tried Dish and they did so many things wrong I quit...going back maybe?

[etrin]

I called one day after a rate increase from direct and was told a good price with everything I needed so I switched to dish. Installer hooked it all up and then the trouble began. The card they left had a lot of channels that I wanted but could not get. WAIT I have the everything package. I called and those channels are no longer available, removed last month. AND after looking at your bill the other person put a 200 with all channels and premiums..you can't do that so my bill went up $20 a month. BS so I talked to a supervisor and got that fixed. Till the bill...it was $35 higher....talked to billing and sorry but you have 250 not the 200 and bla bla bla...so come get this crap after 14 days I am out. SO a billing person got it all streight. For over a year i was satisfied except when it rained, or got real cloudy. My max signal strength was 24... yep to get any higher would require 2 dishes
HUH??????, I live in LR ar and my buddy had dish and a signal in the 90's.
anyway the HD pvr crapped out and sure send it in at your expense and we will replace it. WAIT I have to pay shipping on your eq that I am paying rent on.
IF you want if fixed yes.

SO I quit dish on that day.

Well after ota tv for a while I am thinking of getting back into cable/sat and wanted to ask
1) why was my signal so weak and needed 2 dishes to fix it?
2) why do they require the customer to pay to have their eq repaired?
3) they seem to be the cheapest of the 3...directv and comcast
is this the reason for all the crap I got from them?

ps I called and asked about their service again.
the 200 pack is [FONT=&quot]$37.99 for first year ...then reg for $52.99 +HD $10
I assume this is for 1 tv...the person said yes
I asked about adding another tv...it would be SD and didn't need HD on it.
She went blank....well sir the hd is for your service not per tv. I understand that I was talking about the receiver... OH so that would be another std receiver.
Another....I need 1 HD and 1 Sd
ok sir that would run you with HBo And Showtime $89 a month.

WAIT I want the 200 pack + HD + 1 additional receiver. And the HBO AND SHOWTIME are free for 3 months I am not paying for them. Correct?

yes that is $89 a month

OK what am I missing here?

[/FONT]

 

[KAB]

OK what am I missing here?

[/FONT]

Knowledge of new receiver fees. Specifically, $6.00 DVR fee (would cover all DVRs on account) and $7.00 solo receiver fee. The math works.

 

[jmccurrytech]

You need to do the loyalty credit (10 bucks off for a year) and refer 5 people, thats $25 off a month (5 ppl times 5 dollars a month). Thats 35 bucks off a month, thats what I did

 

[etrin]

so the price they gave me for 1 tv did not include a receiver?
Lets see here [FONT=&quot]$37.99 for first year ...then reg for $52.99 +HD $10

37.99 + 10 = $47.99 a month.
This price is to get it into my home and will not have any way to watch it?
So I have to rent a receiver to watch it as well?

$47.99 + [/FONT] $7.00 solo receiver fee
$54.99 am I correct here?

and to add another tv ...the total is now $89.99
[FONT=&quot]
now we do some backwards math (subtraction) 89.99 - 54.99 = $35 to add the std tv ?

[/FONT]

 

[KAB]

One or first receiver in included in the package.

 

[KAB]

You need to do the loyalty credit (10 bucks off for a year) and refer 5 people, thats $25 off a month (5 ppl times 5 dollars a month). Thats 35 bucks off a month, thats what I did

No loyalty credit coming from Direct.

 

[merk]

I just signed up with dish this past weekend. I have two tv's hooked up - one gets HD channels, the other just gets standard. I have the 200 channel pack plus the HD addon and my monthly bill is $53/mo. If you want two TV's both to have HD, then you have to pay more since you need a 2nd receiver box.

if you are willing to have 1 hd and 1 sd, they can do that using just one receiver box so it comes out a cheaper.

I've only had dish a few days, but so far i like it better then both TWC and Directv. The interface/dvr is WAY WAY better then what TWC offered. On the plus side for TWC the monthly bill would have been about the same and i had 2 HD tv's plus showtime for 2 years. So TWC came out cheaper. But their DVR and the user interface sucked - i couldn't even filter out the channels i didnt want from the guide.

directv was more money - but the dvr/interface is pretty close to what dish gives you. But dish is better. Their box is much more responsive then directv's. And i think it gives you more recording space. And i like the interface better. Plus i have two tv's hooked up and i'm still paying less and will continue paying less even after the 12 month promotional pricing expires.

Directv did offer to knock $20 off the bill after i called them, which would have brought it closer to the dish pricing after the promo period expires (although still only 1 tv). At that point that i had already decided to cancel since i had emailed them and told them the deal i was getting from TWC and the best they offered through email was a $5 monthly credit.

And i think it said my signal strength was 70 or 90 - the bar was about half way i think.

 

[etrin]

thanks for the post Merc. See you have exactly what they quoted me tv and package wise.
. I have two tv's hooked up - one gets HD channels, the other just gets standard. I have the 200 channel pack plus the HD addon and my monthly bill is $53/mo.

I asked about the 200 pack [FONT=&quot]$37.99 for first year ...then reg for $52.99 add the HD $10 a month and a second tv. and they said $89 I did not say anything about receivers or anything like that.
I said I had an HD and a std tv.

IF they had said $53 they would be out putting it in today.
=============================================================================
You got a single dish and that signal. I can't understand it, the installed said oh you should have 2 dishes for HD but I can split something and get by with one. Then when it got cloudy I would have intermittent signal. Sounds like he just didn't have a clue as to what he was doing.

ps the dish was a wide one with 3 lnb's.

I am going to call back tonight and see why I was given such a high price.
I can't wait to say but "[/FONT]merk" said ROFL

thanks for the info

[FONT=&quot]


[/FONT]

 

[merk]

my guess would be you got the promo pricing and then when you called whoever you spoke to probably quoted you the non-promo pricing - although $89 is still higher then non-promo for the 200 channels with HD and the 722k receiver. Should be 60 something a month after promo i think.

You know how it is with tech support and customer support calls - sometimes you get someone who knows what they are doing and sometimes you dont. I'd try calling them back or try emailing them.

No clue about your signal strength. I don't know much about that. I'd assume the lower on the horizon the satellite is for you, the weaker the signal would be. Weather isn't much of an issue for me in LA.

 

[etrin]

Well in Little rock ar my directv signal (years ago) was 94 and my buddy had dish about a mile away and his is over 90.
I have never heard of anyone needing 2 dishes to get tv. But like he said oh its HD so you should use 2. BUT then again with him I would have 2 dishes and signal str would still be poor.

I do know that a lot of this is promotion pricing. The person I am talking about with the signal above had dish 200 + hd + 4 pack of premium + 2nd HD TV and wanted a cheaper rate.
they ended up giving him the everything package + HD for $99.99

I guess some of the people at dish can do what they want with the packages and some can't even read the chart.

 

[merk]

If your friend in the same area has dish (and there's no trees or anything blocking your dish) then yeah it seems strange your signal strength is so much lower. Maybe you dish antenna needs to be better aligned?

 

[sethwell]

i live near Ft. Smith so i can't tell you exactly what your signal level should be, but i have no problems getting a good signal here. I am on a western arc setup unlike you would need in little rock as LR is an eastern arc city but i don't think you should have a problem. i bet you had an installer that just didn't set up your dish correctly or hurried you install.

with only two tv's you should be able to use a 722, 722k, or 622 for your installation and have no trouble getting signals to either tv.

below is what the calculator on Dish's website gives you for what it should be per month, if i were you i would look in the yellow pages and find a local installer and have them set you up. they will generally do a better job from what others have said on this forum.

about having to pay to fix their equipment, yes it is sad that we have to pay a lease fee and have to pay them to fix their equipment for us, but they do have DHPP(service plan) it is $6/month and they will replace your equipment for free for you. if you need to have a service call, have a tech come out, it is only $15 instead of $95. there is a $25 fee to cancel it though.

if you would like a clubdish code, i can email you one if you need it. it'll get you $50 off your first months bill.

 

[merk]

you have to pay to cancel it? geez - that's beyond a little ridiculous. Are they turning into ticketmaster where they charge you a fee to print out your own tickets? p

So if i dont have the service plan, and something goes bad, i have to pay $95 for a tech to come out AND i would have to pay for a new receiver (assuming it was the receiver that was bad)?

 

[sethwell]

you have to pay to cancel it? geez - that's beyond a little ridiculous. Are they turning into ticketmaster where they charge you a fee to print out your own tickets? p

So if i dont have the service plan, and something goes bad, i have to pay $95 for a tech to come out AND i would have to pay for a new receiver (assuming it was the receiver that was bad)?

possibly so, but then again they may work with you if you are a customer in good standing. they started charging the $25 fee because many of us, myself included, would just add the insurance and then after we had our problem fixed, we would drop it. they finally caught on!

 

[ryotgz]

Isn't there a year warranty or something on the receivers to begin with? Maybe I am crazy.

 

[KKlare]

You should also know that a couple of years ago the signal meter (Menu+6+1+1) was renormalized and reads a lot lower. There are no 90 signals anymore. 40 is a desirable minimum but it will work as long as it is green, say 25. Spot beams, used for locals, are often much hotter. It will vary satellite to satellite and transponder (TP) to TP but having the disk properly aligned will make a big difference.

(You can test the alignment by lightly pulling on opposite sides of the dish, top and bottom, east and west and having someone watch/listen to the meter.)
-Ken

 

[etrin]

Well I think its wrong to have to RENT a piece of eq then pay for repairs on THEIR equipment.
IF I had purchased it then that would be an entirely different thing.

thanks for the info on the signal strength. I will call him and ask what his meter shows now. That was over 2 years ago when I had it installed and talking to my buddy about signal strength. At that time his was 90 and mine was 24...eq maybe?
Right after the install we had a thunderstorm come thru the area. Again he is over 2 miles away so it might not be exact. I lost signal even before the storm hit, he lost signal when the HEAVY rains started, his signal came back when the rain let up, mine came back when the clouds left.

Sethwell thank you very much for the information. I was totally blown away when I talked to the person the other night. None of the prices I was getting made any since.
As you and Merc have pointed out $53 promo price for what I wanted is correct. Your price of $53.99 includes dvr which I did not even talk to them about. I guess that having 2 tv's with NO dvr counts as 2 receivers or something.
And some other stuff I tried to think of was the free for 3 months HBO and Showtime maybe they were adding that as a price. I did ask was this removed by them or me when the time was up and how much after the promotion.
Maybe that was it.

I did explain to the person that I also wanted the price AFTER the promo but never got around to asking....I was afraid ROFL

 

[JayStil]

possibly so, but then again they may work with you if you are a customer in good standing. they started charging the $25 fee because many of us, myself included, would just add the insurance and then after we had our problem fixed, we would drop it. they finally caught on!

Finally caught on? The CSR's would tell you to add & remove DHPP whenever you had a problem that needed fixing.

 

[finniganps]

Well I think its wrong to have to RENT a piece of eq then pay for repairs on THEIR equipment.
IF I had purchased it then that would be an entirely different thing.

This is one of the main differences between satellite and cable. Cable includes in their service the ability to call them and have things fixed without charge because it is already included in your monthly bill. Satellite charges for service to fix something.

I did explain to the person that I also wanted the price AFTER the promo but never got around to asking....I was afraid ROFL

You should definately get this information becuase the promotion period is often 1 year and your contract is typically two years. I'd take the total cost over the two year contract period, divide by 24 and that is the actual cost per month over the contract period.