installer refused to install - suggestions?

[spudseq]

Hi all

The Dish installer was just here - all the places I asked to install he said he could not because of a tree - when I said how about a pole past the tree - he said the signal strength would be poor and that it was to far from my house - its only 60' away - what should I do?

oh BTW I am a previous customer so he is not making much for the install - could this be his reason?

 

[harshness]

The installer likely didn't think the install was going to be profitable. You can probably commission someone to do it, but understand that there's going to be trenching and direct burial cable involved if the dish needs to be run a distance from the house.

 

[KE4EST]

Buy your own pole mount and do your own trenching and call them back.

 

[spudseq]

so the 60 feet of distance is not going to cause me a signal loss?

also can you tell me how much difference there is from the old position to the eastern arc position?

he said its about a 1/8 turn to the left - I was told before that it was more like a 1/4 turn to the left, I am just rying to see if he was even looking in the correct direction

THANKS !

 

[KE4EST]

No, 60' is just fine.

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

no, you can be up to 200 feet before you have an issue.

 

[Cyclone]

I agree, see how much of it you can do yourself. Those installers seem to live on razor thin margins, so I can see them walking away from a job were after a full days work the customer would be very likely to say "it doesn't work, cancel me" and the installer ends up being the one getting soaked.

When you live on a tree filled lot, satellite TV is one of those things that you suffer without.

 

[shy_guy]

I had the same problem. After calling Dish and complaining that I lost money by taking off work that day, they sent another guy that set it up without question. My install was over 100' and it works fine.

 

[james dahlke]

I've seen cable runs of over 300ft.

 

[8bitbytes]

so the 60 feet of distance is not going to cause me a signal loss?

also can you tell me how much difference there is from the old position to the eastern arc position?

he said its about a 1/8 turn to the left - I was told before that it was more like a 1/4 turn to the left, I am just rying to see if he was even looking in the correct direction

THANKS !

See if your house will come up on Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps | DishPointer.com and then select the 61.5 satellite and it will show you whether the tree will be a problem.

 

[brad006]

I will run coax up to 200ft. I charge $30 for a pole mount and include 50ft of trenching. Anything over 50ft is .75 cent per foot, or the customer can bury themselves if they sign off on it. I charge for the pole on new installs and existing installs. Sometimes I'll give the pole free on new installs, but never on existing ones.

 

[Van]

I've seen cable runs of over 300ft.

Seen them over 500ft and worked on it.

I will run coax up to 200ft. I charge $30 for a pole mount and include 50ft of trenching. Anything over 50ft is .75 cent per foot, or the customer can bury themselves if they sign off on it. I charge for the pole on new installs and existing installs. Sometimes I'll give the pole free on new installs, but never on existing ones.

Those rates are pretty cheap, heck your undercutting the industry.

 

[585960]

I will run coax up to 200ft. I charge $30 for a pole mount and include 50ft of trenching. Anything over 50ft is .75 cent per foot, or the customer can bury themselves if they sign off on it. I charge for the pole on new installs and existing installs. Sometimes I'll give the pole free on new installs, but never on existing ones.

Really, like people are getting rich at this? Heres one thing I know for sure, is you get what you pay for.

 

[LordKron]

I've seen cable runs of over 300ft.

with out a signal booster it will fail, maybe not today or tomorrow, but it will fail.

dish has changed alot about how they install, if it an in house tech i can maybe see why. the service agreements only allow a in house tech to trench up to 50'. after that there is a charge, dig safe has to be called before anything goes into the ground, it is policy. dont want the tech setting a pole on top of a power of gas line now do we?
after dig safe and you agree to the trenching of the cable then the job should go in.
in my office if its over 100 feet we tell the customer, there might come a time when this cable will burn out, just to protect the techs in case of such issue, likely it might not happen. cable, receivers are just like anything you by,
if its made on mondays, its going to fail, friday's im sure its missing something, wednesdays, well theres a change its gonna work. lol

 

[brad1138]

When we do subcontract work for DNSC (E*s install wing), they expect you to do the pole mount and trench up to 50 ft for free I usually will figure a way out of it and have DNSC send there own techs that they pay by the hour to do it. I may do a pole mount but there is NO WAY I am trenching for free. If it is one of our customers, we usually do the pole mount for free, unless it is just for cosmetic reasons - then we charge $100. Trenching over ~5ft is never free. If they want it done I usually say $4 or $5 a ft, I tell them they would be much better off digging the trench themselves or paying some kid to do it.

Even living in the wooded NW I probably only do about 5-10 pole mounts a year, so it isn't a big deal in the end.

As far as cable length, Dish Pro normal limit is 200 ft and Legacy is 400 ft. You can get boosters that will allow up to about 1000 ft but they are very expensive, we only use them in commercial systems.

 

[digital echo]

When we do subcontract work for DNSC (E*s install wing), they expect you to do the pole mount and trench up to 50 ft for free I usually will figure a way out of it and have DNSC send there own techs that they pay by the hour to do it. I may do a pole mount but there is NO WAY I am trenching for free. If it is one of our customers, we usually do the pole mount for free, unless it is just for cosmetic reasons - then we charge $100. Trenching over ~5ft is never free. If they want it done I usually say $4 or $5 a ft, I tell them they would be much better off digging the trench themselves or paying some kid to do it.

Even living in the wooded NW I probably only do about 5-10 pole mounts a year, so it isn't a big deal in the end.

As far as cable length, Dish Pro normal limit is 200 ft and Legacy is 400 ft. You can get boosters that will allow up to about 1000 ft but they are very expensive, we only use them in commercial systems.

Being a DNSC tech i have to lay a temp pad first then call and have the ground marked. Do subs do this at all?

 

[mikethedishguy]

If the installer is a sub then use this rule of thumb, would you do this your self and how long would it take you. Then figure how much you would do this job for, then pay the installer that amount as a "tip". My dish is in the woods Dish will NEVER work but Directv will. It is located 30" from my home but if it were trenched it would have taken forever because of the rock and roots. I would not expect this to be trenched. So we ran the line in the air. Only way it would work.

 

[brad006]

Seen them over 500ft and worked on it.

Those rates are pretty cheap, heck your undercutting the industry.

Undercutting? Dish is giving pole mounts and 50ft trenches for free!!!

 

[brad1138]

Being a DNSC tech i have to lay a temp pad first then call and have the ground marked. Do subs do this at all?

By temp pad do you mean a marker for a locate or like a tripod to be replaced after locate?

Calling for a locate is at our discretion, we always can, and it's a good way out of an install if needed but sometimes it is obvious that it isn't anywhere near utilities. We never split a single job into multiple days, if it is a DNSC job there is no guaranty we will be the ones to finish it and we wouldn't get paid for anything.

Brad

 

[Van]

Undercutting? Dish is giving pole mounts and 50ft trenches for free!!!

Not talking about inhouse paid by the hour, subs generaly dont do a trench for less than $1.00 per ft while most do charge for pole mounts. The only reason dish does so much for free is because of an add campaign that the cable industry started 8 years ago slamming the dbs industry for charging for equipment and services that the cable industry was implying that they didnt yet they actually do. At the beginning of 02 dish began the change over to no longer charging for additional services and labour even though the cable industry still does the charging to this day.

Dish can get away with not charging for pole mounts and line trenching as well as atic work and crawl space work and wall fishes because they make enough revenue from programming residules, a sub contractor does have the same kind of revenue and when you get someone that starts charging lower than the current low then he/she's hurting himself and the industry.