Installation scam? Help please!!

[natemeister]

I recently had a direct tv technician come to my home to hook up and start my service. When he came he wasnt aware of the fact that the dish cant be put on the house and needs to be put on a pole or somehting like that . He then told me that the dish wont pick up local channels unless i pay more and upgrade to an HD receiver, and he didnt have one of those so i would have to wait for him to come back.
Am i wrong or shouldnt it not matter what receiver i have to pick up local channels? IS this just some scam by the installer to get a higher commision?? Please give me some feedback on this

 

[Joe Diamond]

As an installer, let me share that installers don't get commissions for anything,

There are dishes with various capacities and there are a variety of receivers. All combinations will give SD reception and local channels; I am unaware of any exceptions. He may not of had a pole or the time to dig it in.
The free installation comes with a mast attached to the building. You could expect to pay for a pole mount and digging in the undergroiund cable....if it is even possible............no they will not bore under pavement for free.

Installers do get back charged for being late for appointments. Your installation was set up for a dish on the building and the pole thing could put him behind his schedule so he could well have given you a bull sh*t story. He should have told you to decide...on the building today or reschedule and pay for the pole in concrete............ IF there is a LOS (line of sight) for the pole ..........another day.

Or something else,

Joe

 

[Mr Tony]

If your location is correct you are in the Springfield, Mass market (you get locals from there)
They are in HD on 99W but also in SD on 119W so if all you wanted was SD you DO NOT need to upgrade to HD to get the locals.

(There are some markets where you require a HD receiver to get the locals and in those cases D* automatically gives you one regardless if you want SD or HD...this market is not one)

 

[Mr Tony]

All combinations will give SD reception and local channels; I am unaware of any exceptions.

MPEG4 only markets require a HD receiver but if you order a SD receiver D* upgrades you for free. So if you order 2 SD receivers D* upgrades them to HD for free.....again only in a MPEG4 only market

 

[stardust3]

If your location is correct you are in the Springfield, Mass market (you get locals from there)
They are in HD on 99W but also in SD on 119W so if all you wanted was SD you DO NOT need to upgrade to HD to get the locals.

(There are some markets where you require a HD receiver to get the locals and in those cases D* automatically gives you one regardless if you want SD or HD...this market is not one)

However with that said, this might be a case of only having a los for 119 from the house up high & not having it from a pole mount. I would imagine for that location 119 would be pretty low.

 

[Joe Diamond]

However with that said, this might be a case of only having a los for 119 from the house up high & not having it from a pole mount. I would imagine for that location 119 would be pretty low.

OR the ground in MA could be frozen............need a non pen and a revisit to dig in when things warm up....another thought.

Joe

 

[Hutch1814]

OR the ground in MA could be frozen............need a non pen and a revisit to dig in when things warm up....another thought.

Joe

I use my mortar bits and drill in to the ground until I can break it up enough to take some post hole diggers to it so I never have to cancel or reschedule a job

 

[Lanarian]

A line of sight issue to the 119 satellite would be the only reason that you would have to go with HD to get locals.
I actually have a case right now with this exact issue due to trees around the property.

 

[rjruby]

If cable to a pole mount dish is buried, does Directv require that any undergtound utilities be located and marked prior to installation?

 

[Hutch1814]

If cable to a pole mount dish is buried, does Directv require that any undergtound utilities be located and marked prior to installation?

"Yes" most techs won't require it. I've only rescheduled 3 jobs due to utilities. If its close or I'm concerned with a gut feeling I won't do it but most of the time you are alright

 

[Joe Diamond]

If cable to a pole mount dish is buried, does Directv require that any undergtound utilities be located and marked prior to installation?

Directv may do it for their employees. In the past they subcontracted installations so under ground damage was not their problem. Remembering that utilities are supposed to be down three feet the wise installer spades the cable in about an inch to clear lawn mowers. You can be careful if you need to put in a pole between the phone ped or an electric pole and the Telco NID or E meter. All UG stuff is coming to that location and a shovel in the wrong hands can really do some damage.

I did hear of a tech who used a power auger ti dig in a Pstar pole and hit a gas line while wrapping telco line around his auger. The installation company manager asked with a straight face for the MISS UTILITY dig ok number. The first week out of the box the new guy was so confused.

Joe

 

[jimdandyvi]

Speaking of confused. I had Comcast do an install at my home in Illinois and all my utilities were underground. After the install had been completed JULIE (Joint Utility Locate ) was called and they carefully marked the location of all utilities.

The following Saturday a drop bury crew showed up to bury the drop. Apparently since they didn't speak English no one had explained to them that you were supposed to avoid the orange lines. The two guys burying the drop dutifully and very precisely followed the orange line marking the buried electric service merrily jumping on their spades in the wet sod and easily cutting a 10" - 12" deep slit for the drop.

I quickly went into the house ready to call 911 if they got unlucky and hit my electrical service. I didn't know enough Spanish to explain to them what they were doing wrong.

 

[Voyager6]

Speaking of confused. I had Comcast do an install at my home in Illinois and all my utilities were underground. After the install had been completed JULIE (Joint Utility Locate ) was called and they carefully marked the location of all utilities.

The following Saturday a drop bury crew showed up to bury the drop. Apparently since they didn't speak English no one had explained to them that you were supposed to avoid the orange lines. The two guys burying the drop dutifully and very precisely followed the orange line marking the buried electric service merrily jumping on their spades in the wet sod and easily cutting a 10" - 12" deep slit for the drop.

I quickly went into the house ready to call 911 if they got unlucky and hit my electrical service. I didn't know enough Spanish to explain to them what they were doing wrong.

Sounds about right for a Comcast sub crew. At least you knew where the cable line was buried for the future.

 

[KenStomski]

I am a Springfield MA LSP dealer. The look for 119 here can be difficult. We bring SL3 lnbs out to each job just because of this. Of course a D12 will not get you locals with those.

 

[RLDreams]

Whether you want HD channels or not, if you are getting a Genie/HR34,or any whole hole compatible set up you need HD boxes. These boxes will not activate if they do not receive the HD signal during the initial setup. I've had D* installed on 5 houses ,and have never met an installer that carries a pole mount set up with him unless it is pre-ordered. Pole mounts take significantly longer and need to be scheduled as such. Like others have stated the installers get charged if it takes them longer than it is supposed to to do an install and they are late for their next appointment. A standard install should take no more than 2 hours tops, whereas a pole mount will likely take at least twice that between setting the pole and running the additional cable.

I join the consensus that this was a LOS issue. I am in Worcester MA, and had the same issue with our initial install 2 years ago. Our neighbors have 100+ year old maple trees that shadow our entire yard. There was an existing 18 round dish on a pole at the back corner of the property which worked fine for SD channels. Because of the neighbors' trees there was no LOS for the 119 from that spot since it is so low in the sky. It took an email to Mike White's office to finally get the install done,but that is another story. What I did before the rescheduled install was go around the yard with Sat Finder and find out approximately where the new pole was going to have to go. I then called DigSafe myself and dug the trench 12 inches deep,and laid out 60 feet of 2" conduit. I know the cable can be direct buried, but since it was going right along some shrubs and flower beds, not to mention we have dogs that like to dig ,I did not want to run the risk of hitting/damaging it in the future .
When the installer got here, I already had a 10 foot length of 2" galvanized pipe along with 4 bags of mortar to set it in. The installer did argue about the cable not needing to be buried a foot down in conduit, but since I had already dug the trench and had the conduit laying there ,he argument was futile .

 

[Joe Diamond]

I use my mortar bits and drill in to the ground until I can break it up enough to take some post hole diggers to it so I never have to cancel or reschedule a job

Hutch,
As a contractor I just looked at the money offered and blew the job off. Here in MD.....eastern shore...we just don't get enough cold weather to get good at breaking frozen ground. PrimeStar would not allow what you describe because the cable dig-in had to be done with a pick. They got lawn damage complaints. Directv just didn't pay enough. So non pen roof mounts could be left with cable on the ground until the snow melted.......at cx expense.

Good bit of advice for the bag of tricks, however, if ya really got to get one in.

Thanks,

joe

 

[Joe Diamond]

Sounds about right for a Comcast sub crew. At least you knew where the cable line was buried for the future.

In that instance everybody could be ok. Cable doesn't have to be down real deep. Utilities do. So they probably were going in about 6" above the 3' deep electric. However I have seen telco lines laid out on lawns and covered by sod. The real damage is where an underground contractor is plowing cable under a road or pavment and hits a gas line with his bore....boom! The pole used for satellite dishes could well find an underground utility but probably not the cable to the building.

Joe