Professional Installation Required on a Newly Owned Receiver?

[clayface1000]

Long story short -- I cancelled Dish after being a subscriber for about eight years. I had tried to upgrade from an 811 to a 211 and they missed three consecutive installation appointments.

What pushed me over the edge is that the fact that I had already the done the dish upgrade myself to get the 61.5 degrees satellite! I know more than most installers and I did not want anyone on my property drilling holes, etc., except me. Nonetheless, Dish insisted that I could not do the install and they would have to send a tech out. I finally said "OK," figuring I'd just take the new receiver, tell the installer to take a nice long coffee break and we'd both be happy. Well, they missed the (unnecessary) appointments, as I mentioned, and I blew my stack and threw in the towel.

And don't even get me started about how, prior to this fiasco, I tried to get upgraded to the 622 and got into a numerous "discussions" with CRs about the whole plug-in the phone line business that has been discussed at length in other threads.

Anyway, I doubt if I'll do business with this company again. But a question popped into my head. What if I were to purchase a 211 or 622? Would they STILL insist upon a "FREE PROFESSIONAL INSTALLATION!"? (As if that "offer" were some sort of gift?)

Just wondering.

 

[Widescreen]

I believe that if you purchase, you have to either install yourself or pay someone to install it for you. No freebies there.

 

[webbydude]

Exactly!!!

If there are ANY problems down the road after the install, then Dish holds at least a certain amount of liability. Hence their insistence on performing the install.

 

[bhelms]

Sometimes an "install" is little more than the tech showing-up and making the call to E* to activate if the system otherwise meets the specs for the programming ordered. I can certainly agree with not wanting an installer doing the work especially if a homeowner/sub. is competent and equipped to do it himself. But what's the harm in letting the installer look it over to "bless" it, then activating for you? As webbydue said, that should at least preserve the 90-day warranty on the "installation" itself. Now the missed appointments, that's another issue altogether...

BRgds...

 

[rmoore3d]

I purchased a 622 and had no problem activating it. It seems to be only the leased ones that they require the install.

 

[clayface1000]

Thanks for the replies! In answer to the question, of what would be the harm of having their tech just take a look at my installation -- that requires a bit of explanation. When I arranged each of the three (non-show) installation appointments, each time I explained to the CR that I didn't want to take time off from work for the appointment. I also explained that the dish for 61.5 had already been installed. So, I asked for my "appointment" to be made at my place of work, where the receiver could be handed to me, and the installer could check-off that the installation was done (and he could then go off on his long coffee break). In other words, it was a workaround to my problem. Each time, the CR finally agreed to doing this after a bit of arguing.

Therefore, having the tech actually come by during his appointment would actually be counterproductive to one of the main reasons I did the installation myself to begin with. That is, I did not have the time to sit around for half a day at home waiting for the person to show up!

 

[webbydude]

As a tech I sure would NOT give my "blessing", as Bhelms put it, if I was told to sign off on a workorder without actually physically seeing it. My questions is, why not simply schedule a day that you are home? The weekend perhaps?????

 

[aquaman67]

When I leased two 301's back in Dec. for my kids, they wanted to send someone out to install them and I told them that I had installed my other system myself and I was going to install these new receivers too or I didn't want them.

The CSR said no problem...

 

[Allin4greeN]

I swapped my 942 for a 622 a few weeks ago. It was totally a plug & play situation. After five minutes on the phone with a tech, confirming my equipment and sat locations, he authorized and activated the STB.

It was a total of six days from my placing the lease upgrade order to watching new DishHD...

 

[webbydude]

*AHEM*...lemme rephrase myself. As an installer I would not give my blessing. The person you probably spoke to was a CSR

 

[clayface1000]

"Why not simply schedule a day that you are home? The weekend perhaps?????"

Well, my feeling is why should I have to schedule anything for something that is already installed and ready to plug and play? In other words, why do I have to go out of my way to play by Dish's ridiculous rules, when I already did the work and it's ready to go? To me it's simply a matter of logic and principle. And frankly, I have very little free time and I was not going to sit around half the day on a weekend when there was no need to do so whatsoever.

It seems preposterous to me that I should need to "accommodate" Dish at all under the circumstances. So I cancelled them...

 

[Allin4greeN]

...It seems preposterous to me that I should need to "accommodate" Dish at all under the circumstances. So I cancelled them...

I don't know that I'd be willing to go that far...

I can certainly understand that time can literally be money in some people's careers, however, that wasn't my motive for the "self-install."

...The person you probably spoke to was a CSR

err... that's what I meant, a CSR...

All of my professional installation experiences with D* and E* have been good ones. And the upgrade for my new 622 was really an exceptional customer service experience (seriously). I simply learned a lot from this forum, after researching my purchase and existing equipment for several months, and was anxious to get it up and running. Also, I've worked and studied in TVR production studios and am not completely lost when it comes to understanding the technology. Of course, the technology has changed a great deal since I was last in a studio (well before the rise of digital) You can call me a hobbiest, I guess.

The CSR and I spent five minutes extensively discussing my equipment, set-up, and wiring and he seemed comfortable with what I was doing. I guess I just lucked out with a very knowledgable CSR

 

[clayface1000]

My cancellation wasn't due just to my insisting on doing the install myself (which as I pointed out, I had already done). There was much more to it. I left out all the stuff about how each time I called in after the no-show appointments, the record of my calls mysteriously vanished. The various CRs claimed that I had never made the appointments to begin with!

The coup de grace came on the day of my third scheduled appointment. After having called in all week on the 800 # to make sure I was properly scheduled (I was), I called in on the final morning at 7:45 AM for my 8AM-12noon appointment. The autoreply indicated I was all set for that window. 8 AM rolled around. I called back in and the autoreply now indicated that I was rescheduled for the following week! What???!!! I then called the 800 # and got a tech supervisor in the US who was very nice and tried her best to be helpful. She said her records indicated that I had always been scheduled for one week hence -- despite the fact that an hour earlier, their system indicated I was scheduled for 10 minutes from that point! Bear in mind this was the third time in a row this had happened.

We then had a long discussion about everything from missed appointments, to insisting on installation when none was necessary, to all the "service charges" that were being tacked on customers and the infamous charge for the 622 if the phone line is not plugged in. Basically, she agreed with me that things could be made easier for customers, but policy was policy and she was unable to alter it. I could sense that she shared my frustration and felt I was not the first one she had heard these complaints from.

As I said, she was extremely kind, patient, understanding and intelligent. Dish is very luck to have this woman working for them. She even offered me three months of free service. But I told her that principle was not something that was for sale and that the only way in which I could have any credibility was to cancel my account after eight years.

Like I said, it was more than about any one thing. But they took a customer who was once one of their biggest supporters, who had "preached the gospel" to countless friends, coworkers and family members, did numerous free installs for their systems and turned me into an enemy. Pretty neat trick, I'd say.

 

[papalittle]

Just call a local retailer and have them look the system over and then call in the activation. pay the person a few bucks and everyone will be happy.