Rural Satellite TV not available everywhere?

[ultrarunner]

I now know the "Rest of the Story"

The tenant originally contracted for Internet AND TV and later, when the tech was at the property, canceled the Internet part because he found a better deal on Internet.

This pissed-off the local operator to the point he is no longer interested in doing business with the tenant under any circumstances... When I spoke to the owner of the local Dish/Direct... he was quite adament in his refusal and said he doesn't have to work with people that waste his time.

I guess you reap what you sow...

I did check which the State House in Olympia WA and learned Dish/Direct TV is not a regulated industry...

Now the tenant is threatening to move because he can't get TV and that is how I came into the situation...

 

[schmism]

Now the tenant is threatening to move because he can't get TV and that is how I came into the situation...

im assuming you have a lease contract.... If he pays his fee to break the lease so be it...sounds like a tenant i wouldnt want ot deal with anyway...

 

[ultrarunner]

30 day update...

After the comcast quote of $18 per foot for 600 feet and the Dish fiasco... I decided to take matters into my own and called Direct TV corporate headquarters and asked for the president by name and the install with a 99.9% guarantee was scheduled. I was assured the past problems resulted from going through third party installers.

I provided my credit card info and signed up for the two year term.

Direct TV called me the morning of the install saying no one was home... I'm 800 miles south of the install site and provided local contact numbers that they did not call... they also left no tag on the door.

I immediately called the property manager who reached the tenant at the house and said he took the day off work to be home.

Called Direct TV back and said the tenant is home, confirmed the tenant's number... the Direct TV operator confirmed the installer is at the house doing the install.

Heard nothing over the last 7 days... today, I get a message from the Property Manager saying the tenant is getting impatient and wants TV...

I called Direct TV and learned the install has been cancelled and cannot be rescheduled.

I was then told I would have to "Rebuild" my order, have another credit check and go through the entire process again if I wanted service... deal with their coupons, online account registration etc which took over an hour last time... By the way, never did Direct contact me to reschedule or tell me they had cancelled.

This is my first experience with cable or satellite TV... Does this sound at all typical?

How these companies can stay in business or why the public would put up with such poor service is beyond me... The State only regulates phone companies... so not much can be done that way.

 

[Mousefield]

ultrarunner , Sounds like a real sad gong show. :confused3:

Guess they have so much business they don't care. :ashamed:

When we first moved here 12 years ago the phone company kept lying to me regarding install date, they had to install line on 9 new power poles. After a couple of months and 3 missed firm dates that they were coming to install the line I phoned the office and asked where it was. Told them I was coming on Monday and was going to sit in the manager's office all day till we got the phone line installed. Within 3 days they had a crew stringing up the wire, sad but true.

 

[DIRTROAD]

This just doesn't make sense!!!

I spoke with my local Fed-ex delivery driver a couple of months ago. He said that his #1 delivery was EMPTY direct-tv or dish boxes. The reason is so customers that are canceling service can send their receivers back in the empty box.

It doesn't seem to me that business is good enough to give this poor service.

 

[rekees4300]

I've had Direct TV for several years and never had ANY problems with them. Their product and customer service has been excellent! :2cents:

 

[rjkobbeman]

I've had Direct TV for several years and never had ANY problems with them. Their product and customer service has been excellent! :2cents:

This is the same experience I have had. I've been a DirecTV customer since 2000.

I have taken to satellite so much I do all of my own installs/upgrades. I recently built a new home and installed the enitre system myself. When DirecTV went to their 5-sat-location dish (the BIG oval -- not to be confused with the smaller oval 3-sat-location dish), I bought it online and also bought a "pro" satellite finder for DirecTV satellites.

It is a shame you are having so many problems. Installers get paid squat so their motivation on "problem" installs is way low.

None of it is rocket science. If you have a view of the sky at a given angle/degree, you should get service.

At this point, you should learn about it so you can install it yourself.

By the way, my dish is located 120 feet from my house. Once inside, the cable runs vary from short to 100+ feet to the receiver(s). I say this to give you an idea how far you can run good quality coax and still get a good signal from the dish. (I did not want to mount a dish on my roof, so I put a mast-pipe in the ground in concrete. It is away from my house next to my power transformer. I have all the "uglies" in the same location!)

 

[dgl24087]

I've had Direct TV for several years and never had ANY problems with them. Their product and customer service has been excellent! :2cents:

Ditto. 10+ years since I ditched cable and absolutely zero regrets.

 

[ultrarunner]

I asked about self-install and told it was no longer an option... Seem to remember Radio Shack had them a few years ago.

I've seen on-line sellers... just thought I might be getting into a can or worms going that route...

Will try to reach the person I spoke with before in the morning.

 

[rjkobbeman]

I asked about self-install and told it was no longer an option... Seem to remember Radio Shack had them a few years ago.

I've seen on-line sellers... just thought I might be getting into a can or worms going that route...

Will try to reach the person I spoke with before in the morning.

To "self install" all you have to do is buy a dish (generic term dish, not Dish Network dish -- unless you WANT Dish Network) from an online retailer, install it and get the signal yourself. Once you do that you can order a receiver or go get one at Best Buy or some other place.

The current big oval dishes are harder to setup do DirecTV doesn't give that as an option... but you can go acquire the equipement yourself and install it yourself -- you just dont' invovle DirecTV. DirecTV doesn't care what you do, they just don't want any responsibility of the install.

I have done this many, many times. Trust me, DirecTV doesn't care if you did it yourself.

Getting the big dish setup properly can be a little difficult if you are new to this stuff though.

Another option is to get the tradition "round" dish. They are old and considered "obsolete"... but you can still buy them. You are limited to the channels you can get (like NO high definition channels and only certain city's local channels) but a lot of people are still using this older dish. My in-laws are one example. Except for HD, they still get everything else. The reason I say to try this dish is it is MUCH, MUCH easier to install. DirecTV installers no longer install this dish so you may be able to get the single signal for that dish but the installers wouldn't know it.