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3 Posts
I have been reading this forum for a few months now. The exchange of information and experiences has been great. I have decided to add my story for all to review. I apologize for its length in advance.
So, here it goes…
I received a hdtv for my birthday at the end of August and that is what sparked my desire to get HD service. I have been with DTV for 9 years and I did not hesitate to have them be my HD provider. I needed to replace my two R10’s with HD DVR’s. I called DTV spoke to a CSR and asked for what they could do. She said they could provided me with two HD DVR’s at $99 each, $19.95 handling, slimline dish, and free installation. Great, I will take it.
The next available install date was Sept 17th. Hmm…. 2.5 weeks out. I guess I will have to be patient. I kept my eye out for better reinstall dates on the DTV site, but no luck. Finally the 17th rolls around. My old dish is installed on the 2nd story fascia. The installer says we will need an under eave mount. Ok. That is fine. The installer says that he does not have one with him and I will to reschedule. Disappointed, I go to reschedule. The earliest date that fits our schedule is 10/6. I select this date, but keep and eye out for earlier install dates. Finally 10/1 opens up. I take it.
In the mean time, my statement comes. This is not correct, $199 for the first HD DVR and $99 for the second. I check my pending order on the website and it says $199 for the first and the second is free. I email DTV about the discrepancy and the CSR replies that I only qualified for one at $99. I emailed back and noted the difference between the statement amounts and the pending order amounts. I also noted the offer the original CSR had offered me on the phone. I get an email back form a supervisor apologizing for the confusion and correcting the amount billed. However, to do this they had to cancel my order and re-enter it. Uh oh, this caused me to loose my 10/1 date and get pushed to 10/12. Yes, I was very disappointed. However, 10/12 is a Sunday and I could be home all day. Patience… Patience…
At this point, none of this really surprised me. Although, I have never had any issues with DTV installations or service in the past, I have read some of your tales of adventure. I knew the road to HD might not be a smooth one.
Finally, 10/12 rolls around. I have an 8a-12p window for the installation. Well, the installer shows up at 3:30. He said that the appointment prior to mine should have been a simple upgrade, but the house was full of splitters and required a lot more work. Anyway, we begin discussing my dish install. I noted the need for an under eave mount. He finds one is truck. It is designed to attach to the rafter tail and has a mounting plate at the end. It looks good to me and I do not have to worry about holes drilled into the house. While he started working on the mount, I asked if I could get the DVR he brought set up. He said, “Sure, if you want”. He hands me two HR22’s!
After about a half an hour he comes in and said that the mount will not work. The bolt holes do not line up between the eave mount plate and the plate for the arm of the slimline. The installer states that ‘he sort of recalls’ in his training video that these mounts will not work with the slimline. This is because the slimline is two heavy. Since the mount only clamped on the rafter tail and not fastened, the mount was not strong enough. Ok…. What is plan B.
Plan B. He said he would use an elephant’s ear. Basically the bracket mounts the side of the house and extends up pas the fascia. It would be secured at the fascia with monopoles. I never like drilling into the side of the house, but there was not much of a choice left. I said ok.
As he was starting on that project I was working on setting up the upstairs HR22. I heard him drilling as I was connecting. Then all of a sudden, the lights go out. I knew what had happened. He hit an electrical line with his drill. I go out and say ‘are you ok?’. He asked, “why?”. I said ‘the lights went out’. He looked stunned. I checked the breaker and it had popped. I reset it and it stayed set. I new I was going to have to cut a hole in my son’s room to see the damage. I can not stand the thought of damaged wires in an insulated wall. Of course, the wife is extremely annoyed at the situation. We went into my son’s room to decide where I need to cut. We look at the wall to find two holes in the drywall. He had drilled two holes from outside straight through the and out interior wall. I was amazed. I joked that this will make it easy to find where to cut the wall open . My wife did not laugh. I took some pictures and waited to cut it open until I showed the installer. At the end of the install I showed him the two holes. He had quite a look on his face. I made sure he noted the damage on the workorder I singed. My wife tried to contact the installer call back number we had, but they were closed (He completed the job at about 7:30p). I did cut the wall open to find his bit had gone between two romex lines. The electrical lines appear to be feeding and leaving an outlet a few feet below. It did not look serious enough for immediate attention, but needs to be fixed asap. We filed a damage claim this morning. We are waiting to hear back on our claim.
Well… that is my installation story. Sorry for the length, but my path to HD was a bit long.
--Steve
So, here it goes…
I received a hdtv for my birthday at the end of August and that is what sparked my desire to get HD service. I have been with DTV for 9 years and I did not hesitate to have them be my HD provider. I needed to replace my two R10’s with HD DVR’s. I called DTV spoke to a CSR and asked for what they could do. She said they could provided me with two HD DVR’s at $99 each, $19.95 handling, slimline dish, and free installation. Great, I will take it.
The next available install date was Sept 17th. Hmm…. 2.5 weeks out. I guess I will have to be patient. I kept my eye out for better reinstall dates on the DTV site, but no luck. Finally the 17th rolls around. My old dish is installed on the 2nd story fascia. The installer says we will need an under eave mount. Ok. That is fine. The installer says that he does not have one with him and I will to reschedule. Disappointed, I go to reschedule. The earliest date that fits our schedule is 10/6. I select this date, but keep and eye out for earlier install dates. Finally 10/1 opens up. I take it.
In the mean time, my statement comes. This is not correct, $199 for the first HD DVR and $99 for the second. I check my pending order on the website and it says $199 for the first and the second is free. I email DTV about the discrepancy and the CSR replies that I only qualified for one at $99. I emailed back and noted the difference between the statement amounts and the pending order amounts. I also noted the offer the original CSR had offered me on the phone. I get an email back form a supervisor apologizing for the confusion and correcting the amount billed. However, to do this they had to cancel my order and re-enter it. Uh oh, this caused me to loose my 10/1 date and get pushed to 10/12. Yes, I was very disappointed. However, 10/12 is a Sunday and I could be home all day. Patience… Patience…
At this point, none of this really surprised me. Although, I have never had any issues with DTV installations or service in the past, I have read some of your tales of adventure. I knew the road to HD might not be a smooth one.
Finally, 10/12 rolls around. I have an 8a-12p window for the installation. Well, the installer shows up at 3:30. He said that the appointment prior to mine should have been a simple upgrade, but the house was full of splitters and required a lot more work. Anyway, we begin discussing my dish install. I noted the need for an under eave mount. He finds one is truck. It is designed to attach to the rafter tail and has a mounting plate at the end. It looks good to me and I do not have to worry about holes drilled into the house. While he started working on the mount, I asked if I could get the DVR he brought set up. He said, “Sure, if you want”. He hands me two HR22’s!
After about a half an hour he comes in and said that the mount will not work. The bolt holes do not line up between the eave mount plate and the plate for the arm of the slimline. The installer states that ‘he sort of recalls’ in his training video that these mounts will not work with the slimline. This is because the slimline is two heavy. Since the mount only clamped on the rafter tail and not fastened, the mount was not strong enough. Ok…. What is plan B.
Plan B. He said he would use an elephant’s ear. Basically the bracket mounts the side of the house and extends up pas the fascia. It would be secured at the fascia with monopoles. I never like drilling into the side of the house, but there was not much of a choice left. I said ok.
As he was starting on that project I was working on setting up the upstairs HR22. I heard him drilling as I was connecting. Then all of a sudden, the lights go out. I knew what had happened. He hit an electrical line with his drill. I go out and say ‘are you ok?’. He asked, “why?”. I said ‘the lights went out’. He looked stunned. I checked the breaker and it had popped. I reset it and it stayed set. I new I was going to have to cut a hole in my son’s room to see the damage. I can not stand the thought of damaged wires in an insulated wall. Of course, the wife is extremely annoyed at the situation. We went into my son’s room to decide where I need to cut. We look at the wall to find two holes in the drywall. He had drilled two holes from outside straight through the and out interior wall. I was amazed. I joked that this will make it easy to find where to cut the wall open . My wife did not laugh. I took some pictures and waited to cut it open until I showed the installer. At the end of the install I showed him the two holes. He had quite a look on his face. I made sure he noted the damage on the workorder I singed. My wife tried to contact the installer call back number we had, but they were closed (He completed the job at about 7:30p). I did cut the wall open to find his bit had gone between two romex lines. The electrical lines appear to be feeding and leaving an outlet a few feet below. It did not look serious enough for immediate attention, but needs to be fixed asap. We filed a damage claim this morning. We are waiting to hear back on our claim.
Well… that is my installation story. Sorry for the length, but my path to HD was a bit long.
--Steve
Someone needs to get him some shorter drill bits. One giant plus was two HR22's at $99.00 each!
