Good idea? Installer left without doing job

[Watrat]

Good morning,
Was wondering if someone could let me know if I did the right thing...After waiting two weeks for direct to send someone out to install the new 3lnb dish for use with my 10-250 they finally arrived. Appointment was between 1-5 and he showed up at 10:30??? He looked at the setup now and got his ladder out..its snowing a bit...and he says that there are some trees in the way..some branches and I wouldn't get any reception. He then says, besides, don't expect a lot of channels with the ota..direct always makes it seem like you are gettinmg more than you are. ?????? Explained that I had strong reception now for my two tivos and he claimed that the HD signal wouldn't get through those couple of branches and I would have problems in the spring. Ok, I appreciate his honesty..I really do..but does that make sense? That everything was clear except the HD would get no signal? He also said they are no longer installing in on chimneys and would only do mine because they were swapping out what was there. Bit frustrated and upset to think about maybe having to switch to comcast..grrrrrr.

[bdlucas]

Originally Posted by Watrat

but does that make sense? That everything was clear except the HD would get no signal?

It's possible. The HD channels are largely on the 110 and 119 sats. which are further to right (west) and lower in the sky than the 101 sat that your dish is now aimed at.

You can get a rough idea whether he might be right by facing in the direction your current dish is facing and looking 18 degrees to the right and a little lower. You can estimate 18 degrees by holding your outspread fingers in front of you at arm's length - the span from the outspread tip of your thumb to the tip of your little finger is about 10 degrees.

[Stanley Rohner]

They won't know anything until they try it.

Was he able to look from your roof all the up to the satellites and see there was an obstruction ?

Call DIRECTV. Tell them about lame installer. Tell them to send out someone that will do the job this time.

[Watrat]

No..he never took equipment out of the van and everytime I suggested he just do it anyway he kept going on about how he has to guarantee it for 30 days and Directtv won't pay for it if its a tree issue..He was making a big deal of the fact that most installers would have done it anyway and he was trying to save me money because I wouldn't be able to get my money back. While I do appreciate his honesty he was almost telling me to go to Comcast. While it would be a helluva lot easier to do I really don't want to have to "downgrade" in quality. Is it worth calling Directtv over a supposed installer trying to do me a favor? His insistances that most guys would have done it anyway just sticks with me. Is it also true that they are no longer authorized to drill in chimmneys? I just put a brand new rook up and don't want to deal with a tripod.

Frustrated

Tom