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david_jr
Pub Member / Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Phone & Tablet Zone
Anyone ever use GSP to replace a phone. Bought the plan November 2014. Took phone into Geek Squad for screen problem. They said they are sending a replacement phone and we have to send the old phone back when we get it. Been doing a little reading up and looks like they send a refurbished phone. Some complaints that the refurb is in worse condition than the broken phone. That doesn't sound acceptable considering what I paid for the plan and the $159 fee I paid for the incident.
4 Replies · 3321 views
david_jr
Best Buy just sent me an e-gift card for $649 in lieu of sending a phone. We'll see I guess what it's going to cost for a new phone without service. Son whose phone it was wants a Samsung Galaxy S7 as a replacement.
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david_jr
Best Buy is selling the S7 without a contract for $679. I will be ordering it online to save the hassle of driving an hour to my nearest BB (now that my local store closed back in October) to do the same thing. I believe I get free shipping on orders over $35 with my rewards membership. I'm afraid I won't be doing phone business with BB anymore after this. Need to have someone closer in case of a problem. So what it works out to is, we have 7 months left on my son's phone contract. So we shouldn't need any replacement plan for this phone seeing as the phone comes with a one year manufacturer's warranty. Right? If anything happens to the phone we can just contact Samsung for repair/replacement, and then when the year is up if it breaks he can just upgrade again. Sounds like a plan. I thought you would agree. :biggrin
EarDemon
Never EVER buy Geek Squad Protection on anything. It's just a way to separate you from your money since Best Buy's profit margins are razor thin. After working there for a whole three months in-between jobs I had more then my fair share of seeing what a massive joke and rip off Geek Squad Protection and their extended tech support is.

I joined the cell phone world relatively late. It wasn't until the Fall of 2001 that I got my first phone, ever single one was purchased from a corporate owned carrier store or from the carriers websites. But now that I am done with carrier subsidies and refuse to partake in these new idiotic lease plans. Also I beyond refuse to pay activation fees. My Nexus 6P was purchased directly through Huawei. I cannot imagine buying a phone through a place like Best Buy..
david_jr
Thanks EarDemon for the input. Ok just to see this through to conclusion, I went to the Best Buy website to order the replacement phone. I found that the only way to order a phone without starting service was to order an unlocked phone. This may not necessarily be true, but I couldn't figure out a way so it is at least unintuitive if it is possible. So I order the Galaxy S7, which is $689, not $679 as I had earlier seen. So I end up paying $85 out of pocket in addition to the GS coupon for the difference in price and for sales tax (MA 6.25 %). The phone took a week to arrive and when my son tried to put his sim card in to use it it was a no go. So he took it down to our local Verizon store to see if they could help. They ad vise it is an unlocked phone and will not work with Verizon. Don't know if that is true, but that is what they told him. So I call GS again and they advise I can return the phone to their store and they will exchange it for a Verizon phone for no charge. So we make the hour trip to our closest Best Buy and are directed to Customer Service and then from there directed to the mobile phone section where there is no line, but there is also no one working there either. After about a 10 minute wait an attendant shows up and helps us. She seems to know what she is doing pretty well and agreed with me about the website not letting me buy a phone without a new contract and gets going on the exchange. This is an ordeal that I will not go step by step with but having to enter my SSN and PIN several times as she goes through the menus is just a pain. Finally she gets to the point of ringing up the transaction and the in store price ends up being $10 less than the online price I paid for the phone I brought in and the total shows a $10 credit with me owing a balance of $1.23. The CSR says that can't be right because the in tore phone is less I should not owe them money. I suggested the possibility that because I live in Massachusetts the tax rate is quite a bit lower than their store located in Albany, NY so even with the lower price the total is 11 and change more. She said she wants to ask a manager. So she calls and we wait. Then she calls again and we wait. Then she starts going to look around for a manage and finally finds one who confirms what I said about the sales tax being so high there. So after all that now she starts the phone info transfer which takes another 15 minutes so now we are close to an hour and a half just for what I thought would be a simple exchange. Sorry for the venting, but I was a bit perturbed at how long this took. So now I figure out the dollars and cents: I paid $240 for the Geek Squad PP, then had to pay $160 deductible for the service, then $85 for the difference on the new phone, then $1.23 in store for the added sales tax adjustment for the lower priced phone, leaving me having paid out of pocket $486.23 for a replacement phone from Geek Squad; a savings of approximately $200 over what I would have paid without the PP. Although if I did not have the PP, my son would have just had to make due with the old iPhone we had laying around from a previous upgrade that he used for the few weeks it took to get this whole thing sorted out.

So would I use GSPP again? Not a chance!! I have a 3 year square trade plan on my iPhone that cost $129. I hear that they have family plans and I am going to look into that for future insurance. Thanks for listening.
Ramy
Supporting Founder
Last reply · posted in The Sports Section
Really excited for this season with Kentucky having a new coach and some really exciting recruits. Probably won't last long, but here's hoping this season is great.
140 Replies · 1327 views
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Y
24 team playoff seems to be real close.

Are we really that far from a 64-team tournament?

The benefit of the 24 team playoff:
  • All the cartel teams that cartels want in playoff are in playoff
    • Independent of record too! Bonus.
  • MONEY!!!!! for the cartels.
  • I'm out of ideas.
Cons
  • Regular season really doesn't matter now other than the rivalry games
    • Top cartel teams can lose three games and still make the playoff
  • Going to start resting players?
    • The playoff is going to be *checks notes* several games!
    • Resting players could make games dumb.
    • Maybe even restrict NIL players from games played.
  • How much are streaming sub costs going up a month to pay for this?!
AZ.
AZ.
24 team playoff seems to be real close.

Are we really that far from a 64-team tournament?

The benefit of the 24 team playoff:
  • All the cartel teams that cartels want in playoff are in playoff
    • Independent of record too! Bonus.
  • MONEY!!!!! for the cartels.
  • I'm out of ideas.
Cons
  • Regular season really doesn't matter now other than the rivalry games
    • Top cartel teams can lose three games and still make the playoff
  • Going to start resting players?
    • The playoff is going to be *checks notes* several games!
    • Resting players could make games dumb.
    • Maybe even restrict NIL players from games played.
  • How much are streaming sub costs going up a month to pay for this?!
One of the pro's I see is in a year with so many undefeated teams they have a good chance of an opening. Few years back you had lower divisions that didnt get a shot. I love collage football and I have no problem with that addition.

We are in what week 5 now? Been two real good ranked games to watch.....Other than that top 25 teams are playing nothing.
Jimbo
One of the pro's I see is in a year with so many undefeated teams they have a good chance of an opening. Few years back you had lower divisions that didnt get a shot. I love collage football and I have no problem with that addition.

We are in what week 5 now? Been two real good ranked games to watch.....Other than that top 25 teams are playing nothing.
There are 68 Power 4 teams, so eventually they will get there I wouldn't imagine ...
AZ.
AZ.
There are 68 Power 4 teams, so eventually they will get there I wouldn't imagine ...
Far from it but you know that....You dont like the larger playoff.....Its ok.....
Jimbo
Far from it but you know that....You dont like the larger playoff.....Its ok.....
Oh, I Hate the idea ...

It would be different if it was a game that you could play 2 or games each week, but when you only play 1 game a week, the larger playoff is Not a good thing ...

The season has how many games now, is it 14 ... then you want to play another 5 (with more to come) against Top 12 (eventually 24 teams) ... remember, the 5 games in the playoffs will be the hardest games all year and back to back.

For example, IF Ohio State should win it all this year ... they play 5 teams in the Top 25, plus they would play 5 more to win it all, depending on how the ranking shake out and if Bye weeks are given.

Thats 10 Ranked teams ... in one year ...
I don't see that happening very often ...
Edit, Bama plays 4, Georgia plays 3, But Ole Miss plays 5 (didn't expect to see that)

That said, I don't see the Buckeyes winning it all this year.
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AZ.
AZ.
Oh, I Hate the idea ...

It would be different if it was a game that you could play 2 or games each week, but when you only play 1 game a week, the larger playoff is Not a good thing ...

The season has how many games now, is it 14 ... then you want to play another 5 (with more to come) against Top 12 (eventually 24 teams) ... remember, the 5 games in the playoffs will be the hardest games all year and back to back.

For example, IF Ohio State should win it all this year ... they play 5 teams in the Top 25, plus they would play 5 more to win it all, depending on how the ranking shake out and if Bye weeks are given.

Thats 10 Ranked teams ... in one year ...
I don't see that happening very often ...

That said, I don't see the Buckeyes winning it all this year.
Yes anyone here knows you 100%....Astros failed no posting...Ohio state loses we hear it.....Its ok....Its called an opinion....I have one so do you.....Problem is?
Jimbo
Yes anyone here knows you 100%....Astros failed no posting...Ohio state loses we hear it.....Its ok....Its called an opinion....I have one so do you.....Problem is?
Seeing theres very little activity in the MLB threads, it wouldn't matter if I posted that the Astros didn't make the Playoffs ...

Theres more NFL info in the Pub section than in the Sports/NFL thread.
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ppappas
Pub Member / Supporter
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum
On Tuesday, I recorded the first episodes of the new season's NCIS shows on CBS (Dish provided, not OTA). The new New York series and Origins will both do Auto Skip, but the original, now season 24 does not. What's stranger, when I do a search for NCIS, Origins and New York show the current recording and the next episode it will record, but the original show only shows the current recording and some other channel showing the very first episode of season one. It makes no sense. When I set up the timers, I was able to use search for Origins and New York, but for the original, I had to scroll ahead in the guide until last Tuesday when the show was airing. Then set the timer from there. You can see its timer type is DVR where the other two are Seek. What am I missing?
Thanks!
20 Replies · 372 views
Nebugeater
It is obviose some people do not know the diffornece between auto skip and FF
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Jimbo
It is obviose some people do not know the diffornece between auto skip and FF
IF you were referring to my post ...
Thats why I do all my Streaming Commercial FREE.
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Bobby
It is obviose some people do not know the diffornece between auto skip and FF
And there is a difference between fast forward and skip forwad....
tanman
With both CBS and Fox autohop (as we know) is not enabled for a week..But after 24 hours if you mash the FF button until the red kangaroo shows up in the bottom right you wont overshoot the program. No need to try to figure how long the break is.
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Cold Irons
With both CBS and Fox autohop (as we know) is not enabled for a week..But after 24 hours if you mash the FF button until the red kangaroo shows up in the bottom right you wont overshoot the program. No need to try to figure how long the break is.
Yep. We do this all the time, but we use the 30-sec skip forward button until the red kangaroo shows up. Love this feature.
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Jim5506
I'm a bit confused about the recording methods.
Do you havePrime Time Anytime enabled, by doing that you don't have to set recordings for Prime time programs on ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox stations, it's done daily, 7 days a week.
And only 2 weeks recordings are saved, no deletions either.
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"MysteryMan"
Pub Member / Supporter Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
I created this thread on the original Edgecutter Cutting Edge Forums site. It's simply a place for those to review the latest software available for those using Windows 10 and Windows 11. To date it has received 112,559 views. I have been asked by staff to continue this thread here.
520 Replies · 47146 views
EarDemon
If it wasn't for what I want, I wouldn't need any of this.

Do I need a collection of handheld radios, scanners and speed enforcement countermeasures? Nope, but I want them. Very little, if any of the software used to interface with these devices is available on Linux.
WhiteBeard
If it wasn't for what I want, I wouldn't need any of this.

Do I need a collection of handheld radios, scanners and speed enforcement countermeasures? Nope, but I want them. Very little, if any of the software used to interface with these devices is available on Linux.
To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything. ☹️
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EarDemon
To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything. ☹️
For niche use cases, yes I agree. Kali for ethical hacking and security testing, and running a Cacti server for network monitoring are the two things I have experience in. Plus thousands and thousands of other things, but for every day use I just can't see it. The owner of the GMRS repeater that I pay to access is changing the Tx DPL tones tomorrow, while Chirp is available on Linux, the software to program my MXT500 is not.

I run Fedora and Ubuntu in VMWare, honestly I don't care much for the UI of either of them and I don't feel like spending days/weeks to customize the UI to make it look Windows-like when I could just use Windows. The cartoonish dock at the bottom of the screen reminds me of Apple products.
EarDemon
I have no OEM bloat, on CTO devices where I can access the drive, I order it with the smallest allowed drive and crack the device open throw the factory drive in the garbage and put in my own WD Black and install Windows from bootable media. For Windows bloat, I install Windows using the English - World option which limits preinstalled MS bloat.

Windows and Office features I wish to block, like CoPilot and Cortana, macro enabled Office files and others are blocked with GPOs.

Between keeping all software up to date, doing firmware updates, putting IoT devices on a separate VLAN, running Symantec Endpoint (say what you want about it, it's been good to me) and practicing safe hex, I'm vigilant but not paranoid about security.

With NVMe SSDs, my cold boot up time on all devices is under 30 secs as well. Fast boot disabled, BitLocker drive encryption enabled.

I have nothing against Linux, been paying with it on and off since 2004ish, it's just not the right solution for me.
HipKat
it's just not the right solution for me.
As I said above, and, FWIW, I run Win11 Pro and Arch on separate 250 GB NVME drives, using F8 to select which I boot to, with a 1TB SSD for storage, accessible to both OSs and a third formatted Nvme I want to use to learn Kali. It was much faster to setup Arch than it was to strip down Windows. Windows still takes much longer to boot.

1792104425403.webp
harshness
I don't care much for the UI of either of them and I don't feel like spending days/weeks to customize the UI to make it look Windows-like when I could just use Windows.
What is so fantabulous about the Windows UI? By many accounts, it has been going downhill since Windows 7.

There are Linux desktops that offer Windows or Mac UIs, yet you don't hear much chatter about them outside of questions about when the creators might get sued.
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EarDemon
What is so fantabulous about the Windows UI?
Because it's what I prefer. I know I've said this a few times, I use Open Shell to give me the cascading start menu a la WIN 95 and NT4.0. The only reason I went from Windows Vista to 7 back in the day was because of Classic Shell. I cannot stand anything other than the OG start menu from 30+ years ago. I'm using ExplorerPatcher to give me Windows 10 UI elements of the taskbar and right click context menus.

If you could take a look at how I set up Windows 95, you'd find many similarities to how I use 11.
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EarDemon
I could probably use that as a starting point, but I don't like the full size icons. If you have to click on each folder that's also a no-go for me, it has to be cascading.

I used to have Peppermint Linux in a VM, that was about as close as I could get to recreating a Windows NT4.0 style of menu structure, but I could never get it to scale properly in VMWare on a 4K display and eventually gave up.

Whatever the boot up time it's fine with me. The longest part of my bootup is the HP SureStart BIOS integrity check. Once that is done, it's only a few more seconds. I haven't done this reg tweak yet since the reformat, but I switched the bootup animation to the Windows 10 style spinning circle of dots, and it's two and a half rotations. I can live with that.
dfergie
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU!
Last reply · posted in TV Shows
Hard getting used to the new younger Gibbs, Mark Harmons son had the right look but I understand he didn't want the role.
Still I'm enjoying, pretty good job with Franks.
66 Replies · 4202 views
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dfergie
Really good one with OG Gibbs bookending it...
R
Really good one with OG Gibbs bookending it...
Will the OG Gibbs be on NCIS or will Tony be on NCIS Origins?
dfergie
Tony was there at the end of the episode with Gibbs.
R
Tony was there at the end of the episode with Gibbs.
I saw Gibbs walk into the door, but I did not see Tony.
Jimbo
Tony was there at the end of the episode with Gibbs.
Tony was Not in this episode ... you may remember Gibbs walking into the office and those around Welcomed him home, Voices only.

If you also watch the Mothership, Tony has been in that one ...
dfergie
Tony was Not in this episode ... you may remember Gibbs walking into the office and those around Welcomed him home, Voices only.

If you also watch the Mothership, Tony has been in that one ...
I must have seen that in previews
.
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osu1991
Pub Member / Supporter
· posted in TV Shows
0 Replies · 10 views
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68494 Replies · 2670354 views
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Bobby
Kiss - The Art Of Noise
long_time_Dish
Beautiful Noise - Neil Diamond
sdfntx
White Noise - Jessie Baylin
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dishstaller
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
long_time_Dish
White Sun - The Doobie Brothers
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in Internet Television (IPTV) Discussion Forum
Wasn't exactly sure where to post this. Just had a customer come in inquiring about internet. He has HughesNet and had heard good things about mine. He asked if we provided email addresses and it kinda caught me off guard. I said he should be able to keep whatever email he had been using....my sister in law is still using a BellSouth email addy and they haven't been around here for many years. He said he had gotten a letter from HughesNet stating that they had until Nov 16th to save, move, forward, whatever, their Hughesnet emails because they would lose them after that date.

I have never heard of a company simply mass-deleting email accounts (the customer still has his HughesNet service). From what I understand, in the past, the company who was ditching their email service simply sold the customer base to a company like Google.

Anyone else getting this letter. He said he would show it to me tomorrow when I go out there and set up his internet.
7 Replies · 118 views
Foxbat
Doing a Google of the HughesNet Email notice, it seems that HughesNet has been trying to eliminate hosting emails since 2019. And with HughesNet filing Chapter 11 back in August, it would be a smart move to switch to a more stable Email provider. Even AT&T farmed out their Email to Yahoo! years ago.

SpaceX's Starlink and the Cellular 5G Home Internet solutions have pretty much relegated HughesNet and its high latency, low bandwidth Internet service to History. If Earth had shorter days, maybe a Geostationary Internet Solution might have stood a fighting chance…
navychop
If Earth had shorter days,

Wouldn't we then die of old age sooner?

🙄
Foxbat
Wouldn't we then die of old age sooner?

🙄
Still the same number of years, just more Sunsets…😉
K
Even AT&T farmed out their Email to Yahoo! years ago.

I still have one of those although I've been trying to wean myself off it.
JSheridan
Among my many email accounts I still have a .netscape.net which AOL assimilated a while back.
EarDemon
Yep, I got the notification a few days ago. I'm not totally surprised.

Never used the address for anything, so no big loss to me.
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meStevo
Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in TV Shows
Starting a thread klang !

After an amazing first 2 seasons and an 8 episode 3rd season still coming this year, season 4 has now been greenlit.

Keri Russell Wow GIF by NETFLIX
9 Replies · 932 views
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K
Probably starting season 3 tonight. :D
meStevo
Finished it this evening. General impressions with no story spoilers, but will spoil it anyways as it just came out today.

Not quite as impactful of a finale as past seasons I thought, we'll see how far down the rabbit hole things go as the latest plot twists and turns unravel. Thought this season had a full episode or two too much rom-com style disagreements, but it was more or less paid off later. Ultimately didn't enjoy that being more of a throughline in the stories this season compared to what I remember of the priors.

My least favorite of the 3 seasons, but still very good. Really wonder how far they'll go with things, hard to see a nuclear attack or something ever actually happening. They just had a better story to tell and more meaningful beats in the prior season.
KAB
KAB
Not in a hurry to watch it this time.
K
Finished season 3 last night. Still one of my favorite shows.

Anyone else wonder if there might be something else going on with Callum? Seems to me he has too much access to Russian intelligence.
meStevo
One episode into season 4 that dropped today...

Jon Stewart Popcorn GIF
Bobby
Supporting Founder Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum
This thread is a place to discuss the 4K events that appear on channel 540. We are getting, at this point, one college football game a week. Let's hope there is more coming.
1930 Replies · 298820 views
jsmit86
Regarding the no sound bug when watching 4K HDR events or DVR recordings with Dolby set to ON:
I got rolled back to H708 last night after getting an email from the support team. It fixed the bug.

The email indicated that they believed they found the issue, and if the fix works, they would roll it out via an update in the coming weeks.

So... we should see that bug exterminated in the near future.
long_time_Dish
148-04 says the NASCAR race on at noon on Sunday. Be interesting to see if it is.
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Bobby
MLB, Brewers at Dodgers, Thursday 10-15, 6PM PDT, Channel 148-02.
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Foxbat
MLB, Brewers at Dodgers, Thursday 10-15, 6PM PDT, Channel 148-02.
CFB, Notre Dame at BYU, Saturday 10-27, 4:30PM PDT, Channel 148-03.
CFB, Ohio State at Indiana, Saturday 10-17, 9AM PDT, Channel 148-01.
CFB, Arizona State at Texas Tech, Saturday 10-17, 12:30PM PDT, Channel 148-01.
Hmmm, I'm not seeing anything like those events in our Hopper 3 guide for tonight or Saturday.🙁

I went into the Tools menu and requested a Guide Update. I'll try looking at it after the update completes.

edit — I now have the 148-01 4KFox events for Saturday, but not anything for 148-02 or 148-03 which don't even show as available channels. I do have 148-04 4KUSA.
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Bobby
Hmmm, I'm not seeing anything like those events in our Hopper 3 guide for tonight or Saturday.🙁

I went into the Tools menu and requested a Guide Update. I'll try looking at it after the update completes.

edit — I now have the 148-01 4KFox events for Saturday, but not anything for 148-02 or 148-03 which don't even show as available channels. I do have 148-04 4KUSA.
As I recall you have the Flex package. Do you sub to multisport? -02 is FS1 and -03 is ESPN. -01 is Fox so you would get that if you sub to locals.
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Bobby
As I recall you have the Flex package. Do you sub to multisport? -02 is FS1 and -03 is ESPN. -01 is Fox so you would get that if you sub to locals.
As an edit, you need to sub to the National Action Pack at $12 a month to receive those channels.
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