Time Warner Cable is DOWN right now in Buffalo

[Fezmid]

My locals dish is pointing right at the next doors neighbors trees, yet my signal strentgh is still about 90% normally.

776734[/snapback]

Exactly.

 

The unfortunate part is that a lot of installers are really lazy - they want to do as many of the "easy" installs as possible, so will come in and say "No, it won't work" and then leave. These aren't DirecTV employees -- they get paid per job, so they want to do a bunch of jobs to make more money in their own pocket and sometimes take some convincing to do the work.

[bills_fan_in_raleigh]

Exactly.

 

The unfortunate part is that a lot of installers are really lazy - they want to do as many of the "easy" installs as possible, so will come in and say "No, it won't work" and then leave.  These aren't DirecTV employees -- they get paid per job, so they want to do a bunch of jobs to make more money in their own pocket and sometimes take some convincing to do the work.

776759[/snapback]

this is my only complaint with DTV is that the installers suck. I wonder how many potential customers like Nervous Guy etc had been turned away by these idiot installers. I had one guy come 2 years ago to upgrade my sat to a DVR and HD and claimed he couldnt get a signal so left. He spent a total of 5 minutes at the house before detrmining this. Thank goodness I bought my first system from a local DTV retalier that has great and talented installers.

[Fezmid]

this is my only complaint with DTV is that the installers suck.  I wonder how many potential customers like Nervous Guy etc had been turned away by these idiot installers.    I had one guy come 2 years ago to upgrade my sat to a DVR and HD and claimed he couldnt get a signal so left.  He spent a total of 5 minutes at the house before detrmining this.  Thank goodness I bought my first system from a local DTV retalier that has great and talented installers.

776851[/snapback]

Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, there's not a lot they can do -- they're all independent contractors (as are most Comcast installers in the area, for the record). They do take negative comments about the installers very seriously though and generally give programming credits if you call and tell them about it.

 

CW

[DieHardFan]

I love how cable companies say, "You don't want DirecTV, a rain storm can knock you out for a few minutes!"  Whereas with cable, a truck can take you out for hours/days. :lol:CW

776524[/snapback]

That's the most absurd defense I've heard from you yet. I'm really starting to get concerned about your mental health. If DTV ever goes breasts up they'd have to put you on suicide watch. I'm glad that you keep preaching the gospel though; there are probably one or two members that are not aware of your advocacy of DTV. It would be much more efficient to pin a thread extolling the virtues of DTV than to infiltrate any thread with a modicum of relevance. I do admire your ability to multi-task though. I have enough trouble following the Bills game in detail yet you can watch the game, all others on the ticket and be in the chat room simultaneously. Impressive.

 

I've had C/Ku Band then DTV and/or cable for 10's of years. Have both at present. I have noticed that you conveniently forget to mention the equinox outages that always seems to come during something you really wanted to record. But then again you are an advocate of DTV, I abhor DTV's practices but only prefer cable as their product is the lesser of two evils.

 

In my experience, cable goes down less frequently but for longer periods than DTV but the bottom line is that both have 5 9's reliability, so outages are an abberation not a given. Both have business practices that are anti-consumer and would never be tolerated without massive junkets for the politicians and regulators.

 

Since you want to venture into bizzaro land I can play that game too. I'm not a statistician although I'm sure there is one here (plus the regulars who know everything about anything, just ask them) but I would venture that the odds of that metal dish getting blasted by lightening is much more likely than a truck hitting a pole and knocking your cable out for "Days" (I believe Buffalo was up before the end of the game not days.)

 

I do disagree with your opinion that "Unfortunately, there's not a lot they can do" about the lousy installers. They (as well as the cable companies) can take some of their profits and either police them better or hire their own. It's not rocket science, just cost cutting at the expense of customers and in the cases mentioned at the expense of obtaining additional customers.