At&T Sub Contractors

@Constructive well he didn't even do that. He glanced at the receivers and then said he wanted to see all the cables, but didn't try to look at any cables. The minute I said he couldn't go back into a bedroom he got rude. I thought at very least he could look at our attic set-up, or our dish itself and see what we had and what we might need. He refused to look at ANYTHING unless I let him in the bedrooms first. Which made no sense to me. He didn't try to look at our attic cables, he didn't try to look at our dishes to see what we had and what we needed, he didn't even look at the cables he had access to. He glanced at the receiver, then said he wanted to see cables, without looking actually looking at any cables anyway. He didn't even get out of his truck with equipment. And his truck was just a plain unmarked compact pick-up. 

@Juniper yeah the first guy who set this up was a complete (Edited per community guidelines). He said I could just swap my receivers myself, sent me 5 HD receivers. Well those wouldn't work. Obviously. So then I got sent b-band converters. Those did no good either. So then they said they'd replace the dish and someone told me that once they did the dish, I could just do the set up myself. I mean when we got DirecTV years and years ago, we actually did the full install on our own. It's how it could be done in the 90s. Now, of course, different. But my biggest frustration was he didn't try to look at anything he did have immediate access to. Didn't explain what he was looking for, didn't even try. I felt the least he could have done was look at what we DID have immediate access to, look at the dish on our roof, look at anything at all to understand what he was up against. But he didn't look at anything. Didn't try. He glanced at a receiver then asked to go in the rest of the house. Glancing at a receiver without even seeing what was set up there didn't seem like he was going to do anything more than glance at the receivers there too. In which case, what good would it do for him to go in the other rooms? He wasn't trying to look at the cables in the first room, what did he plan to do in the others? I could have worked something out with him, maybe even just not put a receiver in her bedroom, if he had explained anything, if he had looked like he cared about anything, if he had even acted like he wanted to do anything. 

If I hadn't been misled and misinformed and it hadn't been so botched, I would have had it set at a later time for install where she wouldn't be asleep. But I still have never had to have a tech in our bedrooms to install, despite having DirecTV for 25 years, so I didn't know what he was trying to do and I don't think he did either, given that he didn't even look to see how anything was set up anywhere else. If he'd acted like he was actually looking at anything in our living room, I might have trusted him more. But again, don't know what glancing at a receiver and not even looking at how it was hooked up, or where, was going to do for anyone. 

Right. Which I never would have allowed the encouraged switch if someone had said "Hey, we're not sure your coax set-up is still going to work and might need to rewire everything" because this is the worst time for it. But this subcontractor was just a very odd and disturbing interaction and we're probably going to switch to something else entirely before we let them come back here. After his behavior and not trying to say what he wanted or explain things to me or even being willing to look at anything, then just driving away without a word, I don't trust that they would do a proper job at all. 

Whether you reschedule or choose to do so later, I would submit a complaint on the appointment. Techs should be courteous, and if they need something that causes you concern (like looking at the other TV locations), then they should give a simple explanation instead of just trying to force the issue.

Before you reschedule, even if you wait until later to replace the order, post back with the model numbers of your boxes. Just want to make sure you get the setup that is right for you and that you have the proper expectations if agent doesn't tell you everything.

I did talk to the loyalty dept who got me a supervisor who handled complaints. They decided it was best to cancel my install and return everything until a later date before they could charge me nonactivation/nonreturn fees as a letter had threatened because the rep sent the boxes without me being able to do anything. The model of the new boxes were just the older plain HD receivers H24-700. 

regardless of where I would or wouldn’t let him, that he would not even look at our dish or our cables made no sense. I had 2 rooms he could have done something in and he didn’t even try to check the cables there. And he absolutely should not have just driven away without a word. 

I agree it was bad all around. Getting it closed with equipment returned to do complete fresh order later sounds like the right idea.

So you are prepared what are the models of the old boxes you will be using until then? Multiple HD non-DVRs (i.e. H24) are normally at cost as only 1 might be free. So definitely want to double check what to expect for next time so you can make your decisions.

policy is to install all tvs or none so if you had 3 boxes on the order and wanted him to install only 2 at that time then hes not allowed to do that unless you completely cancel the 3rd tv 

I was given 5 free - since we had protection plan and no upgrades for over a decade and customers for over 25 years blah blah blah it was all set up for zero charge. We’re on basic SD now, D12-100. I’ve got pages of documentation on what they did wrong. Been trying to get it straight since the end of June. But we did our original install ourselves and I don’t care if my house is spotless and there’s no pandemic, I don’t like strangers in my bedroom and never had a tech there before. So I’d drop my service before I let someone go in there and mess with my set-up. Especially after multiple tech reps swore it wouldn’t be necessary. So if my option is letting this creepy subcontractor return or swapping to something that doesn’t require wiring, I’m swapping. 

all I wanted was what I’d been told I could do: tech upgrade dish to HD and I could plug in and activate receivers myself. They apparently gave massive misinformation so I have to reconsider what I’ll do next because now this tech has made me uncomfortable letting anyone back over. 

The equivalent boxes for D12s would be H24 or H25 (depending on stock).

The protection plan only guarantees when a free upgrade is available. You still get them even if you don't have it if it has been over 2 years since your last one. However this only covers a single receiver, the others would be one-time least cost of $99 each. And of course you get your 24 month service agreement and $10 monthly HD service.

The alternative is the required MPEG swap. Ideally this would be for the H24/H25s. But per low stock and preferring customers to be on their higher setup, this has recently been for a Genie and how ever many Mini Genie Clients to cover the rest of the TVs. There is no service agreement and the new receiver services are credited off the bill as this is a required swap (though unknown for how long).

Unfortunately that traditional MPEG swap would be a bit of a downgrade. A Genie is a 5 tuner HDDVR. Those Mini Genies being Clients, not receivers, each have to use a tuner of the main Genie to work. Since the main box keeps 2 to itself for the Picture in Picture (PiP) feature this leaves up to 3 tuners to run Clients. So between main box and Mins, only 4 TVs at most could be in use at one time. If they have to go this route, I would consider seeing if they could at least swap one Client for an HD non-DVR to avoid that issue.

To avoid such an issue in the future, if it has been a couple years since your last update of equipment (I would say no more than 5 years), that is when to check to see how your setup compares. A small update every so often can help keep the system current or minimize any later updates when it becomes required. Otherwise holding out to the end means it can be a bit of a hassle or more cost to replace when you can't wait any longer.

Then that's what they did, just the swap, because they didn't charge me anything for the extra receivers and gave me the H24s... nothing else. They just set it up completely wrong by sending the boxes to me without anything to actually make them work in my home. All I really want is the swap and the least amount of disruption in my house. I don't care about having a genie or a dvr or any of that stuff. I rarely touch my receiver and the family pretty much just uses it during the day for whatever syndicated show is on to have background noise. Everything I actively watch is easily accessible on other streaming service packages aside from my sports package and the minute I can find that elsewhere that wouldn't require wiring the house, I'll absolutely jump ship. It's just so frustrating because we didn't have to have technicians wire the house when we had internet put in, we did that ourselves, we didn't have technicians wire the house when the directv was installed, but now being told they want to traipse through our entire house and mess with things themselves when it was never required in all the years before is really frustrating. And I'm sure an actual ATT technician would have talked to me about things, would have explained matters, would have done their job. But this subcontractor was just a rude dismissive hateful disturbing person who would rather drive off than explain anything or discuss anything with me. 

All services requiring wiring in the house. Even streaming providers as your internet is still wired to the home to begin with. Wireless is nice for convenience but has not gotten rid of the need for wires somewhere, and full wired connections are more reliable anyway.

If you got a straight swap to the non-DVRs that is fortunate as many only have the Genie as the free option. Hopefully you still get it free with the correct order sending a tech, which will require access to all TVs. You may have been able to do things yourself in prior years without the tech messing with everything, but this is a big leap in the equipment. If a tech goes out, they are to do all the work themselves. This includes any cabling changes they must make, adapters to install, new dish, change everything over to HDMI including settings in the equipment. It is the tech's job to ensure everything is working correctly before they leave. In this case going from an outdated MPEG-2 setup to MPEG-4 requires more work than you have experienced in prior years.

Even if the order was placed wrong and the tech was legitimately trying to do what was right, the situation was no excuse for them to be rude about it. Certainly do hope the next tech will be more professional.

Per the TOS

@shannon02 I understand that. But the problem was I was told by multiple people that would not be required, the appointment time was not at a time that let the full house be available, and the guy was rude and made me uncomfortable.  

Doesn't matter what you where told you denied the tech access.