Thought I'd share with everyone my recent experience with having a satellite dish upgraded by DirecTV via Jedi Communications.
First off, my house is wired very specifically. I worked with engineers at Eagle-Aspen and wired it to this spec http://www.eagleaspen.com/admin/download/fujian/file_20.pdf. The technician sees it and can't figure it out. Makes all kinds of derogatory remarks about it, "who the hell did this", "why would you do that", etc. I explain that I had worked with Eagle-Aspen, to which he replied "who are they, I've never heard of them, but they obviously don't know what they're talking about". Anyway, the technician then installed the 5 LNB dish (an Eagle-Aspen by the way), and during install asked if I was going to have any other HD receivers. I told him that some day I'd probably put one in my master bedroom. He informed me that, for $50, he would run that line for me. My house is already wired to the hilt, and two lines already exist in that room for an existing Tivo receiver. He would only be pulling wire 15 feet, to connect to my existing grid. I told him that I'd give him $20 for saving me the hassle of going on the roof, and I'd terminate the inside wire myself. He said there's no way he'd do it for less than $40, so I told him I'd handle it myself. I hear the tech tell his assistant, "he's crazy for not having me install the second line". He then tells me "don't you mess up my dish after I leave, I get $70 for a service call". We then proceed downstairs to the HD receiver to verify the signal strength. In the process, he looks at my TV (Panasonic 50" HD Plasma) and asks, "Is that a plasma?" I respond "yes", he then proceeds to inform me "plasmas are crap, I have a LCD". I don't recall asking his opinion, what a great representative of DirecTV this guy is.
Anyway, after he leaves, I decide to go ahead and wire the other two incoming lines. I get on my roof to see what needs to be done. First off, the dish is all wobbly. I realize that none of the nuts are screwed down hard. So my first task is to tighten all of his connections. His installation had the 4 feeds coming off of the 5LNB head, down the inside of the arm, then coming out the back of the dish. Two wires (the two he was under contract to install), then went to a grounding block, and on into the attic. The other two were just looped up and stuck down the mounting pole. I pulled these two out, put new ends on them and ran them into the house. After attaching to my receiver, I had no (zero) signal. I messed around, still nothing. I got out on the roof, no problems, so I (reluctantly) pull off the LNB head. Both wires in question are attached, so I close it back up. Mess around with it a bit more, then decide to swap the non-working wires with the working ones (i.e. attach my bedroom to the two wires coming from the dish that I know work. Sure enough, I have signal. Now the only possibility is the two wires that he DIDN'T install (i.e. the ones he tried to milk me $50 for). I pull the LNB head off again, and this time disconnect the two wires he had stuck in the mounting pole earlier, to find that he had actually clipped the center conductor out of both wires. I contacted DirecTV 3 times to complain about his sabotage, was informed once that a message had gone off to his company and I'd be hearing from his boss, but of course, that call never came.
Of course, I can't speak for all of Jedi Communications, but this is enough for me such that whenever I call DirecTV to send a tech, I'll be sure to tell them to NOT send Jedi.
On a side note, a tech from Direct Sat just showed up to finish some other work (since I told DTV to NOT send Jedi), they were professional, curteous, and knowledgable. Not a hard choice next time I call...
TivoNut
First off, my house is wired very specifically. I worked with engineers at Eagle-Aspen and wired it to this spec http://www.eagleaspen.com/admin/download/fujian/file_20.pdf. The technician sees it and can't figure it out. Makes all kinds of derogatory remarks about it, "who the hell did this", "why would you do that", etc. I explain that I had worked with Eagle-Aspen, to which he replied "who are they, I've never heard of them, but they obviously don't know what they're talking about". Anyway, the technician then installed the 5 LNB dish (an Eagle-Aspen by the way), and during install asked if I was going to have any other HD receivers. I told him that some day I'd probably put one in my master bedroom. He informed me that, for $50, he would run that line for me. My house is already wired to the hilt, and two lines already exist in that room for an existing Tivo receiver. He would only be pulling wire 15 feet, to connect to my existing grid. I told him that I'd give him $20 for saving me the hassle of going on the roof, and I'd terminate the inside wire myself. He said there's no way he'd do it for less than $40, so I told him I'd handle it myself. I hear the tech tell his assistant, "he's crazy for not having me install the second line". He then tells me "don't you mess up my dish after I leave, I get $70 for a service call". We then proceed downstairs to the HD receiver to verify the signal strength. In the process, he looks at my TV (Panasonic 50" HD Plasma) and asks, "Is that a plasma?" I respond "yes", he then proceeds to inform me "plasmas are crap, I have a LCD". I don't recall asking his opinion, what a great representative of DirecTV this guy is.
Anyway, after he leaves, I decide to go ahead and wire the other two incoming lines. I get on my roof to see what needs to be done. First off, the dish is all wobbly. I realize that none of the nuts are screwed down hard. So my first task is to tighten all of his connections. His installation had the 4 feeds coming off of the 5LNB head, down the inside of the arm, then coming out the back of the dish. Two wires (the two he was under contract to install), then went to a grounding block, and on into the attic. The other two were just looped up and stuck down the mounting pole. I pulled these two out, put new ends on them and ran them into the house. After attaching to my receiver, I had no (zero) signal. I messed around, still nothing. I got out on the roof, no problems, so I (reluctantly) pull off the LNB head. Both wires in question are attached, so I close it back up. Mess around with it a bit more, then decide to swap the non-working wires with the working ones (i.e. attach my bedroom to the two wires coming from the dish that I know work. Sure enough, I have signal. Now the only possibility is the two wires that he DIDN'T install (i.e. the ones he tried to milk me $50 for). I pull the LNB head off again, and this time disconnect the two wires he had stuck in the mounting pole earlier, to find that he had actually clipped the center conductor out of both wires. I contacted DirecTV 3 times to complain about his sabotage, was informed once that a message had gone off to his company and I'd be hearing from his boss, but of course, that call never came.
Of course, I can't speak for all of Jedi Communications, but this is enough for me such that whenever I call DirecTV to send a tech, I'll be sure to tell them to NOT send Jedi.
On a side note, a tech from Direct Sat just showed up to finish some other work (since I told DTV to NOT send Jedi), they were professional, curteous, and knowledgable. Not a hard choice next time I call...
TivoNut
