit City" install. I would normally have just done it myself but I figured a pro installer would be able to do a better job of aiming the triple LNB dish. Unfortunately I was wrong. Here's what I discovered after he left:

1. Apparently poor job of aiming the dish: I have no signal on the 119 sat which I didn't notice right away because I only get HBO-HD and HDnet on it. Well, some transponders get up to about 20 on the signal scale but I get no signal on those channels. On the 110 sat the signal strength is in the 60s and on the 101 sat it is around 95. I'll be going up to do it myself this afternoon.

2. No ground. The guy just wired the coax and didn't install any ground. This is pretty pathetic because I have an OTA antenna mast 2 ft away that is grounded to a grounding block and all it would have taken is for this guy to run a 3' ground wire over to that block.

3. Incompetent job of crimping coax. It looks like he used a vice grips to crip the coax connecters rather than an RG6 crimping tool. They are just crushed flat rather than crimped in the proper hexagon shape.

4. Loose connections. All the coax connections were lose. I could actually tighten them up with my hand.

I don't want this guy back on my property to touch anything. But I do want to report him. Any suggestions?

PS, is there a current sat and transponder map available for DirecTV? I'm not using 119 for locals, only for HD and I was wondering what transponders I should have the signal monitor set to when I try to tune in the 119. I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't be getting 119 except for bad aiming because for the past year I have had a Dish 500 dish on the same mounting mast and as I understand it Dish uses the 119 location.

 

[branchbouncer]

I would call the Circuit City and tell the story,and see if there is any other installers they use.You could call Directv and see if they can do anything but since it was someone that Circuit City uses probably not.I live outside of Washington DC and I would not use any of the local installers to put a Dish on a dog house.Your best bet(if you want it done with care)is to go to lowes and get the zenith F connector kit and repair them yourself.Not grounding the system is against code and you can really raise hell on that point with the local officals.It's really ashame in this day and time that the old saying"If you want it done right-Do it yourself" still holds true

 

[slacker9876]

I am thinking this was a Circuit City installer not necessarily a D* installer. This would go right in with "acceptable retail standards"

I have only ever met on D* installer and have never heard from friends or neighbors that D* was like this. You can call CC or D* but you should call someone. Maybe the guy just needs more training!!! We were all idiots at some point in our career.

 

[texasdiver]

I just found two more things wrong with the install.

5. No proper drip loop where the coax enters my chimney. He cut the coax back so far I'm not sure I can make one now without splicing. Damn. The dish is mounted to a wood frame chimney. The actual chimney is an insulated metal stove pipe that is surrounded by a wood frame covered by siding. I ran the coax leads up through the space between the stove pipe and chimney wall and then out the side of the chimney.

6. No gasket or seal installed where the coax enters the chimney. This is something I specifically asked him to do.

You're right, Circuit City was not the actual installer. Apparently it was some company called "installation technologies" that contracts with local installers in my area. I'm going to be complaining to someone that's for sure.

Oh, and I'm just going to go through and redo it myself. I wired my entire house with coax and ethernet and have all the correct professional greenlee stripping and crimping tools which this guy apparently didn't even have. The ONLY reason I even wanted an installer in the first place was to get the dish aimed properly since I wasn't exactly sure how difficult it would be to aim a triple LNB dish without help and without a signal meter on the roof. Guess I'l just go up there with a cordless phone and have my wife watch the signal meter on the TV.

 

[branchbouncer]

Before you re-aim the dish I would get good F connectors and seat them properly.I had average F connectors on my RG6 and replaced them with the Zenith ones and got a signal increase.That may be one reason that you are not getting a good reading on 119.Or as you state above you need to re-aim the dish(probably tilt)Good luck

 

[Neutron]

This is why I will never set up installs with retail. Car radios I will do myself. When I had my Directv system installed I called Directv directly. The local installer here was VERY nice and professional. He answered all my questions. He grounded the system to code, something DISH never did beforehand. He made sure everything worked before he left.

The same installer came out just this past week to hook up my HD Receiver. He remembered doing the initial install and was the same professional nice person that I had before. My wife and I have animals and are always leary of strangers in our home. This guy was very nice to our animals.

 

[branchbouncer]

If your dogs like the guy he's probably a good individual they are smarter than the average person
Just noticed the cat in your avaitar

 

[texasdiver]

The only reason I went with CC was because they were the only ones who had the HD Tivo receiver in stock. I would MUCH rather have gone with the local installer who did my Dish installation and pulled all the cables through my attic the first time for no extra charge.

Guess I'll go get some new F connectors and re-do everything and see what's up. I noticed I'm getting a signal now on 119 and wasn't last night. Is there any chance that there are issues with the sat at the moment and not how my dish is aimed?

In any event, even if the dish is properly aimed there are enough other things wrong to be upset. It is like looking at one of those pictures in the cartoon page of the paper where you have to circle all the things wrong with the picture.

 

[branchbouncer]

Improperly(crushed-shorted-etc) installed F connectors can cause a world of problems.Just as when a phone installer works on the NID(phone junction box)on your house,wires should be secure on the poles and the nuts should be secure but not to the point where they are crushing the wires flat.I would make sure that CC hears of your displeasure though

 

[texasdiver]

Well, here's what I did:

Went to Lowes and bought a box of all-weather RG6 F connectors. My so-called installer used regular F-connectors not the all-weather kind on all the exterior dish connections. I don't know what the spec for installations is but I noticed that my previous Dish installer used all-weather F-connectors so that's what I bought and used.

Then I went up on my roof to re-inspect the mess and decided to just start all over. So I pulled the antenna apart and put on 6 new F connectors.

Then I decided to re-check the plumb of the mast because they had re-used the old mast from my leased DishNetwork dish. Sure enough, it wasn't completely plumb anymore. So I loosened up the bolts and got it plumb again using the little bubble level that came with my new dish mounting mast that my installer never touched.

Then I looked at the settings the installer left on on the dish. The tilt was set at 67 and the elevation was set at 49. According to my zip code, the correct tilt is 71 and the correct elevation is 51. So I reset them back to the correct coordinates and put the dish back on the mast.

The correct azimuth for my location is 198 so I took my Silva backpacking compass and set it to 198. Then I took a carpenters level and held it against the side of the dish mounting bracket and then held the compass against the level so that I could look down on it properly (I don't know how you guys do it but I couldn't figure out another good way to do it because the bracket was too high to look down on). I slowly rotated the dish around until the needle hit 198 and then snugged up the mounting bolts slightly.

Then I hooked all my cables back up and snugged them up properly with a wrench and went down to check my signal readings. On sat 101 my signals were at 96-99 on both tuners and on all the transponders so I figured that's good enough. On Sat 119 my signal was peaking at 88-92 on two transponders and down around 75 and 55 on the other two transponders that the instructions say to check. So I left the signal meter on 119 and went back up to the roof with my wife on the cell phone. I first tried adjusting the azimuth one or two degrees in either direction. But I got a signal loss either way I went so I left it at the specified setting. Then I did the same with the elevation. I tried 50 and 52 and got signal loss in both directions so I put it back at 51 and called it good.

Now my 119 channels of interest (HBO-HD, HDnet, and PPV-HD) are all coming in perfectly. Last night and this morning I wasn't getting a signal on either tuner and my signal strength meter was either in the 20s or not getting a signal at all depending on the transponder I checked.

So there you have it. A $5 box of all-weather F Connectors and 1/2 hour of work on my roof and my system working perfectly. Now I don't know why I didn't just do it myself the first time around. Live and learn.

 

[beast37799]

i would have whomever is to blame to reimburse u for all the material's that u had to buy because of the crappy install

 

[branchbouncer]

Glad to see that your up and running tex

 

[Neutron]

Same here man, glad you got everything set right!!

We have a dog too but she's too damn hyper. Our female adult cat (not pictured) won't go to anyone who she doesn't deem friendly and she went right up to the guy wanting to be petted. He was nice enough to oblige.

Our satellite service only went out last night when it was pouring down rain. As soon as it let up some it came back on. Glad to see the installer fixed ours.

Not all installers are bad. I would highly recommend the one we had.

 

[texasdiver]

That's the thing. We had a great installer come out and put up our Dish Network system when we first moved into this house. Before that living in Alaska we always had cable so I never bothered with learning anything about it. Upon moving to Texas I called up a local installer in Waco, DSSI, that has a web site and a regular storefront operation in Waco. They did a bang-up professional job and pulled a lot of coax through our sweltering attic to get two satellite feeds to the far side of the attic where the builder brought all the coax leads to each room. That was all part of their "free" install for the Dish system.

I just assumed that our experience with DSSI was the norm until I found out what was included with a 'standard' Circuit City install. I would have even been happy with the standard circuit city install had they actually done it right.

Unfortunately with the HD Tivo machines in such short supply you have to get them where you can and CC was the only place I could find one so they ended up being my dealer for DirecTV.

On the bright side, the new promotion that DirecTV is running for new customers is great. I had originally planned to just get HBO, Tivo, and the HD package which came to about $67/mo but they are offering four months free of the complete everything package with all the premium channels if you sign up for Sunday Ticket at $62/mo for four months. So I took the Sunday Ticket at $62/mo and added the HD pack for $11 and am paying $73/mo to get everything DirectTV offers including Sunday Ticket for the next 4 months. Only $5/mo more than I had originally intended to pay anyway. After 4 months I'll cancel back to what I had originally intended to subscribe to. In the mean time I'll hopefully be able to see my Seahawks here in Texas.

 

[lowjeep]

Just for the record, 99% of all retailers that sell D* have the contract with the installer. The installers do not work for or contract with D* directly unless you buy it from their direct sales department. You would need to contact Circuit City as they are responsible for hiring their own installers which are generally a joke.