While I do appreciate your response
mystic7 I am also aware that collecting is my responsibility and probably a whole other problem.
Nevertheless, I think I have the proof behind me.
The reality is this: DirecTV advertises HD programming ("100 HD Channels by Year-End.. Sign Up NOW").. In NO advertisement do they mention "Oh yeah, by the way, if you have trees, forgeddaboutit!" At NO time does the Customer Service Rep say to the customer, "Do you have ANY trees in the North-West, South-West, or North-East, South-East part of your property for which a signal would be impossible to come by?"
No, they don't ask ANY of these questions up front. They are more interested in the sale than anything else.
The REALITY of this story is yes, I did cut the trees down. However, this was only done after many suggestions I made to the DTV INSTALLER as to alternate locations for the dish installation. He assured me that removing two trees on my property was the best way to assure that I would receive uninterrupted HD service. I even asked, "Isn't the new dish going to be pointing in the SAME direction as the existing dishes? to which he replied yes and NO... He told me (with witnesses present) that a very important satellite was located in the north-west sky (towards the back of my house) and that the HD channels could not be received without aligning to this satellite..
Another REALITY is that I am the customer! This doesn't mean that I am always right as I deal with these types all day long in my job as City Manager. It does mean that I have NOT been through the DTV installer training. It does mean that I DO NOT know where the HD satellites are located up in space. As a customer, I have to depend on the TRAINED and EDUCATED installer to perform these tasks and give me the right information as to where the optimal location for the HD install would be.
Yes, I had to make a decision whether or not cutting two trees down was worth it to receive HD programming. Considering all the money I was now out in obtaining a new Plasma TV and HD-DVR, it seemed to me to be a no brainer even at the cost of removing two trees. Yet, now we see that the dish is 20-30' away from the trees and pointing in the opposite direction of where Mr. DTV Installer said it would point.
Who now is responsible?
Contrast that with the idea of going to a lawyer for legal advice. If he represents the law and I am no lawyer myself, should I bear the responsibility of going to jail, or expending a lot of unnecessary money, because I followed his erroneous advice? No, it means that I go after him because I NOW have damages based on HIS advice/recommendations. We have seen case after case in this country where lawyers have been disbarred for fraudulent activities that have cost some innocent something.
This type of thing happens all day long in America across many life situations. It is unfortunate and I believe should be righted. As I have previously said here, had I got a different installer (like the second installer that did the job right), we would not be talking about this now. I would have HD service and two trees would still be standing in my yard.
I feel I bear ZERO responsibility here. I questioned the installer and gave alternate solutions---all rebuffed. At the end of the day, I chose to defer to HIS EXPERTISE and TRAINING. Considering I had never had a bad experience with ANY DirecTV installer in the 13 years prior to this incident, I thought this would also work out.
Unfortunately for me, it didn't and DirecTV chooses not to make it right...
