Welcome to the forum stinkyparp
Well it may be that someone has patched it previously but you are not giving any details regarding messages displayed when booting thus nobody will be able to help you unless they have exactly the same model which by the way is not listed
here or indeed
here. Unless you have ommitted to post some information. I am curious as to why you think you were ripped off as I would have thought the installer would be the best person to contact to reflash if that is what you want to do.
As regards installation, obviously you need to have a general southern facing location without obstructions i.e. trees buildings etc. You do not mention how you intend mounting the dish will this be a ground mount, wall mount or tripod on the veranda?