Speechless.
Horrible, HORRIBLE Mastec HR20 "install"
After many weeks of frustration I am dangerously close to cancelling D* service and switching to cable - and not even because of HR20 quality issues (at least not yet).
After 2 cancelled installs and numerous calls to D* customer service, I finally got my HR20 from circuitcity.com and got an install date of this past Saturday (11/6). The day I had most eagerly awaited finally came and the Mastec tech showed up around 2:30 p.m.
After showing him where my existing dish is, where the wires are run, and where my existing 3x8 switch were located, I went back inside to let him do his job. After about 30 minutes I walk out and notice he's by the truck on his cell phone. He tells me that he's on the phone with his supervisor and will have to reschedule my appointment because the dish he got didn't come with the LNB's (which is the topic of another thread). After speaking to his supervisor and calling D* CSR, I got them to agree to put in a 3 LNB dish so I could get the HR20 activated and they'd come back to swap it out for the 5 LNB dish.
I again leave the tech alone to install the 3 LNB dish. After about an hour I notice he's still out there trying to put the new dish on the mount that I already had there with my previous dish. He tells me he cannot get any signal from the 119 sat, but is getting great signal from the 101. I questioned whether my neighbor's house might be the problem as it is a full 18 degrees to the right and it seemed like with the tilt of the dish, the elevation is actually lower than the 101. He assures me that with his compass there should not be any problem. About 30 minutes later he's still out there now talking to a coworker who's going to come out and help him out. A while later I see him out in the front lawn holding the dish on a pole. I ask him if he's getting signal there and he says he's getting perfect signal. He tells me he would have to put the dish on the roof and I suggest an alternate location about 20 feet up near the roof (although I think moving the dish up another 5-6 feet would have easily solved the problem).
He proceeds to get his ladder to go install the new dish. By now it is around 5:30 p.m. and it's getting dark, so I bring out a flashlight so that he can actually see. After walking up the ladder with the mast and drill, he proceeds to drop screw after screw in his attempt to get the mast screwed into the house. At one point he drops the whole mast and I go get it and give it back to him. He spends some more time up there and finally gets one screw into the mast, but it does not go all the way in. He then spends a good 15 minutes apparently trying to fix something with the drill. He eventually comes down and tells me that he has to go to the hardware store to get something. I ask what he needs and he tells me he doesn't have the right attachment for his drill to get the hex head Tapcon screw in. I then find him the appropriate attachment from my tool box and he heads back up.
At some point I offer to install the 6x8 switch while he does his work outside just to help speed up the process, and I go ahead and do that.
After another long while the dish is finally up. He then runs two RG6 lines down from the dish and couples them with my existing wires that were there. I remind him that he needs to run 4 cables to the dish, at which point he goes back and puts in two more cables. By now it is probably 8 p.m. or so. His coworker finally shows up to help him with the job. They run the cables through the wall in through my unfinished basement. I help the tech fish the two wires up the wall using a string that I had already put in there to make it easy to get wires up to the wiring closet. He does this while the coworker gets the grounding bar connected.
They finish probably around 9 p.m. or so. We go upstairs to the HR20 which I had already installed the night before and was already on the signal level screen and we look at the 101 sat. All the odd transponders are 0 and the evens are in the high 90's. I explain to them that this means the 13V line must be bad between the dish and the 6x8 switch. Considering that this is one of the original cables that was working fine to my old dish, I suggest the problem is likely somewhere outside. To eliminate any doubt, I suggest swapping the 13V and 18V lines to see if the problem switches to the even transponders. We swap it and now the evens are not working as expected.
The two techs go out and try to find the problem. A while later I go out and they are reterminating one of the connectors (there are 3 splices in this cable between the grounding block and the dish and this is maybe a 50 ft run of cable including the 20 ft up the wall). Once he is done with that there's still no signal. They then go up the ladder again and take off the LNB. He tech says he thinks he sees the problem and reterminates something else up there. After all this is done, they test at the splice nearest to the dish and now the test gear shows signal, but still no signal on the evens on the receiver. I question whether they reconnected one of the other splices when they were testing. I go and check and it was still disconnected. After reconnecting this, the 101's are all working now.
I go back up again and check the 110 and 119. 119 comes in beautifully. 110 is showing all 0's. The tech now calls into D* advanced tech support for help. The first suggestion is to reboot the HR20 which I do. No change. We then go to one of the DirecTivo boxes and change them to 3LNB setup to see if they see 110. No signal on 110 on any receivers. I suggest swapping out the LNB a few times as it seems like the logical explanation, but after discussion with the D* guy they decide to swap out the 6x8. No change. Still no signal on 110. Finally the tech goes back out and swaps out the LNB. Eureka! HR20 is finally up and getting HD material for the first time.
By now it is around 11 p.m. The tech hands me some paperwork and says he's just going to clean up and head home. I decide to finally get around to eating dinner. While eating dinner, I hear some clunking sounds through my son's baby monitor (The dish is mounted on the exteror wall next to his room). I suspect the tech is just getting his ladder down and don't think twice about it.
After eating dinner, I decide to go turn on the TV. I had left the signal meter screen up previously. It shows 0. I switch to 101. 0. 119? 0. No signal on any sats. All of the sudden I feel like David Kujan from The Usual Suspects. No I think to my self - it couldn't be? I walk outside and look at the new dish. It is pointing about 90 degrees in the wrong direction. The tech must have hit it with his ladder in the process of cleaning up and left with it completely out of alignment. Maybe if I had a 30 ft ladder I could fix it myself, but I don't - so I can't.
So I call D* feeling pretty livid, but I try to stay calm and be nice. I explain the situation and after being transferred to 3 different people and explaining the situation to each of them, the "escalation" person tells me that the first appointment they have is on Tuesday, but she will contact the local Mastec office to have them try to come out earlier. She assures me they will call me either Sunday or Monday to tell me when they'll come out.
Here it is Monday night and no call and 2 days without TV at the expense of an incompetent installer. I call D* and they tell me that they have me scheduled for Wednesday to come out and fix the problem. I ask what happened to Tuesday? They don't know. I try to speak to a "supervisor" who is equally unhelpful and tells me there is nothing he can do and can give me a credit on my bill.
At this point I've had it with credits. I don't want any more credits - I want the service I'm paying for to work. I want an installer to come out that knows what they are doing and I want them to do a decent job. I want D* to actually follow through on their commitments and actually care that I am an "A-List member". Is this really so much to ask? If this is how they treat A-List members I'd hate to see how "B-List" members are treated. I keep questioning why I haven't switched to cable yet....
So now I wait for Wednesday... Good thing I got that OTA antenna up a few weeks ago because I'd be *really* upset if I had to miss Heros tonight
.
After 2 cancelled installs and numerous calls to D* customer service, I finally got my HR20 from circuitcity.com and got an install date of this past Saturday (11/6). The day I had most eagerly awaited finally came and the Mastec tech showed up around 2:30 p.m.
After showing him where my existing dish is, where the wires are run, and where my existing 3x8 switch were located, I went back inside to let him do his job. After about 30 minutes I walk out and notice he's by the truck on his cell phone. He tells me that he's on the phone with his supervisor and will have to reschedule my appointment because the dish he got didn't come with the LNB's (which is the topic of another thread). After speaking to his supervisor and calling D* CSR, I got them to agree to put in a 3 LNB dish so I could get the HR20 activated and they'd come back to swap it out for the 5 LNB dish.
I again leave the tech alone to install the 3 LNB dish. After about an hour I notice he's still out there trying to put the new dish on the mount that I already had there with my previous dish. He tells me he cannot get any signal from the 119 sat, but is getting great signal from the 101. I questioned whether my neighbor's house might be the problem as it is a full 18 degrees to the right and it seemed like with the tilt of the dish, the elevation is actually lower than the 101. He assures me that with his compass there should not be any problem. About 30 minutes later he's still out there now talking to a coworker who's going to come out and help him out. A while later I see him out in the front lawn holding the dish on a pole. I ask him if he's getting signal there and he says he's getting perfect signal. He tells me he would have to put the dish on the roof and I suggest an alternate location about 20 feet up near the roof (although I think moving the dish up another 5-6 feet would have easily solved the problem).
He proceeds to get his ladder to go install the new dish. By now it is around 5:30 p.m. and it's getting dark, so I bring out a flashlight so that he can actually see. After walking up the ladder with the mast and drill, he proceeds to drop screw after screw in his attempt to get the mast screwed into the house. At one point he drops the whole mast and I go get it and give it back to him. He spends some more time up there and finally gets one screw into the mast, but it does not go all the way in. He then spends a good 15 minutes apparently trying to fix something with the drill. He eventually comes down and tells me that he has to go to the hardware store to get something. I ask what he needs and he tells me he doesn't have the right attachment for his drill to get the hex head Tapcon screw in. I then find him the appropriate attachment from my tool box and he heads back up.
At some point I offer to install the 6x8 switch while he does his work outside just to help speed up the process, and I go ahead and do that.
After another long while the dish is finally up. He then runs two RG6 lines down from the dish and couples them with my existing wires that were there. I remind him that he needs to run 4 cables to the dish, at which point he goes back and puts in two more cables. By now it is probably 8 p.m. or so. His coworker finally shows up to help him with the job. They run the cables through the wall in through my unfinished basement. I help the tech fish the two wires up the wall using a string that I had already put in there to make it easy to get wires up to the wiring closet. He does this while the coworker gets the grounding bar connected.
They finish probably around 9 p.m. or so. We go upstairs to the HR20 which I had already installed the night before and was already on the signal level screen and we look at the 101 sat. All the odd transponders are 0 and the evens are in the high 90's. I explain to them that this means the 13V line must be bad between the dish and the 6x8 switch. Considering that this is one of the original cables that was working fine to my old dish, I suggest the problem is likely somewhere outside. To eliminate any doubt, I suggest swapping the 13V and 18V lines to see if the problem switches to the even transponders. We swap it and now the evens are not working as expected.
The two techs go out and try to find the problem. A while later I go out and they are reterminating one of the connectors (there are 3 splices in this cable between the grounding block and the dish and this is maybe a 50 ft run of cable including the 20 ft up the wall). Once he is done with that there's still no signal. They then go up the ladder again and take off the LNB. He tech says he thinks he sees the problem and reterminates something else up there. After all this is done, they test at the splice nearest to the dish and now the test gear shows signal, but still no signal on the evens on the receiver. I question whether they reconnected one of the other splices when they were testing. I go and check and it was still disconnected. After reconnecting this, the 101's are all working now.
I go back up again and check the 110 and 119. 119 comes in beautifully. 110 is showing all 0's. The tech now calls into D* advanced tech support for help. The first suggestion is to reboot the HR20 which I do. No change. We then go to one of the DirecTivo boxes and change them to 3LNB setup to see if they see 110. No signal on 110 on any receivers. I suggest swapping out the LNB a few times as it seems like the logical explanation, but after discussion with the D* guy they decide to swap out the 6x8. No change. Still no signal on 110. Finally the tech goes back out and swaps out the LNB. Eureka! HR20 is finally up and getting HD material for the first time.
By now it is around 11 p.m. The tech hands me some paperwork and says he's just going to clean up and head home. I decide to finally get around to eating dinner. While eating dinner, I hear some clunking sounds through my son's baby monitor (The dish is mounted on the exteror wall next to his room). I suspect the tech is just getting his ladder down and don't think twice about it.
After eating dinner, I decide to go turn on the TV. I had left the signal meter screen up previously. It shows 0. I switch to 101. 0. 119? 0. No signal on any sats. All of the sudden I feel like David Kujan from The Usual Suspects. No I think to my self - it couldn't be? I walk outside and look at the new dish. It is pointing about 90 degrees in the wrong direction. The tech must have hit it with his ladder in the process of cleaning up and left with it completely out of alignment. Maybe if I had a 30 ft ladder I could fix it myself, but I don't - so I can't.
So I call D* feeling pretty livid, but I try to stay calm and be nice. I explain the situation and after being transferred to 3 different people and explaining the situation to each of them, the "escalation" person tells me that the first appointment they have is on Tuesday, but she will contact the local Mastec office to have them try to come out earlier. She assures me they will call me either Sunday or Monday to tell me when they'll come out.
Here it is Monday night and no call and 2 days without TV at the expense of an incompetent installer. I call D* and they tell me that they have me scheduled for Wednesday to come out and fix the problem. I ask what happened to Tuesday? They don't know. I try to speak to a "supervisor" who is equally unhelpful and tells me there is nothing he can do and can give me a credit on my bill.
At this point I've had it with credits. I don't want any more credits - I want the service I'm paying for to work. I want an installer to come out that knows what they are doing and I want them to do a decent job. I want D* to actually follow through on their commitments and actually care that I am an "A-List member". Is this really so much to ask? If this is how they treat A-List members I'd hate to see how "B-List" members are treated. I keep questioning why I haven't switched to cable yet....
So now I wait for Wednesday... Good thing I got that OTA antenna up a few weeks ago because I'd be *really* upset if I had to miss Heros tonight
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Amazing! Someone who knows what they're doing! It took the tech an hour to mount the new slimline dish, remove the old sloppily installed 3 LNB dish, reterminate all the connections, and clean up.
Surprisingly enough I told him where I had originally wanted the dish and how the previous tech said he could not get any signal from the 119 sat at that location. He said he was sure he could get signal there, so he puts up the new dish and I am getting a perfect signal (on an overcast day no less). No idea what the previous guy was doing for 3 hours "adjusting the dish" after which he told me the dish had to go on the roof.
The only thing that was disappointing was that I asked the guy to clean up the cables outside the house and attach them properly to the house instead of them being hanging from a tiewrap on the gas main, but he said he had another morning service call and didn't have time to do it and he would have to come back some other day to do it. I convinced him to just give me some extra cable and terminators and I'll just do it myself since I have all the tools to do it anyway.
I'm just glad it's all working now so I can move on to discovering problems with the HR20 and complaining that OTA is not enabled yet like everybody else
Surprisingly enough I told him where I had originally wanted the dish and how the previous tech said he could not get any signal from the 119 sat at that location. He said he was sure he could get signal there, so he puts up the new dish and I am getting a perfect signal (on an overcast day no less). No idea what the previous guy was doing for 3 hours "adjusting the dish" after which he told me the dish had to go on the roof.
The only thing that was disappointing was that I asked the guy to clean up the cables outside the house and attach them properly to the house instead of them being hanging from a tiewrap on the gas main, but he said he had another morning service call and didn't have time to do it and he would have to come back some other day to do it. I convinced him to just give me some extra cable and terminators and I'll just do it myself since I have all the tools to do it anyway.
I'm just glad it's all working now so I can move on to discovering problems with the HR20 and complaining that OTA is not enabled yet like everybody else
Ha! You'll fit in nicely around here. -Good luckpgiralt said:I'm just glad it's all working now so I can move on to discovering problems with the HR20 and complaining that OTA is not enabled yet like everybody else
Luckily no - the first guy ended up installing on the side of the house almost near the roof line. I have hardyplank siding on that side of the house so at some point I want to go up there and fill in the holes that were left and paint, but I'm not concerned about leaks or anything like that right now. Thanks for asking thoughHDTVsportsfan said:
Yea, I've got this thing about putting holes in a perfectly good roof unless absolutley necessary. You'd hate to have to have the install be "the install that keeps giving for years". lol....pgiralt said:Luckily no - the first guy ended up installing on the side of the house almost near the roof line. I have hardyplank siding on that side of the house so at some point I want to go up there and fill in the holes that were left and paint, but I'm not concerned about leaks or anything like that right now. Thanks for asking though
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