# Cignal TV installation.



## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

I had a whinge about this before and did search my own submissions and found nothing, perhaps it was on another site.

16 odd months ago we had sat tv installed, the contractors never had a ladder nor a drill which we furnished, after a lengthy discussion it was agreed to install on the roof instead of the rendered fence some 9 metres from the house and them saying that they will simply lay the cable on the ground and then go up the house wall and into the roof space. What? No way I said! The cables are existing in the walls of the lounge and master bedroom and the junction is in the middle of the roof, surely it's better to install on the roof,,,,,,,,, yes sir.

Anyway they installed and left 2 bracing brackets, I asked why they did not use these,,,, better with wire sir,,,,,,, not thinking about this until 3 days ago when the tv signal stopped I went up and had a look,,,,,,, groan, they braced the dish mast with mild steel wire and of course living on the beach rusted and broke...... Jump on the phone please Ben and ask them to come back and fix their faulty installation......... sir it is out of warranty and it will cost P 1,000, but it was a faulty installation,,,,,, you left the correct mounting brackets here when you installed, yes sir they are for rendered walls,,,,, groan and a few expletives from myself when I got on the phone and they would not budge.... contacted Cignal head office, they are franchised sir and you need to deal with the installer, can I lodge a complaint, yes sir but it will simply go to the provider of the installation. licence to print money with no accountability it seems.

Wow, this is a long winded b*tch, sorry but sometimes as we do, let it out.

On principle I was not going to pay P 1,000, I got the 2 mounting brackets they left behind, re tuned the dish with Ben inside telling me the best CIGNAL pardon the pun "signal" and it only took 20 minutes. 
I looked at lodging a complaint under RA 7394 and the paperwork is ridiculous but I also see they have a FB page so will lookout that but hold little hope.
There is certainly a lack of customer service and credibility here unlike most western countries. I talked to Ben about these things many times, simply met with "it is what it is" which get's my response " you are doing this to yourselves with complacency and not being prepared to stand up for your rights".

Well I don't feel any better, bitter still but have learnt to scrutinise things now to the nth degree before we pay.

Well mark (M.C.A.) was that a good whinge? Don't feel that you are the only one with gripes, we all get them here.

An add. We have had 2 storms here since my fix and normally the tv will drop out or freeze/start, now it froze/started a couple of times but never dropped out.

Cheers, Steve.


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## bobby1947 (Apr 15, 2020)

may be a bit off of topic but we have cable TV ( mainly for the wifes Great Many Adverts channel ) sorry I meant GMA ! my moan about this is the way they drop channels and add new ones without prior notice ! such as replacing Hallmark with the Classica channel and me a AC/DC fan ! we had a decent motoring channel and they changed it for another one which is like top gear but for Germany ! and there are more religous channels than movie channels. i now watch Netflix mostly cheaper than cable and no adverts ! sorry mark just me


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## Cebu Citizen (Dec 13, 2013)

I totally agree bigpearl...I absolutely love living here, I love the people and I love being in this beautiful country of the Philippines but it is so difficult for me to understand why the general population DOES not give a damn how they do their jobs or how they treat people in their businesses!

And the Filipino people just reply..."Oh, that's the way it is here"...they will not even stand up for themselves or what is right...they just accept it if they are treated like trash!

I do NOT understand "WHY" Filipino's and/or Philippines businesses operate like this! They are only hurting themselves in the long run...

I feel like having a good whinge sometimes myself!!!

Some of my pet pevs are: (1) doing the most simple of ALL banking transactions, a deposit. You are NOT taking money out of the bank...you are putting money into the bank! All they need is an account number and to verify the amount of money that you give them...and print a receipt! That's it!!! Then WHY does it take 30 to 40 minutes or more to do a simple deposit? One time I sat in the bank for an hour and 27 minutes waiting for my deposit transaction to be completed AND I used the PWD Priority Lane! In the US, banks pride themselves on being able to do a simple deposit in less than 1 minute. The teller says; "next please" and you walk up to the teller and hand them your cash and deposit slip, they verify the amount of the cash, type in the account number into their computer and print a receipt and you are out of there and on your way in less than a minute!

(2) mixing concrete in the Philippines is another pet pev of mine! Mixing cement properly involves an exact recipe of ingredients and mixed properly to ensure the structural integrity of the concrete! I guess this is exactly why, (when after a typhoon), half the houses fall down and the other half are damaged! It's like someone baking a cake...you take the EXACT amount of ingredients and mix them in the appropriate manner and you get a consistent cake every time! You don't just add two or three eggs...the recipe calls for only ONE EGG...you do not just add 7 cups of flour...the recipe calls for only five cups of flour! But with concrete here in the Philippines...they dump the sand on the ground, (which is contaminated with dirt, bird poop, and dog pee and leaves and grass and trash), and add the cement mix and then add water and mix with a shovel on the ground...if it is too dry, they add more water...if it is too wet, they add more sand...and they add the gravel last. I have asked the contractors..."How much sand did you add? Or how much water did you add? And they have absolutely NO clue! CONCRETE is a very exact formula! Too much sand and too much water are the mortals enemies of good strong concrete. Too much sand or water makes the concrete weak...which is exactly why so many buildings fail here in the Philippines when external forces are applied...such as an earthquake or a typhoon or just old age. Just like a quality cake recipe...you take the exact correct amounts of "MEASURED" ingredients for a strong concrete mix and you blend them together in dry form and then add an exact amount of water last and blend until mixed and then use it as required! Even the "bags" of sand and gravel that you can buy are NOT the same. They are filled up by hand with a shovel and if you actually measured each bag by volume or weight, you would find EVERY bag is different! So, how can their concrete mixtures be consistent "IF" their measurements are not exact? AND "IF" you tell them about it...they DO NOT CARE...

Whether banking or construction or satellite TV installations...it seems the Filipino way is to NOT care and do the job as quickly and as crappy as possible! WELCOME TO THE PHILIPPINES...

My only recourse is the very same you have adopted...you MUST scrutinise to the nth degree!!!


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

I hear you CC and through working here and living here for over 8 years it seems to me that the average Filipino is subject to a barrage of excuses offered up and never questioned, (a very sad state of affairs to say the least) a decent concrete mix, a warranty on a new car, a defective purchase and of course we could all go on........ I remember furnishing a condo 8 years ago and while the general furnishings, lounge, dining, beds or white goods were generally not a problem things like kettle/toaster/sound system/TV were unceremoniously unboxed and plugged in to prove they worked before you took them out of the store and after that it appeared you are on your own. We did have a problem with a 50 inch tv and they remedied 10 months after the purchase, actually came to the condo and fixed. The TV lasted another 5 years at the outlaws place when we went back to Oz. (btw they wanted us to fix that,,,, (went over like a lead balloon) but that's the nature of the beast here.

As many here often say if you live here you have to accept but that's not the case, the people need to stand up and be counted, they do have rights no different to us foreigners and while the apathetic attitude prevails (I can't be bothered or it's too hard) the constabulary and the people need to wake up to consumer rights,,,,,,,,,,, when we do our renovations and extensions I will certainly be counting/watching the mix for our foundations and structure and will clearly make the contractor aware as well as monitoring material theft and slacking off.

Another whinge? Or truth?

Cheers, Steve.


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## cvgtpc1 (Jul 28, 2012)

Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture as a frame of reference in order to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead of using the standards of the particular culture involved. - Wikipedia

Your head will explode if you do this in the PI! LOL 

And I do my best to not practice so I'm not so disappointed in matters there. We all go there for the weather and beer right? haha


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## John1850 (Oct 31, 2014)

cvgtpc1 said:


> Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture as a frame of reference in order to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead of using the standards of the particular culture involved. - Wikipedia
> 
> Your head will explode if you do this in the PI! LOL
> 
> And I do my best to not practice so I'm not so disappointed in matters there. We all go there for the weather and beer right? haha


The saying "when in Rome do as the Romans do" should also apply; but only if it doesn't amount to companies etc shoddy maintenance procedures. Most of the population here politely ask for more sh*t instead of complaining. If you don't complain about crappy service or goods then you get what you deserve; a never ending amount of sh*t falling on your head.

That's my whinge for the day, lol, I do complain if things are substandard; after all, it's my money that I am spending.
John


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

Last year I was asked by a PLDT representative to upgrade my DSL Internet and would I like cable also as one package and I didn't want it as first but after talking for a long time I said lets do it and so we went for the Fiber plan. 

Here's where the bad service begins not by PLDT but by the contractors: So the crew comes out and says we can't do the Fiber and they fixed my DSL line, later on that day the same PLDT representative calls me and asks me how my Fiber is working ha haa and I told him they can't do it they said I'm too far away and thats when the rep mentioned that these contractors get paid by the job and so many don't want to take on or avoid longer jobs so he asks me do you still want it and I said sure.

About two days later another PLDT Fiber installation crew comes out and they run the fiber cable a very long ways to my house, they had a huge spool and I'd say they had to use a mile if not more of cable to get to our home and that day we made sure to feed them real well with Bulalo (beef bone soup) and we tipped them a couple hundred pesos, the next crew came out to finish the installation (more complicated specialized process with Fiber) the next day and I tipped them also.

Bottom line these internet and cable companies use contractors.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

Very true, most are contractors and firstly should do the work correctly and take pride in and responsibility if mistakes are made. Secondly the company that you employed to carry out the work has a responsibility to their clients to fix problem keep them happy and not fob them off.
I ran my plumbing business for 14 years, employees including apprentices, direct contractors (subbies) and indirect contractors ie machinery operators, electricians, geo techs etc. and the buck always stopped with me, customer service manager, complaints department manager etc. A very successful company that grew year after year because of happy repeat and recommendations from clients.

So, my expectations and standards are high and I should have known better, I saw the problems when I worked here on a couple of flicks 7 and 8 years ago, the workers didn't give a sh1t, no pride, no ethics just get the pay cheque.

Another bleat. 

Cheers, Steve


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## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

Very annoying, 
but tiny compared to this:
An expat had got a house built and needed plumming. He told the plummer to connect from where to where and left. When he came back the plummer had put the pipe the shortest way DIAGONAL over the room at KNEE HEGHT!!! :lol:


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Lunkan said:


> Very annoying,
> but tiny compared to this:
> An expat had got a house built and needed plumming. He told the plummer to connect from where to where and left. When he came back the plummer had put the pipe the shortest way DIAGONAL over the room at KNEE HEGHT!!! :lol:


A friend had a similar experience. He was having a bathroom refurbished and instructed the plumber in great detail to run the basin waste pipe around tbe wall then through a hole to the outside. All was agreed and understood. He then went out for the day. On returning he couldn't see in the house for the cloud of dust. The plumber had with an angle grinder cut a channel across the living room and dog legged it out the back door. The best bit leaving no slope.


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## Zep (Jun 8, 2017)

Since the title has Cignal TV in it.

Why can't Cignal fix the volume issue between all the channels. Every time I change the channel I have to change the volume.

For example, channel 140 is really loud as compared to channel 141.


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## bidrod (Mar 31, 2015)

Zep said:


> Since the title has Cignal TV in it.
> 
> Why can't Cignal fix the volume issue between all the channels. Every time I change the channel I have to change the volume.
> 
> For example, channel 140 is really loud as compared to channel 141.


Cignal advertisements seem to be at increased volume too.

Chuck


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

True Zep especially flicking between 164 (Aussie news) and 251 (CNN news) @ 4 or 5 am so I don't wake the better half. As for adds I agree they sound louder but I looked into this in Oz 10/20 years ago and the excuse was compression, same volume but more info,,,,,,, sounds louder to me but Jamming everything they can an add or TV logo to get attention. OMO.

Cheers, Steve.


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