Will Dish Tech Install Second Coax Cable For OTA Antenna?

[dishcomm]

I personally think that if Dish does not offer HD locals they should figure out some way to install an antenna free of charge. You pay for the antenna but dish comps the installer for install.

yes as a consumer one would figure that. But a s tech, I have to do the work and provvide the materials and labor. Since Dish isn't going to pay me, the customer will do that.
Question: What gives you or anyone else for that matter the idea that a person's labor and meterials should be provided to you free of charge?...

 

[dishcomm]

Then DISH's operational expenses increase and they up the monthly bill. Either that or you will have to endure a longer contract. Here's an idea, you want someone to perform work for you and you actually pay them.

yer kidding ,right? you mean pay us?...as in real money? C'mon...Half the people who post here will have your hide for mentioning money

 

[dishcomm]

Here's an idea... stop losing local HD customers to DirecTV. In my area this is a major reason why Dish has a hard time competing. D has them, E does not. One retailer here even lies about having them within a few weeks when you ask. They've been using that lie for over a year.

I bet the retailers here would love a program that would allow them to better compete... and perhaps not lie.

what's that got to do with not paying the person to do the work?

 

[dishcomm]

Don't appreciate the comment as you know nothing about me. I installed my own antenna. I personally have nothing riding on this.

I'm pointing out that many people dont want to fuss with it. And if given the option between D* with HD locals and E* without it, and if you want OTA you better pay up, many people are just going with D. Now if you dont think thats a problem, fine... but it happens a lot in my service area.

One potential workaround would be for E to pay for part of an OTA install. It's an issue of competing in my book, not just giving away stuff. If D doesn't offer HD locals either, then you wouldnt bother doing this. But if you are in an area where D has and E doesn't, you're at a disadvantage and this MAY help compete.

This seems so outrageous for you to consider... perhaps you work for charlie's promo department.

hey genius, you wrote :
I personally think that if Dish does not offer HD locals they should figure out some way to install an antenna free of charge. You pay for the antenna but dish comps the installer for install".
Now you contradict that statement with your last post. So which is it?

 

[darrencp22]

My point had been and always has that "maybe" this would be a **DISH**program. I said perhaps **E** should pay PART of the install. Never did I say that installers should lose money. It's what I like to call an "idea"... for the sake of "discussion". Maybe the idea has merrit, maybe not. You guys are ultra sensative and take things *far* too seriously. I also said that **I** was not looking for anything, nor did I say I was unhappy. I have an antenna I installed myself and everything works great :up

-- and lord, not you again. Again with the insults. Why the lack of decorum? Are you genetically inclined to be a jerk?
You were the guy who defended that installer who destroyed some guys property. I'm through debating you guys, some of you have a stick up you know where. Of course you did not pay attention when I said I was through with this topic. But if you are going to insult me, I cant let that go.

Sounds like many of you guys have some serious gripes with how you get paid by E*. These may be legitimate.. with E*. Don't take it out on those of us who are trying to have a discussion.

 

[Skibum]

I don't get paid by E* to install OTA, so I don't. Really. I'll advise a customer on what to do, but I'm not installing any OTA unless they pay me $59/hour, minimum one hour charge. Granted, if the cable is already there I'll plug it in, but that's common sense.

 

[vegassatellite]

Darrencp22, I apologize for coming off so rash about this issue. There are simply too many people that believe in some form of subsidy as a solution to all the world's problems. The increase in their operational expenses for performing OTA installs would be passed on as an increased in costs for their customers. This means for someone to get around $200 worth of free OTA work and materials, other customers would end up paying for that. Regular equipment and install for their product line which has recurring revenue makes sense in that they will see a long term return on that investment. DISH won't make any recurring income off of an OTA install, so its a long-term financial loser.

Here's an option I think might be amicable: Offer unserved customers an OTA install but with the requirement that they pay $4.95 a month same as any served customer and make them sign a 24 month contract for that $4.95. At least DISH collects $118 this way for the install and the customer can disconnect their local channel subscription after that contract is up. The customer then gets his locals but doesn't pay any more than a subscriber of local channels. In fact, he can opt out after his term is up. Dish could even open this up to retailers to do the work. I could buy sticks for $30 or less, leaving me $88 for the install, that's do-able.

 

[charlesrshell]

NO. I'm just against the idea of subsidizing another subscriber's OTA install simply because he doesn't have access to LiL HD. Dish doesn't incur these expenses without offsetting them through increased subscriber revenue. That means if their operational costs go up another hundred million, my bill would go up as well. So I end up paying more, but I get no OTA as part of it. Dish has no expected increase in revenue from putting up OTA antennas so that cost isn't recovered from that sub unless they pay via a contract extension or by paying for the installation.

Why do people think businesses have a magical money tree? The money comes out of customer's wallets.

Yep, sometimes you have to bite the bullet. When I joined Dish, I wanted The Pentagon Channel (9405). It is listed on all Dish TV packages. In my area you have have the 1000+ (110/119/118.7/129) dish for the locals, muti-sport, etc. Well, guess what, The Pentagon channel only comes in on 61.5/148. I was surprised Dish would not install that dish too as part of their install deals, especially since the channel is listed in the program packages. But, they said no, so I had to pay for the wing dish. I guess that is just the way it goes sometimes.

 

[dishcomm]

Darrencp22, I apologize for coming off so rash about this issue. There are simply too many people that believe in some form of subsidy as a solution to all the world's problems. The increase in their operational expenses for performing OTA installs would be passed on as an increased in costs for their customers. This means for someone to get around $200 worth of free OTA work and materials, other customers would end up paying for that. Regular equipment and install for their product line which has recurring revenue makes sense in that they will see a long term return on that investment. DISH won't make any recurring income off of an OTA install, so its a long-term financial loser.

Here's an option I think might be amicable: Offer unserved customers an OTA install but with the requirement that they pay $4.95 a month same as any served customer and make them sign a 24 month contract for that $4.95. At least DISH collects $118 this way for the install and the customer can disconnect their local channel subscription after that contract is up. The customer then gets his locals but doesn't pay any more than a subscriber of local channels. In fact, he can opt out after his term is up. Dish could even open this up to retailers to do the work. I could buy sticks for $30 or less, leaving me $88 for the install, that's do-able.

brilliant idea..One problem I see (me thinking as a consumer) is that the signal you want to have the cust pay $4.95 per month for is free to the public. So the monthly charge would have to be marketed differently. I would juts tell the customer, they are paying for the OTA and labor at a rate of $4.95 per month. The term is 24 months.
Otherwise this is a good idea. It pays the tech doing the work. The customer likes the low monthly fee and everyone is happy...Only caveat is Dish is taking all the risk. They would essentially be subsidizing $118 over two years. The cust has their OTA and the tech has his money.

 

[griz_fan]

I don't get paid by E* to install OTA, so I don't. Really. I'll advise a customer on what to do, but I'm not installing any OTA unless they pay me $59/hour, minimum one hour charge. Granted, if the cable is already there I'll plug it in, but that's common sense.

Do you advertise this, though? Seriously, I think a lot of installers (at least in my area) are missing a great opportunity. I would have gladly paid the installer to put up an outdoor antenna and properly run the cabling to support local OTA for my 622. But, I couldn't find anyone who seemed to offer that service. I wound up doing it myself, and not doing nearly as good a job as a decent installer could have done. Our yellow pages is chock-full of ads for satellite installers, yet not a single one mentioned traditional antenna installation. I'm sure some do it, but how is the typical consumer to know?

In my area, neither satellite provider offers HD locals, and I wouldn't expect them to for quite some time. In addition, the transition to digital TV is less than a year away. In my mind, that equals a pretty big market for antenna installation. Offering that service would benefit a lot of people, advertising such would give an installer a nice advantage over the competition, too, not to mention a nice revenue stream that they control.

Just a thought...

 

[PATECO]

I don't get paid by E* to install OTA, so I don't. Really. I'll advise a customer on what to do, but I'm not installing any OTA unless they pay me $59/hour, minimum one hour charge. Granted, if the cable is already there I'll plug it in, but that's common sense.

How come you don't get paid by dish to install OTA? I do, and install them quite frequently.

 

[darrencp22]

Darrencp22, I apologize for coming off so rash about this issue. There are simply too many people that believe in some form of subsidy as a solution to all the world's problems. The increase in their operational expenses for performing OTA installs would be passed on as an increased in costs for their customers. This means for someone to get around $200 worth of free OTA work and materials, other customers would end up paying for that. Regular equipment and install for their product line which has recurring revenue makes sense in that they will see a long term return on that investment. DISH won't make any recurring income off of an OTA install, so its a long-term financial loser.

Here's an option I think might be amicable: Offer unserved customers an OTA install but with the requirement that they pay $4.95 a month same as any served customer and make them sign a 24 month contract for that $4.95. At least DISH collects $118 this way for the install and the customer can disconnect their local channel subscription after that contract is up. The customer then gets his locals but doesn't pay any more than a subscriber of local channels. In fact, he can opt out after his term is up. Dish could even open this up to retailers to do the work. I could buy sticks for $30 or less, leaving me $88 for the install, that's do-able.

Thanks... This is dialog.. AND a good idea!

 

[DirectDishNet]

How come you don't get paid by dish to install OTA? I do, and install them quite frequently.

Speaking as a contractor, Not a DNSC employee.
If the customer wants additional work done, I will charge them accordingly. Off air antenna would be $60 (my price). If it is just a matter of diplexing a line then I wouldn't charge much if anything at all. Diplexers are cheap, So a $4 loss is not too bad for an extra 2 minutes of work.

As a contractor, I have to pay for my own cable, diplexers, connectors and time. I can not give these items away.

Usually when I quote my prices the customer will say "They told me everything was free" or "If you won't do it then I am going to cancel"

Some customers don't care that I pay for my stuff, But most do understand and pay the $60. For those who don't understand why I have to charge for additional labor, I call customer service and let the CSR explain.

With that said, There are dish employees that will do it for free because they are paid hourly and do not have to pay for cable and connectors. Or they might not do it because they just don't want to or they don't know how.

Bottom line, to answer your question, I'm a contractor. I pay for my stuff.

If dish would pay more to us contractors, Then I might throw in some free labor now and then but with gas going up and dish paying less, I can't do it any more.

AND!!...... If dish would STOP backcharging for stupid made up rules, Then I would be more inclined to do additional labor.

 

[vegassatellite]

brilliant idea..One problem I see (me thinking as a consumer) is that the signal you want to have the cust pay $4.95 per month for is free to the public. So the monthly charge would have to be marketed differently. I would juts tell the customer, they are paying for the OTA and labor at a rate of $4.95 per month. The term is 24 months.
Otherwise this is a good idea. It pays the tech doing the work. The customer likes the low monthly fee and everyone is happy...Only caveat is Dish is taking all the risk. They would essentially be subsidizing $118 over two years. The cust has their OTA and the tech has his money.

They could perhaps charge $5.95 and title it as something else like OTA Setup Fee (1 of 24) and then they'll get $24 on top of what they pay to subs. It's a modest ROI. Then again, Dish would likely offer this as a DIU and require a 24 month commitment on the entire service in return for this.

Looking at what typical retransmission consent rates are, I doubt DISH makes much on offering local channels through the satellites. If someone opted to pay $4.95 for locals but got them OTA instead of over DISH, there's a good chance many of them wouldn't remember to cancel that after the 24 month term and so DISH would be getting $4.95 a month for a service no longer provided by them. Of course, they could require continued payment of that if the customer expects ongoing maintenance of their OTA signal.

 

[Van]

Cleaning up the idea,

Offer non served customers an antenna such as the DBS8 I think it is for $199. installed, they can pay for it up front or sign a 12 month contract for this at 16.99 a month, customers that require a tower for the antenna would have to be installed by a contractor and pay the price of the tower ontop of the antenna charge with the labour charge subtracted from the total.

 

[vegassatellite]

Cleaning up the idea,

Offer non served customers an antenna such as the DBS8 I think it is for $199. installed, they can pay for it up front or sign a 12 month contract for this at 16.99 a month, customers that require a tower for the antenna would have to be installed by a contractor and pay the price of the tower ontop of the antenna charge with the labour charge subtracted from the total.

Offer customers a Winegard GS-1100 (grey batwing) or a Channel Master CM5646 (traditional stick) or a CM4221 (UHF bow tie), all under $30.00. Professional install is $88, bringing the total to $118, or 24 payments of $4.95. Standard install includes mounting antenna, grounding cables, and pointing antenna towards transmitters as indicated by AntennaWeb. Anything beyond that is custom work, payable to technician. This includes such things as antenna upgrades, amplifiers, attic work, or other items necessary to ensure reception.

 

[charlesrshell]

Offer customers a Winegard GS-1100 (grey batwing) or a Channel Master CM5646 (traditional stick) or a CM4221 (UHF bow tie), all under $30.00. Professional install is $88, bringing the total to $118, or 24 payments of $4.95. Standard install includes mounting antenna, grounding cables, and pointing antenna towards transmitters as indicated by AntennaWeb. Anything beyond that is custom work, payable to technician. This includes such things as antenna upgrades, amplifiers, attic work, or other items necessary to ensure reception.

vegassatellite, do you have a trick up your sleeve on how you ground attic OTA antennas? When I snaked the attic coax I didn't run a ground wire. It was pure hell running the coax and I don't want to go thru that again for a ground wire.

 

[dishcomm]

Do you advertise this, though? Seriously, I think a lot of installers (at least in my area) are missing a great opportunity. I would have gladly paid the installer to put up an outdoor antenna and properly run the cabling to support local OTA for my 622. But, I couldn't find anyone who seemed to offer that service. I wound up doing it myself, and not doing nearly as good a job as a decent installer could have done. Our yellow pages is chock-full of ads for satellite installers, yet not a single one mentioned traditional antenna installation. I'm sure some do it, but how is the typical consumer to know?

In my area, neither satellite provider offers HD locals, and I wouldn't expect them to for quite some time. In addition, the transition to digital TV is less than a year away. In my mind, that equals a pretty big market for antenna installation. Offering that service would benefit a lot of people, advertising such would give an installer a nice advantage over the competition, too, not to mention a nice revenue stream that they control.

Just a thought...

Jusrt pick up the phone. Most people in the tv business whether it be cable ,satellite or home theatre will in fact install OTA's. However some will only install if you buy the OTA from THEM. So be choosy.
If I serviced your area,I would make a mint installing OTA's becuause there is little overhead , high demand and not many people willing to do it.

 

[dishcomm]

How come you don't get paid by dish to install OTA? I do, and install them quite frequently.

you are a Dish employee?

 

[dishcomm]

vegassatellite, do you have a trick up your sleeve on how you ground attic OTA antennas? When I snaked the attic coax I didn't run a ground wire. It was pure hell running the coax and I don't want to go thru that again for a ground wire.

Attic?..Easy to ground..Just install a grounding block in the attic and run a 10ga gnd wire to the light fixture in the attic...Take the escutcheon off the fixture, see the GND screw..Take a piece of stranded copper wire(10ga again),back the GND screw out and wrap the stranded wire around the screw. I use a washer to help secure the wire. Anyway, this creates a pigtail which you can attach the solid GND wire to the pigtail with a wire nut or a #6 split bolt. There is your ground for your OTA...