Unfortunately Ironwood has that kind of reputation. I had issues with them (here in PA) but not to the extent that you did. Part of their problem is that they overschedule their installers. One installer missed my appointment for that reason. He was supposed to come out early in the afternoon (by 4:00). When 4:30 rolled around, I called. They put me through to the installer - he said that he was on a really long install, and that he had 3 or 4 more in front of me, but he would get out there later that night. I talked with the installer a couple more times - the last time was around 10:30 that night - he was on the same install from that afternoon.
He apologized, and told me that I would need to reschedule. I called Ironwood, and expected at least some remorse "we're sorry for your inconvenience...", and maybe some accomodation "we can squeeze you in as a first appointment tomorrow..." I got neither. When I did get another appointment (4 days later), I became a major PIA - I called Ironwood repeatedly to see if they had me on the schedule yet. I also let them know that I would be taking vacation time becaus of their screw-up, and as a result I wanted a window that was shorter than 4 hours. I even had them call me that morning to ensure that the installer was still on time. Second time was the charm. They showed up, and when they did, I was a little confused.
They had 2 installers out. I just was upgrading a standard receiver to an R15 (I had upgraded a TiVo to an R15 about a month or so before, and I did it myself, so I couldn't figure out why they needed two guys for the job). I had just about everything set for them. All they needed to do was run a cable all of 10' to a multi-switch and plug the sucker in. Heck, they didn't even activate it for me! They called DirecTV, and then handed the phone to me (wow, I couldn't have done THAT on my own... thanks, Ironwood). Although they did make a big deal out of the fact that they programmed my remote for me... I shouldn't complain about the installers themselves. They were fine. Nice guys, and I felt bad giving the one the riot act the first time out (it was the same guy who was supposed to show up 4 days earlier).
From what I gather, with them, though, it's kind of a crap-shoot. When we first got our TiVo a few years ago the installer was awesome. He was brought in, with a bunch of other installers, from some other state - DirecTV was doing their $100 special - $100 for the DVR with professional installation - at the time and the DVRs were flying off the shelf. Not only did this guy do a great job, he took care of everything - including activating the service, showing me how it worked, putting all the important info together for me -- heck, he even rewired my phone line! I did a crappy job when I put in a splice to an existing phone line (have electrical tape, will travel!) And this guy replaced all of that with professional splices. Very impressive.
At the same time (literally within a day or two of me getting my TiVo), a coworker was getting set up with the same deal. He also had Ironwood... and he had all sorts of problems. The installer swore that he didn't need a second line to use both tuners. When he found out, a day later, that he did... he called Ironwood to complain... and they recommended that he call an electrician to add the line. At first he let it go, and then he decided that they didn't complete the install, and that he shouldn't have to pay extra to fix their mistake. He called - and he ended up yelling at them on the phone.
