AreBee
03-05-07, 12:05 PM
I have had more problems than successes with the D* contractor in my area. I have had "no shows", I've had guys tell me over the phone that no one was home while I waited in the driveway, I've had them leave "for 5 minutes" and never come back, but this Saturday was different.
The installer was a young kid (early 20s) who arrived around 8:45 which gave the sun just enough time to melt MOST of the ice off the roof. It was steaming like crazy! I have a very steep roof, and there was ice still in spots from the previous day's rain and cold night. If the kid refused to get up on roof I would have let him go without a fuss and rescheduled. But he got up there and pulled it off. He aimed it perfectly on the first shot, cleaned up a rat's nest of cables and two grounding blocks with the new multiswitch, and really knew the features of the box.
It was probably one of his easier installs since I had previously snaked RG6 through the drop ceiling and wall of the basement for the one new run I needed. I also enlarged the hole where the other cables were entering the house and we swapped out an old Samsung HD box, so the A/V connections were all there. He basically swapped out the masts and dishes, installed the multiswitch and terminated the ends of my RG6 cable. He also took down an old mast that a previous installer left in the roof a few summers ago because it was filled with an active hornets nest. After it was installed, he hung around to activate the box and run through the DVR features with me. Turns out these guys are on mandatory 6 day work weeks.
I guess when you have no expectations, you can be truly astonished when a guy shows up on time and does his job right. I threw him a $20 bill which was exactly what I paid for the install AND the box.
The installer was a young kid (early 20s) who arrived around 8:45 which gave the sun just enough time to melt MOST of the ice off the roof. It was steaming like crazy! I have a very steep roof, and there was ice still in spots from the previous day's rain and cold night. If the kid refused to get up on roof I would have let him go without a fuss and rescheduled. But he got up there and pulled it off. He aimed it perfectly on the first shot, cleaned up a rat's nest of cables and two grounding blocks with the new multiswitch, and really knew the features of the box.
It was probably one of his easier installs since I had previously snaked RG6 through the drop ceiling and wall of the basement for the one new run I needed. I also enlarged the hole where the other cables were entering the house and we swapped out an old Samsung HD box, so the A/V connections were all there. He basically swapped out the masts and dishes, installed the multiswitch and terminated the ends of my RG6 cable. He also took down an old mast that a previous installer left in the roof a few summers ago because it was filled with an active hornets nest. After it was installed, he hung around to activate the box and run through the DVR features with me. Turns out these guys are on mandatory 6 day work weeks.
I guess when you have no expectations, you can be truly astonished when a guy shows up on time and does his job right. I threw him a $20 bill which was exactly what I paid for the install AND the box.