installation nightmare

[spudwrench]

we have been with dish for over 9 years (directv prior to that) and with a house full of Korean females kbs world is a necessity. last Saturday I called and canceled dish to follow kbs to directv. dish offered some discounts and were obviously not used to dealing with a non-irate consumer, they just can't meet our needs.
directv had an installer out the next day. if only things could be that simple...
the installer didn't have a clue although according to him he was "the best", the one that "got all the difficult installations", and the one they called on to deal with "problem customers". Y'all know that guy, right? so he didn't know that to get the international package required an additional dish and in trying to cover his mistakes/ignorance the installation is now going on for more than 3 days. We do have signal and I am impressed with an obvious improvement in picture quality - I really didn't expect that. we're supposed to get an eta on the necessary equipment to complete the installation tomorrow. I am patient and wasn't too bothered by the guy's BS, but today when he tried to impose a $100 fee I blew a gasket. He offered to make it $80 since he could tell I was upset - directv and the two supervisors above him took care of the"fee"... and we're still waiting

not looking for advice, just relating my experience, other than Korean programming and picture quality I don't believe there's much difference between the two companies.

 

[Hutch1814]

we have been with dish for over 9 years (directv prior to that) and with a house full of Korean females kbs world is a necessity. last Saturday I called and canceled dish to follow kbs to directv. dish offered some discounts and were obviously not used to dealing with a non-irate consumer, they just can't meet our needs.
directv had an installer out the next day. if only things could be that simple...
the installer didn't have a clue although according to him he was "the best", the one that "got all the difficult installations", and the one they called on to deal with "problem customers". Y'all know that guy, right? so he didn't know that to get the international package required an additional dish and in trying to cover his mistakes/ignorance the installation is now going on for more than 3 days. We do have signal and I am impressed with an obvious improvement in picture quality - I really didn't expect that. we're supposed to get an eta on the necessary equipment to complete the installation tomorrow. I am patient and wasn't too bothered by the guy's BS, but today when he tried to impose a $100 fee I blew a gasket. He offered to make it $80 since he could tell I was upset - directv and the two supervisors above him took care of the"fee"... and we're still waiting

not looking for advice, just relating my experience, other than Korean programming and picture quality I don't believe there's much difference between the two companies.

I'm surprised he got it activated. If the original WO was flagged with the 95 it shouldn't have went through. Not defending the tech but it sounds like directv wrote up the WO wrong from the start. I'm curious, what exactly was the $100 fee for!?

 

[spudwrench]

the original wo was correct(at least according to everyone else i spoke with including his contractor boss), he wanted the extra money when he found out another dish was needed. keep in mind we had the dish hopper with not only more than enough coax lines to all the sets, but the dish mount was the original directv mount from years prior. other than mounting/aiming the new antenna (s) he really didn't have a lot more to do than plug and program.
update: contractor boss will have correct lnb installed tomorrow - if it happens it will have taken from sunday to thursday (they actually showed up on three of those days) to make the change to directv

 

[Visitor]

the original wo was correct(at least according to everyone else i spoke with including his contractor boss), he wanted the extra money when he found out another dish was needed.

Is that even allowed? I didn't think the contractor could charge you anything separately from what has already been arranged by Directv for the WO? I can't seem to recall if I had to pay Directv a fee to install the international dish - I am thinking I did not, but my memory fails me. I certainly didn't give any money to the contractor, though. How did they not know that it would require a second dish? I think the only international programming that didn't require the second dish was the Chinese Jade package (which is no longer)...

 

[kbs]

Get the guy name, worker ID, car license and report him to Direct TV, police dept for scam. Bad installer. If you are Korean, he is not, racist guy targeting smart customer they thought they could scam.

 

[Lanarian]

Out of curiosity, are you getting HD receivers or SD? There's a bug with SD receivers, the 18" round dish and the 95 dish.. in the satellite settings (on the receiver) you actually have to set it to the wrong dish config to get it to work.. (the one that actually works is the 3 LNB 18x20 + 95).. I'm just wondering if thats whats screwing up your install....
Edit: When you set it to the "Correct" settings, you'll pull searching for satellite, 771 on the internationals (in this case, the Korean channels).

 

[spudwrench]

fee was not legit

he tried it on my wife (I could not be there on the third day of installation) and when directv told me not to pay (of course I called them!) I was in a quandary, the guy was at my house, IN my house, who knows what he might have done, Peeing in my attic might be the least. at any rate, directv told me to let him go on with the installation and when it came to payment he was to call his supervisor. i'm not Korean, no racism involved just a ______ trying to get over on a Korean woman. he told my wife that he had had to charge a previous customer $300, it was just the cost of putting up the extra dish. total bs, he didn't even know about the extra dish until the Korean channels weren't there on the first day of installation. Again, I don't hold directv responsible, they have been courteous and helpful, this is a contractor's agent, uninformed and unprincipled.

 

[spudwrench]

sorry, I missed a query...
all High Def, genie and three mini genies, extra antenna is up, but supposedly bad lnb, new one due tomorrow

 

[spudwrench]

...the nightmare continues. stood up again on friday, directv supervisors' only help: "we'll have the local installer call you". showed up on sunday and spent 8 hours trying to find 95 bird for international channels. gave up with darkness and promised to aquire a better meter and call me today to set up another attempt. he's confident that everything is right, he just can't find the satelite. So as of yesterday: 8 days of installation, 3 days of install, 3 days stood up (so 6 days on our part) and still no KBS!

 

[Joe Diamond]

As an installer in a small rural area..............let me mention that the international dish & installation is rare in some areas.
I have received WOs that did not mention any international channels being the customer's requirement ....because the call center missed it. They are the same people who sent several installation sets to the same address for installation at several addresses ( Father expected to pay for one installation for children who lived all over the area at different addresses) So mistakes happen. And the installer was correct in expecting extra pay for the additional dish...but probably not from you......You pay DirecTv only unless you order custom work from the installer....eg routing cable inside walls is an extra charge.

Relax, they will get it............does seem to be going a little long,

Joe

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

Just from the sounds of this conversation, a "different lnb" from the contractor boss is not going to fix the problem. I think they gave you a swm3 and they think you need a swm5. What you really need is a traditional ka/ku5 or ka/ku3 lnb with a swm8 multiswitch, and the international dish. This is most likely going require the entire setup to be redone on the outside of the house. They need to drop 4 total lines from the existing dish, then add a second dish with one line, then combine both into a seperate multiswitch, and then run your existing swm splitter into the multiswitch. I sincerely wish you good luck, because it doesnt sound like anyone knows whats going on.

And I concur with Hutch, the WO shouldnt have closed with a 95 flagged on the order if it was there to begin with, so I personally believe your order was created wrong to begin with. But as long as it all gets fixed, keep us posted.

 

[Hutch1814]

Just from the sounds of this conversation, a "different lnb" from the contractor boss is not going to fix the problem. I think they gave you a swm3 and they think you need a swm5. What you really need is a traditional ka/ku5 or ka/ku3 lnb with a swm8 multiswitch, and the international dish. This is most likely going require the entire setup to be redone on the outside of the house. They need to drop 4 total lines from the existing dish, then add a second dish with one line, then combine both into a seperate multiswitch, and then run your existing swm splitter into the multiswitch. I sincerely wish you good luck, because it doesnt sound like anyone knows whats going on.

And I concur with Hutch, the WO shouldnt have closed with a 95 flagged on the order if it was there to begin with, so I personally believe your order was created wrong to begin with. But as long as it all gets fixed, keep us posted.

Up

 

[satinstallerguy]

I'm guessing being a contractor he is only getting paid $15 to install another dish. Unfortunately all that extra work is not getting paid out fairly so he is trying to get you to pay the difference. Albeit $100 is excessive. I could see maybe $60. Every time I would get World Direct installs with KaKu I would turn them down unless the customer was making up the $60 difference for putting up the other dish....

?SIG

 

[dishcomm]

...the nightmare continues. stood up again on friday, directv supervisors' only help: "we'll have the local installer call you". showed up on sunday and spent 8 hours trying to find 95 bird for international channels. gave up with darkness and promised to aquire a better meter and call me today to set up another attempt. he's confident that everything is right, he just can't find the satelite. So as of yesterday: 8 days of installation, 3 days of install, 3 days stood up (so 6 days on our part) and still no KBS!

8 hours to find line of sight to one satellite? I could do that in 8 minutes.
Look, when I was a tech, I would cover the property and the house looking for a line of sight. It doesn't take that long. As a contractor it was in my best interest to find a way to install. If not, I made no money.
The only thing I would never do is mount a dish to "see" if there was that one in 1,000 chance it 'might' work.
I went by a 5 degree window. I did this because I was responsible for the install for at least one year. So if it looked like there would be an eventual obstruction, the job did not get done. Plus, I was not about about to risk a 'fail' on an inspection of said job. Meaning, I was not going to spend my money and time doing a job for which I may not get paid.

 

[spudwrench]

there are no obstructions, there is a clear line of sight, he just can't find the satelite. he leads me to understand his meter doesn't seem to be able to lock on to this particular bird and he is coming back with another tech and a better meter. using the signal strength function on the genie won't work 'til he gets at least a rough alignment. he had no problem setting up the first antenna and i get all the other programing just fine.

 

[satinstallerguy]

95 on World Direct Dish should be a snap............. He probably has the dish settings wrong...

?SIG

 

[spudwrench]

the nightmare ends

on the eleventh day a "supervisor" came with the original installer, 20 minutes later everything is fixed. got a credit from directv (not much) and the korean women in my house are no longer on the warpath. big sigh of relief

 

[Joe Diamond]

on the eleventh day a "supervisor" came with the original installer, 20 minutes later everything is fixed. got a credit from directv (not much) and the korean women in my house are no longer on the warpath. big sigh of relief

"Get'm all in, tech?"
"All but one, sup,......couldn't find 95.......what is on the plate for tomorrow?
" Same old, same old. Good job today!"

Joe