I'm am having a really bad time with my install and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions; if not just ranting might make me feel somewhat better.
On May 31st I buy the 0$ install 0$ equipment ($10 rental/month) deal for Voom from Sears. Sears guys tell me that Voom will soon call to finish arranging the installation and what not. Two weeks go buy without a call so I call Voom - they have no clue as to what I'm talking about. Took me 10 minutes to go round and round with the CSR that I already bought the service from Sears so no I don't want to buy the Voom service, I want to know when my install is going to be scheduled. Evenutally I think we got on the same page (though she did require me to give my credit card again -- if there is a charge on that puppy I'm gonna be p*ssed).
So the install is scheduled for the end of June for the morning. Oh well. The day comes and I kept my laptop home so I could do some work at home. The guy shows up at around 5:30. Not feeling all that great, but hey its here, I'll finally see what HD will look like on my TV. Boy does this installer hate Voom. He wasn't there 10 minutes while unpacking the std and he had said "Well I'll be back in a month to pack everything up" at least half a dozen times.
I should note that I have 2 E* stb's but only one Voom stb.
He asks me to come outside so he can explain something to me. I have E* with 2 separate dishes - one separate dish pointing to my locals that conveniently is close to (or the same?) bird as Vooms. Since he's "just gonna be back here in a month anyways", he'll use the existing dish. Well since I'm canceling E* and the Voom stuff isn't mine and its 4 less holes in my exterior, sure no problem. Then he adds, "Oh and got to tell you, with this crap that Voom sends out, you're probably not going to pick up any OTA... especially if I have to run through the diplexor... and if you don't have an amplifier." Now what do I know about any of this OTA stuff, last antenna I've seen was when I was in grade school. He continues, "now we only get paid for one line, we charge $25 to run the second line which you'll need for the antenna but since I'm using the existing E* line I won't charge that as I'll be still be running just one line.. and I'll cut you a deal on the amplifier." What a great situation to be in from my perspective. I have no clue (I'll freely admit that on many levels) what an amplifier costs so am I gonna to have to shell out alot more for something that I'll probably need if I say no? Great, ok $59 sure whatever, do it - hey I'm saving $25 anyway right? I go back in to continue working.
He works some outside, comes in, hooks up the stb... nothing. "See told you this stuff was crap". Fiddles with some stuff, goes out side fiddles some more, comes in side fiddling, calls his boss, "... I only got the one box... but how am I gonna get paid?... Ok, yep, bye." Looks at me, "the box is broken, I'm going to finish putting up your OTA, and then hook your E* back - you won't get locals though - and we'll call in a service call. Good thing is service calls are done fast so coupla days me or someone else will be back out here. Come out here and I'll show you what needs to be done when the service call is made in case its not me." He leaves, I'm disappointed, and not really pleased that the $0 install isn't really $0. But ok just a couple of days.
So a week goes by and I call Voom to find out about my service call. They have no clue what I'm talking about. Lovely. Explain everything to the CSR. Setup service call for July 16th morning. Ok.
July 16th gets here, before I head of to work I expain to my wife what the installer told me. Took her outside and showed her what cables needed to be coupled and everything would be great. The (different) guys get there at around 10:30am. I get a phone call, they are majorly confused. They have on their sheet "Replace box" but it looks to them that there isn't anything installed! So I come home to tell them what the original installer told me. They are not happy campers, "where's the Voom dish? Oh its your E* dish?" and I go in to call work that I will back later than I thought, good thing as my wife has to head off to work. The two of them are out there for a few minutes then they come in, hook up the new box - doesn't work. Hook up the old box - BINGO! works. WTF?! One guy goes outside and fiddles with the dish a bit... 97 signal, beautiful. All the while the main guy is griping about the first installer, "who was this guy? blah blah blah. Oh he no longer works for the company, blah blah blah." After everything is setup, he shows me how everything works and we're having a grand old time, he's loving the TV the picture is awesome and I say "Ok lets see the locals." He looks up, "You don't have the locals, the antenna's not hooked up." Well of course I want locals!
Out they head to hook up the antenna, I follow out after a bit. They have a diplexor hooked up to the original OTA cable with the dish and OTA feeds! WTF?! "But I won't get any OTA with the diplexor." Confused stares. Oh great. We go inside, "hey look CBS, PBS, ABC?? wow thought I was too far away for that, aww no NBC which is strange since its the closest..... hey where did the satellite channels go?" Signal strength 0.
Out the main guy heads with the second guy calling out "0...0...0...0...0...97...97...97...0...0...97...0". The main guy is standing under the open window and I hear him on the cell talking to his boss, "this is screwy, I hook up the meter and we get a 97, I take it off and 0... uhuh..uhuh...i don't know... yeah..." and he walks away coming into the house. "Ok got off the phone with my boss, we're getting interference, probably from those power lines, so we have to move the dish." What?? We had 97 right there! We walk out side he walks over to this part of the yard and says "This would be awesome right here". Does a sighting, "Oh yeah this is a great site. Or the roof might be ok but this is the perfect site." Well of course I want the perfect site. "Its a pole mount, Voom doesn't reimburse pole mounts. It'll be $50. Up to you. The roof might be ok." Aaaarrggghhh! It was right there, I saw it for 20 minutes! Alright $50 for the perfect spot, "Go ahead." It's 12:30, this 10 minute box switch is now in its 2nd hour, lets get this thing done, I have a staff meeting in 30 minutes.
In goes the pole, down comes my dish, coax gets unreeled and I realized I'm not going to make the staff meeting. I go in to talk to the folks at work. They get everything setup, got my satellite channels, got my CBS & ABC, "oh I cut this first run too short <wink><wink>, no good to use we can't use it, but you know it's plenty long enough to run your antenna to your roof, you should get all the OTA channels up there... we'll just slap some connectors on it for you. All you have to do is bury the cable." Man, I have to bury the cable, d*mn that's an expensive pole. "And this one tree limb is one that you'll eventually want to get rid of." Off they go, off I go back to work (having missed the staff meeting).
Friday evening we enjoy our new HD. Hmmm, some of the upper channels seem to be pixellating. That's strange. Lets see how did they get to the signal strength... ah here it is... 74? Oh just shoot me now. Whack! Down comes the tree limb. 76! Whoopie! There is nothing in the way where did my 97 go!?!
I'm in bed trying to get to sleep and really not pleased, not pleased at all. Then it hits me.... where's my dual LMB from my E* dish? I don't believe it, one of the two install teams took it. Wait it couldn't have been on the dish this morning. Great now I have to find the install company and tell them that someone who no longer works there stole a dual LMB from me. Yeah I'm sure I'll see that go anywhere.
Saturday comes in with a bit of a breeze. I call Voom to get the installer company and while I got you on the phone do you actually not reimburse for pole mounts? "Let me check on that, sir.... Here's the company, and according to my supervisor pole mounts are extra, we don't pay for them." Call the installers, they're closed.
Time to knock out some of my honey-do items. Hmmm, looks like clouds are moving in... yes a front is moving through. Starts to rain slightly - not a thunderstorm, just a gentle rain. I've lost my satellite channels... I'm out $109 and a dual LMB for a $0 install, but I still got CBS and ABC.
Tom
On May 31st I buy the 0$ install 0$ equipment ($10 rental/month) deal for Voom from Sears. Sears guys tell me that Voom will soon call to finish arranging the installation and what not. Two weeks go buy without a call so I call Voom - they have no clue as to what I'm talking about. Took me 10 minutes to go round and round with the CSR that I already bought the service from Sears so no I don't want to buy the Voom service, I want to know when my install is going to be scheduled. Evenutally I think we got on the same page (though she did require me to give my credit card again -- if there is a charge on that puppy I'm gonna be p*ssed).
So the install is scheduled for the end of June for the morning. Oh well. The day comes and I kept my laptop home so I could do some work at home. The guy shows up at around 5:30. Not feeling all that great, but hey its here, I'll finally see what HD will look like on my TV. Boy does this installer hate Voom. He wasn't there 10 minutes while unpacking the std and he had said "Well I'll be back in a month to pack everything up" at least half a dozen times.
I should note that I have 2 E* stb's but only one Voom stb.
He asks me to come outside so he can explain something to me. I have E* with 2 separate dishes - one separate dish pointing to my locals that conveniently is close to (or the same?) bird as Vooms. Since he's "just gonna be back here in a month anyways", he'll use the existing dish. Well since I'm canceling E* and the Voom stuff isn't mine and its 4 less holes in my exterior, sure no problem. Then he adds, "Oh and got to tell you, with this crap that Voom sends out, you're probably not going to pick up any OTA... especially if I have to run through the diplexor... and if you don't have an amplifier." Now what do I know about any of this OTA stuff, last antenna I've seen was when I was in grade school. He continues, "now we only get paid for one line, we charge $25 to run the second line which you'll need for the antenna but since I'm using the existing E* line I won't charge that as I'll be still be running just one line.. and I'll cut you a deal on the amplifier." What a great situation to be in from my perspective. I have no clue (I'll freely admit that on many levels) what an amplifier costs so am I gonna to have to shell out alot more for something that I'll probably need if I say no? Great, ok $59 sure whatever, do it - hey I'm saving $25 anyway right? I go back in to continue working.
He works some outside, comes in, hooks up the stb... nothing. "See told you this stuff was crap". Fiddles with some stuff, goes out side fiddles some more, comes in side fiddling, calls his boss, "... I only got the one box... but how am I gonna get paid?... Ok, yep, bye." Looks at me, "the box is broken, I'm going to finish putting up your OTA, and then hook your E* back - you won't get locals though - and we'll call in a service call. Good thing is service calls are done fast so coupla days me or someone else will be back out here. Come out here and I'll show you what needs to be done when the service call is made in case its not me." He leaves, I'm disappointed, and not really pleased that the $0 install isn't really $0. But ok just a couple of days.
So a week goes by and I call Voom to find out about my service call. They have no clue what I'm talking about. Lovely. Explain everything to the CSR. Setup service call for July 16th morning. Ok.
July 16th gets here, before I head of to work I expain to my wife what the installer told me. Took her outside and showed her what cables needed to be coupled and everything would be great. The (different) guys get there at around 10:30am. I get a phone call, they are majorly confused. They have on their sheet "Replace box" but it looks to them that there isn't anything installed! So I come home to tell them what the original installer told me. They are not happy campers, "where's the Voom dish? Oh its your E* dish?" and I go in to call work that I will back later than I thought, good thing as my wife has to head off to work. The two of them are out there for a few minutes then they come in, hook up the new box - doesn't work. Hook up the old box - BINGO! works. WTF?! One guy goes outside and fiddles with the dish a bit... 97 signal, beautiful. All the while the main guy is griping about the first installer, "who was this guy? blah blah blah. Oh he no longer works for the company, blah blah blah." After everything is setup, he shows me how everything works and we're having a grand old time, he's loving the TV the picture is awesome and I say "Ok lets see the locals." He looks up, "You don't have the locals, the antenna's not hooked up." Well of course I want locals!
Out they head to hook up the antenna, I follow out after a bit. They have a diplexor hooked up to the original OTA cable with the dish and OTA feeds! WTF?! "But I won't get any OTA with the diplexor." Confused stares. Oh great. We go inside, "hey look CBS, PBS, ABC?? wow thought I was too far away for that, aww no NBC which is strange since its the closest..... hey where did the satellite channels go?" Signal strength 0.
Out the main guy heads with the second guy calling out "0...0...0...0...0...97...97...97...0...0...97...0". The main guy is standing under the open window and I hear him on the cell talking to his boss, "this is screwy, I hook up the meter and we get a 97, I take it off and 0... uhuh..uhuh...i don't know... yeah..." and he walks away coming into the house. "Ok got off the phone with my boss, we're getting interference, probably from those power lines, so we have to move the dish." What?? We had 97 right there! We walk out side he walks over to this part of the yard and says "This would be awesome right here". Does a sighting, "Oh yeah this is a great site. Or the roof might be ok but this is the perfect site." Well of course I want the perfect site. "Its a pole mount, Voom doesn't reimburse pole mounts. It'll be $50. Up to you. The roof might be ok." Aaaarrggghhh! It was right there, I saw it for 20 minutes! Alright $50 for the perfect spot, "Go ahead." It's 12:30, this 10 minute box switch is now in its 2nd hour, lets get this thing done, I have a staff meeting in 30 minutes.
In goes the pole, down comes my dish, coax gets unreeled and I realized I'm not going to make the staff meeting. I go in to talk to the folks at work. They get everything setup, got my satellite channels, got my CBS & ABC, "oh I cut this first run too short <wink><wink>, no good to use we can't use it, but you know it's plenty long enough to run your antenna to your roof, you should get all the OTA channels up there... we'll just slap some connectors on it for you. All you have to do is bury the cable." Man, I have to bury the cable, d*mn that's an expensive pole. "And this one tree limb is one that you'll eventually want to get rid of." Off they go, off I go back to work (having missed the staff meeting).
Friday evening we enjoy our new HD. Hmmm, some of the upper channels seem to be pixellating. That's strange. Lets see how did they get to the signal strength... ah here it is... 74? Oh just shoot me now. Whack! Down comes the tree limb. 76! Whoopie! There is nothing in the way where did my 97 go!?!
I'm in bed trying to get to sleep and really not pleased, not pleased at all. Then it hits me.... where's my dual LMB from my E* dish? I don't believe it, one of the two install teams took it. Wait it couldn't have been on the dish this morning. Great now I have to find the install company and tell them that someone who no longer works there stole a dual LMB from me. Yeah I'm sure I'll see that go anywhere.
Saturday comes in with a bit of a breeze. I call Voom to get the installer company and while I got you on the phone do you actually not reimburse for pole mounts? "Let me check on that, sir.... Here's the company, and according to my supervisor pole mounts are extra, we don't pay for them." Call the installers, they're closed.
Time to knock out some of my honey-do items. Hmmm, looks like clouds are moving in... yes a front is moving through. Starts to rain slightly - not a thunderstorm, just a gentle rain. I've lost my satellite channels... I'm out $109 and a dual LMB for a $0 install, but I still got CBS and ABC.
Tom
