A Day With Used Car Salesmen

 Good Morning California!!  What happened to the sun and warm weather?  Great galoshes, it's COLD!!  Most of my back patio is covered in moss, but at least the entire yard front and back is gorgeous green!!  I'm even shocked that the yard is no nicely trimmed and maintained.  That's a first from THIS gardener!

Once in the door, which I literally had to drag Cooper through, I turned on everything including the heater and the TV.  I have had dish Network for twelve years with very few problems.  Until yesterday.  Oh it came on, but my channels were not there.  That's normal ... I call them, ask for a signal to be sent, it updates the box and I'm good to go.

Let's call the first SALESMAN Joe.  Joe knows nada.  Can you send a signal to my receiver please?  His answer of "what's that?" threw me completely off my game.  He continued on to tell me I needed a NEW receiver.  No I don't, just send a signal.  "I don't know how to do that".  I hung up.

I know, grumpy old lady ... but I've been doing this with both my house and the RV receivers for years.  They should train their people better.  I called back and got another lady.  At least she knew what a signal was.  I then asked for a Tech Guy because I had questions about the Hopper, which records.  Mine does not.

We discussed that ... and then I asked him to change my local channels from Tucson back to Merced.  He wanted to change the address on the account.  No ... just change the local channels zip code.  That brought on an argument whereupon he got so rude with me, I hung up again.  Gosh .... I'm not getting anywhere.

Maybe if I eat, I'll be nicer to the NOT well trained or knowledgable Dish employees.  Sadly, there was nothing in the fridge.  How could that be?  I finally found a can of chili.  Beggars can't be choosers ... I ate half the can.  It's Stagg chili, and not bad, if you like chili.

Back to the used car salesmen once again ... they were all telling me my TV didn't work because I needed a new receiver.  I knew that wasn't true ... JUST SEND A SIGNAL!!  PLEASE!!

One more call ... and I actually got a guy who knew what he was doing.  He sent a signal and my channels came up instantly.  Then we talked new receiver because not only do they no longer provide service on mine, they discontinued it completely two years ago.  One day soon they will just turn it off and I will be FORCED to get another one.

Since he was so nice and seemed to be honest ... he even told me it would mean a new 2 year contract (something no one else mentioned), I decided to go with the Hopper.  It's what everyone else has and I can record shows.  There was no charge for the receiver or the installation.  The appointment was made ... noon to 5:00.

I got a text message ... 11:45 to 1:00.  He never showed up.  How frustrating after dealing with used car salesmen!!  I had to laugh!!  At long last he knocked on the door at 2:00.  This was supposed to take two hours.

Change out something on the satellite dish ... change out the receiver ... and turn it on.  How hard can that be?  Well pretty hard apparently.  He had a new surge protector that my Sony television didn't like.  See the pretty picture?  It took over an hour to figure that one out. 

Now the Used Car Salesmen are telling me I need a new "updated" television.  No I don't.  I'm not buying a cheaply made throw-away SMART TV that is nothing but a pain in the patoo.  My fabulous Sony TV works just fine.  

In the end, it all works, as long as I don't try to change any of the settings, like the annoying bright red and black guide that is so small you can't read it unless you are two feet from the TV.  I did that and my picture ended up being 2" square in the top right corner.  No kidding ... I had to change it back and reboot the entire system.

So why don't I just stream stuff?  Well for one, I like live programs.  I guess I'm just old fashioned.  

It took the guy 3-1/2 hours to do that 2 hour job that he said would only take 90 minutes.  

The good news (hopefully) I don't have to deal with any used car salesmen for the next two years!!  I'm going to celebrate with PANCAKES and REAL MAPLE SYRUP for breakfast!!