Ironwood Communications review: Rude installer / Mike #9182! 78

Rock on CK, I totally agree. I have read through all these posts, and I am appalled at the responses from the installers. Installers: If you can't handle installing a satellite dish, then perhaps you need to change professions, perhaps Janitor service? The only thing you need to communicate with is the dirty toilet bowls and a mop. Just an FYI - Your not the only person that has to deal with customers.

I had my service installed Feb 26th 2008. The guy actually showed up earlier than I expected, around 9am. He told me that I needed a different under eve attachment because my old one would not support the weight of the HD dish I was getting. Said it would cost $75 extra for him to put one on. And, it just so happened he had one in his truck that he said he purchased from DirecTV. He said he would sell it to me for $60. No problem, I am getting a deal right? So he put the dish together. Then it came time to hookup the wiring. Well, he had a hard time figuring out what wire went to what. I have Comcast cable internet which baffled him. I ended up having to figure out the entire wiring for HIM. It was not really that hard to figure out, keep comcast going to one room, and connect all the others to the new block.

The guy installed a 6x8 block, and once I helped him aquire the signal he called DTV and told them to activate. He then said he had to go to his next appointment, and didn't bother making sure it worked. He gave me his cell number and told me to call him if I had issues. Not more than 10 minutes after he left, there were issues. Imagine that. The dvr box was reporting the service was not activated. I called customer service and got that worked out. Then I noticed that I had no HD channels other than locals. I call DTV back again, and they did some troubleshooting and then they started scheduling a service call. They could come out the next day. Great..I have already 4 hours off, now I have to take another 4 tomorrow? This is going to be expensive. I should have DTV give me 3 months free, that would make us even. I did call the tech back that installed it and he said he would come by...never called back till like 6pm. He said Wednesday was his day off and that he would call me about Thursday afternoon to see about fixing things. I called DTV the next day and asked them to have the service tech call me 45 minutes before he was going to be at my house, so I could make sure I was there. They said anytime between 12 and 4pm. After not hearing from them, I went home at 2pm. The guy showed up at 4 and he was very rude and acted all annoyed and bothered. Not friendly at all. I didnt do anything to him! He looked at the setup and was confused. THen he looked at he 6x8 block and said the other guy didn't install 2 extra cables like he was supposed to. Then he said that he wasn't able to fix it because it wasn't his job to run wire...? WHAT WHAT WHAT? He said I would have to schedule YET ANOTHER appointment. BS I say. I was very pissed at this point and asked him what he was actually here to do. He said "FIX your service...". Blew my mind. He sense I was angry. Then called his boss. Turns out he needed to remove the 6x8 block because it was wrong for my configuration and replaced it with another thing. Viola. Everything worked.

Not only did the last guy install it wrong, the next guy couldn't even identify the problem. So, neither of them knew what they were doing. I could have figured it out myself, but I was led to beleive installation was FREE. Align a dish, plug in some coax cables, and attach the other end of the cables to the DVR. DURR! Wow Installers, your job is very admirable and hard to do! .

Given the fact that all of the Installers on this thread have all uses profantity to help justify their richeousness and *most* of the customers have not, I'd say its pretty obvious that the Installers are immature, young, and don't want to work. Next time I need to do anything dish related, I know who NOT to call.

I got a call this morning from someone at IronWood asking about the performance of their person. With any luck my response will get that person fired.

I will try and "justify my richeousness" without using profanity. Sometimes the frustration of customers urkes some of these people on here. I am just one of the good installers that is willing to share information with screwed over consumers.

The installers are not lazy at all, most of them are just sick to death of 6 days a week, 12-16 hours a day. They are duped into a 5 day, 40-45 hour work week when they sign on, but after the initial poor training period they are immediately overloaded with work well beyond the capacity of the tech. I believe that a union will someday take over this industry and the techs will be taken care of as they are entitled and not forced to operate on a piece rate basis with little to no benefits or employment rights.

As a lead trainer and technician I can address your story for you. Your problems come from lack of tech training.
Your hi-def dish has the capability to run 4 basic HD receivers or 2 HD DVR's or 1 HD DVR and 3 basic. If all 4 lines from the dish are allocated and more are needed, then a 6x8 mulitswitch MUST be installed. the trick with the switch is that you have to have 4 lines from the dish to the switch in order to pass all of the necessary tones and signals. Without 4 lines, you lose the 22khz. tone needed to switch the transponders, thus picking up all of the HD channels. My guess is that the switch was in a place that it makes running 2 additional lines next to impossible or very time consuming for the tech. Sum it up and you have a pissed off customer, and a tech that got paid for less than a complete job. Unless a competent technician corrects the problem to EXACTLY what I said, you will have problems to the end of time unless you don't require all 4 primary lines.

Let me also address the undereave mount that you purchased. Ideally, the HSP (Ironwood, Connect TV) purchases the mounts from an independent supplier for about $25-20 each. They mark them up to $60-75 dollars depending on the company. If you got it for $60, I wouldn't exactly call that the deal of the century. Now for the good news...you can complain to DTV that you were forced to purchase the mount and most likely DTV will credit your bill for the amount you put out for the mount. Unless it was an shady independent contractor, most employees are to have the customer make out a check to their company. However most installers pad their lack of incomes by selling various products to unsuspecting customers for less than full value; often times for a cash deal. If you made a check out to the technician, he can very well be fired for theft, your money returned and you will get the mount for free!

Good luck and I hope this all helps.

TT

Ps...check the signal level in the settings menu. If you are not in the mid 90% range this will also create problems of pixilation and loss of channels throughout the year.

Ironowood Communications has displayed a fantastic level of incompetence, lack of regard for the custoner and willingness to make outright lies to excuse their appalling lack of performance. I may have all of you beat - as of today 3/14/08, Ironwood Communicqtions has missed EIGHT service/upgrade appointments, only one of which had even a reasonable weather related excuse. I have spent the last 2 hours with DirecTV and Ironwood supes on the phone at the same time and they both essentiually shrugged and said "Would you like us to reschedule for 3/17/08. No acknowledgement that they had failed to make good on that promise EIGHT times. When I asked the supe fopr Ironwood "Please answer me why I should have faith that you will make the next appointment" she answered" Sir, I can't tell you that!". That's It.

I have filed a comlaint to br sent on Monday for both DirecTV in El Segundo , CA and Ironwood Communications in Phoenix, AZ.

I agree Worst Service COmpnay Ever.

I'm sure many of you will be happy to hear that DTV is buying out Ironwood this year. DTV will finally have their own installation crew. This has the potential to be a win-win situation for the customers and technicians. However if any company can screw this up DTV can. If DTV does not compensate there technicians properly and keep them happy techs will continue to come and go and your service will continue to suck. It really hasn't been a decent gig for a while now and the job has gotten alot harder with new HD stuff and and narrower time frames(try doing four --3 1/2 hr installations from 8-4 pm)someone's gonna get screwed and usually its customer#4. DTV and Ironwood make unrealistic expectations of their contractors as far as how much work can be PROPERLY installed in a certain amount of time and it shows. Installing DTV as of 4/18/08 equals too much work, too much BS, not enough pay. Taking the middle man out of the picture could balance this mess out. We hope. For your benefit and ours. Sincerely, a soon to be ex-DTV installer thats sorry he wasted yrs of his life only to be payed less and treated worse than he was when he started. Cheers!

I have had Ironwood out of Fresno in my apartment 3 or 4 times now, they have always been very courteous and always very laid back and cool. I have never had a problem with any of them and they were all different guys. keep up the good work!

I'll start off with the phone call I recieved about half an hour before the installer was supposed to show up. After taking the day off work for the installation, I think I was well in my right to be a little upset. This is not to mention the window of 5 hours that they say they will be arriving in.

As soon as I get this call of cancellation (filled with empty apologies and "I understand your frustrations") and to reschedule (once again having to take another day off work) they get the installation date incorrect. So I called them again to inform them of there mistake and they reschedule for the correct day.

Apparently it got lost in their line of communication and recieved an email once again for the incorrect date. So getting a little more "frustrated" I call them to change the date once again. After receiving an email again giving me the information for the wrong day I took a different approach. This time I called directtv's main company and they transferred me over. Having given the parent company all of my information and them having no trouble pulling up my account they tranferred me to ironwood communications.

The lady that I talked to not only couldn't pull up my information from my provided phone number, everything I told her she seemed to get wrong-multiple times. First I told her Friday in the afternoon block, she interpreted as Saturday morning. I told her Friday afternoon, she called dispatch with Friday morning, I told her Friday afternoon, and she finally got it right. I also requested to talk to a manager and was denied this request.

As I am pretty persistant and was fairly sure that talking to a manager would not be that difficult I called them again, for I very rarely am ever denied the right to talk to a manager. This time I was easily transferred to a supervisor-Hooray I knew it would work. She once again flowered me with empty "apologies, understanding of frustrations, and sorry for your inconviences." As I asked her three different times how easy it was for her to take time off work (as I was taking two off for the installation I figured this was a fair question) she couldn't give me an answer. In fact I don't even think she was listening as I could hear little fingers pounding away on a keyboard. She then told me that my phone was cutting out. Mind you I was calling from Willcox-however it was from the county building's land line and I have never had a problem with this line.

As for alternate numbers, I do have one. At work. A place I will not be because I will once again be sitting on my coach at home longing for more than two channels to watch.

Lastly, I just received a call from their automated system. And once again the time and date are wrong-Surpise! I called them again and they did inform me there was a note that they will be there at the proper time.

I hope so.

Thanks for being so helpful Ironwood Communications!

Andrew

Excuse the spelling on the previous complaint-I didn't proofread.

Andrew

i recently had my dtv installed and it was fine and dandy...i believe he was a subcontractor for ironwood...well thats wat he told me...besides coming sorta early, he did a fine job under 2 hours. he was very laid back and informative. sucks for u crying customer not getting my tech.

As for DTV in general...first off I am not an installer but I am the person you ### to on the phone. When you call DTV for a technical problem expect to troubleshoot! I cant believe the # of times when people have claimed to have troubleshot multiple times yet the simplest thing solves the issue. If you dont want to troubleshoot it WILL cost you 79.95. Also the tech's get paid much less than the customer representative on the phone, so cut them a little slack. They have to go to work and do hard labor outdoors regaurdless of temperatures or customers attitudes. I only get to be screamed at over the phone I cant imagine having to deal with it in person. Also HD equipment has to pick up signal from 5 different satellites in space so of course it will be more touchy about signal. If someone is not happy with their service they can call DTV within 14 days so we can find a resolution, and reschedule. For those of you that have been rescheduled multiple times we have a special department that deals with that as well as giving credits up the a$$. And yes TV is expensive and DTV has the right to raise price as stated in your contract there is nothing we can do so dont bother calling, personally I cant afford any DVR or HD recievers so if you can consider yourself lucky. I agree some installers dont do their job correctly, but that is not the next persons fault, things would go more smoothly and we can resolve the issue without the rude comments and screaming. Since working for DTV I have had customers cry becuase they had to wait overnight for a service call. Really? What ever happened to reading or family game night? There are wonderful benefits for the job that I have, but that courtesey is not extended out to the installers. Sure I sit in a cubical 9 hours a day and have people tell me their problems and it is my job to fix it, but you dont have to re-explain the whole story 20 times! It is insane to me that someone would have a service call scheduled from noon till 4 yet call in at 11:59 AM to see if the tech is coming out? Please be patient if for some reason the tech doesnt get ahold of you or show up, you are entitled to a hefty credit more than what your bill is even worth! And the dates we give you are whats available sorry, talking to a sup will not get you a sooner time. If any additonal equipment is required for a service call it is not covered and you will not be credited for the money you must spend, it would be great if people could stop calling for unjust reasons. If everyone read their contract agreement I wouldnt get more than 4 calls a day! And whatever you do DONT move you equipment if you change install it is not covered expect to pay 79+ dollars if you cant get it working again. Both the techs, the representatives, and the sub contractors-we are just trying to do our job as it was laid out for us please be understanding and know that we are not trying to "rip you off" but actually help you.

I had Directv installed by Ironwood Communications on April 1, 2008. The team of installers told me that they were not responsible for hooking up my dvd, vcr units, etc.. I found out later by one of their own personnel who came out to check on the hardware installation that they should have hooked up any units that were present at the time of installation. He told me someone would call me to hook up the units. That was three weeks ago, I called Directv customer service, they told me the person at Ironwood would call me that day (May 3, 2008) to schedule the appointment. Well, that was a week ago. It seems they could care less about my installation issues.

LEARN TO USE YOUR EQUIPMENT YOU IDIOT

They were supposed to show up today between 8am to Noon, but never showed up so I left for work, losing a 1/2 day. I got home and found a door tag that says "Sorry we missed you...blah blah blah", so I called to find out why they never showed up and the woman said: "We have to reschedule because you weren't home." I told her that this was a lie, because I was there the whole time, and she said "The installer was there at 10:51am, and we have a description of your house to show that we were there." So I said to her: "That a big fat lie, because I waited until noon, and no one showed up, and whoever finally did come obviously came after Noon." She repeated her story, so I told her that I was going to call Verizon to complain - and cancel - my DirecTv because of them. And, yes I did cancel tonite and signed up for FIOS. Ironwood is just another sorry example of a company that could care less about anyone, and not hesitate to lie about their lousy service.

im an installer here in pittsburgh, pa i agree with most of the tech comments listed here if a cust knows that we are comming CLEAN YOU HOUSE AND PUT THE DOGS AWAY AND CLLEAN THERE MESS UP!

nothing worse than kneeing down on the carpet and urine or doodoo on your pants.
also basic installation means BASIC...we as techs do alot more out there than we should we should be charging you when you want EXTRA CABLE EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA, run cables through rafters (thats custom)through all those holes and drop panels.were not movers so move your furniture...
and yes if you have an appointment between 4-8pm, be there at 4
not 730 and try to get me to roll back.
i start my day at 730am

and i have a family..too
also one last note ... you CUSTOMERS TIP YOUR HAIRDRESSERS, CADDYS, WAITRESS`S, WAITERS, PIZZA GUYS, AUTO MECHNICS, , ECT...
YOU GET MY POINT...

(TIP) THE TECHNICIAN DRILLING HOLES THROUGH YOUR $$$100, 000 ECT HOUSE, ROOF, HOUSE .ECT

YOU MAY SEE AN IMPROVEMENT OR EVEN BETTER SERVICE

LIKE WHEN YOU TIP THE BARTENDER BEFORE YOU START TO DRINK, , , , , HELL TAKE CARE OF YOU..ALL NIGHT

PS.ITS A HARD JOB AND WE OWN OUR TOOLS SO PLEASE DONT ASUME WERE GOING TO USE OUR TOOLS WE BUY TO WORK ON YOUR HOUSE IN THE POORING RAIN...
ONE QUESTION
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

THE

Well after 2 tries with Ironwood-Directv I give up. I had an appointment set for Saturday Noon - 5pm. At 2:30pm the installer called and said he wouldn't be able to make it till 6:30pm as he was across town. I said ok I will be here. At 6:50pm I looked up the callerID and called the installer on his cell phone to make sure he wasn't lost and he said he's on his way that his GPS is estimating 7minutes. I say Great! I'm still here let's get it done. An hour later I call him again and he says that my appointment was rescheduled, that he tried to call me but no answer. I inform him of this new technology called callerID and informed him that he did not call me & I did not reschedule the appointment. He said there is nothing he can do once the appointment is rescheduled. I told him to stop rescheduling appointments he can't make without talking to the customer. So the appointment was set for Monday Noon-5pm, the only reason I know that is because I called Directv, however the installer showed up at 11am and no one was home I got home at Noon to find a voice mail message from IronWood. I called IronWood and all they can do is reschedule for another date. It is apparent that Ironwood doesn't care about the DirecTv customer.

So today I canceled my DireTV order & hopefully IronWood is not the installer for DISH.

This company is a JOKE, except it's not funny when you're the one getting screwed by them! I had a new mover install for direct TV scheduled for this past Tues. When I hadn't received a confirmation call by Monday, I called direct TV. The rep looked up my account and said, "yes we have you down for...wait a minute, it looks like the installers (IRONWOOD) cancelled. NO ONE EVEN CALLED TO TELL ME! Sooo, I was scheduled gain for three days later (today) since we're moving in on Sunday. Well my wife goes to the new house to wait at 8 after packing up my four month old twins. At 10 she receives a call from the tech who says they're not coming, they overbooked the day, we have to reschedule and was basically like too bad! Called DTV and they gave me #'s for them. No answers, you can't even leave a message with the local office and three different peolple from corporate 800# said I'd be getting a call from the tech...STILL WAITING...! I'm going to have to try a local installer and see what can be done, otherwise NO TV for the next week for me! I told DTV that it's ridiculous for a company like them to be associated with such an inconsiderate, apthetic, rude business. If not for the NFL package I would get rid of DTV, but I'm a sports junkie, what can I say. IRONWOOD SUCKS BEYOIND BELIEF AND APPARENTLY MY STORY ISN'T UNIQUE! Everyone should complain to DTV...I did..LOUDLY!

I have to say I do feel bad for the customers! Unfortunately there are people who think the world owes them a living and they have no pride in what they do. Its not just ironwood it is everywhere. I have been with ironwood for 4 years now and its been a hard road. I feel its the most important aspect of the job to take care of the customer! I am honestly sick of other techs and other company's doing these installs and doing them poorly. I am the guy who cleans up these messes and you would not believe what I've seen! I can not stand rolling up to a house and seeing wire all over and dealing with a install that would not last a month!
I feel we need to treat all these homes like it was our own! That is number one no matter what the circumstance. Ironwood has improved vastly in the last 2 years. We now have a training program that will last a month, and the techs are getting better. Unfortunately there are a few that slip through the cracks and go out there and do bad installs . These folks do not last long in the field, but some customers get messed over in the process.
I will continue doing my job to the standards anyone expects and again I am sorry to all of you. Please feel free to contact me anytime with any questions you might have. I do love and care about my job and I take pride in serving my customers or any Directv customer.
Thank You For Your Time, Rob iwco028284 cableguy77co@yahoo.com

Ironwood techs are some of the best in the country. Every one that I have ever dealt with has been incredibly knowledgeable, punctual and professional. I simply let them know what I needed done, and they took care of it. They even fished the second line for my DVR and only charged me 50 dollars! They are an absolute pleasure to deal with, and to the people who have had bad experiences, believe me, you are the exception and not the rule. Thanks Ironwood techs! You guys are awesome!

this job would be alright if it werent for the customers.

also if you [censored]s dont want to pay for a wallfish, the get your home prewired ###.

Quit ###, you have not a clue what they have to deal with everyday, some good...others like you lets just say that

If you don't like um switch, its not that hard to make a phone call! To me they are the best company i have encountered.

Ironwood and DirectTV have been awful to deal with. First Ironwood does not show up when I took a day off work then reschedule through Direct TV and the second time no appointment was scheduled with Ironwood and they are not available for another week. This means a month without television, missing the Olympics. I left my dish at last house and wish I had brought it with me and installed myself. What a nightmare! DirectTV get rid of Ironwood.

Ironwood Communications run run run do not let them hook your directv up they steal money from you and charge you for ### you should not be charged for watch out for them THEY STOLE A DISH NETWORK DISH OFF MY HOME WHEN INSTALLING DIRECTV AND CHARGED 85.00 FOR INSTALL WHEN IT IS TO BE FREE THEY SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN DIRECTV IS GOOD BUT DON'T LET ronwood Communications INSTALL YOU CABLE!

I have been waiting for 4 hours and they gave me an E.T.A. of 7pm at 8pm...what a joke...
I would like to talk with an American when I call a American company, not a person overseas.
This installation company( And I use that term loosley) for Direct TV should be fired!

Well, let me start off with the fact that Ironwood called me and told me the tech would be here on Tue. @ 4 to install. I was here and he never showed. Not even a courtesy call to say he wasn't showing. I waited until 7 and then called DTV directly. They tried to get in touch with the dispatcher to find out where he was but they never picked. I was on the phone for an 1 1/2 hours. I have been calling every day to try and figure out what is going on. It is now more than a week later after my initial installation and I still have no DTV. I got a hold of Ironwood and they said that the reason why was because they didn't have the correct equipment and that she couldn't give me a new schedule date. Well, as pissed as I was I got DTV back on the phone only to find out that the real reason was because Ironwoods techs aren't trained to install the new dish and that they have to go through a month of training. Now I won't have my dish installed until sometime in October. So much for the NFL network. Ironwood, you suck ***!

### you ###! Do you know what kind of work it takes to do installs in customers houses? These techs are getting slaved into working 6 (almost 7!) days a week to provide arrogant ### like you some damn T.V.! It his hard enough when customers are always talking to us, it's even worse when they LIE about us not showing up/not even getting out of our trucks. I've been doing this for 6 years now, and I'm sick and tired of people like you who think they are so much better than us because all we do is install a T.V. service. The tech most likely was there, and you were probably asleep or just not paying attention. I've had it happen multiple times, in which the cust was always wrong. Don't blame other people for your mistakes because you weren't home and you want to act like you were just to get something free from DirecTV. Take that dish and shove it where the sun don't shine!

sometimes installers run a little late because we run into unexpected things. probably only about 15% of installations are began by the time the installer was expecting to start it. and you also have to keep in mind direct tv tells us what connectors we can use and we absolutely have to use them. as well as a particular type of cable. and switch. and tools. and basically everything you can imagine. so sometimes when a customers house is pre wired we still cant use it cause they aren't direct tv approved. and also we aren't supposed to move any furniture, including tvs... because of people like that entertainment center guy. you people are way too uptight. give us some slack.

Ironwood Communications is a criminal operation.

Yesterday after waiting 3 weeks for an appointment to upgrade to DVR the installer from Ironwood Communications shows up and states he is unable to install the 2nd line for the DVR as he does not have the correct drill bit. What a loser. Anyway he states he will come back with the correct drill bit and I will not have to go through Direct TV. He installs the DVR puts the batteries in the remote and leaves no explanation as how to use the DVR nothing. While getting into his Direct TV Van he states call Direct TV to set up an install for the 2nd line, totally contradicting his previous statement. I figured fine I'll go through Direct TV.
However, I had not noticed he took our old receiver (my property), our new remote that goes to the new DVR (also my property). I call Direct TV and of course they act as though it is no big deal and that this is business as usual I called Ironwood Communications and they act as though they cannot even contact the installer. It has been more then 24 hours no call back from Ironwood. So I called and reported the receiver and equipment as stolen.
But, what freaks me out is they want us as paying customers to allow these crooks to come into our homes. I have children next time I will watch their every move. If it offends them and they think I don't trust them too bad I don't trust cooks working for an organization that condones theft.

I recently moved and had Ironwood out to do the work. The installer was nice and showed up on time. After the install I had trouble with the DVR continually resetting itself so I called Directv to get some help. Tech support was a pain. After 3 calls over 4 days I finally convinced them that it was a receiver problem. I lost all of the olympics programming I had saved. Not happy with directv. the Ironwood techs were good. Directv support really does suck.

basic installations are free. custom labor like wallfishing or haveing to burry a line etc. theses things are chargeable because directv doesnt not pay contractor for these services... customer must pay these amd then see if directv will take it off your bill. We dont work for free!

ironwood does suck they lie they do not do what they say they will do my service was suppose to be hook up today but they say ther were too many trees blocking the signal but yet a house across the street and 2 houses down have satelites too ann treesare in front of them too the installer tried to argue with me their were several areas that it could 'v been places . very dissatified

I agree with what every installer has said. Being an installer myself ( independent), There are just some uncalled for complaints i have heard from customers. Or uncalled for requests. I can mount it on the front corner of your house, which saves me cable and time, but you being the vain ### your are, want it in the back, where i have to waste 100 more feet of cable, and waste more supplies, just because your neighbors won't see it. Or you won't see it. My words for you are, KEEP CABLE. Don't want it on the roof? Keep Cable, or spend money to get it put on a pole. I mean Jesus Christ, nothing is free, so stop asking.

No i can't leave you EXTRA cable, as there wasn't any, No i can't leave you a few barrels, go buy your own, you lazy cheap ###. No i can't come back at a later date and connect your new tv... That is what the Geek Squad or FireDog is there for. If you can't remember how to work your new product, that is why i left you the manual out. And no, i am not there to hear about why you want Direct TV, or hear about your god damn problems, I have enough of my own.

On a funny side, if you want a good or better then expected install, have your wife home during the install, and have her show a little cleavage, or a good thong shot. which is preferred. LMAO.

Installer placed satellite dish on wrong area of building after being told it could not be on the roof. They came back and moved it but it cost me $375.00 to repair roof. I asked for reimbursment and received no response from company. They do not respond to complaints nor insure their work. Direct TV should find another company to place their dish as I believe this impacts them as well.

I understand what both sides go through, and believe mutual compromise is necessary. as a cable installer I never expected to see some of the craziest, and messiest people in my life, but it comes with the job, SO DEAL WITH IT INSTALLERS! Ditching a job just costs you money and gets you fired in the end.
sueing your customers for falling off a roof? come on, if your stupid enough to attempt a request that looks too dangerous, you need to fall a couple more times, so you can retire to a coma.
oh lastly, if a customer continuously feels like telling you how to do things, just get them into a conversation where you can prove them wrong and point out that YOU are doing the install, no one else. no hard feelings. just business.

As for you customers, understand that we are not movers and you should show some courtesy and move any obstructions from the area of the install, that is if you value those particular possessions, im surprised this company reimburses people for broken valuables.
I personally love dogs, but if one bites me, im going to go ape ###, so just lock em up anyway.
and the ROFL of the day goes to customers that don't read/hear directions and mess up the install after we have leave, then call the next day saying it never worked. whats that ###? if you mess it up, drop your ego and admit it. that way when we come back we arent angry that we got [censor]ed at, and fix it for you instead of cutting your signal by half for a couple years.

regards to both sides of the battle.

The installer stood on my garbage can to install the wires, then when the garbage can broke, he threw it over the fence into my neighbor's yard. Then he didn't lock the gate and my Basset Hound escaped and now she's gone! Direct TV said I could file a damage claim for the garbage can, but they don't have any process for a missing dog! Who cares about a $5 garbage can when my dog is gone?!

I "was" installer for Ironwood CA Hesperia in 2007, I aggree with both sides! People dont pay rent or own houses so installers can screw them up! Ive had supervisers tell me to install a dish on a house a certin way that i didnt know how, and told me to try anyway! I asked if any supervisor could come out and show me but they replied that they where busy! so i was pulled from the job, "made no money" I was at another house that needed to do a wall fish, i have never done one asked a superviser to come same thing he was too busy. Alot of installers dont know what they are doing! they all learn by being in the field as they go! and are paid crap and some of it a even done free! i was getting paid 14 bucks for a service call...not bad if you can figure it out in 1 hour thats 14 bucks an hour... if it takes you 2 hours 7.00 and then 3 hours...well you get it. I cant say ive never messed up but i can say ive done alot of great installs but they took me forever to do witch means i lost money for doing the right thing! The supervisors didnt like me either so they gave me ### routes! unless you are there friend! we where paid ###! im so glad im out of the business! there is so much i could tell you all! I GOT TIRED OF NOT BEING TREATED FAIR I STARTED TO SEE ABOUT MAKING THE IRONWOOD IN HESPERIA CA A UNION AND THAT JUST HELP ME GET FIRED! IF INSTALLERS GOT PAID BY THE HOUR THERE WOULD BE GREAT INSTALLS. NEED TO HEAR MORE E MAIL ME AT ARCHANGEL554@HOTMAIL.COM... IRONWOOD SUCKS!

I signed up to recieve 4 reciever boxes for my house and the installer only installed 3 and said my exsisting cable was too old to send signal. So instead of running new line he told me i had to do it and call when it was done and they would come back and install my fourth box. Now that i have remodeled my basement i called direct tv and they are tryin to charge me $80 for a new install even though i was suppose to have this box anyways. Now im tryin to get ahold of you the installer.

Working piece work will screw you in the long run, technicians. I used to work for DTV, 8 years. Now I work for Dish as an in house tech. I work four tens, yes, by the hour. You do not start installs after 6 pm here. You receive bonuses for hard work. I made more money at DTV. however I was never home with my family. You can actually have a life. Customer service sucks sometimes. Any body can slam a dish and run cables on a house. You have to be able to work with poeple, Period.