Seriously, folks. How difficult is it to get satellite service for an RV? You would think I am asking for a miracle, and all I want is to be able to watch a little TV once in a while when we are on the road.
A while back, I called one of our local satellite providers and discussed exactly what I wanted with the gentleman on the other end of the line. I told him that we would be traveling full time in our rig and that we already had a rooftop system installed. I made sure he understood both of those points. I had been told when we bought the Raven that it was a piece of cake, getting a provider to come out and simply hook up to our existing satellite.
Well, when the technician came out a few days later, he took one look at the rig in our driveway and said that he could not hook us up and that his company did not hook up RVs unless they were “up on blocks.” I told him that that defeats the purpose when one wants to travel. I also told him what the sales person had said over the phone. He was rather rude about it, and the company also kept my thirty bucks. I won’t be dealing with them again any time soon.
Next, when we were at the RV show in Portland, we talked, in person, to a technician who said that he installs all the time for full-timers. We had a very long discussion about the ins and outs of the different providers and what we needed to check on before having him come out.
Okay! I actually thought we were getting somewhere. As he instructed, we had our regular service tech check out the satellite on our roof. As we feared, it was an older model that did not have a dip switch to toggle between the two major companies. It was permanently set for the company I already said I wouldn’t deal with anymore. So, we decided to abandon the thought of using that satellite system and opted to go the tail-gator route, which is basically a dish mounted on a tripod. It is about as cheap as it gets—even at $350. Once again, I was on the phone, calling this gentleman who had been so helpful at the RV show. And, of course, he passed us off to someone whom he said was more knowledgeable about RV installs. Neither one of them seemed to understand that we would be traveling full time all over the country and that we wanted to be able to watch TV wherever we landed. Guy number two kept talking about how we would not have local channels and that there was a bunch of logistics and red tape to deal with if we wanted to travel more than 100 miles from home. What? He said he would put us together a price quote and call us back. He never did.
Now, I am pretty well perturbed about this whole mess, and I am mere seconds away from telling Ken that he won’t be able to ever watch TV again. Of course, that is nonsense because RV parks usually have cable service, but I was rather upset, and my all-or-nothing mentality was showing.
In the meantime, the Raven needed some servicing. We had to winterize it because we don’t plan on traveling again until spring, and the roof had also developed a leak, to my dismay. While at a “cheaper” RV service place, Ken started asking about installing a new satellite system on the roof, since they had to be up there fixing the leak anyway. He is more than determined to have TV, it seems at any cost. This repair and service place, which is not our normal provider, told us that the leak is much worse than expected and that we need a whole new roof.
So, of course, another part of my ugly side started to show—I started grumping about how he shouldn’t have changed the status quo, how he should not have went to someone else, when we trust Trent explicitly with the Raven. And so, now we have at least a $3500 bill staring us in the face. Plus, when Ken picked up the Raven from the other guys to take it to Trent for the needed repairs, he discovered that it is now running very rough, and it was running beautifully before they got their mitts on it.
This has not been a good week for the Raven.
And Ken is still determined to have his satellite TV.
Please tell me why it is so darned difficult to give my loving husband this one small luxury. Because I am beginning to believe it just isn’t meant to be.
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