I know that writing a negative article is sometimes frowned on. But my Dad once told me that: "Truth is only true when it's all been told." I only ever heard him say that one time in my whole life. It was over 40 years ago and lets just say I was expecting a totally different, much louder, and much longer reaction.

Dish Network and the Satellite Industry are working to improve on this problem. I have taken complaints from customers at our store for years. But I've been servicing and installing Satellite Systems since 1979.

It's also true that these complaints ARE NOTcoming from customers who bought their system from us. I'm not saying we're perfect.............................................. We do try to be...................We've had a lot of experience in both commercial and residential, "so" we certainly have the know how to make sure our customers are completely satisfied when we are done!

The thing is, the Satellite Industry does need improvement in this area of installation ................................ And I know they are trying to improve by having installers become certified, which is good. But this is not exactly the whole story, some of the problem is salesmen not giving enough information to the customer.

The main complaints from listening to customers of both Dish Network, Direct TV, and big dish customers over the years comes down to this:

• We find that a lot of customers were never told what was included in a standard/basic installation. This isn't the biggest complaint, but I feel it is very important. All these customers were told that it was FREE Installation!

• Unfortunately the biggest complaint is from customers unlucky enough to have their Dish System installed by someone who is going for numbers, pushed for time, doesn't take pride in their work, or just doesn't have the needed training.............BUT...........

  • With just basic understanding of what you should expect from a basic/standard installation from the information on your site you will recognize and know how to handle this kind of installer before he/she gets started.

  • Which May Be To..................Pick up the phone and call us or the number you called to schedule your installation.

• Customers have also been told that the installer would be done from a local dealer, and this is seldom happens. Dish Network is working to setup a program to refer installs to "elite" dealers in an area.

• We've had customers call immediately after the installer left to come out and take a look at where the installer placed the dish. They didn't want it on the front of the house. They told the installer and he told them that was the only place it would work. They didn't know what to do so they let install it on the bottom edge of the roof and he ran the cable down the front of the home about 6 feet from the corner, through the wall their main TV was located.................There were trees in the southern sky, which was in the back of this family's large, new home.

  • The trees were not in the way, so we moved the dish to the back of the house.

  • We also ran the cable into the basement by the electrical service and then up to the TV outlet that was installed when the house was built.

  • We also repair the holes as good as we could without replacing the siding and filled the holes on the roof.

  • Then we showed them how to use the system.

  • About 3 or 4 months later we went back and upgraded the remote to UHF and feed the whole house with the same receiver.

• We had customers call us, because they were loosing the picture for a few weeks and then it went off and stayed off. These calls were in the summer when the leaves came on the trees. The dish was installed in the winter and put in the wrong place.

• This complaint, customers don't usually call us just to straighten out messy cabling at the dish. The disk quits working when we get there, then they ask us if we could make the wiring at the dish a little less noticeable. This installer left over 40 feet of cable rolled up and hanging without being tied to the dish.

  • First of all the installer should have cut everything to length, which we did.

  • The installer should also have secured the cable, which was the problem, the weight of the cable pulled itself loose from the F-fitting.

• One, we have had complaints on quite often is where the installer used a ground pole to mount the dish and didn't use cement to hold the pole from moving.

Click here to look at an installer inspection sheet.