Bar Switching TV Providers.

[Bigdog]

One of my jobs just switched from cable to satellite dish for their TV programing.

I got a call today about two developments there. First the best manager left and took another job. They said they couldn't afford 4 managers so he volunteered to go back to his old job. They just hired a new manager 2-3 months ago.

The worst news was the dish guy did what he needed to do to get their dish working. That means they want me to make a special trip out there to see if the karaoke show will be able to go on. I warned them about the cable guys doing only what they need to do to get their stuff working. I have had this issue pop up several times already. The cable guy took my wiring because it wasn't official cable company looking cable.

So I had to make new cable to rewire the AB switch again. I know it's going to take at least an hour to assess the latest misadventure. Who knows what this jerk left for me? I'm not a happy camper about this. The best part is they only wanted to switch for the football games..... Kill me now..... I hate this.

These cable/dish installers are just plain ignorant. They think they are the only ones that matter. I warned 3 of the managers about what they would do to the karaoke wiring..They eliminate and by-pass everything not needed for their installation.

[mnementh]

A mate of mine is an Installation Engineer and his method to stop people messing around with his wiring is to use a distinctive colour cable.

He then leaves notices in the main connection boxes to the effect that any wire this specific colour is to be left strictly alone. No moving, no re-routing, nothing!

If he fits new boxes, he also has them painted the same distinctive colour.

If he has no alternative colour available, he sticks labels at each end of any wire run with a message to the same effect.

Sandy

[letitrip]

One of my jobs just switched from cable to satellite dish for their TV programing.

I got a call today about two developments there. First the best manager left and took another job. They said they couldn't afford 4 managers so he volunteered to go back to his old job. They just hired a new manager 2-3 months ago.

The worst news was the dish guy did what he needed to do to get their dish working. That means they want me to make a special trip out there to see if the karaoke show will be able to go on. I warned them about the cable guys doing only what they need to do to get their stuff working. I have had this issue pop up several times already. The cable guy took my wiring because it wasn't official cable company looking cable.

So I had to make new cable to rewire the AB switch again. I know it's going to take at least an hour to assess the latest misadventure. Who knows what this jerk left for me? I'm not a happy camper about this. The best part is they only wanted to switch for the football games..... Kill me now..... I hate this.

These cable/dish installers are just plain ignorant. They think they are the only ones that matter. I warned 3 of the managers about what they would do to the karaoke wiring..They eliminate and by-pass everything not needed for their installation.

It's not that they think they're the only ones that matter or that they're ignorant. It's that if they try to recreate what you had previously wired, they're now on the hook for that entire setup if it doesn't work. It's called avoiding multiple call backs and while I don't like it either, I can't blame them. If they attempt to rewire in your AB switch and the AB switch happens happens to fail at that time due to unrelated causes (and this happens more than you'd think) they get blamed and have to go through all the effort to prove it wasn't them. They shouldn't have to troubleshoot your stuff, so they don't. They leave it up to you to put it back in place.

[Bigdog]

Being the true professional I am, I will not just go there and fix my wiring, ignoring his so that just the karaoke works. When I leave I will make sure that everything works as it should. Any wiring that the cable/dish jerk put in will be there and everything that he and I installed will work as it's suppose to. Because that's the way I work. It's not just what's good for me. I take into consideration everything. That's my responsibility.

What he did was not in the best interest of the customer. The customer had a working karaoke wiring installation there that he blatantly unwired and ignored when he left. That makes him ignorant and unprofessional. What makes his installation any better or more important than mine?

That would be like an auto mechanic working on the right front brake and when he's done he doesn't care if the other 3 wheels have working brakes because he only worked on the one. That would also be blatantly ignorant and unprofessional.

The right wheel brake is part of the entire system just as much as my karaoke wiring is part of the overall TV cable system in the bar. No difference.

IGNORANT< IGNORANT< IGNORANT and unprofessional. The bar owner should be calling and complaining about it. And charging the cable/dish jerks company for my time. It took several hours to run the wires, AB switch and signal amplifer to make sure all the TVs worked properly. My time IS worth money as much as his. He's a jerk.

[wiseguy]

I have to agree with Bigdog here. The cable guy should have made sure to leave EVERYTHING working just the way it did before he started. If he does his job right he doesn't need to worry about call backs.

In this scenario, someone would be paying me for my time to redo things.

[Bigdog]

OK here is what happened today.

I got up at 9AM to eat and go there. I got home at 1PM. 4 hours to get there fix the problem and come back home.
I walked in and I see 2 coax cables dangling from the TV shelf hat has the TV and Direct TV box on it. On this shelf is the wiring and coax amplifier I originally put up there the first time I ran the TV wiring.

After looking at the wire mess and the back of the Dircet TV box. The Direct TV box doesn't connect to the TV with coax wire. They use the 3 wire YRW. Video and audio wires. The coax cable that was origunally hooked to the TV was disconnected. This wire I put on the TV. Connecting up to the AB switch as before won't work because of the setup on the DTV box.

After looking around I get more Pi$$ed. EACH TV has a DTV box hooked to it.

Now here comes the IGNORANT part. The JERK unhooked all of the coax wires running to each TV. THEY don't need the coax so they just disconnected it. It has no affect on their signal so why unhook it?

IGNORANT BA$TARD.

No wonder I couldn't get my screen to come up. There was no reason to disconnect the coax.

After I hooked up the coax everything got a lot easier. You use the DTV remote control to change the TV input. I.E. Video 1, 2 ,3, snowy picture set to channel 3 and BINGO you get karaoke.

One more problem I encountered. They have 6 different TVs there. Some Sonys, some Samsung and others. The Sonys have their own DTV remote. The Samsung has it's own and so on. I was trying to get the Samsung to switch inputs like the Sonys. It wouldn't work because I didn't have the Samsong remote. I told the manager that he may want to call the JERK to get them to rectify the problem. The manager then informed me about the 4 different remotes to run the different TVs. They were put somewhere in the office and can't be found.... Someone must have thought they were just extra remotes.

So tomorrow they should have the correct remotes and everything should be fine. 4 hours of my time because of an IGNORANT JERK. I don't care what anyone says, that is not good customer service to totally have no concern for what the customer had originally connected that worked.

It's a good thing I didn't have the JERK in my sights. I think I would have hurt him.

This job shouldn't have been so hard to correct. He screwed me.

Many trips up and down the ladder. Taking in my computer equipment to make sure the karaoke is going to work. Reconnecting 3 TV coax wires.

I could have easily walked away from the entire job if it would have been anymore of a problem to get the TVs working right.

[Bigdog]

This story is getting rediculous now. The manager I talked to yesterday that told me the remotes were in the office was there tonight.

We went round and round about the remotes I needed to do the show. The remote for the 2 sonys I used yesterday was there. The other one I needed for the TV above my head was not. He kept saying this one is it. I showed him it wasn't. Then I showed him the exact button that I used to switch the TVs over for karaoke. I demonstrated it on the other TVs. He kept trying to push every other button to get get it to work. I told a guy that was there in the day time what he was doing and we just looked at each other in disbelief.

It wouldn't surprise me that the remote needed for the TV above my head is already MIA and will never be found. I don't care one bit if that TV ever has karaoke on it again. Much more of this and they can find another KJ. I knew as soon as they told me they were getting this Direct TV for the football games it was going to be a fluster cluck. It always is.

Now here we have only 2 TVs for karaoke when before we had 5. If they lose the remote for the Sony TVs I QUIT.

[wiseguy]

Can't the TVs be changed manually? If so, I'd have one of the employees drag out a ladder and do it every karaoke night.

[Bigdog]

There would be no karaoke.

The Sony TVs have no controls located on the front.

I highly doubt the one over my head does either. So the remote is the only way to access the needed features. Many TVs won't switch to channel 3 unless you use the remote. Using the buttons on the front of most TVs you can switch the channels from 2-4 and 3 isn't recognised.

Like I said, if they lose the remote for the 2 Sonys, I'm gone. They can find another jerk.

What would you do if the cable/dish guy came to your house and tore apart everything you had wired to make all of your electronics work correctly and left after they hooked up there equipment, leaving your wiring unattached and inoperable?

[Bigdog]

I found out tonight that they paid $2500 for 14 boxes and only got 3 remotes. The owner is real mad about that. I told them if it was 14 different houses they would have had a remote for each box.

I told you the guy was a jerk. I can spot them a mile away.

[mnementh]

Hi Bigdog,
do you know the exact model of TV's missing remotes?

There are plenty of companies that sell compatible remotes for virtually any TV out there.

In the UK, try www.cpc.co.uk or Google for Grandata, also in the UK.

They both do remotes.

Sandy

[Bigdog]

The TVs all have remotes. The Direct TV (cable) box has it's own remote. They can use it to do all the TV functions. But they don't have one programed for the TV above my head. As far as I'm concerned each Direct TV box should have come with it's own remote control. The Direct TV remote can only access the Direct TV box. I need to use it to set the input source to the karaoke setting. Without the Direct TV box remote it can't be done. The TV remotes won't work on the DTV box. That's the problem. The DTV remotes are programmed to the TVs individually by make. So the Sony TVs work from one remote. They have 2 other remotes set to work on other TVs but not the one I need. Now maybe it can from the front of the DTV box but I'm done screwing with them. If they get the right remotes programmed for the right TVs then it's good. If they lose the remote for the TVs that work right now, I quit.

I had 5 TVs hooked up to run karaoke from day one. Then they did another stupid cable thing last year and we couldn't use 2 of the TVs because they had the sports thing hooked to them. Now this and I have 2 TVs right now. Hoping to get the one above my head working too.

This kinda stupid stuff makes me look like an idiot that can't hook up a TV. The singers are looking at me like WTF. What's up with the TV.

[letitrip]

Being the true professional I am, I will not just go there and fix my wiring, ignoring his so that just the karaoke works. When I leave I will make sure that everything works as it should. Any wiring that the cable/dish jerk put in will be there and everything that he and I installed will work as it's suppose to. Because that's the way I work. It's not just what's good for me. I take into consideration everything. That's my responsibility.

What he did was not in the best interest of the customer. The customer had a working karaoke wiring installation there that he blatantly unwired and ignored when he left. That makes him ignorant and unprofessional. What makes his installation any better or more important than mine?

That would be like an auto mechanic working on the right front brake and when he's done he doesn't care if the other 3 wheels have working brakes because he only worked on the one. That would also be blatantly ignorant and unprofessional.

The right wheel brake is part of the entire system just as much as my karaoke wiring is part of the overall TV cable system in the bar. No difference.

IGNORANT< IGNORANT< IGNORANT and unprofessional. The bar owner should be calling and complaining about it. And charging the cable/dish jerks company for my time. It took several hours to run the wires, AB switch and signal amplifer to make sure all the TVs worked properly. My time IS worth money as much as his. He's a jerk.

Allow me to provide a more accurate version of your analogy. It would be like the dealer mechanic who replaces your radio but doesn't reconnect the aftermarket amp/subwoofer/EQ setup because he's not been trained in how to make those connections properly and isn't going to put himself in a position to be held accountable for ruining your equipment by reinstalling it improperly.

Tell me, what equipment does the typical cable TV installer (or satellite installer) carry with them that would allow them to test your Karaoke setup? What training do you think they receive in how to hook up all sorts of custom switch boxes and such that customers might have. And what in gods name makes you think that the policy of the provider that contracts with them would even allow them to reconnect your stuff.

You have an amazing ability to think about no one's perspective but your own and never consider the other side. Fact is all of these companies (and I'm talking the actual providers not the sub-contractors that do the install) have specific policies about "non-standard customer site equipment". It's not unprofessional or ignorant, it's about protecting your equipment, their liability and ultimately provided good customer service to their customers by being able to accurately predict install times. If every time they did an install they had to figure out someone's custom wiring, how could they ever estimate install times and provide you (the next customer their going to after this job's done) with a reasonable estimate?

So instead of insulting the guy, why not consider for a moment that maybe the whole world isn't against you and just maybe there is actually a true customer service benefit to the policies that their employers dictate to them.

[Bigdog]

The same type of mentality happened at another job where they decided to take my wiring. It wasn't their wire it was mine.

I don't agree with you and it's not just about me.

When you hook up a bar to do karaoke, do you just walk away at the end of the night and leave the TVs set for your show? Screw the bar I'm just responsible for the karaoke.

This installer had NO reason to disconnect the cable coax from the TVs when their system uses the yellow, red, white wiring. That was ignorant and he's still a freaking jerk. The coax wire uses a different video input on the TV that is accessed by the cable box remote. DIRECT TV isn't the only player involved here. The karaoke wiring was just as important to the bar. They are the customer for karaoke and cable TV. The CUSTOMER should be respected just as I should be. I respect the cable wiring and make sure at every bar everything works correctly when I'm done. They show no respect for anyone but themsleves. This is not good customer service.

Ha ha my stuff works, screw yours. NO WAY.

If he didn't remove the cable coax from the back of the TVs, which he had no reason to even touch, everything would have worked as it should have. When the same thing happens to you and you have to spend several hours of your time FIXING something that shouldn't have been touched, maybe you'll change your mind.

That would be like an auto mechanic working on the right front brake and when he's done he doesn't care if the other 3 wheels have working brakes because he only worked on the one. That would also be blatantly ignorant and unprofessional.

Better example of what he did. My part works, I'm not resposible for anything else. Negligent and ignorant and unprofessional.

Customer service is part of his time and responsibility. His schedule should take in to account existing customer wiring. They paid $2500 for the installation, not $25. It's still no excuse it doesn't matter if it happened to me or you.

[wiseguy]

The way I see it...

Tell me, what equipment does the typical cable TV installer (or satellite installer) carry with them that would allow them to test your Karaoke setup? What training do you think they receive in how to hook up all sorts of custom switch boxes and such that customers might have. And what in gods name makes you think that the policy of the provider that contracts with them would even allow them to reconnect your stuff.

The installer should be a thoroughly trained technician with the knowledge and necessary equipment to ensure that the customer's previous setup is left in tact. The policy of the provider should demand this.

If every time they did an install they had to figure out someone's custom wiring, how could they ever estimate install times and provide you (the next customer their going to after this job's done) with a reasonable estimate?

This is why they need to send out an estimator to the site. Have you ever gotten a reasonable time estimate from a cable installer? I haven't. The best they can do is tell me the day and any time between 9 am and 5 pm.

Personal customer service has given way to speedy installations. It's not the quality of the service but the quantity of hook ups that matter.