Lazy Installer?

[cobraman]

I was switching from E to D. The D installer shows up here today and it happens to be about an inch of fresh snow on the ground. Before anything he says I have no idea where you are going to get a signal. I tell him the same place my neighbor is, out in the yard where his D dish is and near where my E dish is currently. Now it is excuses about how it is probably going to be too long of a run for DTV's equipment because their signal loss is more than E's and if it goes bad after the install I am stuck with the equipment and the contract. I think he just doesn't want to do the install since he has to put in a new pole in the winter. The run to the house is about 60'. The cable is already there and the cables to all of the rooms are already there and work fine with the E equipment. I don't see why there would be any difference with DTV's signal. Was this guy just being lazy and I should report it to DTV?

 

[raoul5788]

He may be lazy, who knows? 60' isn't too far, but with the ground frozen it isn't an easy job to dig for the pole and to bury the wire.

 

[underscore]

Wouldn't the signal loss at this point by solely based on the cabling, not the signal itself?

 

[kjlued]

60 feet is no where near too far.
You can over double that without issues even on SWM which is most sensitive.

Installer probably blew you off because he didn't want to work.
Pretty stupid on his part if he can get signal where the E* dish is since the cables are already there and buried.

Calling to complain about the lazy installer won't do much good.
What I would do is just call and reschedule.
If you get another lazy installer, ask to speak to his supervisor.

 

[Joe Diamond]

Wouldn't the signal loss at this point by solely based on the cabling, not the signal itself?

Is it now snowing? That would make a difference. IF you are getting SD equipment, may have to dig in new cable to augment what cable is already in the ground.
Lazy may not be the case. He is not paid extra to screw around with difficult installations but if one doesn't work after he is finished he will be charged for whatever caused the problem. Why do it?

Joe

 

[kjlued]

Is it now snowing? That would make a difference. IF you are getting SD equipment, may have to dig in new cable to augment what cable is already in the ground.
Lazy may not be the case. He is not paid extra to screw around with difficult installations but if one doesn't work after he is finished he will be charged for whatever caused the problem. Why do it?

Joe

He is paid to do a job and we don't get to pick and choose.
Watch what happens to any tech if (sub or in house) if they try telling their supervisor they won't put a dish in because they don't get paid to screw around with a more difficult install.
Sorry, but some jobs are more difficult then others (but it doesn't sound like this is one of them).

If it is a standard dish, all he has to do is pull the 1 5/8" clamp off the E* dish and replace the D* 2" clamp with it.
Then mount the dish to the old pole. More then likely there will be 2 cables buried from E* so he won't have to add any more.
If it is HD, it will be SWM so there will be no more cables to be buried, just a new pole.
More times then not, there is no issue with using the same location. when swapping E* for D*.

Even if cables need to be buried, he can just leave it on the ground.
Most areas don't require us to bury in the snow.


Like I said, call back.
You are probably better off not having that guy do the work anyways.

 

[Joe Diamond]

He is paid to do a job and we don't get to pick and choose.
Watch what happens to any tech if (sub or in house) if they try telling their supervisor they won't put a dish in because they don't get paid to screw around with a more difficult install.
Sorry, but some jobs are more difficult then others (but it doesn't sound like this is one of them).

If it is a standard dish, all he has to do is pull the 1 5/8" clamp off the E* dish and replace the D* 2" clamp with it.
Then mount the dish to the old pole. More then likely there will be 2 cables buried from E* so he won't have to add any more.
If it is HD, it will be SWM so there will be no more cables to be buried, just a new pole.
More times then not, there is no issue with using the same location. when swapping E* for D*.

Even if cables need to be buried, he can just leave it on the ground.
Most areas don't require us to bury in the snow.


Like I said, call back.
You are probably better off not having that guy do the work anyways.

kjlued
I agree with everything you said. But the tendency to mix subcontractors and in house employees has been a problem for me. This job does seem to be a plain vanilla
dish & box swap. It is when they get expensive / difficult that the contractor gets to bring out the custom charge receipt book to repair / replace the cut underground, in this case. Employees just keep at it until finished. Difficult takes longer. Contractors should be able to charge for the time. Employees should not have to worry about getting paid for the difficult jobs. It is the deviation from this that gets my attention.

Joe

 

[kjlued]

My area does not have any hourly D* Techs.
You have Mastech employees who are still subs they just don't pay for their expenses and subs like me who pay for expenses but get compensated better.

Either way, everyone can pull out the custom labor sheet and charge $1 a foot for cable burial in this case.
But in all honesty it doesn't seem like it will be necessary (but I am not here so I can not say for sure).
When it comes to burial, I give the customer a choice to bury it them self or pay me to do it.
When the ground is frozen solid, they have no choice.
Even if you do have to pay for your own materials, cable is not that expensive ($0.065 a foot for single with messenger so 60ft will cost less then $5)

More or less, if this job is as described, it really is not that bad.
No matter what though, if it is an install that can go in, an installer should never walk off it just because they think it is a little harder then the last job.
I have never had an install that cost me more to do and do right then what I made and even the most difficult install was still worth the money.
They may not pay enough for the work, but they still pay.
Upgrades on the other hand can very easily be a different story as I have lost money on several of them.

Cobraman, call back and reschedule.
If they blow it off, and you feel that is exactly what they are doing, then ask for a supervisor to come out.
If they put it it with a smile, then tip them well and tell them if they know the installer that blew it off to tel them you did so.