DirecTV Installer!!!GRrrr

[igator99]

First let me say that this is hard work installing this stuff and I'm sure for every lazy installer there are 100 hardworking ones. Also I have a challenging setup. My dish is on a pole about five feet from where my roof starts. When the installer called and said he would be here at 5:00 on Friday my heart sank a bit. My experience with these guys has always been bad. I've been a DirecTV customer for ten years. Well he didn't disappoint. He showed up and looked around (No he did not pull out a compass) and said he couldn't do anything. I begged him to run a fourth line to my sons room. I'm getting 95+ signal from all three birds from DirecTV. He said he couldn't do that even though I offered to help him to do it. I told the young man that if he left without doing anything I was going to raise hell with his company and DirecTV. He told me to do what I wanted and left. I understand through this board you get paid by the job. How long would it have taken for me and him to take down the dish and run an extra line? One hour? Two hours? I can do it myself but I have a hard time finding the line in the wall. I'm a professional and I do everything I can to help my clients. This kid was well it is Friday night I'm out of here. Go ahead and flame me but if there are people in your profession that are not acting professional it makes all of you look bad.:devil:

 

[stevo/65]

Why not and ask him to help you paint your house.....while you`re at it
we just love to do work for free.:devil:
Its customers like you ...who can .....well you get the point

 

[rockaway1836]

First let me say that this is hard work installing this stuff and I'm sure for every lazy installer there are 100 hardworking ones. Also I have a challenging setup. My dish is on a pole about five feet from where my roof starts. When the installer called and said he would be here at 5:00 on Friday my heart sank a bit. My experience with these guys has always been bad. I've been a DirecTV customer for ten years. Well he didn't disappoint. He showed up and looked around (No he did not pull out a compass) and said he couldn't do anything. I begged him to run a fourth line to my sons room. I'm getting 95+ signal from all three birds from DirecTV. He said he couldn't do that even though I offered to help him to do it. I told the young man that if he left without doing anything I was going to raise hell with his company and DirecTV. He told me to do what I wanted and left. I understand through this board you get paid by the job. How long would it have taken for me and him to take down the dish and run an extra line? One hour? Two hours? I can do it myself but I have a hard time finding the line in the wall. I'm a professional and I do everything I can to help my clients. This kid was well it is Friday night I'm out of here. Go ahead and flame me but if there are people in your profession that are not acting professional it makes all of you look bad.:devil:

Question #1. Who did the original install?

 

[igator99]

Why not and ask him to help you paint your house.....while you`re at it
we just love to do work for free.:devil:
Its customers like you ...who can .....well you get the point

I wasn't expecting him to do anything for free. Reread the post if you can. I'm gettting my locals and all three sats from DirecTV form a multisatellite dish. If he couldn't hit the HD sat which I understand from DirecTV is the same as the 110 sat then he was suppose to run a line from the dish to my sons room which had a previous cable install. The multisatellite dish already has a multiswitch good for four lines which was all I needed. You talk about working for free, I offered the guy to help him get the dish down and run the line. He refused! I had a work order ready for him which he also refused. Hey if you don't want to do the job then don't ask for the work. I'm no sat expert but I was able to the job that one installer refused. As far as running a line a monkey can do it but hey cable doesn't ask its customers to do that stuff. Perhaps you were the idiot? It is people like you... well you get the point.
:devil:

 

[jckm78]

If you paid him, he'll do it.
<<I'm a professional and I do everything I can to help my clients.>>
You probably get pay alot more than these guys. If he spend two hours of work for free, he probably make less than the fastfood guys.

 

[igator99]

Question #1. Who did the original install?

DirecTV did the original install back in 95. When I upgraded to the multisat dish in 2003 the DirecTV installer refused to do it saying I had no line of sight. After investing $300 into it I did it myself. I have had no problems to this date. The freaking dish and pole survived Katrina and I live 20 miles to the west of where it passed. As soon as I had power I was one of the lucky ones to have TV. I recently purchased a HDTV and wanted to switch companies and called Dishnetwork. The guy that came out said no way which I kind of understood because he showed me with his instruments how one tree was blocking a Dish sat. He had a huge job ahead of him and I don't really blame him for not doing it. The DirecTV installer has no excuse.
He told his company he had no line of sight which suprised his company to find out that I've had the service for ten years and still have it to this day. You can take up for the kid all you want but it is BS. I told the kid if he left without running the line I would raise hell and he left. There is no reason for him not run that line. They are suppose to come out tomorrow with an "expert" installer to do it. YOu guys should be concerned with idiots running around pretending to be sat experts.

 

[jckm78]

The wages of installers are getting less and less, the jobs are getting harder and harder, and fuel price and inflation are rising. Later or sooner, with how things are going, the industry will filter out all the real pro installer and left with idiots.

 

[igator99]

The wages of installers are getting less and less, the jobs are getting harder and harder, and fuel price and inflation are rising. Later or sooner, with how things are going, the industry will filter out all the real pro installer and left with idiots.

Hey it is not an easy job as I stated in the original post. I think around here (New Orleans) we are getting a lot of people that are posing as real pros when they are not. The installers deserve real pay and much more than what they are getting considering the service provider will get thousands for their work in the long run. You need some sort of standard or certification to weed out the pros from the pretenders. So far all I've gotten are pretenders.

 

[stevo/65]

Hey it is not an easy job as I stated in the original post. I think around here (New Orleans) we are getting a lot of people that are posing as real pros when they are not. The installers deserve real pay and much more than what they are getting considering the service provider will get thousands for their work in the long run. You need some sort of standard or certification to weed out the pros from the pretenders. So far all I've gotten are pretenders.

"Again a pro will not work for free".
and yes i read your post right the first time

Come over and help paint my house...i will even help
a monkey with a brush could do it... so iam sure you can
atleast you think ?

 

[stevo/65]

I wasn't expecting him to do anything for free. Reread the post if you can. I'm gettting my locals and all three sats from DirecTV form a multisatellite dish. If he couldn't hit the HD sat which I understand from DirecTV is the same as the 110 sat then he was suppose to run a line from the dish to my sons room which had a previous cable install. The multisatellite dish already has a multiswitch good for four lines which was all I needed. You talk about working for free, I offered the guy to help him get the dish down and run the line. He refused! I had a work order ready for him which he also refused. Hey if you don't want to do the job then don't ask for the work. I'm no sat expert but I was able to the job that one installer refused. As far as running a line a monkey can do it but hey cable doesn't ask its customers to do that stuff. Perhaps you were the idiot? It is people like you... well you get the point.
:devil:

Idiots like you who try to get stuff done for free...oh thats right you were
going to help. if you wanted a gopher i am sure you can find plenty of them in
your area...but do not waste my time.
If it was me ...which i am here in Texas... you are lucky it wasnt me....well you get the point.. :devil:

 

[rockaway1836]

DirecTV did the original install back in 95. When I upgraded to the multisat dish in 2003 the DirecTV installer refused to do it saying I had no line of sight. After investing $300 into it I did it myself. I have had no problems to this date. The freaking dish and pole survived Katrina and I live 20 miles to the west of where it passed. As soon as I had power I was one of the lucky ones to have TV. I recently purchased a HDTV and wanted to switch companies and called Dishnetwork. The guy that came out said no way which I kind of understood because he showed me with his instruments how one tree was blocking a Dish sat. He had a huge job ahead of him and I don't really blame him for not doing it. The DirecTV installer has no excuse.
He told his company he had no line of sight which suprised his company to find out that I've had the service for ten years and still have it to this day. You can take up for the kid all you want but it is BS. I told the kid if he left without running the line I would raise hell and he left. There is no reason for him not run that line. They are suppose to come out tomorrow with an "expert" installer to do it. YOu guys should be concerned with idiots running around pretending to be sat experts.

There may be more to it than just repalcing the exisitng dish on the same pole. The AT-9 requires a 2inch Outside diameter pole. I doubt it would fit on the same pole as a phase 3.

 

[igator99]

"Again a pro will not work for free".
and yes i read your post right the first time

Come over and help paint my house...i will even help
a monkey with a brush could do it... so iam sure you can
atleast you think ?

Painting someones house is not my job. Perhaps you should look into the monkey because you don't seem interested in painting your house yourself. What is your deal with working for free? Does the installer not get paid by his company or DirecTV?

 

[igator99]

There may be more to it than just repalcing the exisitng dish on the same pole. The AT-9 requires a 2inch Outside diameter pole. I doubt it would fit on the same pole as a phase 3.

I believe the pole I'm using is 2 inches in diameter. It is about double the size of your regular radio shack type antenna. BTW DirecTV told me that I can get the HD sat with the triple lnb dish I have? This was news to me. Is this true?

 

[rockaway1836]

Yes it just won't get you HD locals when available

 

[igator99]

Idiots like you who try to get stuff done for free...oh thats right you were
going to help. if you wanted a gopher i am sure you can find plenty of them in
your area...but do not waste my time.
If it was me ...which i am here in Texas... you are lucky it wasnt me....well you get the point.. :devil:

I was lucky it wasn't you because you sound like one of the lazy idiots. You keep talking about free work? The kid would be paid by his company but he didn't want to do the work.

 

[stevo/65]

Painting someones house is not my job. Perhaps you should look into the monkey because you don't seem interested in painting your house yourself. What is your deal with working for free? Does the installer not get paid by his company or DirecTV?

If you are wanting a new Hd set up an upgrade of your dish is required.
The new dish will be an AT-9...it is much bigger and a pole would need to be thicker as well. The new mpeg 4 Directv uses would be on the 99 or the 103
degree to get the HD now.The 110-119 will be phased out for HD.

if your work order said upgrade then the tec will need to see if you can get it done without a custom charge....since you have it on a pole the standard free upgrade is no longer warrented. Now if you had it on your roof,it would be different.
Also i doubt the work order said if you can not get upgrade with dish then customer gets fourth outlet. Work orders"tickets"are to the point...if your uprade
was to have both done, then you having it on a pole would not be a standard uprade. You do both or none at all.
If you really want to help then have the trench done (so you can bury cable) and with new 2" pole in concrete ready when tech gets there. If you want tech to do it pole and trench $150 would be a minimum.
Now how is that for monkey buisness.:devil:

 

[stevo/65]

I was lucky it wasn't you because you sound like one of the lazy idiots. You keep talking about free work? The kid would be paid by his company but he didn't want to do the work.

The company only pays for standard work
you are a custom.....If you had it on a roof it would be standard.
Now if you want it on your roof then the ticket will say to relocte dish with upgrade
Keep in mind Directv will charge for a relocate.

Trust me i have been doing this for 16 years. and i have delt with
idiots for tecs and idiots for customers. I am a contractor who gets paid by job
"not hourly" and directv is responsible for standard installs only.
If you want custom work done then you will pay..
it is that simple.

 

[igator99]

If you are wanting a new Hd set up an upgrade of your dish is required.
The new dish will be an AT-9...it is much bigger and a pole would need to be thicker as well. The new mpeg 4 Directv uses would be on the 99 or the 103
degree to get the HD now.The 110-119 will be phased out for HD.

if your work order said upgrade then the tec will need to see if you can get it done without a custom charge....since you have it on a pole the standard free upgrade is no longer warrented. Now if you had it on your roof,it would be different.
Also i doubt the work order said if you can not get upgrade with dish then customer gets fourth outlet. Work orders"tickets"are to the point...if your uprade
was to have both done, then you having it on a pole would not be a standard uprade. You do both or none at all.
If you really want to help then have the trench done (so you can bury cable) and with new 2" pole in concrete ready when tech gets there. If you want tech to do it pole and trench $150 would be a minimum.
Now how is that for monkey buisness.:devil:

Thank you for not hurling insults at me. I'm really not that type of person but I can dish it out with the best of them. The work order was for the upgrade of the dish and running a fourth line. I had thought there might be a problem with the new dish on the pole so I had in advanced recieved another work order number to simply run a fourth line. THE KID DID NOT WANT TO DO THE WORK. If a trench would have to dug (You seem to forget I'm getting all three sats now at 95+ signal strength) of course I would be expecting to pay. If he had to plant a new pole and DirecTV doesn't cover it of course I would expect to pay. He never discussed pay or charges he simply split.

How would you feel if you hired a painter that you have waited for a week and he gets to your house and says the sides are to tall he can't do it and he splits? You even offer to help him get up there and still splits.

 

[stevo/65]

Thank you for not hurling insults at me. I'm really not that type of person but I can dish it out with the best of them. The work order was for the upgrade of the dish and running a fourth line. I had thought there might be a problem with the new dish on the pole so I had in advanced recieved another work order number to simply run a fourth line. THE KID DID NOT WANT TO DO THE WORK. If a trench would have to dug (You seem to forget I'm getting all three sats now at 95+ signal strength) of course I would be expecting to pay. If he had to plant a new pole and DirecTV doesn't cover it of course I would expect to pay. He never discussed pay or charges he simply split.

How would you feel if you hired a painter that you have waited for a week and he gets to your house and says the sides are to tall he can't do it and he splits? You even offer to help him get up there and still splits.

You had a rookie for a tech....he should have explained to you... the time
involved and the cost to get your system in the right and correct way.
It would have been time consuming but if you are willing to pay the extra
cost "i would have done it"

 

[igator99]

You had a rookie for a tech....he should have explained to you... the time
involved and the cost to get your system in the right and correct way.
It would have been time consuming but if you are willing to pay the extra
cost "i would have done it"

Yes! It took a long time to get to this point. He was a young kid (No more than 21) it was 5:00 on a Friday and he didn't want to do anything. He told his company I had no line of sight which is a lie. I basically begged him to run the fourth line and showed him the work order. His response was that it would take to much time and he split.

From what I've gathered installers don't get paid as much as they should. When I upgraded from dialup to DSL Bellsouth came out and dug a ditch and dropped the line with a one time upgrade fee and a commitment for something like a year. Their people get paid well (I know a few of them) and they do dam good jobs. Why can't these sat companies do this?