VOOM Installations

[Scott P]

OTA Problems

After having voom installed 03/26/2004, (two weeks after original install date) My installer informed me that the stealth antenna was no good for my location. Called voom and requested a service call to up grade the ota antenna. They aggred and called Installs inc. Csr informed me we were all set for wed. am 03/24. At 3:30 PM tue 03/23 I got a phone call from Axiom Communications (subed by Installs Inc.) That they would have to cancel, please call them to reschedule. I called them at 3:45 that pm. Talked to a man named TJ. When I asked why he canceled He informed me that he did not consider a ota antenna upgrade a service call. Installs Inc. did not pay him enough on a service call for the upgrade. He then said he would call Installs Inc. and get back to me. Sent emails to every one to complain. Anybody have any Ideas How I can get this resolved?

 

[Mr. Biggles]

Call Voom again and if they can't convince your original installer to do what he is contracted to do, and paid to do, demand another installer thats willing.

Or you can go to your nearest RadioShack........


Bill

 

[Trouthead]

It Works!!!!

The installer finished after about 4.5 hours. He had to remount the dish around the corner of the house so I have 4 small additional holes in my siding. No big deal as I will be caulking and staining here shortly.

Overall the install went well considering it was his first. The signal strength was in the mid 40's all last night. The pictures is pretty good but variable amoung the different HD channels. We ended up watching the Godfather, which somehow I have misssed for the last 30 years.

Still some learning curve with the new HDTV, VOOM and my C-Band all working intuitively, but it is working.

Turned the receiver to "standby or off" and when I got up this morning it had apparently loaded the softwear update. Channels do change faster and the signal strength is now in the 90's.

Overall it was pretty painless and VOOM seems to work as well as the Dish 811 of my neigbors.

I showed the installer the email I received from Installs Inc, which said install included upto 4 lines, and he said OK, no charge. I did offer to pay regardless and told him I would contact Installs Inc, and he still said no extra charge. I don't know how they are paid for labor or materials, but I have to assume that Installs pays for each foot of cable. Who knows, but alls well that ends well.

Now if VOOM would get distant networks in HD, ESPN, and MLB I could avoid DISH or DIRECT completely.

Really the programing is more important than HD in many cases. Watching a HD movies that I don't care about vs watching NCAA basketball in SD it is a no brainer (for me)

So far I have zero VOOM difficulties. But it has only been about 16 hours worth.

 

[Sean Mota]

After having voom installed 03/26/2004, (two weeks after original install date) My installer informed me that the stealth antenna was no good for my location. Called voom and requested a service call to up grade the ota antenna. They aggred and called Installs inc. Csr informed me we were all set for wed. am 03/24. At 3:30 PM tue 03/23 I got a phone call from Axiom Communications (subed by Installs Inc.) That they would have to cancel, please call them to reschedule. I called them at 3:45 that pm. Talked to a man named TJ. When I asked why he canceled He informed me that he did not consider a ota antenna upgrade a service call. Installs Inc. did not pay him enough on a service call for the upgrade. He then said he would call Installs Inc. and get back to me. Sent emails to every one to complain. Anybody have any Ideas How I can get this resolved?

Scott,

send an email to "Joe Harkins" <jharkins@installs.com>. Explaining the above. He works for Installs Inc. He will take care of you...

 

[Lem52]

I just got Voom installed. Signal level is only 51. He didn't even try to get OTA channels. Just put the stealth antenna on and that was it. He said if the locals didn't come in, to call voom and they would send someone back out.

I did get a second line without a diplixer for the OTA. Can't believe they send someone who does not make sure everything works before he leaves.

Lem52

 

[Mr. Biggles]

I just got Voom installed. Signal level is only 51. He didn't even try to get OTA channels. Just put the stealth antenna on and that was it. He said if the locals didn't come in, to call voom and they would send someone back out.

I did get a second line without a diplixer for the OTA. Can't believe they send someone who does not make sure everything works before he leaves.

Lem52

Your signal indicates your box doesn't have the recent update.

As for your antenna, if you decide you can't/don't want to adjust it yourself, make sure to tell the CSR your installer refused to do it during the initial install. He was paid to do it then.

Bill

 

[sixone]

Installed on Tuesday

I got installed on Tuesday. Scheduled between 8-12p, however got a call that installer's truck broke down and another guy would come by 2p. He arrived @ 2:15p. Dish & signal aquistion took about an hour, maybe less. Locked in at a signal of 59.

My impression of the installer was that I was his last job of the day and he hadn't planned on having to come out my way. He wanted to get done as quick as possible, eg., installing dish on my fence instead of roof even though I already have dishes there; using my existing OTA & wiring instead of the stealth antenna even tho he didn't know the strength of my antenna; incredulous that I could bring in both DC & Baltimore stations ( I'm 15 & 25 mi away respectively and get Baltimore CBS with my existing STB using a Silver Sensor).

Helped him with the install ( I had existing wiring and hooked the STB up myself). However the digital coax input was broken.

OK, he turns on the box and is on hold with V* for about 20 min. waiting to get activated. Channels are coming in & out, he's rebooting, talking to V*, being placed on hold etc. for another half hour. Finally we get V* stations locked in and PQ is fabulous. However, I experienced audio dropouts on HDNews (didn't watch any other channels tho).

Now OTA. I already had a RS #15-2160 on the roof. If it didn't work, he'd hook up the stealth (which he never attempted) and if that didn't work I'd be upgraded. Now he tried BMore but says a tree was in the way so he turned it 25 degrees south which ment I got nothing, lol. So he points it to DC instead. However, V* only mapped the D.C. stations anyway . But mapped or not, I only received a Strength/Power signal of 30/20. Also, only Fox & CBS came thru consistently with NBC going in & out. He told me that the box needed to finish downloading the mappings, and I would then get a signal. I said that doesn't sound logical, but I knew I'd have to get a new box and upgrade the antenna anyway, so I didn't make a fuss. All in all it took ~ 2.5 hrs.

I called V* today and relayed my problems and the installer is coming back out next Fri w/ new antenna & box. I told the V* CSR about my OTA Mapping problem and he said he'd escalate it to the dept. that handles OTA Mapping and I should get a response in a day or 2. Any suggestions?

61

 

[asearls]

No voom due to line of sight

Installer came out today; however as soon as he got out of the van he said there were too many trees in the direction of the voom sat. I pleaded with him to try the install anyway but no go. I was a little upset that he wouldn't even try. I still have the dish pointed at dish sat from when i had them as a provider. never had any problems and they are in the same general vicinity. Joe harkins responded very quickly to my email he then called me and offered a second opinion on this but after talking to him he helped me to understand that their sat is in a slighly more east postition and that the trees i had probably were in the line of site. Very frustrating as i really wanted to add voom. The hidden message in this is that there is a reason for everything and for some unknown reason I just wasn't supposed to have voom: at least not yet. LOL I told Joe i will have to convince my wife that we need to move now. LOL

 

[madpoet]

That or invest in a good chainsaw

 

[PSB]

I hope the installer went on the roof to check for L.O.S. And I hope he had a compass/inclinometer on his tool belt? There are too many Mickey Mouse type installers out there (no offense to M.M.). Some installers get stacked with too many jobs per day and they HAVE to knock back a few jobs per day, just to get home at a reasonable time. I do two installations a day, one in the morning then one in the afternoon : ) All ways ask your installer how many more jobs has he to do that day! I was told the other day about an installer who showed up at 10pm at night unannounced to do an install, and the customer let him do it!!!!! I had to fix it! The installer had his family with him waiting in the car..........

 

[svx94]

Troubling VOOM installation

My VOOM should be up and running right now, but it is not. The Install Inc. did not send out the receiver for some reason and notified me last night that they can't come. This seems happen to many people and make you wonder how serious VOOM is doing their business...

 

[johnewhite]

Install Inc. subcontractor came one day early (he called and caught me at home). Installation took 30 mins, as I had a dish and a OTA already installed and I hooked up the box. Only one local mapped (Zap2it shows 5) . Audio/Video great. Some rain fade last night. Installer forgot remote and Stealth OTA, suppose to deliver today. He was not familiar with a Voom intall. He said he also did DTV and DN installs.

Remote and OTA were delivered as promised.

Signal Level Quality: 87 (tone barely heard),
Off-Air Quality: 93,
Satellite Signal Power/SNR: 73/12.73,
Off-Air Signal/SNR: 82/0.00

 

[rich]

cancelled installations

March 3rd Voom scheduled to have their service installed @ my house on March 17th. I used a vacation day take that day off. Got a call from Vooms contract installers (Data Links) the night before the installation because they did not recieve the equipment. At least they had the consideration to call me to let me know they could not do the installation. They offered to reschedule the installation on the 24th, 25th, or 26th of March. I would have chosen the earliest date, but i decided on 26th thinking that would give Data Links enough time to recieve the equipement. This time I decide not to use a vacation day and just take a day off with no pay. Well, the day of the installation I called Voom to confirm the installation and guess what, my installation was cancelled AND NO ONE KNOWS WHY!
I've contacted Data Links and they have been working dilligently on getting somebody to do the install as early as possible.

UPDATE: While I was typing out this post, Leeza,a customer rep @ Data Links, has pulled through for me and has rescheduled a tech to do an install for me tomorrow.
They lost points for the cancelled appointments, but I appreciate the effort both parties are making to get the issue resolved. Sh*t happens. I can accept that. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Peace- R

 

[Sean Mota]

Welcome

rich, let us know what happens.

 

[mtuller]

Another non-existint installation. Called and ordered Voom on Sunday, March 21 2004. I was given an install of Friday, March 26 2004 between 8am and noon. The day before the install I called Voom to confirm my install time. They confirmed everything and gave me the name and number of the local installation outfit. So far so good. Then I call the installers. The nice man proceeds to tell me that he has no Voom installations scheduled for tomorrow, nor does he have any information on my installation based on my name or the Voom account number that I have. He proceeds to tell me that Voom has been doing this to him for the past months, they setup installations without ever confirming with him that the times are available, and one day the equipment shows up at his doorstep with the necessary info as to whom the install is for. Anyway, long story short, surprise surprise no one showed up today to do my install. Anyway, called Voom, they seemed genuinely upset after I told them the story and immediately called Installers Inc. and the local guy while I waited on hold. The Voom CSR was given some line on how the local guy couldn't make it out to my house today, but will call me to come out tomorrow and do the install. Lets just say I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Terry]

Called and ordered Voom 3/5/04. Scheduled install 8-12PM 3/13/04. Called 3/12/04 to confirm install and was told it was confirmed that they would be out 3/13/04 for install between 8 and 12. Called 3/13/04 @ 1PM and they could not understand why no one showed up but that some one would call me by 2PM. Called back 4PM because no one called was told the installing company phone number. I called the installer ( he happens to be in Mo. I am in southeast Tx) Voom had shipped him my equipment and he refused to ship it to his Tx installer and had told Voom this. Called Voom back and had another installer assigned that had the equipment in stock LOL. Couldn't reach them until afternoon of 3/15/04. They had equipment (but was older equipment) they had emailed Voom that morning about installing older equipment or waiting for new equipment to be shipped. Got home late on 3/20/04 and had message on machine from Joe an installer about setting up install for 3/24/04. Called him 3/22/04 and was told he had equipment but was trying to get in touch with another potential Voom customer in my area. He wanted to do both installs same day and save a trip. By this time I had given him my cell phone number as I couldn't wait at home daily just to see if they would come. Got home late 3/23/04 and had another message on my machine about installing Voom. Called 3/24/04 and found out that another company was trying to do the install. They wanted to set it up for 3/31/04 if they got the equipment in. In the conversation I found out Joe did not work for them. I contacted Joe he contacted them and called me back. Voom was transfering the install back to Joe. He wanted to install 3/31/04 as he was waiting for the equipment. I called Voom and told them what had happened(again) and was told that my install was scheduled for 4/1/04. Now if you look at the date you will see that this is April Fools Day and that is what I am feeling like about ordering Voom

 

[joelhulen]

Voom installed March 24 (Perfect install!!)

Hello all,

I have been reading this forum for a while, ever since I decided to switch from DirecTV to Voom a couple of weeks ago. I had tried HDTV on DirecTV for about one month. I had purchased the HD receiver from BestBuy just so I could have it for Superbowl (which was great with HD). I took it back after a month, realizing that the $600 receiver was not worth the price for 6 HD channels and the two OTA channels I managed to get after messing with 5 different antennas. I digress...

I had waited on getting Voom due to the expensive start-up costs. As soon as I saw that they were running the $0 down lease sign-up plan, I jumped on the opportunity. In fact, the Voom representative I spoke with when I ordered had said that Voom's subscriptions had tripled in the first week of running the lease offer.

At anyrate, the installer from Installs Inc. arrived on the day of install as expected and removed my DirecTV dish, attached the Voom dish in its place, ran a dedicated coax line to my HD television from the Stealth antenna, connected the two receivers and configured them all in just over an hour. Before he commenced, he had insisted that I did not need a separate line run from the antenna to my HD TV, that a diplexer would suffice without losing any picture quality. Thanks to this forum, I insisted he run that line and told him to feel free to diplex the line to my bedroom as that is a standard definition set.

I must say the the picture quality is outstanding on the HD channels and better than average (compared to DirecTV) for the SD channels. I just love having 29 HD channels, including my local OTAs (I opted for the $39.95 programming package). The installer even knew to change the output resolution of the STB with the little red button behind the front door of the STB

I only had one hitch. The next morning, Thursday, my wife wanted to watch Dr. Phil on ABC. Unfortunately, here in Virginia Beach, our local ABC affiliate does not currently simulcast digital signals OTA before noon. I promptly called WVEC (the affiliate) and spoke with the Director of Engineering who assured me that beginning Monday, they will be simulcasting all digital channels from 5:00 am until midnight! What luck. Now my wife won't kill me He stated that the FCC mandated that by April 1st, all stations need to transmit at least 85% of their broadcasting as simulcasted digital and analog signals. So far, all my other local stations have already complied. Therefore, I am receiving 9 different stations, many of which have several digital channels. The only channel I am not receiving a very good signal from is NBC. A quick call to Voom resulted in a service call to upgrade me to a more powerful antenna (Winegard PR-8800) this coming Monday afternoon, free of charge!

In short, this experience so far has been outstanding! I have really enjoyed most of the HD channels, which is essential since it is difficult for me to go back to watching SD channels anymore. I am anxiously anticipating the usage of MPEG4 encoding to open up more availability for additional HD content. Another exciting event to look forward to is the arrival of Voom's true High Definition PVRs (Tivo, maybe) later this year, perhaps at the same time as the MPEG4 proliferation.

I am truly sorry for those of you who's installs have gone less than smoothly. It seems as though, with practice, the magnitude of Voom install horror stories will be just that, stories.

I thank everyone for the valuable information you have provided on this forum. I really want to see this new service work. If nothing else, even if Voom goes bankrupt, a market will have been established for HD afficianatos and lovers, prompting action from other existing and prospecting satellite providers.

Joel

 

[Sean Mota]

Another non-existint installation. Called and ordered Voom on Sunday, March 21 2004. I was given an install of Friday, March 26 2004 between 8am and noon. The day before the install I called Voom to confirm my install time. They confirmed everything and gave me the name and number of the local installation outfit. So far so good. Then I call the installers. The nice man proceeds to tell me that he has no Voom installations scheduled for tomorrow, nor does he have any information on my installation based on my name or the Voom account number that I have. He proceeds to tell me that Voom has been doing this to him for the past months, they setup installations without ever confirming with him that the times are available, and one day the equipment shows up at his doorstep with the necessary info as to whom the install is for. Anyway, long story short, surprise surprise no one showed up today to do my install. Anyway, called Voom, they seemed genuinely upset after I told them the story and immediately called Installers Inc. and the local guy while I waited on hold. The Voom CSR was given some line on how the local guy couldn't make it out to my house today, but will call me to come out tomorrow and do the install. Lets just say I'm not holding my breath.

Welcome and let us know what happens tomorrow.

 

[Sean Mota]

Called and ordered Voom 3/5/04. Scheduled install 8-12PM 3/13/04. Called 3/12/04 to confirm install and was told it was confirmed that they would be out 3/13/04 for install between 8 and 12. Called 3/13/04 @ 1PM and they could not understand why no one showed up but that some one would call me by 2PM. Called back 4PM because no one called was told the installing company phone number. I called the installer ( he happens to be in Mo. I am in southeast Tx) Voom had shipped him my equipment and he refused to ship it to his Tx installer and had told Voom this. Called Voom back and had another installer assigned that had the equipment in stock LOL. Couldn't reach them until afternoon of 3/15/04. They had equipment (but was older equipment) they had emailed Voom that morning about installing older equipment or waiting for new equipment to be shipped. Got home late on 3/20/04 and had message on machine from Joe an installer about setting up install for 3/24/04. Called him 3/22/04 and was told he had equipment but was trying to get in touch with another potential Voom customer in my area. He wanted to do both installs same day and save a trip. By this time I had given him my cell phone number as I couldn't wait at home daily just to see if they would come. Got home late 3/23/04 and had another message on my machine about installing Voom. Called 3/24/04 and found out that another company was trying to do the install. They wanted to set it up for 3/31/04 if they got the equipment in. In the conversation I found out Joe did not work for them. I contacted Joe he contacted them and called me back. Voom was transfering the install back to Joe. He wanted to install 3/31/04 as he was waiting for the equipment. I called Voom and told them what had happened(again) and was told that my install was scheduled for 4/1/04. Now if you look at the date you will see that this is April Fools Day and that is what I am feeling like about ordering Voom

Welcome.

Contact "Joe Harkins" <jharkins@installs.com> and let him know your story so that he can make sure that everything will be done on 4/1

 

[Sean Mota]

joelhulen,

Welcome and thanks for the story. We have basically find out the same once we experienced all these channels, we cannot live without them. I will encourage you (if you can) to experience the VA VA VOOM Package. It will be an experience in itsel.

Note: I do not work for VOOM and I am not trying to sell you the VA VA VOOM package.