Ok, I have a very simple question. In an age with cell phones, PDAs, voicemail to e-mail, text forwarding, etc, why is there not an option to get 24 hour emergency service for satellite TV? Not me, but for some people watching a TV show is a life or death situation. If the dish goes down, he or she doesn't want someone over the next day or the day after the next day. They want it fixed NOW. So, why do neither satellite TV companies offer their customers an option for "24 hour Emergency service", where they would send somebody out to their house immediately, even if the call comes in at 2 AM in the morning? This option, of course, would cost a premium monthly charge.. like say $15.00 a month... as opposed to the normal $7.00 for the standard protection plan. It would be very similar to how the oil companies all have 24 hour emergency service. Most of them just have an answering service that pages the on call technician to come out. Some of these oil companies are very small mom and pop operations. Dish Network and Directv are huge. So, why not have on call techs to come out? I just don't understand it. Here some people are shelling out a good $130.00 a month for TV. If the big ball game goes out... haven't these people paid enough money to warrant someone coming out right away to fix it? Hopefully this suggestion can go to someone high up to maybe change this. That would also be a great selling point for either company, to offer 24 hour IN HOME service... not 24 hour lip service from a call center in god knows where.
Why no 24 hour Home Service Offered?
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It would cost a lot more than that. You would have to have techs on call for three shifts, 7 days a week. It would at minimum, cost 4 times the current rate (assuming you could fill all those slots, and 100% of the current customers subscribed). I dont know many people willing to pay $21/mo to get their dish fixed at midnight. Then you run into OSHA regulations... would you work on a dark roof in the middle of the night by flashlight?
If you really want to get your dish fixed at midnight, there are plenty of private contractors and satellite installers who would be glad to take your money each month for the privilege of having their cell phone numbers to call.
FWIW, I charge $80/hr (min 1 hr), plus drive time (actual) at $80/hr, plus mileage on weekends and holidays (I repair coffee and tea equipment for restaurants, nursing homes, and business). Most of them will call and request Monday service. Even business's wont spend the money for weekend service that the loss of, actually costs them real money. The exceptions are Barnes and Noble, and Starbucks. They want their espresso machines fixed yesterday
If you really want to get your dish fixed at midnight, there are plenty of private contractors and satellite installers who would be glad to take your money each month for the privilege of having their cell phone numbers to call.
FWIW, I charge $80/hr (min 1 hr), plus drive time (actual) at $80/hr, plus mileage on weekends and holidays (I repair coffee and tea equipment for restaurants, nursing homes, and business). Most of them will call and request Monday service. Even business's wont spend the money for weekend service that the loss of, actually costs them real money. The exceptions are Barnes and Noble, and Starbucks. They want their espresso machines fixed yesterday
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Mostly due to OSHA and the scenario Davenlr listed.
But also Dtv and Dish in a sense are on a national scale with how it handles things, when cable companies are more local to regional.
With the way E* and D* are set up it would be a logistical nightmare to consistently offer 24 hr tech service, especially considering most of the time the techs cover a very large area of homes/towns/cities.
But also Dtv and Dish in a sense are on a national scale with how it handles things, when cable companies are more local to regional.
With the way E* and D* are set up it would be a logistical nightmare to consistently offer 24 hr tech service, especially considering most of the time the techs cover a very large area of homes/towns/cities.
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True. I have the cell phone number of a local DISH/DirecTV installer in my cell phone and I have used it in the pre-dawn hours. This particular installer also installs and maintains C-Band dishes, which would be the reason I would call him. Commercial services that can afford such a response (and really cannot afford not to have response that fast). If one really wants the service one can find it - and the cost that goes along with it.Davenlr said:
If one were serious about providing 24/7 service they would equip their trucks with night suns similar to 24/7 construction sites. I suspect the neighbors would not be happy if the overspill lit up their house or went in their windows but there are ways of being safe regardless of the hour the work is being done.
The biggest problem with providing such a service to consumer satellite subscribers is the demand time. It isn't the 2am call to fix a receiver or dish that would be the worst ... it would be the 6pm call with the game starting at 7pm. People who didn't know their system had problems until they turned it on for the game.
The IT service contracts I work with normally have a number of hours for response plus a number of hours for repair. On-site within four hours after business hours is more expensive than "next business day" service. Shortening the on-site time to two hours or one hour makes the price higher. I suspect most consumer satellite subscribers would not want to pay the contract price needed to guarantee service that would be quick enough that the tech did not show up after it was no longer important.
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Except for extreme weather or some kind of life endangering emergenices, watching a tv show is NOT a life or death for anyone no matter what they say.
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True story.
People take it ridiculously serious lol.
When I was taking calls for Dish, this one woman was borderline harrassing me over the fact that I couldnt get her a tech that same day (it was saturday at 5pm central time, and she was eastern time. Seriously? lol).
I thought I put her on mute and said "Jesus christ lady its just Television get over it."
My heart sank to my stomach when I heard her yell "What the *$%S! did you just say to me?"
lol.
Thank god for supervisors who are your friends
People take it ridiculously serious lol.
When I was taking calls for Dish, this one woman was borderline harrassing me over the fact that I couldnt get her a tech that same day (it was saturday at 5pm central time, and she was eastern time. Seriously? lol).
I thought I put her on mute and said "Jesus christ lady its just Television get over it."
My heart sank to my stomach when I heard her yell "What the *$%S! did you just say to me?"
lol.
Thank god for supervisors who are your friends
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225 Posts
Even in commercial SMATV systems that we maintain where 100s of guests/residents are involved, an outage like a major sporting event as big as the superbowl would warrant an immediate response. In the event of a complete system outage it would be reasonable to have a several hour response time. Next morning is acceptable in most case, I might have run 2 calls in 15 years that were in the 11:00-1:00 am hours.
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I don't know about Dish, but I know DirecTV TV offered "emergency" service"
for business customers. Used to work at a small boutique $$$ hotel. When
the dish was knocked down by a tree, the manager called DirecTV and a
truck arrived in 5 hours.(around 10pm)
for business customers. Used to work at a small boutique $$$ hotel. When
the dish was knocked down by a tree, the manager called DirecTV and a
truck arrived in 5 hours.(around 10pm)
:lol:Inkosaurus said:I thought I put her on mute and said "Jesus christ lady its just Television get over it."
My heart sank to my stomach when I heard her yell "What the *$%S! did you just say to me?"
lol.
Thank god for supervisors who are your friends
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6,220 Posts
Sounds reasonable to me.Davenlr said:It would cost a lot more than that. You would have to have techs on call for three shifts, 7 days a week. It would at minimum, cost 4 times the current rate (assuming you could fill all those slots, and 100% of the current customers subscribed). I dont know many people willing to pay $21/mo to get their dish fixed at midnight. Then you run into OSHA regulations... would you work on a dark roof in the middle of the night by flashlight?
If you really want to get your dish fixed at midnight, there are plenty of private contractors and satellite installers who would be glad to take your money each month for the privilege of having their cell phone numbers to call.
FWIW, I charge $80/hr (min 1 hr), plus drive time (actual) at $80/hr, plus mileage on weekends and holidays (I repair coffee and tea equipment for restaurants, nursing homes, and business). Most of them will call and request Monday service. Even business's wont spend the money for weekend service that the loss of, actually costs them real money. The exceptions are Barnes and Noble, and Starbucks. They want their espresso machines fixed yesterday
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