20th March 2008

Yet another poor service complaint

posted in WildBlue Affiliates, Service Rants |

Okay - I thought this one would be kind of funny and yet ironic all at the same time. On another post about WildBlue and related companies having poor service and bad attitudes, we had a WildBlue installer (tbagg) jump in on the conversation and telling us how we would not have a chance at going after a class action and how his dodge neon wouldn’t do 150 etc.

He raised some legitimate arguments which I appreciated and gladly posted as I think it is imperative that we allow others to post their opinions, regardless of what they are.

The funniest thing though is that he helped me to prove a point about how “helpful” WildBlue and their affiliates are. I have been unable to get anyone that could give me a straight answer about removing my satellite dish from my house. I want to make sure that there are no “dangers” (electrocution, etc) in removing it and if so, I want to know how. My local installers will not answer it for me, even though I have given them no indication of who I am - just asked a simple question and they give me the run around before finally hanging up. Well, since tbagg was so vocal on the blog, I thought I would shoot him an email, again, not leading on to who I was - below is a copy:

I got your email off a WildBlue-related website and hope you do not have a
problem answering a question for me.

I want to remove the satellite off my house but was curious as to power
source prior to moving. The installation company is a joke and I can’t
even get them to answer my calls so I will be removing this myself.

I can easily figure out how to removed it (unbolting, but need to know if
there is anything specifically that needs to be disconnected inside the
home prior to disconnecting outside.

Thanks.

I thought this was a relatively easy question for him since he stated that he installed many systems. Of course, rather than answering what would have been a very easy question, he shoots an email over to a friend to get him to look up my email domain and see who i am, then responds with my contact information and a note from his friend telling him to ignore me.

I have to assume that the general mentality of anyone employed or subcontracted by WildBlue must haveĀ  to be pre-qualified in the art of working harder to avoid service. This just went to prove a point that many of these guys would rather work harder to NOT give an answer than to just give the easy one.

While I realize it is not hard to do a domain lookup, this guy had to email it to a friend and wait for the response, ultimately responding two days later to let me know that he knew who I was and he was going to ignore me. Then, he had the audacity to come post about it on the other thread. I thought that was the FUNNIEST part, and kind of the icing on the cake.

There are currently 16 responses to “Yet another poor service complaint”

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  1. 1 On March 21st, 2008, tbagg said:

    hey just because you moved the post dosent mean I wont follow it.
    This guy wrote me this email posing like a concerned customer wanting to move his dish. when I figured out it was the same guy arguing with me on this blog I simply wrote him and told him I knew who he was. Its easy to see this guy just tries his best to twist things around in his favor. When I called his bluff he got mad oversimplified and rearranged the actual conversation and once again tried to make himself look like the good guy. Why does he argue with me on this blog then write me nicly worded emails? why is he emailing me? I didnt give him my email nor give him permission to use the email I used during registration. this guy is completly off his rocker and will do anything to make himself look good. why didnt he just ask me the question on the blog? why does he put on two different faces? look at the original thread its easy to see he hasent a clue. I created this email account just for this blog, I knew it was him and when I searched his email address it can up with doing some crooked stuff with posts on a morgage blog site in MS. this guy is a real doozie.

  2. 2 On March 21st, 2008, tbagg said:

    I hope you win your suit. Because WB could get you for slander now if they wanted too.

  3. 3 On March 21st, 2008, tbagg said:

    I just wanted to put this on a totally seperate rant. I didnt refuse to help you. I actually answered your question. but only after I pointed out that I knew who you were and how I thought it was pretty shady to not just ask me outright. I created this email account with the sole purpose of this blog. no one else has this email account. not only that I never posted it anywhere. So everyone here will agree its alittle fishy when you get an email such as that. don’t forget to look where the thread originated from. because when he started looking to bad he moved the thread and put things in his own words again. I don’tmind people getting mad and I don’t mind people surching for answers but I do mind people only looking for more reasons to be mad. I have known alot of people like you in my day. And I guarantee at the en of the day you have more problems than just this. You probly have a whole list of problems in your life and you use this as a venting opportunity for your when you fall short. I havent tried to lie about anything or pose as someone I’m not hoping for you to make a mistake. the truth is you baited me to make a mistake and I didnt. sorry your plan failed, but slowly your showing us all who you really are. everyday I take screen shots of your site. If you remove any of my posts I will just put them back word for word. and stop emailing me your annoying. If you have somthing to say post it here, isnt that what this is for?

  4. 4 On March 21st, 2008, Admin said:

    I fully expected you to follow it and I did not MOVE the thread, I created a new post to really bring it in front of people - to showcase it more than anything because it really does speak wonders.

    If I were trying to MOVE it in an effort to HIDE it, I would not have put links to this post from the other and vice versa.

    You said I got mad and rearranged the conversation - check the email again - I posted it verbatim as I sent it to you - there was no rearranging taking place, and for the record, I did not get mad. I thought it was hilarious that you helped me prove a point. While I think of this as more of a healthy debate (I love debating) rather than an argument (arguments means you have tempers and emotions involved - which I do not), you proved that you would rather “argue” about it rather than actually answer a very simple question - it speaks wonders and helped me to make a VERY valid point.

    You said that you hoped I win the suit because WB could get me for slander? First off, when it is in print, it is called libel, not slander. Second - there is nothing libelous about my post. I stick to the facts on everything I do and WHEN I create an opinion I use the words “opinion”, “assume”, etc.

    You answered my question on the other thread AFTER I posted this which leads me to believe you never would have had I not posted publicly.

    In any case, thank you for the answer - I will post it in a more prominent space on this site so others who have asked the same question in other places can easily find it.

  5. 5 On March 21st, 2008, tbagg said:

    the only thing you did exactly was post the email you wrote. you didnt listen to me and I never argued with you or refuse to help. I simply pionted out to everyone you are manipulative and dishonest.

  6. 6 On March 21st, 2008, Admin said:

    I am manipulative - I do not negate that fact. I will openly discuss all aspects of what I do and why I do them, so I do not see how you can perceive me as being dishonest.

    You are personally attacking me here rather than sticking to the facts. Keep in mind that this blog is about WildBlue and associated complaints, issues, etc. This is not the Ted and Damion show (if Ted is in fact your real name).

    Let’s stick to the facts and avoid name-calling. When a debate starts pushing into name-calling and personal attacks, it no longer is a debate. At that point it just means you cannot think of anything else to make a point and are simply trying to get a last jab in.

    I am sure that I will post something else to get your feathers ruffled and then you can chime in again, but just remember to keep the name-calling and personal attacks out of it.

    As for some other points I missed in my previous post. You said that every day you take screenshots of the site. More power to you. I have told you before I encourage open communication and healthy debate. I welcome you to continue posting here as long as you stick to the issues, stick to the facts, and refrain from personal attacks.

    You said that if I remove your posts you will come back in and repost them. Keep in mind that I can delete them, I can ban you, I can have your Internet Service shut off if you unnecessarily harass, and I could press charges for harassment as well. Again, I say this with respect to open debate. We will never have a problem as long as you stick to the facts and do not personally attack any member here. Everyone has different opinions and all are entitled to their own. Just because you do not agree with it does not make their (or my) opinion any less valuable than that of your own.

    As for your post about you not giving me permission to email you, did you not read the agreement when you registered? That was one of your big points before about contracts, right? When you register for this site, it specifically states, and I quote

    “A password will be e-mailed to you.
    By registering you give Admin the right to contact you via supplied email. We do not spam or sell/give away our member info.”

  7. 7 On March 21st, 2008, tbagg said:

    you did not have the right to solicite me. you have been attacking a general catagory of people and focusing on me as if I myself was the root of all evil. i tried to state facts and rather than responding to the valid points you danced around moved the thread and focused on non relative points. you posed as someone else in order to bait me into a situation then when I caught you and called you out, you turned it into me avoiding the question. why didnt you post the email I wrote you? you posted the one you wrote to me. why didnt you bring attention to the fact I did answer your question? why didnt you acknowledge that wildblue has won many awards and that a the entire contract and all of its parts are posted on the website for all to see. why dont you respond to those facts? you would rather respond to the associations i make to prove a point. I have spent a couple bucks today to find out if you actually have filed for a class action suit. It will take a few days but I will post my findings. I may be wrong but I don’t think you have pursued this as much as you would like everyone to think. Now why don’t yo actually read what I have written now and in the past and stop thinking so hard on how you will respond before your done reading.

  8. 8 On March 21st, 2008, Admin said:

    In one of your original posts, you said that we should read our contracts. Based on the agreement you accepted when you created an account on this blog, you agreed for me to contact you - so yes, I DID have the right to solicit you. I contacted you with a very simple question and, as stated, you did answer it - after I posted about your original response.

    In response to why I did not post the email you wrote me. At the time I posted this thread, the email you sent me simply had my contact information, copied from my email domain whois record and a note from someone named josh saying that I was the person you were arguing with and to just ignore me -I stated this fact but did not see the point in posting my domain information for the spam bots to grab. Anyone wishing to contact me can do so by going to any of my other websites and filling out the contact form or calling me - my information is publicly available on this site. I am not sure right off the top of my head where, but I have received over 100 emails from people on this site so I know it is here somewhere.

    I am not trying to claim you are the root of all evil nor have I personally attacked you in any way. I simply stated the facts concerning my contact with you. I do wonder why you are so quick to tell everyone how great WildBlue is and how wrong all these consumers are that have issues with them. There are hundreds of websites out there where WildBlue consumers are ranting about how poor their service is and how their customer service suck tremendously. How can you argue that all these people are wrong? I am a business owner myself and if I saw negative impacts to my customers, I would try to find the root of the problem instead of ignoring it and/or putting people on hold for hours at a time. Our battle is not with you. Remember, you came to my blog, made accusations against us, told us that we were the ones that were wrong, and then expect NOT to get our side?

    I have tried my best to answer all your questions. I may have missed one here or there, but just because you do not like the answer does not mean I did not answer it. If you notice that I miss one, let me know. I also have to run a business and try to answer these as they come up and therefore may miss one here or there. unlike WildBlue - I try not to make you wait for hours for a response so in my haste I have been known to miss some things here or there. If I miss it - ask again.

    On the same token, there have been many points that I have directed towards you that you have not rebutted either - should I bring them all up as well?

    Your point about WB winning awards is great - I did not mean to disservice you by not answering that. I figured it was just a statement that needed no response. If you want my honest response, it is not hard to get an award. I could get awards to post all over this site as well. The point is not about the awards they have received - it is about the ones that they have not. There are obvious wide-spread consumer concerns with this company, poor service, and even worse customer service. They do not care about their customers once they get the contract signed and that has been shown in numerous places online. If you experienced the poor service and issues that I, and many others have emailed me with, you would want to do something about it. I know you would because you are very vocal to the contrary so if you were on the other end of the spectrum, you would be doing the same. The only problem for you is that you feel that this has become a personal battle, and judging by what little I do know about you from reading some of the more psychological aspects of your posts - you do not like to lose a battle, and you are viewing this as a battle rather than an open conversation. When you feel that you are a little behind, you would rather throw personal attacks and tell me what a lousy person I am rather than focus on the issues.

    Save your money. I have stated many times on this website that I have not filed yet. We are getting very close to filing but have not yet.

    I do however think it is funny that you threw yet another personal attack about me “thinking so hard about how I am going to respond” because I do not. I actually have a feeling that is what you are doing because I often respond within minutes of your posts and you take hours to respond to mine.

    I try to hit all the points in as little time as possible because my life does not revolve around this site. I do not think about my posts and often just hit the main points as I see them. I think I got all your points this time - point it out if I missed one. For the record, it is hard to hit all your points when everything flows together with no paragraph breaks or capitalization to be able to see the beginning of a new thought. While I read the entire post, I am human and do forget to hit some points so if I do not see them on a quick browse over I do miss some.

  9. 9 On March 21st, 2008, tbagg said:

    agreed for the most part and do not think am backing up wildblue and not you. or any other way. 1st about the soliciting. you can only solicte me in regaurds to this site. it was the fact you painly said you found me on a site and did not mention it was you who owned the site nor did you mention that you were the one I had been discussing this with. that is what is wrong, you can contact me in regurads to this sight but to solicte my professional opinon with an obvious intent t hide the fact it was due to this sight is shady. I would have been happy to answer any question so long as everyone is straight with me. my problem with you and your arguement you turned down a service call. and you cant turn off my internet although you can block me frm this sight. free speech and a publily invited blog holds you validity. harrassment also is nothing you can do. I have been the one asking you to keep conversation on the bolg and repeatingly asking you to stop emailing me. Wild blue has problems with installers not doing a good job because they are in a hurry and causing service issues. just like a house being built if the house is falling apart are you going to blame the lumber yard or the builder. you have service issues do to inproper installation if you know it or not. I have been involved with over 2000 install directly and indirectly and not one had a problem so long as the intal was good. otherwise everyone would hate it and not everyone does.

  10. 10 On March 21st, 2008, Admin said:

    The reason I emailed you without telling you who I was is that I wanted to see how you would treat someone whom you did not know. Rather than giving me an answer though, your first thought was to find out who it is rather than answer the question. This is the point I was trying to make and the one I relayed to you in email. It says a lot about a person’s character when they care more about finding out who a person is that emailed them rather than answering a question which plainly falls into their area of expertise. I answer questions in email from people all over the country on a daily basis and never know who any of them are. I do not have a problem doing this. They obviously saw me as an authority on the matter and solicited my professional opinion. I feel that everyone should be willing to help their fellow man without hesitation and without question.

    Not sure what you meant by:

    my problem with you and your arguement you turned down a service call

    Your statement about me not being able to have your Internet shut off is wrong. I already ran a trace on your IP and know that you are using WildBlue - kudos to you. At least you are practicing what you preach! :)
    If you contact WB and ask them - they will tell you. If you harass another person using their service online, whether it be through a public medium or not, the person would contact their ISP or hosting company and ultimately hold WB responsible for allowing their members to do this. To cover their own butts, they would shut you off in a heartbeat and then have you prove that you did no wrong after the fact. Read your Terms of Service - I am sure it is in there. I have helped several people get others internet turned off for very similar issues.

    I respect your wishes to keep this on the blog, as expressed in the reply to your email about an hour ago.

    You do make a good point about the installers and I do realize that a lot of the problems are caused by poor installations. The biggest problem though is when you call to get an answer on this and you get a recording saying that there are no known service issues affecting you and a minute later you get an automated response telling you that your call is important and will be answered in the order it was received and that your estimated hold time is over two hours - this is a HUGE problem.

    I thought originally that the problems I had at the beginning with wildblue were isolated, but the more research I did, I found out that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of consumers with the same complaints. I knew that someone had to help change the way this company does business.

  11. 11 On March 24th, 2008, tbagg said:

    I don’t use wildblue. I live in town and can get a much better/faster product from the cabe company. and if you were able to to a ip trace on me you would see that the service provider I use has changed probaly 4 times since Istarted using this blog. (I travel ALOT!) If you have trouble with your wildblue ask a different dealer to do a service call and pay them the $75 directly. if they find enough wrong they can submit a report for a “reinstall” and the company that originally did the install will be charged back the money they were paid and it will go to the guy that fixed it and you shouldnt have to pay at all. wildblue offers customer service 24/7 if you call them directtv or dishnetwork at 8 am to 5pm there will be a huge wait time and this is bad I agree. however you have answered in this blog very late at night so try calling wildblue after 7 and your wait time will reduce drasticly as it will with the other companies. I very much wish you luck but I also wish you would be constructive on finding a solution for yourself. as I said earlier the reason I traced you was because no one in the world other than you could have possibly had this email. that was pretty strange, thats why I figured out who you were. now if you would have gotten my business phone or cell phone that many many people had I would not have hesitated. You can see why I was suspisious. you can see wy I did what I did.
    I bid you farewell as I feel there is nothing left to argue over and both have made as many points a possible to make our stand. thanks for not eraseing anything I wrote and seemingly half the time at least being open minded.

  12. 12 On March 24th, 2008, Admin said:

    I only did a trace on one of the emails you sent. At that time, it resolved through AT&T to Wildblue.net

    After the initial bickering back and forth (from both sides), I do appreciate some of your responses as well and will use them to help others that may be in slightly different scenarios where some of your suggestions will undoubtedly help.

    As for me, I will be removing my dish from the house this weekend, and will posting that along with your comments for those that wish to do the same.

    I wish I would have had the option of calling a different installer. Unfortunately, there are several dealers/installers in my area, all of which are owned by the same company, a small-time satellite guy that just so happened to be the same guy who installed my system.

    Not much in the way of options here on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.

  13. 13 On April 6th, 2008, roxanneg said:

    I have had the misfortune of being with Wild Blue since Oct. 06. I hate it and my story is the same as others. Every six months my service goes out. I have been off line now since March 1st. Can’t get through on the phone. They don’t answer emails. My contract was up in OCt. 07. My service went down about a month before that. They suggested I do the service call (which I had to have done in April of 07 - replaced the triad). I said why would I do that? My contract is up in a month. It is cheaper to just get rid of my service than to call out a guy and pay to continue crappy service. Miraculously my service began to work — better than it ever had. It worked until March. About 6 months. I want to cancel now because I haven’t even been able to get through on the phone. I would definetly join a law suit. Exactly what retribution are they talking about.

  14. 14 On April 25th, 2008, jerryrules53 said:

    Hey great site. Every few months, they basically slow it down to the point where I think dial-up would be faster, because I downloaded too much. I think it’s their company, they can make up any rules they want, but for us without any other broadband options (like cable or DSL) it sucks that while most city folk can use the internet all they want and download 24-7 if they want, I’m stuck with this slow as hell, crummy internet service out in the country. If I didn’t work out here, I’d move away. When they slow me down, I drive the 20 miles to Panera Bread or a local coffee shop where I can surf at very fast speeds and download all the movies, music and TV shows I want, for free. I’m sick of being held back by Wild Blue. I wish I had the money to install a T-1 and pay the $300 a month to keep it…

  15. 15 On June 24th, 2008, sundancer said:

    Tbagg, Works for Wildblue. His real name is, John Fedro.
    I can tell by his insane rants, that it is he. He works in quality control for Wildblue. He is out of control. He watches every wildblue complaint site. I have seen his name Tbagg on other sites.
    That shows you what kind of company Wildblue is, that they have personal watching these sites.

  16. 16 On May 21st, 2009, Belinda said:

    I think the “customer service” reps are told the answer to all problems WildBlue customers have is “reset the modem”. This has gotten ridiculous and I am so close to calling up their “customer service” number and bitching out whatever supervisor is on duty. No kidding. Everytime Chris calls them complaining about the slow-ass connection, he is told to “reset the modem” which is only a band-aid. It does NOT fix the real problem.

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