510 promotion FUBAR

Mike_H

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 8, 2003
770
5
Twin Cities, MN
Well I think I'm going to get my 510 but so far the Dish folks have screwed it up pretty good.

I ordered the upgrade on the 14th of March. During that phone call it was confirmed that:
#1 - I would self install. This was not a receiver swap. (took a while for the CSR to figure out how to do that, but he did)
#2 - I was not paying any shipping, the total fee was $99.

So it's the 22nd and I haven't seen my receiver yet. I wasn't given a shipment date so I figured I would check it out.

They tell me it was delivered by UPS on the 19th. Set in front of my door. I tell them I didn't get it. They want to give me a tracking number and have me check with UPS on where the package is.

I point out I haven't attained ownership of the package yet so I believe it's up to Dish to figure out what happened to their receiver. I get put on hold.

While on hold I call the wife (who was home on the 19th) to verify that there is no box laying around that she forgot to tell me about. It's confirmed. No box laying around outside, or inside the house. No, UPS did not come on Friday.

I'm on hold for quite some time and they are preparing to re-ship one. But this time
#1 - I can't self install. It's not available on this promotion if I don't swap. I don't want to give them one of my receivers that I might want down the road. So now I have to allocate a day to sit around and wait for someone to bring me a receiver that I'll install myself.
#2 - They CRS points out they charged me a shipping charge the first time as he is reversing things.

I pointed out that the original CSR let me self install, and never mentioned anything about a shipping fee. The company they have confirm the orders never mentioned anything other than the $99 fee. I pointed out that Dish trying to charge me a shipping fee when none was discussed could be a problem for Dish.

He said he would fix the error. But the CSR didn't seem interested in the fact that they had screwed up the first time and added a fee that I hadn't been informed of or that wasn't approved.

Now I don't believe the UPS driver would have stolen the receiver. But I could believe that Dish sent him to the wrong address though they claim they didn't.

I hope this one finally shows up.
 
Ask them what address they shipped it to. If your physical address is different than your mailing address or is at a different location than where you are actually at, then it could have actually been shipped to the wrong address. I had a problem with Dish Network shipping it to the wrong address telling them where to ship it to and them telling me that they are going to ship it to where I told them to but it gets shipped to the other address anyways. I do not know how many times I told them to ship it to my mailing address and they shipped it to the physical address instead. This used to NEVER be a problem. The physical address is different because of the move but the mailing address is still the same. I could not change the physical address yet because Dish Network does not have a SuperDish Dish Mover's program yet. They said to wait until the Dish Mover's promotion will be used before changing the physical address.

They recenting shipped a remote to the wrong address and some woman accepted the package even though it did not have her name on it and she did not even have to sign for it. UPS said Dish Network was responsible. Had Dish Network ship another one out and it was the wrong type of remote. They shipped an IR remote instead of a UHF one. They had to ship out a third one and finally I got the right one. They have to enter the address in the computer manually.
 
I seem to have a similar situation.
I pay for a year of service up front and it was time to renew.
I heard about the $99 510 offer here so I decided to call.

I got the $99 deal, the csr told me free shipping, nothing about reciever exchange.

I paid for a year service plus the $99 dvr.

I called back a week later to see if it was shipped. the csr i got mentioned
something about a receiver exchange and I told him no. I just wanted the $99
special. he put me on hold and came back saying it was shipped the 15th I asked him for a tracking number he put me on hold again and came back with a tracking number. (he had lied about the ship date, it took a week for them to ship it out from the time of order)
I later started to wonder what he was talking about? receiver exchange?
well today I got the 510 and inside was a ups return label and instructions on packing my old receiver and sending it back to dish.

dish is getting deceptive, or the csr's don't want to mention the receiver
exchange.

I've been thinking.........
i've got 3 choices :
1. ignore dish and see what happens
2. send back my 4900 receiver
3. send back my old 4000 receiver

I might try to send back my beat up 4000 receiver and see if they accept it.

did they ask you what receiver you were replacing?
 
They will take any receiver back. Though the likely assume you'll be sending back your junkiest unit. This benfits Dish as they get old equipment out of the field so that's one less beast they have to swap out down the road. If you don't want it anymore, feel free to send it back. Otherwise call them and tell them you are not sending it back. It would be better to resolve this now rather than after they hit your account with some charge you didn't expect.

My deal is then what happens when I decide to go to 4 units? I don't want to have to buy another receiver when I have one right now. Thus I'd rather hang onto it.

Their only option was either I add a receiver, or swap one out. I don't want to swap one out so what I'll do is activate the new one, and de-activate the one it is replacing. Thus sticking it on my shelf until I figure out what I want to do. To have only those options they are wasting the time of one of their installers as well as my time sitting around and waiting.

I think what I'm finding is that meeting customer expectations is very difficult with today's customer service oriented companies.
 
I better check mine to see if they put something in my 510 box for a receiver swapout. They told me that I did not have to swap the receiver out unless I was not adding it onto the account. I prepay my account one year in advance as well with checking account autopay.
 
When I first checked into the 510 promo back in Nov '03, one CSR told me that the promotion was no longer offered. After I went on Dish Network own website and found the same promo currently in effect, I called back and got a CSR who knew about the promo. I opted for the free receiver plan (2 yr commitment), receiver swap (replaced 7200), and paid for s/h plus the installer brought out the receiver and setup the new receiver and took the old one with him.

I must disclose for purpose of this comment that I was a former employee of Dish at its call center in VA. Not all CSRs that Dish hires and trains are as up to speed on things at Dish, especially when it comes to promos. Often, when some one calls about a promo, there had been so many changes to the program that it was often errors and mistakes made when talking about them. Dish had started some, changed the expiration date and/or details, and abruptly shut down promos when they can at their own discertion, so I understand why you can get different info from CSRs. The only thing that you can hope for is to reach someone like I did that is up to speed with most of the goings on at Dish and that they can setup you up correctly otherwise, in my opinion, if you are very unsure about the CSR that you are speaking to, try to have a supervisor or more experienced CSR assist you or call back later and hope a knowledgable CSR will be on the line.
 
CSR Roulette is game we know well here at SatelliteGuys. :)

The rule of thumb is if you get a CSR who acts like Sargent Shultz (ie knows nothing) say thank you, politely hang up and call back. Repeat until you get someone who knows what they are doing. :D
 
The 510 arrived on the 5pm side of the between 1pm and 5pm, but it's working. The installer was very good and smart as he wisely told his dispatcher not to bother having someone come help him from nearly the other side of the state since he was running a bit late.

Since I already had home run coax to all tv's and 4 runs from the Quad LNB, it was just a plug in and authorize job. The most time spent was downloading the receiver software and flashing the unit.

Some interesting tidbits. They currently only schedule the installers for no more than 3 installs per day. Much of this due to the extra work they are having to do for the 322 and 522's. Lots of fishing wires.

His first install today to longer than expected. A 322 and a 522 and wires running all over the place. He said it took about an extra hour due to the first 522 he tried was DOA.

He mentioned that even on single receiver installs he is now running dual coax to the receivers.
 
If you would have sold that 7200 instead of giving it to Dish during the swap you could have gotten at least $200-$300 out of it.
 
I wish I could have sold my 7200 that I swapped for the 510, but when I got the 7200 along with the dish, I got it free under the employee benefit when I was an employee with Dish. They would have known by tracking my receiver id# that the receiver was part of this program, so I figured I was not out too much except I am committed for the next two years for getting the 510 for free.
 
gredneck said:
I seem to have a similar situation.
I pay for a year of service up front and it was time to renew.
I heard about the $99 510 offer here so I decided to call.

I got the $99 deal, the csr told me free shipping, nothing about reciever exchange.

I paid for a year service plus the $99 dvr.

I called back a week later to see if it was shipped. the csr i got mentioned
something about a receiver exchange and I told him no. I just wanted the $99
special. he put me on hold and came back saying it was shipped the 15th I asked him for a tracking number he put me on hold again and came back with a tracking number. (he had lied about the ship date, it took a week for them to ship it out from the time of order)
I later started to wonder what he was talking about? receiver exchange?
well today I got the 510 and inside was a ups return label and instructions on packing my old receiver and sending it back to dish.

dish is getting deceptive, or the csr's don't want to mention the receiver
exchange.

I've been thinking.........
i've got 3 choices :
1. ignore dish and see what happens
2. send back my 4900 receiver
3. send back my old 4000 receiver

I might try to send back my beat up 4000 receiver and see if they accept it.

did they ask you what receiver you were replacing?
I've got another solution for you.
Take the 510 and box it up and send it back. Call you CC company and have them charge back the the money you paid dish because you are not getting what you paid for with the terms you agreed to. Then get another provider.
 
Mike_H said:
... Some interesting tidbits. They currently only schedule the installers for no more than 3 installs per day. Much of this due to the extra work they are having to do for the 322 and 522's. Lots of fishing wires.

His first install today to longer than expected. A 322 and a 522 and wires running all over the place. He said it took about an extra hour due to the first 522 he tried was DOA.

He mentioned that even on single receiver installs he is now running dual coax to the receivers.
Yeah - 3 installs is a long day. Just today it took 7 hours for 2 of us to do a pair of 322's. Before you say 'turkeys', it was a very difficult install. Ground mount, brick walls, etc.

Last week we had a 5 hour one for a 322 + 522 + 2 extra outlets. Customer thought 'home runs' were smart. Yeah, but only if they're dual RG-6 - his weren't and he didn't allow any outside cable runs. Had to use 2 rooms feeds just to run one receiver, and then diplex TV 2 back to 'home base'.

If Dish had designed the 322/522 so that both remotes were UHF, then single-feed home runs would work fine - just put the receivers at home base. But they didn't, so installers suffer! :mad:

EDIT: Just found this post: [thread=10554]Dish 522 /322 Remote Help[/thread] which provides solutions to the 322/522 remote issue.
 
awax said:
I've got another solution for you.
Take the 510 and box it up and send it back. Call you CC company and have them charge back the the money you paid dish because you are not getting what you paid for with the terms you agreed to. Then get another provider.

the only choice I have is d*/pegasus or Voom

Pegasus demands you have your receiver connected to the Tel Line (which I won't for certain resons)

Voom doesn't have enough kid contant yet.

plus $99 for a dvr wasn't so bad. I normally pay upfront for the year for my service anyhow, so in all actuality I just got a dvr for $99 no dvr fee.
 
SimpleSimon said:
If Dish had designed the 322/522 so that both remotes were UHF, then single-feed home runs would work fine - just put the receivers at home base. But they didn't, so installers suffer! :mad:

EDIT: Just found this post: [thread=10554]Dish 522 /322 Remote Help[/thread] which provides solutions to the 322/522 remote issue.


I forgot to mention that. The installer said dish was coming out with an upgrade kit to allow both remotes to be UHF. Doesn't solve the issue fully for home theater users that want their svideo and dolby digital, but certainly is helpful in certain situations.

I see the link is for that very kit.
 
Mike_H said:
I forgot to mention that. The installer said dish was coming out with an upgrade kit to allow both remotes to be UHF. Doesn't solve the issue fully for home theater users that want their svideo and dolby digital, but certainly is helpful in certain situations.

I see the link is for that very kit.
My context was for installations with home-run coax, although if you've got home-run S-Video & audio distribution or whatever, same thing.

Also, the Dish kit is only one solution. An X-10 / Radio Shack IR extender would work just as well - maybe better!
 
gredneck said:
the only choice I have is d*/pegasus or Voom

Pegasus demands you have your receiver connected to the Tel Line (which I won't for certain resons)

Voom doesn't have enough kid contant yet.

plus $99 for a dvr wasn't so bad. I normally pay upfront for the year for my service anyhow, so in all actuality I just got a dvr for $99 no dvr fee.
Ah forgot about the handicap know as Pegasus.
 
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