The vast majority have the same experience that I've had. 2 original Hoppers when first available, then Hopper3 as soon as available. All have been super reliable DVRs with occasional very minor issues with a couple of the firmware updates.
Hopper 3 reliability
- Thread starter hahler2
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Usually repeated DVR failures are a result of a problem in the particular environment where the receiver is installed such as power or heat problems.
Well thank you everyone for your input and your advice. I would love to have Dish service and a Hopper 3 but it looks like I will be keeping my Directv appointment and getting Directv installed. I called in again today to sign up for Dish and once again there was a failure to verify my identity. I've only lived in 2 places my whole life so I know there's no way I'm not answering the questions properly. So I have no idea what's going on. But because of that they won't activate service for me without charging me full price for the equipment. Which I think is completely ridiculous given that I just had Dish service a few months ago.
Directv will give me free equipment and free installation and there's not that much of a difference between them to justify paying full price for the equipment.
Directv will give me free equipment and free installation and there's not that much of a difference between them to justify paying full price for the equipment.
I will give DIRT a try. Forgot about them. JSheridan I tried a local retailer but they said they couldn't sign me up because I used to be a customer. They said I had to call in and that they could only do brand new customers. Didn't sound right to me but I wasn't going to argue with them.
Doesn't sound right to me either. Full service local retailers can do almost all the same deals that Dish can do directly.
That's what I assumed. I wonder if maybe they don't get as big of a commission or something so they don't want to do the work? I don't know. I'm going to try one more time in the morning to sign up for Dish and if it doesn't work again I'm going on a three strikes, you're out and going with Directv.
Well tried again today. This time I supposedly passed the identification verification. But they still said based on my credit that I didn't qualify for anything. Still wanted to charge me 600 dollars for equipment, and full price for AT200. Told them that was BS as I have excellent credit (780 credit score) and Directv had no problem qualifying me for free equipment and promo price. Plus Dish gave me free equipment too the last time I signed up for them. I guess they don't want my business to badly.
Wow! Yes, we have also noticed that the Dish qualification process has tightened up recently to a point where it borders on the absurd. Hopefully you'll enjoy DirecTV for 2 years then maybe you'll consider giving Dish another chance. Good luck.
Conversely, I've had zero issues with the HWS I got almost two years ago. I suspect my experience is more the norm.
Sadly, on my second hopper 3 within a year or so. Kind of seems like dish is using cheap hard drives or something, since second one has hard drive failure just like the first one.
Well, I recently switched to Dish from DirecTV, and I couldn't be happier. That said, DirecTV is a fine solution. I wasn't unhappy with it. Dish tried to charge me $50 for a Hopper3 when I signed up. I called and threatened to cancel the appointment, and they waived the fee. They mentioned credit as a reason, but I too have excellent credit, so I think the real reason is they are trying to squeeze more money out of people who they think can afford it. Best of luck with your DirecTV setup. You should be happy with it based on my experience. It is almost as good as Dish in most ways and better in some. For instance, I much preferred the DirecTV Select package to the Dish AT120 since it had no ESPN but did have BBC America. Anyway, be sure to post any questions or concerns in the DirecTV forum, so folks here can assist you.
