My DTV (long) story....

[LightningGA]

My wife and I have had Time Warner cable since we were both kids growing up. We are both avid fans of the NFL and the Pittsburgh Steelers but live in upstate NY. We have some friends that had the NFL Sunday Ticket last year and decided that we needed to switch to DTV so we could get the nfl games we wanted watch. We decided to go with the whdvr with a HD dvr for the living room and a hd receiver for my older sons room. Those are the only 2 tvs in our house.

We ordered DTV on 7/28 and had an original install date of 8/14 between 8am-12pm. After a few automated calls from DTV saying our installer would be there at 12pm and then another saying 1pm, a little after 12pm I see a DTV van drive by and then the phone rings. The person on the phone says he is from DTV and asks if we've seen or heard from a DTV installer today. I mentioned the earlier phone calls and mention I saw a van drive by a few minutes ago. He says, yeah that was me, I was looking for my installer, this is his supervisor and I can't find this guy any where. He also asks if I would please have the installer call his supervisor as soon as he arrives.

2pm came and went without anyone showing up so I called DTV to see what was going on, they tell me it says that the installer is on site. Obviously he wasn't so they said they would contact the local installer and they would contact me within 20min. After about 20min someone finally calls at 2:30 saying the installer would now be there between 3-3:30pm.

He finally shows up at 3:40 climbs up on the roof for about 5min. and then says we have to many trees and it can't be installed. Then says a supervisor will be by within 24-48 hours to confirm. Hops back in his van and leaves with no further explanation.

So I go through my caller ID and call the supervisor that called earlier. He asked if anything was explained to me and I said no. He explained everything about where the sats were and about the los and then agreed to come out first thing in the morning between 9-9:30am.

He showed up that day at 9:30, walked with me around the yard and then said that he found a good spot for the install as long as I was ok with it going on a pole over by our fence on the side of our yard. That was fine with me so he said to give dtv a call and reschedule a new install date. He gave me a complimentary $50 Visa card for my trouble.

FINALLY........tomorrows the day for our install!!! We can't wait!! Really hoping that this time it goes as planned and were enjoying dtv tomorrow night.

 

[JerseyMatt]

Sounds like you just got a total dumbass slacker (as evidenced by the fact that the supervisor had to hunt him down). Good to hear he made it right with the gift card.

 

[Jimbo]

Welcome to the Site and to Directv !

You'll probably be happier with a pole mount anyways, IF your in a heavy snow area (NY), you'll have access to brushing the dish off in the winter time instead of looking at it on the snow and ice covered roof.

 

[LightningGA]

Sounds like you just got a total dumbass slacker (as evidenced by the fact that the supervisor had to hunt him down). Good to hear he made it right with the gift card.

Yeah, I agree. It was a Sun. install so I'm figuring he got way behind or a late start and was just looking for the easy install job. Really hope it's not the same guy showing up again today.

Welcome to the Site and to Directv !

You'll probably be happier with a pole mount anyways, IF your in a heavy snow area (NY), you'll have access to brushing the dish off in the winter time instead of looking at it on the snow and ice covered roof.

Thanks! Glad I found the site, it's been very resourceful!!!
I think so too. Much easier to just walk out to the dish and get the snow off instead of getting out the ladder to access it 2 stories up!

 

[LightningGA]

So yesterday was our install and it went great. There were 2 guys here, one was a veteran tech and the other was a trainee (5 weeks in). They arrived around 1:45pm and left at 6:45pm. It took along time because the tech was trying to have the trainee figure out the install on his own with minimal hints on what to do next.

It was a pole mount about 40' from the house. With a another 12' run under our porch with a crawl space underneath to get it into the basement. They used the existing cabling to the living room and upstairs bedroom for the 2 receivers.

My experience with yesterdays installers were night and day compared to the first slacker that came out.

I do have a question though, on the the hd receiver we have upstairs there's a longer lag on the guide compared to our hd dvr that's downstairs. Is that normal?

 

[jdspencer]

...
I do have a question though, on the the hd receiver we have upstairs there's a longer lag on the guide compared to our hd dvr that's downstairs. Is that normal?

What are the model numbers of the two receivers? The older models may take a bit longer to tune.

BTW, welcome to the world of DirecTV.

 

[LightningGA]

What are the model numbers of the two receivers? The older models may take a bit longer to tune.

BTW, welcome to the world of DirecTV.

The one in my sons room is a H25 and has a lag of a few seconds to pull up the guide.
The one in the living room is the HR24.

 

[CK SatGuy]

The H25 is Directv's newest receiver. A little surprising that it would be slower than the HR24, but then again maybe it's because that's the secondary receiver in your setup? I don't have Directv so I'm just guessing.

 

[Hutch1814]

Force a download or try resetting the receiver. This MIGHT help

 

[JUCJ85]

welcome to the DirecTV family.

You definitely got an slacker/idiot. My original install was like 5 hrs long, we also had trees, but a big tree in front of house, right where you would need a LOS.

But the installer went out of his way to get a pole, and cement and mount it in the back yard. We had no issue with that. Was super nice, now mind you back in august of 2006, and haven't had any issues with them, quality and CS wise.

But hope you enjoy the season. Steelers look good. My 49ers have issues at QB, but i like our chances in the west.

anyway welcome, and enjoy.

 

[bobvick]

You should have no lag with the H25. I have one in my bedroom and it is as fast if not faster than my HR24's.

 

[lparsons21]

He could be noticing a lag when he starts a recorded event, I know I see a bit of a lag when I go to view recorded shows on the 'remote' HRs in my house. Nothing to worry about and the timing is about what I would expect.

 

[bobvick]

Oh yeah, sure, there will be a small lag with a recorded event. I just meant scrolling through the guide, etc...

 

[LightningGA]

The lag was when you hit guide on the remote and the time it took to actually open. It "fixed" it self. Maybe it just needed 24+ hours to initialize.

Thanks guys for the replies. So far we're loving DTV. It is taking a little while to relearn what all the channels are though...lol.

 

[Jimbo]

The lag was when you hit guide on the remote and the time it took to actually open. It "fixed" it self. Maybe it just needed 24+ hours to initialize.

Thanks guys for the replies. So far we're loving DTV. It is taking a little while to relearn what all the channels are though...lol.

Check channel 201 .... opps, 200 or 201 use to have a listing of all the channels and the numbers to go with them, but it's not there now

 

[ZandarKoad]

They arrived around 1:45pm and left at 6:45pm. It took along time because the tech was trying to have the trainee figure out the install on his own with minimal hints on what to do next.

How can two grown men spend five hours installing two TVs??? That is totally insane. Last night, a house with zero inches of cable pre-existing, four TVs, two stories, needing four exterior wall penetrations, and one carpet fish took me ALONE three hours to install, activate, and educate... IN THE DARK. Are these guys all ex-government employees or something???

 

[w6pea]

When they came and installed our system they got here a little after 1330hrs. (1:30pm) they left shortly after 2000hrs. (8:00pm). They ended up coming back 3 times to fix things they didn't do right to begin with.

 

[raoul5788]

How can two grown men spend five hours installing two TVs??? That is totally insane. Last night, a house with zero inches of cable pre-existing, four TVs, two stories, needing four exterior wall penetrations, and one carpet fish took me ALONE three hours to install, activate, and educate... IN THE DARK. Are these guys all ex-government employees or something???

Your moronic insults aside, did you read the part about one of them being a trainee? It's in the part that you quoted!