Winegard SK-3005 Saga Has Finally Come To a Close!

[donn0128]

Well, my nearly three month saga with my Winegard Sk-3005 Automatic satellite antenna is finally over.
Bringing every one up to date.
In early April I started getting my trailer ready for the summer. One of the things I checked was my sat antenna. Low and behold it just kept searching and would not lock on or even park after the prescribed time period. So a few calls to Winegard tech support and having someone read a script I was told that I needed to send the entire antenna system back to them for repairs. So 96 dollars later my antenna sans the dish is shipped back. After a week in their hands and a few phone calls I was able to get an estimate for repairs. That’s another story. Anyhow I finally authorized repairs to the tune of over $300 dollars plus the return shipping. Because they used UPS the return charges were about $140.00 or a whopping 50 dollars more than FexEx. Get the antenna back on a Friday and get SIL to stop by and help me get it back on the roof. Hook everything up and Bright and early Saturday morning take a receiver out to do a test. Antenna rotates and locks on to something. Not sure what, because when I look at the receiver there is no signal. ZIP,ZERO, NADA. So more phone calls to tech support. This time I get Keith who does seem to know his stuff. We work for most of a week trying different things. They seem to think it is the coax cable in the trailer. Even though I have tried a separate piece of coax they insist on sending me another piece. Another week sitting and waiting and when it arrives, you guessed it Dead as a door nail. More phone calls and this time things have gotten escillated to more powerful people. The decision is made that since I apparently don’t know what I’m doing that I need to take it to a RV dealer who are experts. So, I drop the trailer off the day after Memorial day. A week later and the system is still dead and Winegard has sent more parts that did not fix the problem. I have always maintained a drop dead date of Friday because we are leaving on July 1 for the summer and it either needs to be working or I will get the trailer back so we can get ready. Got a call that Winegard has located all the parts necessary locally and I am assured my trailer will be done Thursday evening. Well, you guessed it, get a call and it is still a no go. Friday morning I get a call from the service tech at the dealers asking me some questions, which I answered. About 1:30 yesterday I get a call, come and get it! WOOHOO it is finally done and working like it should.
Winegard did step up and cover the labor and all parts to get this thing working.
Thanks Winegard for stepping up and taking care of me.
Thanks Mike and Mike at Johnson RV in Sandy, OR

[Gene_Ginny]

donn0128 wrote:
... Anyhow I finally authorized repairs to the tune of over $300 dollars plus the return shipping....about $140.00 or a whopping 50 dollars more than FexEx. ...

Somehow it just rubs me the wrong way to pay $300 to fix something, get it back and it ain't fixed. I think Winegard had an obligation to cover any needed parts and labor AND apologize for not doing what they were paid to do.

[mikestock]

True. Something doesn't add up.

[Bill_Satellite]

Re-read the post, do the math, and you will see that they antenna was not installed new in 2012. (2012 + 10 months, + replacement time + 15 months) Even if you just back date 25 months from today it would be May 2011.

[mikestock]

Bigdog,
If you bought it in 2012 and it was warranted for 24 months how can it not be warranted through 2013?

[Bigdog]

I am having a problem with my Traveller Dish 1000 and that is that the motor has jammed. We bought it and had it installed in 2012 and 10 months later the motor jammed as I was putting it down in the rv park we were staying at in a driving rainstorm. I had to take the dish off as the little plug that you can stow it with broke on the first try. They shipped a new one and it got installed. 15 months later,the same thing happened as we were leaving to come home and once again it was raining and I had an audience of about 5 guys. This time I got it stowed manually ok and when I contacted Winegard,I was told that the second unit was only warranteed for the 24 months of the original one,BUT I could either send mine in for repair or get a new one,etc.On my dime..
I am at the point that I think that I'm gonna try Good Sam to see what they can do. I mean hey, the same thing happens twice on an item that I paid $1400 plus installation for and they aren't going to back it up?

[SCVJeff]

mikestock wrote:
This is like the last episode of the Sopranos.

Is there an answer to the mysterious problem?

And we now know how it ended with Tony 😞

[Bill_Satellite]

There is not an answer and I doubt there ever will be. Winegard will do an internal investigation, but otherwise it's quite unlikely that it will be discussed with anyone else.

[mikestock]

This is like the last episode of the Sopranos.

Is there an answer to the mysterious problem?

[rexabbot]

SCVJeff wrote:

rexabbot wrote:
You didn't say what they finally did to fix the problem?????

It is like reading a whole book to find out that some tore out the last page.

this page here?:
WOOHOO it is finally done and working like it should

I don't understand what you are trying say.

The OP goes into great detail until the part that it got fixed and he never says what got fixed.

[SCVJeff]

rexabbot wrote:
You didn't say what they finally did to fix the problem?????

It is like reading a whole book to find out that some tore out the last page.

this page here?:
WOOHOO it is finally done and working like it should

[brobox]

I have followed you saga since day one and would also like to know what the fix was. I also have a Traveler.

[rexabbot]

You didn't say what they finally did to fix the problem?????

It is like reading a whole book to find out that some tore out the last page.

[SCVJeff]

Geeeeze....
There are Winegard tech's thar occasionally post to this forum. I would love to hear from them exactly what was finally determined was the cause of all this was. If it happened once, it'll happen again and it might be good to jump start the fix process for the next guy.