VOOM Installations

[sat4me]

ORIGINAL POST FROM YADNUS

1. The installer charged me a total of $160.00 for the job. $80.00 for going to the attic, and $40.00 each for fishing the coax from the walls. Can I get a refund for this or I don't have any choice in the matter since I decided to keep my old service? Any of you guys who had the same situation, did you have to pay for the job or is it suppose to be free? What about for people who don't have an existing wire-hook up inside the house, does it mean that in order to get the voom service they have to pay extra for the installation job?


REPLY: WALL FISHING AND ATTIC ACCESS CHARGES ARE COMMON AND VERY RARELY INCLUDED IN A STANDARD INSTALLATION FOR ANY SERVICE PROVIDER. THE CHARGES ARE VERY REASONABLE IN MY OPINION BASED ON OTHER QUOTES I'VE SEEN POSTED.

2. The installer told me that since I have 2 TVs on seperate rooms the only way I can get locals on both TVs is through the diplexer, is this true? Moreover, even after installing the diplexer, I only get local channels on my bedroom and not on my Theatre Room which is odd, since they are both coming from the same diplexer, any comments on how to solve this problem?

THAT'S THE BEST WAY TO GET THE OTA SIGNAL TO BOTH RECEIVERS. I KNOW ALL THE DISCUSSION OF WHY NOT TO USE DIPLEXERS, HOWEVER I COMPLETELY DISAGREE WITH THE "LOGIC" THAT DIPLEXERS SHOULD NOT BE USED. THERE ARE RARE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MAY WARRANT NOT USING DIPLEXERS, HOWEVER SINCE YOU ARE ABLE TO RECEIVE A OTA SIGNAL IN ONE ROOM THEN I DOUBT THE DIPLEXER IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE THEATER ROOM. TRY REBOOTING THAT RECEIVER. UNPLUG FOR 30 SECONDS THEN PLUG BACK IN. HOPEFULLY THAT WILL DO THE TRICK. IF NOT ASK FOR A SERVICE CALL, BECAUSE SOMETIMES IF THE INSTALLER PLUGGED IN THE USVB TUNER MODUAL AFTER THE RECEIVER WAS PLUGGED INTO POWER, IT CAN SHORT OUT THAT MODUAL AND IT MAY NEED TO BE REPLACED.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[tscallions]

If he is worth his salt as an installer, he will have the experience and tools to run the Cat5 and terminate it for you. But - don't expect that to be a freebie, especially if you help. While you won't usually find a charge listed on their bill for your helping, they typically don't like it and are more likely to be uncooperative and perhaps charge you more. Offer to help, but be prepared to be refused.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't want to help him at all. If I am going to pay him, he is going to be doing all of the work. I would just like to watch him so I can learn how to wall fish. I will be doing all of the CAT5 cabling, I just want him to drop it down the wall with the coax. I'll wire the phone lines after he leaves.

 

[Who Me?]

Just called Voom -got install date.

Hello all:
I just called voom to sign me up.
They said that the first sat. avil. was the 29/th, so I said OK.
They also said that the installer will contact me 3 days before that to do a site survey.
I have a Dish6000 now and hope they will use the existing coax and oth uhf antenna w/ amp set up.
It will make things much easier, as the only shot for the satellite is in the area where the D* antenna is, due to trees.
I told the lady at voom that I wanted a bigger dish, 24" or bigger, as I live in Calif. and the Elv. of the sat. is 15 degrees.
And the direction to the sat. looks to be between a Ceder and a Fir tree.
We'll see how it goes in a week or so.
One thing..
I work for the Co. that made the video servers that voom is using.
Nice to see our products in action.
JS

 

[Sean Mota]

Hello all:
I just called voom to sign me up.
They said that the first sat. avil. was the 29/th, so I said OK.
They also said that the installer will contact me 3 days before that to do a site survey.
I have a Dish6000 now and hope they will use the existing coax and oth uhf antenna w/ amp set up.
It will make things much easier, as the only shot for the satellite is in the area where the D* antenna is, due to trees.
I told the lady at voom that I wanted a bigger dish, 24" or bigger, as I live in Calif. and the Elv. of the sat. is 15 degrees.
And the direction to the sat. looks to be between a Ceder and a Fir tree.
We'll see how it goes in a week or so.
One thing..
I work for the Co. that made the video servers that voom is using.
Nice to see our products in action.
JS

Welcome and good luck on that installation. Can you tell us a little bit about those video servers and how are they used to? Thanks.

 

[Indy]

Well I finally registered on this forum to participate in the Voom discussions. I am matrix from AVS. I had Voom installed about a month ago with one receiver and the VaVa Voom pak. When the gal came to install the system, everything was in place with RG6 quad cable, pole for the dish and all the cables run in the equipment rack. I had a full Dish Network system with a dish pointed at the 61.5 sat for Dish HD when it was on the 61.5 bird in 4psk. So I know the pole has a good look angle at the bird. I took the dish sdown before the installer came so I could use the Voom dish.
The installer took one look at the pole and the trees of the woods a couple of hundred feet away and said no way to see the satellite due to the trees. I assured her it could work and she held the dish up which she already had set the elevation at 38 degrees and said, "look thre dish is pointed right at the middle of the trees."
Now I knew what I was up against. I told her how the off set dish works and how the satellite is not actually centered in the middle of the dish, it is quite higher in the sky and the signal bounces off at an angle to the LNB. She had no clue. So she proceeded to put the dish on the pole, hooks a simple signal meter to it, removes the meter while the dish is flopping all around and tightened it down. OK, what about the signal? Well let's go down to the HT and hook the STB up. Sure enough no signal and she says"I told you so, it won't work because of the trees." I said I will go out and use my meter and re peak the dish. Now we have signal but the STB will not take a hit. Pretty soon I smell electrical and the STB goes dark. Fortunately she has another in the truck. Finally we get the thing up and running and I send her on her way. I kept the Stealth antenna for latter use because we used the channel master I have on a rotor. Everything works pretty well, signal strength is in the high 90's and all but one of my OTA digital stations is coming in.
When I ordered the Voom system two different CSR's insisted the remote was UHF so I went with one receiver and bought an extra remote. Well, the STB and remote are not UHF. I would have had two receivers installed at the initial install if they had given me the correct info. Now of course Voom will not come out and install a second receiver with out charging $199.
Overall I am pleased with Voom but I really do not think they will survive due to their inconsistent business polices. I saw some Voom STB's on ebay and thought that would be a good way to get a second receiver. Called Voom and they informed me if the receiver is not purchased from Voom and installed by Installs inc, then it will never be activated. So that makes ANY Voom receiver sold by a first owner worthless. Why would anyone buy the receiver in the first place knowing this? The original purchaser or the second hand buyer on Ebay?

 

[Sean Mota]

Indy,

welcome and thanks for the report. Sometimes their policies seem crazy... Let's see what happens.

 

[Indy]

Sean, Thanks for the welcome. I was asked to post my observations from a forum member over at AVS. In fact that day I think he said you canceled your Voom subscription. I was floored!

 

[Sean Mota]

Sean, Thanks for the welcome. I was asked to post my observations from a forum member over at AVS. In fact that day I think he said you canceled your Voom subscription. I was floored!

I did not get as far as cancelling but I was upset (to say the least) but like they say in Rio "Everything is good"

 

[Who Me?]

The video servers are Grass Valley model MPVS40xx.
The PVS's (profile video server) come in 10xx, 11xx, 20xx and 3xxx and 40xx models.
The 10xx is the original SD version and (now) supports 8 video chnls.
It uses a IBM mpeg-2 encoder and decoder chip's.
The 10xx is 4,2,2 and can encode from 4 to 50 Mbps data rate.
The 11xx is a updated 10xx using c-cube encoder/decoder chip and supports dvc pro 25 & 50 and mpeg-2
This one replaced the 10xx series
The 20xx is The hd version (uses 6 IBM encoder chips per record chnl)
And the 30xx/35xx is a HD and SD unit in one box.
It can do a sd and hd record/play out at the same time.
The units Voom got are arranged in a SAN (storage area network) setup.
This allows multiple PVS's to share the same raid's.
The raids are made by ciprico or emc and hold 5 or 10: 36 or 72 or 142 gig scsi drives.
The drives spin at 10K rpm and use a scsi /fiber chanel interface.
The largest raid setup I have seen was up near 12 or 15 terra-bytes.
Put simply they are like a multi-channel VTR with out the tape.
Anyway, I think they store all the 'Voom' programming on a SAN system.
Lock, stock and barrel.
Create a play list for each Voom orig. program chnl. and let-er' rip.
Sean: if you really want more info. I can e-mail it to you.
JS

 

[Sean Mota]

Please do. Sean_Mota@satelliteguys.us I am really interested. Thanks.

 

[giveuspurehd]

whacked out installer!

hello,"horror story enclosed""message sent to voom""im lazy"
hello,
you want to get people to get voom.i want voom.i have been rescheduled 3 times now!i called voom with no resolve.first he says he called in the moring on first install date and we did not answer so he did not come by!we can not monitor our phone lines 24-7.i argued with the man to come that day so he finally agreed to come.he showed up and says we will need some special pole or something and it will cost 45 bucks.that is the small print i guees and i agreed to pay it.then he did not have enogh cable to do it then.sow we rescheduled for today.he called this moring and says because of weather hes moving the install to sunday!i asked the man if he could make someone else wait and do our next.he could not do that.although he does not work directly for you he is the only person we will ever see in person with voom.i am sick and tired of changing my schedule.the customer service at voom just said we have to work it all out with the installer.i would look into who voom is contracting oit to install your services.i monitor and participate in many online forums about dbs systems and i can tell you voom is getting horrid reviews on install.if you could pass my story to the right people maybe something could be done about it.

okay so they called back today and said its on for tommorow.and not sunday.maybe my email worked.i emailed the biggest wig at cablevision i could find and the regular ? form at voom.the biggest thing that blew my roof is that the installer kept other installs and kept me waiting.i am so tired of freakin waiting.i took a extra blood pressure pill today.he is suppsed to be here at 4:00 pm. i did lie and say i was missing work, but who cares they should have some pressure put on them.i sure the heck hope its gonna be woth the battle.i am forseeing him not getting done before dark or something.i dunno im pumped up in away again but in away im not.i know now to get a seperate cable coming from the ota.well im done ranting.i hope this is the last horror post, but it taint looking good.
also on a side note i think we need a voice chat room for voom users as well.i will start one on paltalk.paltalk is simple to use and free.once you get there go to computers hi tech and thats where u will see a dedicated voice chat room for voomers.i will leave it on 24/7 for everyone.if it becomes popular i will need some admins.ill go start it up right now. www.paltalk.com

 

[ondarocks]

Going on 4th installation visit

Waiting for Installs to call me today to set my 4th that's right 4th installation.
1st installation- Sureway, after telling Sureway they needed a 40ft ladder and to please bring black coaxial cable( my house if brick ) they showed up with a 20ft. ladder and white coaxial not to mention the driver ran out of gas at my house and had to walk to get more gas. ( good for him)
2nd Installation 7 days later same company- they come with the 40ft. ladder this time but forgot the black coaxial. I went and bought it so I didn't have to rescedule. Cost me about 30 bucks plus 45 for the ladder even though Voom and Installs said it was approved and I didn't have to pay. Installer said he never got approval.
3rd Installtion- Yesterday ( New Unstaller ) FD Installations- After telling Voom and Installs that I needed a 40ft. ladder then new installer shows up with a 32ft. ladder cause he thought it would make it. Nevertheless he was 8ft shy of reaching the dish. Called Voom right after my installer left to vent about how ridiculous this has been and they really know how to sympathize with you. I'm tired of the smooth talking CSR from Voom, just fix my TV. If that's not the best they call Installs and keep me on hold for about 20 minutes comingback to be every 5 mintues to tell me they're on hold with Installs. Make a long strory short they told me ( Voom ) that they are approving FD Installations for 40ft. ladder now, but FD Installations doesn't own a 40ft. ladder so Installs is approving him to go buy one and they will reimburse him for a new ladder. So now I have to wait for the guy to buy a ladder and then set up my 4th APPOINTMENT. Is this right? Is this the type of service that Voom is providing?????????

 

[Sean Mota]

hello,"horror story enclosed""message sent to voom""im lazy"
hello,
you want to get people to get voom.i want voom.i have been rescheduled 3 times now!i called voom with no resolve.first he says he called in the moring on first install date and we did not answer so he did not come by!we can not monitor our phone lines 24-7.i argued with the man to come that day so he finally agreed to come.he showed up and says we will need some special pole or something and it will cost 45 bucks.that is the small print i guees and i agreed to pay it.then he did not have enogh cable to do it then.sow we rescheduled for today.he called this moring and says because of weather hes moving the install to sunday!i asked the man if he could make someone else wait and do our next.he could not do that.although he does not work directly for you he is the only person we will ever see in person with voom.i am sick and tired of changing my schedule.the customer service at voom just said we have to work it all out with the installer.i would look into who voom is contracting oit to install your services.i monitor and participate in many online forums about dbs systems and i can tell you voom is getting horrid reviews on install.if you could pass my story to the right people maybe something could be done about it.

okay so they called back today and said its on for tommorow.and not sunday.maybe my email worked.i emailed the biggest wig at cablevision i could find and the regular ? form at voom.the biggest thing that blew my roof is that the installer kept other installs and kept me waiting.i am so tired of freakin waiting.i took a extra blood pressure pill today.he is suppsed to be here at 4:00 pm. i did lie and say i was missing work, but who cares they should have some pressure put on them.i sure the heck hope its gonna be woth the battle.i am forseeing him not getting done before dark or something.i dunno im pumped up in away again but in away im not.i know now to get a seperate cable coming from the ota.well im done ranting.i hope this is the last horror post, but it taint looking good.
also on a side note i think we need a voice chat room for voom users as well.i will start one on paltalk.paltalk is simple to use and free.once you get there go to computers hi tech and thats where u will see a dedicated voice chat room for voomers.i will leave it on 24/7 for everyone.if it becomes popular i will need some admins.ill go start it up right now. www.paltalk.com

Welcome. You should have sent an email to Wilt. We already have a chat room here at satelliteguys.us that is open 24/7.

 

[giveuspurehd]

30 minutes until install

im pumped up.

 

[Odys]

Flawless installation! The installer just left and everything is working perfectly. He was really cool. As soon as I said I didn't want a diplexer, he said no problem. Most impressively, he came out with a Winegard without my even asking for one. When I asked him if they upgraded everyone in this area, his response was "I do." He said the stealth doesn't work in this area very well, so he just routinely grabs a Winegard on his way out of the shop. He also said Voom is blowing the doors out of everyone else, that his company is doing mostly Voom installations. My picture is amazing! This is my first HD experience. I may never leave the house again!

 

[Walter L.]

Odys: congrats on your install and welcome to the revolution. Your installation proves that there are good installers around.

 

[Smiley79]

I thought I would share bits of this funny story that I heard from my sister's install. She had Voom installed a couple of months ago, and from the start, had nothing but reception problems (OTA and HD somewhat). Also when trying to get a DVI cable from the local installer, she was told that she had to purchase it for $25. After I found out, I lucked up and found this website, and pointed her in the direction of Installs Inc (Joe Harkins). She was told that she'd get a refund, and he was going to send the installers back out to her house to clean up the install job (upgrade the OTA antenna, etc). When the local guy came out, he was there about 40 minutes sitting on the couch continuously saying that there was nothing he could do to fix her problems.

The funny that happened was while he was sitting there (basically doing nothing), another guy comes in from Installs Inc (she believes it was Joe Harkins personally, but she couldn't swear to it). All she knows is when the installer saw who it was, he immediately got up and starting trying to fix the problem. Turns out, she needed some sort of rotating OTA antenna to fix the reception. Next, the Installs Inc guy wants the local installer to find some HD channels (which the local guy didn't even know how to find any). So after the Installs Inc guy does his own looking, he notices that the box isn't even producing a HD picture on any of the channels, and asks the local guy why (which, of course, he didn't know why). Turns out both boxes that she had in her house were defective. Then my sister asks why she was charged for the DVI cable, which the local guy kept thinking she was talking about a component cable. When the guy figured out what she was talking about, he claimed he had never even heard of a DVI cable. When she pulled it out, he still played his innocent routine. Long story short, as the Installs Inc finds more and more things wrong with the install, he writes downs notes. At the end of the visit, he told her that everything on that list would be taken care of.

So from what I'm gathering, Installs Inc is starting to crack down on these bad installers, which is very good. I found the story rather amusing.

 

[giveuspurehd]

install done

hello,
well it was a mixed bag.i absolutely love the hd channels and the sd channels are nice too.i did not get the ota channels going.we almost did not get it all going.this was the installers first install.we could not get the component video to come up clearly so he hooked up the sd cables and looked around the menus.well we put it back to component and it was still messed up "scrambled".i was searching this forum for a fix andi turn around and the guy had my convergance set up on my tv all the way screwed.the green convergance had wabbly lines and it was way wacked.i felt like throwin punches.i stated i did not want the diplexer but he said the extra cable would cost a fortune since my dish was on the garage and and would be more than the 100 ft that was with the basic install.oh well.on a funny note when he was hookin up the cables to tv he said the customer is only allowed either the sd cables, dvi, or component.well he figured out he needed the sd cables for audio and he said well i think i can bend some rules here and that i did not see what he did.lol.what a joke!oh well.at one point he called his boss and his boss told him to leave it with yellow,red and white cable, and that would be high definition!he was going to leave me like that.i was like guy do you think that people who have high definition have not done thier homework?i told him i would not accept that and that i wanted the problem figured out and that i was insulted.im not for sure how it happend , but the component warmed up and started working correctly.the signal is 55-58.i have some? about how to set it all up so im gonna go search this forum.the ota by the way he just said to call voom because he knew nothing about it and how to get the channels and he signed off on me and left.he was here 4 1\2 hours.
also he said he only gets paid 100.00 for the install and that it really was not worth it due to gas prices.i understand that but a job is a job!hopefully whoever comes out next is not this way.my last thought of the install is that they charged me $50 for a tripod stand and pole to mount.the guy said he called voom and they would not pay for it so i had too.i understood that and paid.one thing i am going to do is ask voom if he ever called and if that was the case.i would love to catch him gettin paid double.he sure did not want a check very bad.

 

[bbtkd]

hello,
well it was a mixed bag.i absolutely love the hd channels and the sd channels are nice too.i did not get the ota channels going.we almost did not get it all going.this was the installers first install.we could not get the component video to come up clearly so he hooked up the sd cables and looked around the menus.well we put it back to component and it was still messed up "scrambled".i was searching this forum for a fix andi turn around and the guy had my convergance set up on my tv all the way screwed.the green convergance had wabbly lines and it was way wacked.i felt like throwin punches.i stated i did not want the diplexer but he said the extra cable would cost a fortune since my dish was on the garage and and would be more than the 100 ft that was with the basic install.oh well.on a funny note when he was hookin up the cables to tv he said the customer is only allowed either the sd cables, dvi, or component.well he figured out he needed the sd cables for audio and he said well i think i can bend some rules here and that i did not see what he did.lol.what a joke!oh well.at one point he called his boss and his boss told him to leave it with yellow,red and white cable, and that would be high definition!he was going to leave me like that.i was like guy do you think that people who have high definition have not done thier homework?i told him i would not accept that and that i wanted the problem figured out and that i was insulted.im not for sure how it happend , but the component warmed up and started working correctly.the signal is 55-58.i have some? about how to set it all up so im gonna go search this forum.the ota by the way he just said to call voom because he knew nothing about it and how to get the channels and he signed off on me and left.he was here 4 1\2 hours.
also he said he only gets paid 100.00 for the install and that it really was not worth it due to gas prices.i understand that but a job is a job!hopefully whoever comes out next is not this way.my last thought of the install is that they charged me $50 for a tripod stand and pole to mount.the guy said he called voom and they would not pay for it so i had too.i understood that and paid.one thing i am going to do is ask voom if he ever called and if that was the case.i would love to catch him gettin paid double.he sure did not want a check very bad.

Complain to the new contact at Installs Inc. The agreement says that they will install up to 4 lines up to 125 feet at no cost, and that any materials needed to make it work are paid by Voom - not the customer. If the install required a tripod you should not pay for it. Either it is required and Voom should pay, or it is not required and should be removed. This guy and his boss apparently have no experience as installers - nothing here unique to Voom - they should have been able to handle it. Also, you should not have to listen to their whining about gas prices, how little they are making, etc.

As far as something "warming up" and starting to work - no - something either was done without your noticing, something is itermittent, or it took a while for the receiver to boot and load the channel guide.

Your receiver will work much better after it updates the firmware. You need to leave it turned off (standby mode) overnight. Around 2AM or so it will load the new firmware. It may take a few nights to happen. After it does, the time will be correct, and the signal scale will be higher. With the new signal scale, you can expect signal quality in the 90's.

 

[elocs]

My install is on Tuesday. I have had it confirmed with both Installs and with VOOM, although I did not get the number for the installer. Installs would not give it and VOOM did not offer it and said I might be contacted, but it was not required. I am not too worried because I work 3rd shift and taking care of business during the day is no problem.
I will get the installer's number and call if nothing happens on Tuesday.

What I would like to know is there a place where I could go to print the installation agreement so I could refer it to the installer if there is a question about what is provided, such as a tripod or lengths of cable? I am concerned about my LOS because there is a 3 story apartment building across the street, but I also have neighbors just to the east and west of me that have Dish.

Three more days until I get Voomed. I am hoping for the best. Pleasssse!