The Shame Thread: Just how bad can it get

Holy crap, people need to use some common sense.

 

Oh, you like pics?

 

Ok, how about this?


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Wow, that is the funniest thing that I have ever seen:eek2:

 

Its for outside watching! Nice and clean wall plate install is always the way to go!

 

I may not have anything to ever complain about again after seeing these things.....:lol:



(Yeah...that'll be the day...)

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only one thing can be said here......

:nono::nono::nono::nono::nono::nono::nono::nono::nono::nono::nono:

 

Are tree mounts included in the "standard professional install"?

 

That must be one of those special "trunkus rigidis" trees that doesn't move when the wind blows?

 

It does look like there are no branches, so it shouldn't move too much.

 

Hey, I could use that setup while I am deer hunting.

 

Heck....you might just mistake that bad boy FOR a deer...

 

Oh, you guys are gonna LOVE these...

As a tech, you are often sent to nightmares created by previous techs and/or by customers themselves. Whenever possible, we do what is necessary to get the install done right, but occasionally there's no good solution and we are forced to walk away, because if we complete the job, we become responsible for it.

So, I bring you just a couple of highlights out of the thousands of pictures I have.


This was a customer/tech collaboration to get line-of-site from the customer's apartment. He wanted to upgrade to HD. Uh..., no. Sorry.





Here are two of many examples of a customer trying to do their own work without the proper tools and supplies. Please, folks, either buy the right stuff or have a tech do it for you.



Who can tell me what's wrong here?



It took a while, but I was finally able to get another contractor in my area fired, as their standard policy was to "get jobs in" by taking whatever shortcuts they could. We literally fixed over a hundred instances of this. For those who don't know: if you're a tech, and you're too lazy to run a second line to a DVR, you can throw a 3x4 switch on the line and fake your way through the receiver setup. As long as you're out the door before the customer tries to change a channel, you'll be gone before they know that you screwed them over and their DVR doesn't work. Did I mention that this one was an HR20? And using a consumer-grade jumper?


Not only did someone do just a beautiful job with the cabling, and mounted the mast on the roof with 3 bolts and no sealant, but the dish is less than 6 inches away from the power lines. 'Cause that's safe.


I had to walk away from this one. The dish should never have been installed like this, on a tiny, rotten board, but the tech who did it didn't even pre-drill and split the wood badly.



This customer got a tech to help him "solve" his line-of-site issues, but couldn't figure out why he was constantly losing signal. Don't miss the primary dish back there in the shadow of the tree. We walked away from this one twice; the second time we were sent here was to upgrade this customer to a 500+ dish. Sure.





And now for one of my all-time favorites. What happened here was that this customer originally had DirecTV with a Slimline, and the DirecTV installer put the dish on an under-eave mount, and installed the support arms that are required for the mount. But the !@$# did so by DRILLING THROUGH THE CEMENT TILES! And, no, he did not use anything to seal the holes.

Then, the customer switched to Dish, and the Dish tech simply removed the Slimline and used a pipe adapter on it to throw the 1000.2 dish on the mast, thereby inheriting the roof problem for himself. We were sent because the customer was losing signal. Hmm... See the shadows from the tree branches on the dish? I wonder why they were losing signal. When the customer was asked why they switched to Dish (knowing the answer), we confirmed it was because they were losing LOS due to the tree. So, obviously that's a good place to put the new dish, right? :nono2:

 

Holy crap . . . :nono2:

Thanks for sharing the pics. Ugh.

 

lol at the tree mounts. Can't laugh too hard, because about 7 or 8 years ago, my parents had just purchased a new house, and were getting everything moved in on a Saturday afternoon. At about 6pm that evening, my father realized the Tyson fight was coming on that night, but the dish wasn't put up yet.

He called me to see if I could do a temporary mount for him. (Note, I wasn't an installer for anyone, just had done it in the past). Get to his new residence, and right next to the cable inlets is a 50' oak tree. Bust out the extension ladder, and install the dish about 15' up on the tree to get LOS between two other trees in his front yard.

Of course it worked just fine. The funny thing is, he ended up leaving it that way for three years, rarely having any signal issues. When he went to upgrade to HD, of course the installer said he couldn't do it on the tree. Due to LOS issues with the two very large trees in his front yard, there wasn't any other options, besides a roof-mount, which was a no-go in my father's eyes. He purchased a Phase-III himself, and I installed it on the tree. Worked like a champ for another few years (he bought his own HD receiver on ebay, thankfully D* activated it).

Since the two large trees in his front yard were causing his grass not to grow evenly due to too much shade, we cut down the trees. When he finally upgraded to the AT9 two years ago, the techs did a pole mount.

On a side note, I still have to get that damn j-mount down off the oak tree, maybe this summer I'll do it.