A few weeks ago I purchased an automatic satellite dish and receiver to use in the giggle weeds of Texas while gate guarding. The dish is a Tailgator from Dish Network and is advertised as the simplest dish to set up and use, The directions included with the unit are very straight forward. Just follow a few easy step, call the 800# and "poof" you have TV.
I decided to set it up Saturday morning. Our 5th wheel is prewired to hook up to an RV parks cable system or, by moving a couple of wires, can be adapted for a satellite dish. I decided that since the new dish has only one outlet for 1 receiver/TV combination I would install its own outlet on the outside of the RV. I had already purchased a protected outlet from Camping World and Rudee and I installed it last Thursday in anticipation of today.
I followed all the directions setting up the dish and connecting it to the receiver and then to our TV. Easy as pie!
I turned everything on and none of the screens I was supposed to see, according to the instructions, were coming up. I was getting a screen showing that I was not receiving a signal from the satellite but nothing else so I called Dish Network for help. That is when the fun started!
I explained my problems to the first customer service rep that answered the phone. He transferred me to a customer service rep that could help me set up my programming. I talked to her, she said no way to get a signal with out an account number. I read her the directions on the paperwork I had that said the signal needed to be "in the green" on the little built in meter and then you call to purchase programming. "Not so" says "Pehhggy" gotta buy first, so I bought. She wanted to "interview" me to help me select a package. No thanks, already know what I want and told her.
She had no idea what the "RV to Go" service was. Told her it was a package offered by her company for people to have their TV "on the go" in their RV. She put me on hold to ask a supervisor.... Oh oh.
Rudee, hearing all this, got on line and started a chat with their tech support to try and get the signal working that way. So Rudee was "computer chatting" with Jordan and I was pulling what was left of my hair out with "Pehhggy" on the phone.
I ended up getting the programming purchased but not after several "I need to talk to my supervisor" moments.
Jordan told Rudee that once we had our account number he could get us set up in a few minutes. Well all righty then, that's what I was wanting to hear.
He had us run tests, move the dish, shut things down, reset things, move the dish again, unhook the dish, hook back up, move the dish again ..... well you get the idea. Nothing worked, "no TV for you!"
After 3 hours of this ordeal I had enough and called it quits. Jordan also said there was nothing else he could do and referred us to one of their local technicians for a service call.
Rudee made contact with the technician and he knew right away the problem. The receiver needed a new update down loaded from Dish and to bring it to his shop and he would do it.
I disconnected everything and we drove to Tampa and met Bill. He hooked our receiver up to his satellite dish and downloaded the update. He told us that the update should have already been on our receiver when shipped since it was a new unit but was apparently not done at the factory. He hooked up out Tailgater and got everything working. "That will be $100 please" ..... ouch!
Back at the 5th wheel I hooked everything back up while Rudee cooked supper. Yes it is now supper time, we started this ordeal right after breakfast and it has taken the entire day!
I followed "$100 Bills" instructions and "poof" we had TV, see just like they advertise, easy as pie :-(
Rudee called Dish and complained about the charge of the service call and they agreed to credit our account for the $100 charge which was a happy ending to a frustrating day.
Zephryhills was having a Halloween festival downtown so we drove down and checked it out. There were lots of booths and the kids all had their costumes on. We enjoyed seeing the kids and browsing the booths.
We are meeting Kieth and Marcia Russell Sunday for lunch. They are longtime motorcycle friends who have retired and snowbird in Sebring Florida each winter. I'll keep you posted.
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