Am I expecting too much?

You didn't need orbitron. You should have ordered your receiver direct from Dish. Or bought one on Ebay. The only part of the installation which is at all difficult is pointing the dish, but you already have that. You can order your programming direct from Dish. I have been doing that for 10 years.

John

Its very simple if you paid by credit card you call the credit card people up and get the ball rolling on a charge back. If you paid but check, which I doubt since it doesn't sound like you've ever seen them you cancel your check.

I've never even heard of Orbitron. I agree with rotor, buy your next one online.

Contact the department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs if they don't refund you.

I know some people who used orbitron for their Dish setup. I could not get them to show either but I hadn't given them any money and just gave up. I ended up going with Paradise Satellite who's proprietor is on here with the handle "skysthelimit." I was very satisfied with their service. That said, I needed a 4 foot and 6 foot dish installed so my situation was a bit more complex. Still I was charged nothing for my VIP 722 with 2 year contract, same deal as I would've gotten from Dish. I'd contact them (search for skysthelimit on here).

Good luck trying to get your money back from Orbitron, I think the proprietor is Marvin.

Sean

If the business in on-island, I would definitely go in person to the office.

Thanks for the advice so far. We did actually meet him in person - when he came to the house to "assess our needs". He did not take credit cards, so we paid him with a check - which has cleared, of course.

When we called DISH directly, the person I spoke with stated that I needed to contact a local vender to order the receiver - and, they gave us Orbitron as the local vendor. I will be contacting DISH to let them know about our experience, so they can make sure that Orbitron is not on their contact list.

Again, thanks for the help thus far.

meowruff:

Thanks for starting this thread. Life is challenging enough without having to worry about such things. Let us know how things turn out!

Meow,
Paradise Satellite here. You are actually not expecting enough! If you already have the dish you're way ahead of the game. What was the down payment for? If you can qualify as a new customer with decent credit I can sign you up for an account and there is no charge for the receivers. Depending on which receivers and how many tuners you require you will sign a 1 or 2 year committment. "Assessing your needs" is a matter of looking at the lnb on the dish and switch if one is in place. If it's all in good working condition you would simply pay me for a service call to deliver the receiver, hook it up and make sure it works well and that you have acceptable signal. There is a $50 activation fee that Dish will reimburse you on the first bill. I can also get you Cinemax for 1 year for a penny with CC autopay of your bill. They also give you HBO and Shotime free for 3 months. Be careful on Ebay. They may be refurbished or used and have an outstanding balance. Did Orbitron already get your account info? If so you may already be in the Dishnetwork system. Which model or receiver did you order? I have several models in stock.
Call me and lets talk
Alan
340-718-2488

It doesnt matter if the check has cleared. You can still go and cancel the check. Its not cheap, its usually about a $50 dollar fee. So it depends on how much you paid him. But taking him to small claims will take much longer to get his attention, if it does at all.

I'll keep everyone up to date on this one...

I FINALLY got in touch with Orbitron. They promised that they would be by at 11am tomorrow to get the dish repointed and most of the rewiring taken care of (whatever that means). Then, they will be back at 3:30pm to finish the installation of everything inside. Because we are both teachers, we needed him to come out on a weekend or around 3:30pm. Originally, we wanted to be flexible and help him out, so my husband elected to take the day off last Thursday. As you know, nobody showed up.

I'm not sure what's going to happen, but we'll see if he actually shows up or not. I like to give people the benefit, but this is ridiculous. If he doesn't show, I'm calling Alan at Paradise Satellite (which I should've done in the first place.)

Until tomorrow...

If he does not show up, you should cancel your check. Another alternative is to get an attorney to write a letter to Orbitron directly demanding payment in lieu of a breach of contract lawsuit. It can be amazing what a simple letter can do!

OK - Here's the update...

Yesterday afternoon, Orbitron showed up and repointed our dish. Then, at 4pm, he showed up to hook up the receiver. But, he stated that the receiver he had ordered for us was very difficult to find, so he did not have a receiver for us. Instead, we were using one of his until ours arrives. Using the cables that were currently in place, he placed the cable on the back of the television, asked us for AV cables (which I happened to have, as we had our TV hooked up to a DVD player), then powered everything up. We had basic DISH network. We also have a TV in our living room, where we will watch most TV, but he stated that he would need to come back and run the line to the other TV.

My husband really wants all the networks, so we were going to pay the expense for each channel individually. But, because we are using a loaner receiver, we cannot have the additonal networks, and we cannot have any movie channels.

All of this took about 15 minutes. As you've read, we started this process OVER A MONTH AGO! If he was going to use our current cables and give us a loaner receiver, couldn't he have done this weeks ago?

I regret not asking more questions before we started this process. But, as stated before, when contacting DISH directly, they told me that I had to contact Orbitron, as a local vendor.

He promised that he could come back this morning and run the additional line to our living room, so we can have service in our living room too. We'll see...

Update...
Guess who just called? Orbitron! Of course, he is so very sorry, but he can't come out today to run the line to our living room because he forgot about some other things he had to do.

To anyone who is reading this...
DO NOT USE ORBITRON FOR DISH SERVICE - UNLESS YOU WANT TO WAIT MONTHS BEFORE ACTIVATION BEGINS!!!!

Do you know the receiver model he's having trouble "finding"? 722DVR, 625DVR? If he used Express mail it could be here in 2 days. Sounds like more BS to me.

On our invoice, it states a 625 DVR receiver. Do you have one of these in stock, SkysTheLimit?

If he doesn't follow through today, I'm through with him. I have one of his receivers, so I figure that I can "hold it hostage" until I receive my refund, if necessary.

I have a feeling that I'll be contacting you (SkysTheLimit) tomorrow.

Guess who didn't show up this afternoon?

Guess who didn't call to say he wasn't going to show up?

Lesson learned! Do not use Orbitron for DISH set up.

625 in stock. But if he already has your account info in Dish's system it may not let me proceed with the claim form so that I can promo you. Has he processed your account? Were you going to feed 2 TVs on the 625?

He only took my $$$, and stated that when he actually hooked everything up, he would take the personal information. So, I know that we are not in the system, as he does not have my husband's SS# and personal information yet.

Yes, we were going to feed the 2 TVs with the 625. I'm assuming this is the way to go. If you have a better idea, let me know.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I still hope that you file a complaint with DLCA... although when I did a search for "Orbitron" at http://www.dlca.gov.vi/bussearch.asp, they did not come up as licensed to do business in the US Virgin Islands. Of course, they could have another name, I just could not find Orbitron.

Here is the mailing and contact info for Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs (I assume you are on St. Croix?):

Golden Rock Shopping Cntr
Christiansted
St. Croix, VI 00820
Phone: (340) 773-2226
Fax: (340) 778-8250

Hi Meowruff,
I'm sorry to hear of your troubles. I noticed in your last post that Orbitron had not asked for you husband's social security number. I used to be in charge of HR compliance & privacy for employees at a large company. Based on that experience, I would urge you never to give your SS# to a company, as you are at risk for identity theft when you give your social. I would only provide the last 4 digits, at most. You'll encounter problems at the Drs. offices, as well. They usually ask for your social. Contact your health insurance provider to make sure they don't need it for a claim (most have moved away from using social as an identifier). Assuming your health insurance doesn't require it, you are in a better position to refuse at the Drs. If the insurance reason is taken away, they may claim they need it for their filing system--a very bad thing! I've been able to convince them to use a different number (or 000-00-last 4 digits of my social).

Sorry for the long note, but I'd hate for anyone to be subject to identity theft--it's a really pain to fix. Kim

Dishnetwork will qualify with the last 4 digits.

Thanks for the reminder about the SS#. Generally, we only provide the last four digits and that's sufficient.

Also, thanks for the information regarding filing a complaint. Yes, I will take care of this, as I don't want to see anyone else facing the same hassles. And, I will be contacting DISH.

This is the link to local DISH retailers:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/offers/locate_retailer/locateRetailer.aspx

I'll be keeping an eye on this link to see it changed!!!!!

Disclosure: If you look at my previous posts, I am not a complainer and I believe in giving everyone a fair chance. It was very difficult for me to attack a company, but I felt that this situation was beyond just being "on island time". Thank you to EVERYONE for your help and information.

I choose not to be on that list. Word of mouth works best. It also keeps me from getting calls from STT and STJ.

After more phone calls and e-mails, Orbitron finally contacted us, stating that we would receive our down payment and he would be picking up the loaner receiver. So, the exchange occurred. He gave us our $$ in the form of a money order (doesn't his business have a bank account?), and we returned the receiver. There wasn't an apology for the lack of service, or the hassles, but a quick exchange and a drive away.

Now, the good news! Alan at Paradise Satellite was a true angel (and I really mean that). Not only did he contact us, showed up at the agreed upon time, and hooked up everything, but the amount charged was a fraction of what Orbitron was attempting to charge us. And, on top of it, he's a nice guy! So, we now have the DISH network, and my husband will be a very happy person. Anyone needing DISH? Call Alan at Paradise Satellite! (OK, now I feel like an advertisement!)