Roof replacement and Dish

[Claude Greiner]

Speaking of a big hotel. Had one yesterday that lost power twice and had a blue diagnostics screen from a Directv H25 on one of the televisions.

They got 112 H25’s and the lady at the front desk is saying the entire hotel is out.

Did you check all the rooms? No, we have guests in the rooms.

So why are you saying the entire hotel is down?

So told them to wait 30 minutes and reboot the box if the issue doesn’t go away.

But goes to show people are impatient and will call on every little thing.

 

[ChadT41]

I honestly cannot remember the last time I called a customer service for an issue that couldn’t be handled internally. I had to call the VA yesterday as they haven’t registered my kids since getting married, but registered my wife. That was a fun hour long conversation. Think we got it resolved.

Before that was over a year ago, I called Verizon to either replace a busted phone, or cancel service. Eventually they offered to replace the phone, but customer service is important to me, so I cancelled anyways and declined the replacement. I am now with tMobile and surprisingly happier. If they hadn’t strung me along for so long before agreeing, I would still have Verizon.

 

[dishdude]

Restaurants and bars are the absolute worst to deal with, they are cheap and refuse to pay for anything.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Yes, restaurant owners are cheap on everything. I guess profit margins are tight. I was an assistant manager for a 4-outlet Wendy’s franchise when I was in high school and college. The owner hated paying $40 per month to have Dish for Muzak (some stores still had FM subcarrier boxes). He wanted to get a cassette deck and just change the tapes but I convinced him to keep the sub. When the service had issues I just either took care of it myself or made the service call.

We had one store that had a broken HVAC unit and had been down for literally years. I asked a friend who worked for a local HVAC company to come look at it and he helped me for free.

So yes, the owners are so cheap they are willing to make their employees and customers suffer by not even fixing the AC.

 

[HipKat]

It’s the same with apartments and bucket and or Tripod mounts.

The problem is it all comes down to service calls.

Typically what happens is that something happens to the Dish, and the customer calls and complains they have no signal.

The customer never wants to pay, so the installer or company ends up eating the cost of the service call because If they don’t the customer will cancel.

Had a Burger King that we used a non-pen mount on the roof. Went there twice to align it after roofers and air conditioner people moved it.

The third time I got irritated and moved the Dish to the ledge on the roof and bolted it down and out of the way.

Then they decided to remodel the store and put a new roof design and requested the Dish to be moved.

I told them there was going to be a charge this time and before I could go out they switched back to crappy Dish Network.

So the point is you want to do the install in a way so there is no chance the customer will have issues so your not paying to send someone out for free to fix it.

Customers don’t get it, it costs my company $100 every time we send out a technician. If it’s Dish and Directv that cost is like $160

Bingo - dead on., When I do an install, particularly the dish mount, I'm taking into consideration that I want that mount to be working for 2 years - ironically, the length of the contract, right? Just to minimize the chance of a truck roll to have to go back and service or relocate the mount

 

[HipKat]

I agree 100%. Going into it with eyes wide open is important also; we all know most customers aren’t like the folks on this forum. They don’t know anything about satellite TV other than it works or doesn’t work

And if it doesn’t work, the company is usually going to eat the cost to retain the customer, like Claude said

Which is why a good tech should be educating them on the best way to do the install. So I have 2 things in my favor here. 1, I used to be a contractor - remodels, improvements, etc - and it's just in my nature to bring the customer out to show them where and how I plan to do the mount and cabling, get their approval, then again after the job, ask them to come out and look at the work I did and 2, in my past life, when I still lived in Buffalo, I sold Home Improvements so with both of those combined, I have a good eye at seeing aesthetics, function and just being able to build a rapport with the customer right as I'm walking in the door

 

[HipKat]

Also agree 100% but does Dish ever cut apron strings with any customers?

Yes they do. There's a guy near Springfield, IL - he calls to setup up service calls weekly. He also likes to switch from one service for a few days or weeks and then call to switch back. Dish has him on a Do Not Install List now and I'm sure Direct and Comcast probably have the same policy

 

[jackson85]

We had a bad storm a few weeks back and the insurance company and contractor have finally gotten together to agree that I need my entire roof replaced due to the wind and hail damage.

My wife and I had our roof replaced a few years ago, and we called Dish when the roof was fixed. I am thinking, that Dish remounted the Dish without a fee or charge. That was a few years ago. If Dish is not wanting to do the remount ask them why!!!! Dish always boast that they are the first in storm or Hurricane Disasters to regain TV reception in those areas hit the hardest!!!!

 

[dvrexpander]

Dish is getting to be very adamantly against pole mounts unless absolutely necessary. And I'd think with good reason; They're the easiest to be damaged by people walking into them, lawn mowing, kids hanging off them, vandalism. Those techs out fixing poles, which also seem to rust out at ground level after a few years is money not being made doing new connects, et al. They track each office and if a given office is putting in more poles than whatever they allot, I think it's like 1%, it gets ugly

Lol I showed up to a svc once and the guys wife had drove clean over top of the dish in the middle of the yard with his riding lawn mower.
Tore up the mower too. I put in a thicker pole that we used for internet and added an adapter to the top for him with some heavy duty bolts then took some safety ribbon I had in the door and wrapped a few strands around it in a few places. Told him once the concrete sat up she would come to a complete dead stop hitting that sucker. He tipped me $100 and loved that he would have the last laugh on that issue with her.

 

[navychop]

....Needless to say, we never went back out there again and they switched to the cable company.

Good.

I don’t like cable companies.


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[navychop]

...He tipped me $100 ...

You’re fired!






Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[DJ Lon]

Forgot to update this...

Called Dish a few weeks back and explained the situation; they had no issue setting up an appointment to relocate the dish (which is today). And I added the protection plan as someone mentioned and indeed $50 was the charge for today's visit. Will let you know how it turns out

 

[DJ Lon]

No issues, dish relocated to gable, techs (yes, techs) very nice

 

[Claude Greiner]

It’s not Dish Networks responsibility to remount your dish if you get a new roof.

They might do it as a courtesy, but if your paying thousands for a new roof, why not $50 to redo the satellite dish

 

[HipKat]

It’s not Dish Networks responsibility to remount your dish if you get a new roof.

They might do it as a courtesy, but if your paying thousands for a new roof, why not $50 to redo the satellite dish

That was my point, too

 

[Claude Greiner]

Bingo - dead on., When I do an install, particularly the dish mount, I'm taking into consideration that I want that mount to be working for 2 years - ironically, the length of the contract, right? Just to minimize the chance of a truck roll to have to go back and service or relocate the mount

You always want to do the best possible install in the best possible location.

Whatever you can do to eliminate a possible return visit.

It’s not necessarily 2 years, but for the life of the customer.

My main concern is really just the chargeback period which is 6 months on Directv or a year when I sold Dish.

People cancel service these days over the stupidest things, and your kind of stuck eating the cost of stupid service during the chargeback period to keep the customer happy and not to loose your commission.

We are very liberal on what we cover as a warranty type service call.

If a customer hits their dish with a lawnmower for example and is honest and admits their mistake, we put them on the service list and take care of it.

They want to call me yelling and screaming they have no Tv, tell me up front they refuse to pay for a service call. I don’t even want to go and fix it, because it’s going to be a battle getting paid. Let them call Dish, and either let Dish fix it for free, or just add the service call fee to their next bill.

One thing we did stop doing was buying the $35 gator steel poles for pole mounts. Customers always think everything should be free anyways. So I’ll put in the cheaper poles and if they rust out we’ll come back 3 years later for free.

Most Customers won’t likely still be our customer by the time the pole rusts out anyways.