I need somewhere to bitch and moan

[heywire]

Well, my install was at the noon to 5 time frame and they called a little bit ago and the guy that was supposed to come do it quit today. So they dont have enough people to make up for it, so they re-scheduled me for neft Friday afternoon. Ugh....

While that does suck, I guess it's better than having that tech out at your house and go ballistic ripping out wires to p.o. his boss or something

 

[vicw]

The installer might have made you think it was cool when you told him to leave, but he was probably pissed off that you told him to leave, and he purposely closed out the work order and marked it as completed to cause you a problem.

Yes, the appointment was between 12 and 5pm, but he was probably running late because of his previous Jobs. Your luckey the installer actually showed up when he did and just should have had him to what he had to do finish it.

As far as the reschedule, its very unlikely you will see someone at 12 noon.

I would suggest getting a morning appointment, and you might get luckey and be the guys first appointment of the day.

Claude, I think you are way too forgiving to the installer in this case.

The customer was given a 5 hour window for them to get the job done, which in itself often is often a major inconvenience. Assuming that the installer was running really, really late, would it have been too difficult to give the customer a courtesy call during the afternoon to inform him or her of the delay, and offer the option to reschedule or accept a very late arrival? The customer should not have had to call after the window ended to learn that. Unless the customer was very rude to him, I also can't see any reason that the installer had any reason to be "pissed" when he showed up a full hour after the five hour window, during the dinner hour, which is usually the busiest time of day for most families with children. How could any responsible installer justify intentionally causing another problem by closing out the work order?

It seems to me that the inconveniences and frustration to the customer as demonstrated in this case would have been avoidable with just a bit of thoughtfulness and respect for the customer's time on the part of the installer and his managment. I spent a good portion of my career in the computer service business, and it was my experience that most customers would accept issues and understand scheduling problems as long as they were kept informed along the way.

 

[Roadwarrior]

Know what I'd like to see changes? This whole thing about having to accept Dish's subcontractor for ALL work once they've touched your system. I did my own original install many years ago. When I called Dish to upgrade they sent the local subcontractor. They have some good guys and they have a lot of sub-par hacks whose work I generally have to redo after they're gone. So I found a local guy who I really like. He's a dish dealer and a directv dealer and he's an absolute whiz with OTA. I understand he's not free, but I would GLADLY pay for his professional services rather than have the local dish subcontractor come back. The problem is... I can't. Not without canceling service and starting fresh under my son's name or something. As long as he's a dish dealer I should be able to call whoever I want.

That's my gripe and I'm sticking to it.

He probably makes his money off of sales, why we he want to mess around with somebody elses install? He doesn't know what he could be getting into. I know for a fact that once a sub contractor has worked on or installed your system, Dish can send in house guys out behind them. I've gone behind Dish techs who have gone behind subs who have gone behind retailers....etc. I'll bet the guy just didn't want to bother himself with a piddly repair. The contractors are in your area to take the workload off of the in house guys, that's why you keep getting them. They cover that area.

Or am I wrong?

 

[shappy]

Well, my install went off without a hitch today. The installer called me on several occasions to let me know of his progress and when he would arrive.

The upgrade went off without a hitch and I am enjoying my 722.

It is clear to me that part of the problem is the quality of the subcontracted installers. Get a good one (like today) and things go smoothly. Get a not so good one, and you can be left wondering what is going on.

Perhaps Dish needs to have a better selection and training process?

 

[rcdallas]

It's your luck of the draw. Some installs/service calls take longer then others. If ya'll stepped in the the shoes of anyone in service industry, you'd know that you'd never know what your going to run into that day.

I've completed 4 room install in 7 hours, I've completed 4 room install in 1.5 hours, each job is different, period.

If ya'll can't see that then drink a beer.

I've said it more then once, and I'll gladly say it again, Contractors and Inhouse techs titles does not mean squat about the skill of a tech, it's simply the tech themselves, I've seen damn good work from both, and I've seen crappy work from both. Whoever takes a little pride in their work is who you want. Obviously the person you got today took some pride AND things just happen to go smooth that day without a hitch..... though the guys next install could have been something totally something else. That's the fun part of service, it's always something different.

 

[iwc5893]

The customer was given a 5 hour window for them to get the job done, which in itself often is often a major inconvenience. Assuming that the installer was running really, really late, would it have been too difficult to give the customer a courtesy call during the afternoon to inform him or her of the delay, and offer the option to reschedule or accept a very late arrival?
...
It seems to me that the inconveniences and frustration to the customer as demonstrated in this case would have been avoidable with just a bit of thoughtfulness and respect for the customer's time on the part of the installer and his managment. I spent a good portion of my career in the computer service business, and it was my experience that most customers would accept issues and understand scheduling problems as long as they were kept informed along the way.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here.

Everyone seems to think that they are entitled to a phone call from the installer to let them know exactly when they will be there. My company requires us to notify our customers of our ETA's two hours prior to the end of the appointment window (despite having 1-2 jobs between the one I'm at and the one I'm calling about), then call the local office and note the ETA's with them. We are then expected to call the customer when we go in route, so that they can stop whatever shopping they are doing and head home to meet us. Then we are required to call in and turn on their service (which has taken an average of 20-30 minutes per call lately), and then call in to close the job. Keep in mind that we are expected to call EVERY number the customer provided on the work order to let them know we are coming until we actually reach them.

This means I'm making 4-6 calls on MY cell phone per job. My cell phone bill runs about $150-200/month, of which I am reimbursed exactly $0. In an effort to lower my cell phone bill, I try to use pay phones as much as possible, and have my office call the customers to let them know my ETA's.

Something else to keep in mind is that cell phone coverage is NOT AVAILABLE in every square foot of this country. There are large areas that the installer simply can not get a cell signal to call you. These areas often differ based upon which provider you are using.

I'm not saying this was the case in this situation, but it happens more often than people realize.

My 2 cents worth...anyone have change for a nickel?

 

[vicw]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here.

Everyone seems to think that they are entitled to a phone call from the installer to let them know exactly when they will be there. My company requires us to notify our customers of our ETA's two hours prior to the end of the appointment window (despite having 1-2 jobs between the one I'm at and the one I'm calling about), then call the local office and note the ETA's with them. We are then expected to call the customer when we go in route, so that they can stop whatever shopping they are doing and head home to meet us. Then we are required to call in and turn on their service (which has taken an average of 20-30 minutes per call lately), and then call in to close the job. Keep in mind that we are expected to call EVERY number the customer provided on the work order to let them know we are coming until we actually reach them.

This means I'm making 4-6 calls on MY cell phone per job. My cell phone bill runs about $150-200/month, of which I am reimbursed exactly $0. In an effort to lower my cell phone bill, I try to use pay phones as much as possible, and have my office call the customers to let them know my ETA's.

Something else to keep in mind is that cell phone coverage is NOT AVAILABLE in every square foot of this country. There are large areas that the installer simply can not get a cell signal to call you. These areas often differ based upon which provider you are using.

I'm not saying this was the case in this situation, but it happens more often than people realize.

My 2 cents worth...anyone have change for a nickel?

Wow, that's a bunch of phone calls.

Sounds ike the company you work for should be helping with the customer notifications and reducing the number of cals you have to make from the field, and maybe you need a different cell phone plan to control your cost. I can't imagine that the pay phone alternative would be cost effective. (Do they still have pay phones?) Would most customers allow you to use their phone to check in, and at the end of jobs?

I don't think Shappy was asking for any exact arrival time, or any time at all, and he (or she?) apparently was waiting at home through that time window, not out shopping, expecting you to notify hiim when you would arrive. As a customer, I personally would never expect that luxury, but it would be great to have that installer service, rather than be parked at home for the duration.

Seems to me a single call from you or from your office would have fulfilled that need to Shappy reasonably informed. Keep in mind also, that in the case Shappy wrote about, NONE of those many calls that you are complaining about having to make were actually made by the installer or the company within the alloted five hour window.

I don't get how your employer expects you to supply the cell phone at your own expense,without reimbursement, unless you are working on a contract basis, in which case, all bets are off.

I'm sympathetic to the plight of the service tech , as I dealt with similar problems in computer service for quite a few years, but I really think the customer deserves at least a minimal level of notification when schedules have to be adjusted, short of the elaborate series of calls that you wrote about.

 

[iwc5893]

Would most customers allow you to use their phone to check in, and at the end of jobs?

Yes, most do...and the 15-20 minutes I spend on the phone trying to close that job is 15-20 minutes I am not driving to my next job, making my ETA's that much later.

I really abuse my dispatchers by sending them text messages with my ETA's and requesting that they call my customers. A SMS only requires about 2 seconds of signal/air time to send, and I have unlimited texting on my phone. In addition, it often works where I can't maintain a signal long enough to complete a call.

 

[shappy]

I think it is also important to point out that my complaint was about a whole series of failures on the part of Dish and/or the installer. Let's recap: First, the installer didn't show up within the time window (why bother giving me a window if you don't expect me to assume you will show up in the window?). Second, I didn't get a call from anyone that the installer would be late. It was up to me to call after the window had passed. I was then told the installer would be arriving within 15-20 minutes (clearly there was some way to contact the installer to find this out, unless they were just making this up). Half an hour goes by and still no installer, so I call once again to cancel and reschedule for another day. Installer shows up 30 minutes after I cancel and an hour after the window.

Yes, I sent the installer away. If for no other reason than the fact that I don't want the tired installer rushing though my job because it is so late in the day. But also because I want to be able to see what he is doing. Plus, my wife is getting home from work in the time he would be working and we like to sit down as a family to eat.

Some say I should have sucked it up and let him do the work. Well, my question is how late in the day is too late for him to show up? 8? 9? midnight? Plus, what if the job took longer than he had daylight for? Again, would he rush to get it done?

Finally, the new appointment I requested was never made so I have to wait now a third day for my install, adding insult to injury, as they say.

Luckily the installer I had yesterday was top notch, kept me up to date and did a great job doing the install. I kept his business card in case I ever needed work done. I was very happy with him.

 

[palacios]

When my dish was installed, I was given the same time window you were given. The guy showed up after 9 PM and expected everything to be OK. No phone call or nothing. My kids were already in bed. Lucky for him I was so excited about the HD service, plus I didn't have anything going on so I let him procede with the install. There was still about 1 1/2 hours left of daylight at that point of the year so he was still able to see what he was doing.

 

[popzezo]

sometimes the dispatcher will accidentally or in ignorance close one out instead of place on hold.. im so glad you see that it may not be the installers fault, its rare to hear that