mya23rd
12-31-05, 04:07 AM
I have had this post all bottled up and finally decided to post. I am a DTV customer in the Northern Virginia and have had a very bad time with DTV installers as I know many others have. This is a long post but I hope you can read it to the end, share your experiences, and make any comments.
There is no telling how many customers DTV has lost. But it is really there fault for having such a poor installation setup using these crappy installers, my experience with DTV installers…
When I first became a DTV subscriber a few years ago, I had to go thru the pains of an installation. The first installer showed up with his pregnant wife and he looked like he was 17 years old and had no idea what he was doing. So after figuring out he didn’t know what he was doing, I asked him to leave and I’ll reschedule. The second installers came and they didn’t seem to have any clue either. They actually took a very small bucket, filled it with a bit of cement, stuck in a large pole, and attached the dish. I had no idea they had done this until a few minutes after they left, my signal went to zero and I couldn’t believe it. I went upstairs to the roof (live in an apartment building) and the dish was on the ground and the LNB was broken. So I had to call them all pissed off and they sent out another guy who basically put on another dish and piled some bricks on top of the bucket. This lasted for about a day. So I ended up hiring someone myself and getting them to do the installation. I couldn’t drill so I had to use one of those metal frames that sits on the ground with some cinder blocks on top of it. The installation cost me 200 bucks total but it was absolutely excellent. The tech got a very strong signal that those idiots never got, rewired my apartment, and just cleaned up everything in general. He took about an hour, was very friendly, and I never had trouble again. Anyway after a year or so I had to move and couldn’t take the dish with me so I gladly gave it to my brother who made good use of it. So after I moved once again, I now had line of sight and wanted to get DTV again and this is my second experience…
Even though it had been awhile I was absolutely dreading this new install and I had no idea what I was in for. I figured they had gotten there act together and I wouldn’t have any problems, boy was I wrong. It took 8 separate techs to come out and it was actually a technician from outside the area who finally got it done. The first installer showed up, pulled out his compass, and said you can’t get DTV because you don’t have line of sight. This was total bs because I know I had line of sight and there were 4 or 5 apartments below and above me who all had dishes. This guy simply was bs’ing me and he just didn’t want to do the install. He told me he wasn’t gonna do the install because it was a waste of time. After a few minutes I realized he just didn’t want to do the install so I said ok and asked him to leave. The second tech showed up, said he couldn’t mount the dish to the balcony railing because it wouldn’t work. Once again there were 4 or 5 people in other apartments who had dishes mounted to their railings, one person even had that bigger 3LNB dish so I knew it was possible. This guy didn’t want to do it either and just left. The third tech showed up with a few standard receivers missing one Tivo box which I was supposed to have installed. He said he would go get a Tivo box and come back….guess what he never showed up. The fourth tech came out and said he didn’t have enuf wiring and had to go pick up some more wire…never heard from him again. The fifth tech showed up and said he had no flat cables (those flat coaxial connectors used for running wire thru windows and doors) and I couldn’t believe this because I knew this would be required after the first install and kept calling to make sure they brought them with them. He gave me some bs about having to order some more from the wholesaler and he would need 20 bucks from me for each one, I knew this was bs. He promised me he would finish his other jobs and come to do the install later that day, I never heard from him again. The sixth installer came out and said “Oh you don’t want me to drill, than I need flat cables which I don’t have.” I almost lost it. He asked me if there was a Radio Shack in the area so he could go pick some up. I told him there was one down the street, he said he would be back in a few minutes. After an hour he called me and said he checked 3 Radio Shacks in the area and they were all out of stock. Now I feel like an idiot because later on I found out that Radio Shack doesn’t even sell these cables, at least the one near me doesn’t and this tech was probably calling me on the way to his next job. The seventh installer came, had no flat cable but said he would just drill thru the wall. I live in an apartment building where you can’t drill into the walls, he somehow convinced me to just put a few small holes that I could plaster over once I moved out and I initially agreed. But once I saw him bust out the drill I said forget it and why the f..k didn’t you bring flat cables when this was the problem on my previous installs. It got very heated and I actually thought I was about to brawl with a tech right in my home. He just wanted to walk out and at this point I was so freaking mad that I asked him to get his supervisor on the line so I could get him to send out another tech with the necessary cables. At first he refused, then he pretended to call and said the line was busy. I know this was just bs and I told him to wait while I called his office. He started to leave and I just shut my door and wouldn’t let him. I know this is pretty crazy but I was just so mad and fed up with all the abuse. Remember I haven’t even mentioned that I was sitting around for hours during each of these installs and most times they would arrive half an hour or more after the install window. Anyway, this guy kept trying to leave and we sort of got into until my brother came out and broke it up. My brother asked the tech to leave, and he gladly ran out the door. I was so f’ing mad at this point I picked up the phone to try and call the office. My brother took the phone from me and as I was yelling in the background he talked to a supervisor and explained the situation. The supervisor actually wanted to talk to me to apologize but my brother said he didn’t think that was a good idea. I told my brothe to just hang up and I was going to cable. My bro somehow convinced me to give it one more try. The next day an installer came out and did the installation flawlessly in about an hour. He wasn’t even a local tech, he had driven up from Atlanta to help do installs because there was a lack of techs or something. I explained my experience with previous installers and he said he wasn’t surprised and had heard very similar stories from other customers he had done installs for. He said install after install where people were given just bogus explanations. But he also mentioned that a lot of the techs are just incompetent and shouldn’t be doing installs. He mentioned that some of the techs he talked to didn’t even have basic wiring experience and shouldn’t be allowed to sit there drilling holes into people’s houses. He told me that the whole bs about flat cables was just an excuse not to do the install. Later when he went back to his van to pick up some tools he took me along and showed me how he had a box full of flat cables, a bunch of standard and Tivo receivers and lots of wiring and multi-switches. He said the truth is that all the previous techs just didn’t want to do the install because of the wiring involved. It made sense since it was a 4 room installation, and it would take quite a bit of wiring. But I live in an apartment where the rooms are very close together and the wiring isn’t really that bad. Especially compared to home installations where I imagine the wiring job is much more extensive. Nonetheless he explained that 4 rooms is a lot and these guys are just plain lazy. I was so happy with this tech that I actually took his number because I wanted to call DTV and give some good feedback plus I wanted him to do future upgrades. Unfortunately, he was going back to Atlanta in a few weeks and really wouldn’t be around. I wish I could have him come back.
I know this has been a very long post but I wanted to include all the details and mention my whole experience. I really cannot believe how bad some of these installers are. I mean how can they have so many bad installers who just jerk people around like this. From Directv’s standpoint, I don’t understand why they have such a poor installation system in place. I mean since I love DTV I was very patient and went thru hell, but how many customers have they lost because of this. Consider how much time people waste dealing with this. I really wonder if DTV has any idea how bad this problem is. I keep hearing them talking about 15 million subscribers and how they plan to grow, I mean maybe they would have 20 million by now if they didn’t have such a lousy installation system. I just don’t get it. If I’m not mistaken they basically assign one or two installation companies to do installations for a specific geographic area, isn’t this correct. When I would call DTV to ask for a different company, they said this was the only company that did installs in my area and they could only send out another tech from the same company. I only learned this after the third or fourth call because before that the DTV CSR’s said ok we will assign a different company when they were just sending out installers from the same place. I heard the CEO or CFO of DTV speaking at I believe the Merrill Lynch conference and he mentioned that they are going to improve the installation experience for customers from start to finish, I mean does this guy even have a clue? Instead of just adding more subscribers how about improving the whole installation structure and process. I mean this whole thing needs to be overhauled.
Finally, let me say that this post is being written after reading several horror stories from others and I felt I must share my experience. You can tell I am still very angry and bitter about the whole process. My DTV contract is about to expire and I am seriously considering going to Comcast just so that I don’t have to go thru all this again as I move to HD. And trust me I don’t have much love for them either. Wow, do you think I might have some anger problems, “Hulk Mad, must smash things!!!
If you have read to this point, thanks and go smash something.
There is no telling how many customers DTV has lost. But it is really there fault for having such a poor installation setup using these crappy installers, my experience with DTV installers…
When I first became a DTV subscriber a few years ago, I had to go thru the pains of an installation. The first installer showed up with his pregnant wife and he looked like he was 17 years old and had no idea what he was doing. So after figuring out he didn’t know what he was doing, I asked him to leave and I’ll reschedule. The second installers came and they didn’t seem to have any clue either. They actually took a very small bucket, filled it with a bit of cement, stuck in a large pole, and attached the dish. I had no idea they had done this until a few minutes after they left, my signal went to zero and I couldn’t believe it. I went upstairs to the roof (live in an apartment building) and the dish was on the ground and the LNB was broken. So I had to call them all pissed off and they sent out another guy who basically put on another dish and piled some bricks on top of the bucket. This lasted for about a day. So I ended up hiring someone myself and getting them to do the installation. I couldn’t drill so I had to use one of those metal frames that sits on the ground with some cinder blocks on top of it. The installation cost me 200 bucks total but it was absolutely excellent. The tech got a very strong signal that those idiots never got, rewired my apartment, and just cleaned up everything in general. He took about an hour, was very friendly, and I never had trouble again. Anyway after a year or so I had to move and couldn’t take the dish with me so I gladly gave it to my brother who made good use of it. So after I moved once again, I now had line of sight and wanted to get DTV again and this is my second experience…
Even though it had been awhile I was absolutely dreading this new install and I had no idea what I was in for. I figured they had gotten there act together and I wouldn’t have any problems, boy was I wrong. It took 8 separate techs to come out and it was actually a technician from outside the area who finally got it done. The first installer showed up, pulled out his compass, and said you can’t get DTV because you don’t have line of sight. This was total bs because I know I had line of sight and there were 4 or 5 apartments below and above me who all had dishes. This guy simply was bs’ing me and he just didn’t want to do the install. He told me he wasn’t gonna do the install because it was a waste of time. After a few minutes I realized he just didn’t want to do the install so I said ok and asked him to leave. The second tech showed up, said he couldn’t mount the dish to the balcony railing because it wouldn’t work. Once again there were 4 or 5 people in other apartments who had dishes mounted to their railings, one person even had that bigger 3LNB dish so I knew it was possible. This guy didn’t want to do it either and just left. The third tech showed up with a few standard receivers missing one Tivo box which I was supposed to have installed. He said he would go get a Tivo box and come back….guess what he never showed up. The fourth tech came out and said he didn’t have enuf wiring and had to go pick up some more wire…never heard from him again. The fifth tech showed up and said he had no flat cables (those flat coaxial connectors used for running wire thru windows and doors) and I couldn’t believe this because I knew this would be required after the first install and kept calling to make sure they brought them with them. He gave me some bs about having to order some more from the wholesaler and he would need 20 bucks from me for each one, I knew this was bs. He promised me he would finish his other jobs and come to do the install later that day, I never heard from him again. The sixth installer came out and said “Oh you don’t want me to drill, than I need flat cables which I don’t have.” I almost lost it. He asked me if there was a Radio Shack in the area so he could go pick some up. I told him there was one down the street, he said he would be back in a few minutes. After an hour he called me and said he checked 3 Radio Shacks in the area and they were all out of stock. Now I feel like an idiot because later on I found out that Radio Shack doesn’t even sell these cables, at least the one near me doesn’t and this tech was probably calling me on the way to his next job. The seventh installer came, had no flat cable but said he would just drill thru the wall. I live in an apartment building where you can’t drill into the walls, he somehow convinced me to just put a few small holes that I could plaster over once I moved out and I initially agreed. But once I saw him bust out the drill I said forget it and why the f..k didn’t you bring flat cables when this was the problem on my previous installs. It got very heated and I actually thought I was about to brawl with a tech right in my home. He just wanted to walk out and at this point I was so freaking mad that I asked him to get his supervisor on the line so I could get him to send out another tech with the necessary cables. At first he refused, then he pretended to call and said the line was busy. I know this was just bs and I told him to wait while I called his office. He started to leave and I just shut my door and wouldn’t let him. I know this is pretty crazy but I was just so mad and fed up with all the abuse. Remember I haven’t even mentioned that I was sitting around for hours during each of these installs and most times they would arrive half an hour or more after the install window. Anyway, this guy kept trying to leave and we sort of got into until my brother came out and broke it up. My brother asked the tech to leave, and he gladly ran out the door. I was so f’ing mad at this point I picked up the phone to try and call the office. My brother took the phone from me and as I was yelling in the background he talked to a supervisor and explained the situation. The supervisor actually wanted to talk to me to apologize but my brother said he didn’t think that was a good idea. I told my brothe to just hang up and I was going to cable. My bro somehow convinced me to give it one more try. The next day an installer came out and did the installation flawlessly in about an hour. He wasn’t even a local tech, he had driven up from Atlanta to help do installs because there was a lack of techs or something. I explained my experience with previous installers and he said he wasn’t surprised and had heard very similar stories from other customers he had done installs for. He said install after install where people were given just bogus explanations. But he also mentioned that a lot of the techs are just incompetent and shouldn’t be doing installs. He mentioned that some of the techs he talked to didn’t even have basic wiring experience and shouldn’t be allowed to sit there drilling holes into people’s houses. He told me that the whole bs about flat cables was just an excuse not to do the install. Later when he went back to his van to pick up some tools he took me along and showed me how he had a box full of flat cables, a bunch of standard and Tivo receivers and lots of wiring and multi-switches. He said the truth is that all the previous techs just didn’t want to do the install because of the wiring involved. It made sense since it was a 4 room installation, and it would take quite a bit of wiring. But I live in an apartment where the rooms are very close together and the wiring isn’t really that bad. Especially compared to home installations where I imagine the wiring job is much more extensive. Nonetheless he explained that 4 rooms is a lot and these guys are just plain lazy. I was so happy with this tech that I actually took his number because I wanted to call DTV and give some good feedback plus I wanted him to do future upgrades. Unfortunately, he was going back to Atlanta in a few weeks and really wouldn’t be around. I wish I could have him come back.
I know this has been a very long post but I wanted to include all the details and mention my whole experience. I really cannot believe how bad some of these installers are. I mean how can they have so many bad installers who just jerk people around like this. From Directv’s standpoint, I don’t understand why they have such a poor installation system in place. I mean since I love DTV I was very patient and went thru hell, but how many customers have they lost because of this. Consider how much time people waste dealing with this. I really wonder if DTV has any idea how bad this problem is. I keep hearing them talking about 15 million subscribers and how they plan to grow, I mean maybe they would have 20 million by now if they didn’t have such a lousy installation system. I just don’t get it. If I’m not mistaken they basically assign one or two installation companies to do installations for a specific geographic area, isn’t this correct. When I would call DTV to ask for a different company, they said this was the only company that did installs in my area and they could only send out another tech from the same company. I only learned this after the third or fourth call because before that the DTV CSR’s said ok we will assign a different company when they were just sending out installers from the same place. I heard the CEO or CFO of DTV speaking at I believe the Merrill Lynch conference and he mentioned that they are going to improve the installation experience for customers from start to finish, I mean does this guy even have a clue? Instead of just adding more subscribers how about improving the whole installation structure and process. I mean this whole thing needs to be overhauled.
Finally, let me say that this post is being written after reading several horror stories from others and I felt I must share my experience. You can tell I am still very angry and bitter about the whole process. My DTV contract is about to expire and I am seriously considering going to Comcast just so that I don’t have to go thru all this again as I move to HD. And trust me I don’t have much love for them either. Wow, do you think I might have some anger problems, “Hulk Mad, must smash things!!!
If you have read to this point, thanks and go smash something.