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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (10767)	3/25/2001 12:54:32 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 12823

Starband Update: Hi Mike, Re: Did your friend ever get their BBFW service running? Sorry I forgot. Who was the wireless SP? Alas, it would have been useful if a land based BBFW service were available to my friend, but I don't believe one is aimed at her rural location. Her choice was to try the two-way Starband system. Her problem, as nearly as we can determine, was the ineptitude of the local installation contractor. Talk about truck rolls, oi! Last week, my friend had a technician from a competing installation company come onto her property to assess the failed installation. He found six separate defects with the work of the original installer, among which were mounting the dish on a pole at too great a distance from the residence (though barely within specification, at 145'), failure to ground the dish, failure to mount the dish with the proper rigid brackets, failure to notice that the mounting pole could be swung one and one half inches merely by pushing on it, failure to amplify the weak antennae signal, failure to properly aim the antennae. In other words, the original installation contractor seemed to go out of his way to make sure that everything he did was either wrong or done to minimum standards. Being informed that this was the case, Starband decided that they would not honor a $250 rebate offer to first time customers should my friend take out the original installation and have the second installation company come out to do the job right. (Starband's position is that the rebate is for 'new' customers only, and my friend is now an existing customer and not qualified for the rebate. Catch-22) Mind you, this fiasco has been now going on for five months. So, my friend when faced with the prospect of paying an additional bill of $250, plus having been bait and switched from a $99 offer for monthly service to an actual monthly bill of $139, finally had enough last week. She told the original installation contractor to remove all of his equipment, which he has done, and my friend is now about to have a dispute with Starband which is demanding she honor a one year contract, in spite of the fact that it is abundantly clear and well documented that the product never worked as promised. A classic pissing contest between a frustrated consumer and a company that really doesn't have a decent mechanism for dealing with outlier problems like this one. I would be bashing Starband/Dish TV, but I know that they've had successful installations and thousands of satisfied customers throughout the country. They simply have a lousy attitude, especially when it comes to vetting and assuming responsibility for its independent installation contractors. A relationship I feel certain that corporate management wants to take as hands off a policy as possible. I suspect, but do not know for certain, that my friend may have been her own worst enemy at the outset of this incident, choosing the installation contractor with the best deal, instead of the one closer by with less willingness to negotiate on price. So, as far as I can tell, in the end, this dispute is a lot like the boring, garden variety disputes that homeowners almost invariably have with construction contractors. La plus ca change, la plus la meme chose... n'est pas? Best, Ray