installation time normal

[Roadwarrior]

Dish would like it if a four room install with %100 brand new coax runs only took 30 minutes, but seriously depeding on the house a full bore four room on the average house should take 2 - 3 hours, if its a $300g + house expect an extra 30 minutes, $600g + add an hour to that. If the house has good relatively new rg-6 or better prewire then you can generaly drop 30 - 60 minutes, if theres a problem with line of site add 30 - 60 minutes + if its a three bird configuration. Fully finished basements and interior wall tv's add 60 - 180 minutes unless the installer is able to run coax under a carpet the right way then just add 30 minutes.

Dont put all the blame on the installer, alot of the blame falls on the shoulders of the install manager that he reports to who should have gotten him help, my old office was known for leaving installers stranded alone if they were having a bad month wich I found myself in once or twice and I had no problems lighting up those responsible during general meetings for failing to provide support when needed.

In my first days I never got a lick of help. I rode with an "experienced tech for a week or two for free and that was it. It was on, if you got stuck on a nightmare job you just had to deal with it. After a while you just figured out that calling someone was just wasting more of your time.
I'm sure that kind of thing would irritate a customer, because they either A)have no idea how a satellite system works(I had one customer who I had to actually convince that the dish was necessary. When I finally did she asked if I could put it in the attic), or

B) have always had cable and are already irritated if it took you longer than 30 minutes, or

C) who have had satellite before, but got a hack installer who slapped a dish on the eave, broke out the staple gun and wrapped the house and left before the receivers were activated.

It's your right to expect the best installer, but theres a high turnover rate. Companies are hiring new people all the time and not properly training them. Unfortunately alot of guys only get on-the-job training.

 

[OoTLink]

I had an installer take about 8 hours once and he screwed up good, left wires hanging all over the place where the dishes were put up and even left his box of coax laying in the house lol.

 

[dishcomm]

I had an installer take about 8 hours once and he screwed up good, left wires hanging all over the place where the dishes were put up and even left his box of coax laying in the house lol.

It happens with rookies. These are the people who should not be out there. I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of that tech's supervisors. They should have known that tech was not ready to tackle a difficult job.

If the tech was not a rookie he needs to find another line of work.

 

[vegassatellite]

This is why I don't start full installs after 3PM (4PM Summer). I don't work in the dark. An unwired home that is real nasty, I figure one hour for the dish, one hour for each receiver, putting a 4 room at 5 hours. That's including showing them how to work the box and features like DishHome, etc. Not just "up arrow, down arrow, goodbye."

I had one recently that took 4 hours for a dual tuner to 2 rooms. I had to wrap both lines in and also had to wrap underneath the second story eave and the dish was on 2nd story North eave (flippin HOAs ) that had patio under it so I had to bring a ladder up onto patio roof. It really burns a lot of time when you have to use the 28' ladder, put in two screw clips, go down, move ladder 3', go up, two more clips, for about 50 feet.

OP, you mention this home is in AZ. I live in the Phoenix area if you are near there. I can check out his work for a fee, or if you have a neighbor who wants signed up, I can check your install out while doing his install to let you know if its up to spec. I've been doing this for 10 years. Don't do the fulfillment thing again, go with a local retailer or PM me here.


A new home here in AZ should have at least two prewires, one for LVRM and Master Bedroom. Often that is two of the four outlets. Pole mounts in AZ are rare, then again, so are trees. Also elevation to the birds is around 50.

 

[OoTLink]

Ouch.

I have a lot of sympathy for the installer that'll be setting up our Vegas place.

Line's for 119, and the wiring all terminates on the north side (basically, top 'left' of house).

Oh yeah, and I have an HOA to deal with too, but given the location and the OTARD rule I don't think there's much reasonable they can ask us to do. Also, there are others in the neighborhood with dishes so I don't expect many issues

They could get into the wiring from the south side but then there's grounding to deal with.

 

[dishcomm]

This is why I don't start full installs after 3PM (4PM Summer). I don't work in the dark. An unwired home that is real nasty, I figure one hour for the dish, one hour for each receiver, putting a 4 room at 5 hours. That's including showing them how to work the box and features like DishHome, etc. Not just "up arrow, down arrow, goodbye."

I had one recently that took 4 hours for a dual tuner to 2 rooms. I had to wrap both lines in and also had to wrap underneath the second story eave and the dish was on 2nd story North eave (flippin HOAs ) that had patio under it so I had to bring a ladder up onto patio roof. It really burns a lot of time when you have to use the 28' ladder, put in two screw clips, go down, move ladder 3', go up, two more clips, for about 50 feet.

OP, you mention this home is in AZ. I live in the Phoenix area if you are near there. I can check out his work for a fee, or if you have a neighbor who wants signed up, I can check your install out while doing his install to let you know if its up to spec. I've been doing this for 10 years. Don't do the fulfillment thing again, go with a local retailer or PM me here.


A new home here in AZ should have at least two prewires, one for LVRM and Master Bedroom. Often that is two of the four outlets. Pole mounts in AZ are rare, then again, so are trees. Also elevation to the birds is around 50.

You have this luxury when doing retail only. We are a retailer and a DNSC contractor.
I can't believe builders out there are still putting houses up without coax as a part of the prewire. That's unheard of here. Even cheap starter homes have at least one run each to the LR and MBR. And even if they ask for 4 tv's (why is it that people want to hook up 4 locations when they only own TWO TV'S)
I take it most homes built on concrete slabs there. It's getting that way here. I'd say 50-60% of all new homes are slab built. Even large homes of 3k to 4k SF. MAny of those homes have distribution panels. Which is fine as long as there are enough service lines to the d mark. If not we're screwed. If the panel is on the main floor in the interior of the house, we can't access the panel unless we tear up al lot of sheetrock.
Anyway, I will find a way to not wrap a home if I can.
I don't work in the dark either.