Slimline HD Dish Upgrade Story

[JNEUBY]

William1, I understand your frustration. Same thing here. A 1-5 visit and the tech shows at 8pm. Tired and wouldn't even climb 7 feet up on my 2x12 pitch shed roof. Line of sight, trees and nothing he could do. How could he tell? He was on the ground in the dark! Yet I was only upgrading from a 5lnb dish to a slimline. Emails and repeated phone calls to D* got the response and a different tech fixed the problem in 10 minutes. And yes, I also agree with you on the tech. He is a rep of the company who you are paying to provide service. My employees represent my company and at all times either help or answer the customers questions or if they don't have the answer then find out who does and guide the customer to who can help. The "I don't know or I don't care attitude doesn't fly with me. If you present all the facts up front and the tech shows up not prepared to do the job because he is too lazy to read the work order, then he should find another line of work that does not require him to think or work. I work with the public everyday and I am successful because I work to take care of all the challenged. Some customers no matter what, will never be happy and I've had my share of them too. The LOS problem requires some looking at alternatives and solutions to fix as opposed to "Not my problem" There are complications and challenges with most installs. If they don't want to do the job, then just say, I am not capable of handling this type of repair. Apologize, call D* and make them aware that you only want gravy work and send someone who wants to help the customer and leave. If additional charges for service is required, then explain it up front and I will pay as deemed necessary. Just don't BS the BS'r here.

 

[jdspencer]

Well, I thought I'd step in here and mentioned my good upgrade experience. My appointment was 1-5, at about 3:50 I got a call from the installer wanting my zipcode to find the house (they have GPS). He got here about 4:15. Mine was an easy install. Mount the dish on my carport roof and then run the cables under the deck to the existing ground block. I replaced the Eagle Aspen 4x8 switch with the SW68 in the basement. He tweaked the dish and then connected the HR20 (cables already there because it replaced the T60). He called to add the receiver to my account and then did the initial setup. He left about 6.

I did a signal check and was very pleased that this dish displayed higher values than the 3 LNB. I'm interested to see how it handles rain fade.

 

[ChrisPC]

I normally install all my own equipment, but I also had a very good upgrade experience. A year ago, I ordered an HR20, for HD locals and the coming HD channels.
D* gave it to me for the price of shipping. They scheduled it for a week later, but had to push it back a couple weeks due to a shortage of HR20s.

They told me 8AM to 1PM, and they showed up right at 8:05. They installed an AT9 and HR20, and moved the old H10 to the bedroom, all in under 2 hours.
They sent their best installers, apparently since very few people knew how to do 5LNB dishes at that time. The installer said he was the only one who knew how at that time, and had another with him being trained.

He did know what he was doing, he took out my diplexers and ran new lines. He asked me where to put them before he drilled, and made sure to install both BBCs.
Signal strengths were in the 90s, and I get very little rain fade. However 103b was a bit low when it came on, but I managed to get it into the high 80s with some tweaking.

 

[William1]

The first installer was green, and did not want to say so. He failed to tell his supervisor as he was supposed to. But management of the company came through (after a gazillion calls by me). Next day, they installed everything, working tirelessly.

One thing I have found is my OTA signals are now a little weaker. Possible the antenna got bumped (it is inside my attic. I'll have to get up there with a compass to re-align it. Not anyones job but mine. I say this to ensure a installer reading this does not think the wrong thing.....

The 'no LOS" lie really burned me.

 

[JNEUBY]

It's amazing how far the truth will go. That's almost all I ask. Tell the truth and try to help with a solution. People get upset with installers just as mentioned in this string. It leaves a bad taste for the customer. The last installer I had who fixed my problem took the time to see what was wrong and communicated everything he was doing. I tipped him well for his effort. I also got his name and phone number so I could contact him if needed again. I think I was more upset with losing a half day of work waiting for the technician to show with no phone call until after the time frame saying he was running late. Then losing another half day for the good technican to come out. When you get a good technician and he cares about you and his job, tip him well. It's money well spent.