Halstead Communications/DirectTV Installation

I have been a loyal DirectTV customer for almost five years. I recently purchased an HDTV and on December 22, 2006 ordered DirectTV HDVR service and received an installation date of January 27, 2007. My credit card was promptly charged on December 23. On January 27, a technician from Halstead Communications came to my house and informed me he did not have a ladder long enough to reach my roof (which is three stories up). In the years I have lived in my house, none of the various roofers, chimney sweeps, and two previous DirectTV installers who have had to go up to my roof ever had a problem with going up to my roof or warned me that my roof was particularly hard to access.

After about 45 minutes on the phone with DirectTV and a most unhelpful supervisor at Halstead I was told that the next installation date was April 21. The technician told me that I could re-schedule for the April 21 date, receive the order number and he would come back the next day with the ladder if I paid him $150. I had, and have, no interest in paying Halstead "under the table" for a service DirectTV claims is free for existing customers. I lodged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau against DirectTV and received an e-mail to the effect that DirectTV had "fixed" the scheduling problem.

Hope springs eternal and so I re-scheduled for Thursday, February 15, 2007 and told the installation department to make a note that the technician would need to bring a 40-foot ladder. I received a $50 rebate from DirectTV for my troubles. On February 15, a technician and his helper from Halstead Communications and promptly decided their ladder was not long enough and it was too dangerous to go up to my roof. I called the installation department at DirectTV who asked to speak to the technician and told him he needed to do the installation -- especially since I had taken the day off for the installation. The technician complained about not wanting to go up on the roof, ran back to his van with his helper, talked to someone on his cell phone for 15 minutes and then sped off. DirectTV assured me that Halstead would send someone back out. Halstead did not and informed me that the next installation date would be March 21. After more complaints to DirectTV I wrested a tentative agreement from them to find my own installer and they would give me $100 toward the installation. In addition, the customer service representative at DirectTV suggested that because I had complained to DirectTV about Halstead Communication's behavior the technicians would be likely to damage the equipment.

Strangely at about 6:30 pm on February 15, a very apologetic Candida from Halstead Communications called me to beg for another chance to install the system I had originally ordered on December 22. She promised someone would come on Friday, February 16. Since I had not engaged another installer, I agreed to give Halstead one more chance -- and decided to take another day off. On February 16, a tech and his helper came out to my house and promptly told me that my roof was too high for them -- even though they had a 40 foot ladder. They dismissed the fact that a DirectTV dish was already perched on my roof by telling me that Halstead does not provide adequate equipment. Before fleeing, the tech informed me that I would get a call to re-schedule. When the call came, I said I wanted nothing more to do with Halstead Communications. Halstead's response was to say sorry and express surprise that I did not want to immediately re-schedule -- I have no interest in giving Halstead another opportunity to waste another vacation day for me.

I am now exploring having FIOS TV installed and ditching DirectTV and Halstead Communications for good...

Caveat emptor!!

_____

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I have to aggree with this technician. I myself am a Reservist with the National Guard. After returning home from deployment and finding myself out of work, I was desperate for a job. Halstead Communications offered payed training and would take anyone with a clean driver's license. They promised good pay, so I took the job (not wanting to sit on unemployment). After going through their training, and taking the work seriously, I soon found out you have two options: cut corners or get screwed on pay (you get paid by the job). Being a soldier, the first option was out of the question. I worked approx 80 hours a week trying to complete all my assigned jobs, and brought home only minimal wage (not even time and 1/2!!!). Halstead seems to award technicians who do crappy installs, because they would take people like me who actually cared, and would send us out on Repair jobs (which only "paid" 10 dollars supposedly). I quit the job after two months of being sent on countless repair jobs that turned into complete reinstalls because the person prior messed them up so bad. I inturn never got paid for one repair job, even though promised by my supervisor to get the full rate for the install. Bottom line: I've been a faithful direct tv customer for years, but if Halstead communication is coming to do the install, your better off canceling your contract or doing the install yourself.

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direc tv just isnt getting the message. i installed over 1000 systems. to sum it up very quickly- The pay at Halsted SUCKS. They hire people that arent qualified because all of us that are qualified found better paying jobs elseware in the industry. It also seems after all the complaints about Halsted that Direc Tv would cancel their contract with them and return to the independant installer with out the use of a middle man who gets a cut of the install fee. There is just NO money in it anymore since the big conteractors came in. By the way I worked for Halsted, It sucked!!!!!