Getting an appointment.

After several more attempts, I'm now getting 90% on all satellites. I did plumb the pole so that it was perfect, but that still didn't do it. I moved it slightly out of plumb and that worked. But if the current wait on service is almost a month, I will have to consider my other options in January. That is embarrassingly bad service. 

If you're getting 90% on all satellites, then you're fine. Are you seeing any error messages?

CSRs can only bring up the appointment page to schedule what is available.  

Yeah, 90% is excellent. No other errors. This is a simple fix, but in my haste, I didn't check to see if the pole was plumb. It was way out of plumb in both directions. I'll call tomorrow and cancel the appointment. 

Glad it is fixed so you don't have to pay $99 for that service call. Forum can come in handy in future for any guidance on self-resolution to avoid service calls unless absolutely necessary. So if anything happens in future, check here first before any appointment.

Hopefully that coax is set to avoid getting snagged again. Lucky it only pulled and wasn't eaten by the mower.

They don't have a personal tech living next door to all customers. So with other repairs, upgrades, installs, etc. the agents over the phone can only go by what available appoints are within the next month. If Aug 30 was it, that means they are super busy. They don't pay techs just to sit around days on end waiting for a customer.

I get that techs aren't sitting around doing nothing. I was a tech myself for 15 years. But in my over 30 years of dealing with DirecTV and Dish, I've never waited more than a week to get a tech out. During my technical problem with D* last year, I had service within 2 to 3 days. Did DOGE get control of D*? For it to take a month to get service is ridiculous in this day and age. I'm fortunate that I'm handy at things like this. For someone else who isn't as fortunate, to be without service for a month is unacceptable, especially with what is now available to the public and the price we pay. And if you need to make a condescending post, then don't post at all. 

DTV may have sent techs to the flood areas to help get them back up so there less tech for the local area. 

The post wasn't condescending. Too many time consumers do not comprehend that techs can be busy enough that sometimes they cannot get someone as quick as they would like. So a one-time long wait resulting in "looking into options in January" and "embarrassing service" is a rather ignorant view in my book that is going overboard in that situation.

Having within a few days like last year would be ideal, but if they already have customers that set appointments then that is just how it could work sometimes for any business. Yes it is fortunate that you were more handy as I agree that would have been even more frustrating for many others. Hopefully this will just be the one-off for you.

DirecTV and their techs are not Government employees so I think we can leave DOGE and other politics out of it.