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When we purchased a house a few years back, Comcast was our only broadband option, so we reluctantly called them. The previous owners had a Dish Network receive

When we purchased a house a few years back, Comcast was our only broadband option, so we reluctantly called them. The previous owners had a Dish Network receiver on the roof, and the when the Comcast technician arrived he enthusiastically offered to remove it and haul it away for us at no charge, even though it was in no way interfering with Comcast's cabling. I doubt I will ever have interest in subscribing to Dish Network, but I declined, not wanting to be party to such anti-competitive behavior. I can't imagine the tech would offer to remove it unless such is standard practice. He'd be doing extra work for no extra pay (unless Comcast offers a head hunting bounty).

throwanem 9y ago
I've known small IT contractors to act similarly, in order to obtain free hardware which they could then resell on the used market or repurpose for their own use. Dish Network dishes apparently [1] having something of a used market as well, it wouldn't surprise me if your technician were simply an enterprising fellow with an eBay seller account. [1] http://www.ebay.com/bhp/dish-network-satellite-dish http://www.ebay.com/bhp/dish-network-satellite-dish
- pitaa 9y ago
  I agree; this offer doesn't seem malicious. At the very least the guy could have been scrapping them for beer money.
- DamnInteresting 9y ago
  Fair point, that is possible. If that were his motive and he had stated it outright, I would have agreed. It felt shady at the time, but intuition is an imperfect instrument.
  - throwanem 9y ago
    I wouldn't state that intention either, because then you'd be liable to try to sell it to me. Presenting it as a courtesy service rarely elicits such a result.
toast0 9y ago
To be fair, many homeowners who don't intend to have satellite tv find the dishes unsightly. One of the first things I did when we bought our house was take down the two easily reached dishes that we weren't going to use ever; the one that was way up there got to stay, but I did remove the cable that was running outside all over the place. From what I understand, it's pretty common for the next satellite installer to want to install a completely new dish and LNB when service is requested, unless the dish is very recent.

throwanem 9y ago

I've known small IT contractors to act similarly, in order to obtain free hardware which they could then resell on the used market or repurpose for their own use. Dish Network dishes apparently [1] having something of a used market as well, it wouldn't surprise me if your technician were simply an enterprising fellow with an eBay seller account. [1] http://www.ebay.com/bhp/dish-network-satellite-dish http://www.ebay.com/bhp/dish-network-satellite-dish

pitaa 9y ago
I agree; this offer doesn't seem malicious. At the very least the guy could have been scrapping them for beer money.
DamnInteresting 9y ago
Fair point, that is possible. If that were his motive and he had stated it outright, I would have agreed. It felt shady at the time, but intuition is an imperfect instrument.
- throwanem 9y ago
  I wouldn't state that intention either, because then you'd be liable to try to sell it to me. Presenting it as a courtesy service rarely elicits such a result.

toast0 9y ago

To be fair, many homeowners who don't intend to have satellite tv find the dishes unsightly. One of the first things I did when we bought our house was take down the two easily reached dishes that we weren't going to use ever; the one that was way up there got to stay, but I did remove the cable that was running outside all over the place. From what I understand, it's pretty common for the next satellite installer to want to install a completely new dish and LNB when service is requested, unless the dish is very recent.