622 UPGRADE Experince

[gutter]

I called about 10:30 EST to upgrade my 942 (lease) to a 622 (lease). I called the special number that Scott posted a few days ago for forum members. It worked well and they were knowledgeable. I could tell the CSR was a bit nervous as he literally fumbled thru the screens he had to read. The process took about 10 minutes with all the required warnings and re-warnings of what was going to happen to your bill and the $200 credit. Still don't understand how my 120 previous package with HD and VOOM went from $69 to $86 with the new system and a silver package.

After it was all done, I commented that I know that this was new for him this morning. I was surprised to learn that I was his first upgrade call. I thought from reading some the posts that many were ready at 7:59:30AM to dial that final number to begin the process. But I know understand why he was having problems with the reading the screens since I was his first.

My install date is exactly 3 weeks from today...so Scott's information (as usual) is dead on. However, he told me that the tech would bring the unit and that it would not be directly shipped to me. I told him that was different than what was widely happening currently. He said that was in his script. Perhaps they are changing some of the procedures. Anyway that is how it went. Still trying to figure out where all that $16 more dollars per month comes from. I expected a slight increase but not that much.

 

[Dirtydan]

I too had a CSR who was doing her first rebate upgrade, I called at 4:59am pst, waited til 5:25am for her to get to me, one thing she tried to tell me was that the rebate would start after my 921 was returned and that the rebate would be doled out at the rate of $20 a month, I told her that I thought that was wrong, later she stated that it would be the whole $200 at once or until it was used up making my monthly payments, she stated when I asked her where she came up with that $20 figure she said that that was the way it had been on other rebates and she just assumed that was how it was on the 622 until her screen told her elsewise. The whole thing took til about 5:50 or 5:55

 

[long_time_DNC]

I called this afternoon and the gal I talked with was very knowledgeable, answered all my questions, set up an install date, etc. A very painless experience, really. I was quite pleased with how it went.

Thanks for the number, Scott!

 

[datwell]

Yes, my experience was good too. I was told my bill would go up by $6 (?) but not a deal-killer. I got the company story about 1) I could not upgrade my 811 to a 211 at this time and 2) the installer had to install and call to activate the 622 (I could not - hopefully, we can work around that one somehow).

--Doug

 

[Sharper]

After reading that some people were getting the upgrade deal early, I called about 4:30am ET (I was already awake, about to go to sleep), but they said the system hadn't been updated yet, as expected.

So, second call at the "right" time, 7:55am ET (figuring by the time I got off hold, It'd be well past 8am). Started talking to someone at about 8:10am ET. Went through all the expected stuff, they charged my card and tried to schedule me for 4/11. I say tried, because it wouldn't let them finish the promotion because I already have 4 orbital locations (61.5, 110, 119, 148). Of course we discussed that I didn't need a D1000 and would just repoint 148 at 129, but their system still wouldn't let them continue with the upgrade.

So at that point, I had a $299 CC charge, but no install scheduled. The guy's supervisor worked on it for a while, then eventually came back that he was going to have their tech support look at it and I'd have to call back 5 hours later to try again. The CSR was good about making notes on everything and the charge already being made, etc...

Went back to sleep, then called back 4 hours later and within 30 seconds got a good CSR that actually read the notes on my account without me telling him to. You could tell the CSRs for the special upgrade phone number were essentially the HD tech support guys we've all learned to try and get through the regular number, since they were american and were competent and knowledgable about HD receivers and such.

The second CSR ran into the same system problem as the last one and called his supervisor (different one than before) over to work on it. It took the supervisor 15 minutes to fix the problem. I got the impression that the way he finally fixed it was to not use their promotions program to do the upgrade, but insert all the account codes it should've created manually onto my account record directly.

Due to the 4 hour delay, my install got bumped to 4/12, but I wasn't going to complain about one extra day. At least in my area (rocky mountains/LV), it appears based on the numbers that they have plenty of 622s to go around. It appeared that the install date was mostly predicated on the 7-10 days it was suppsosed to take to ship the 622 to me directly.

My online account activity does show the $299 payment, with no "charge" yet, leaving my balance at -$208 currently. It'll be interesting to see when they actually charge my account for the 622.

 

[chastulsa]

piece of cake, They told me the promo over and over again, but at least each time the repeated themselves it was the same info! (LOL!)

My install date is 4-11 (next Tuesday) and they are shipping me the 622 (for my 942) Plus I was told my corp they will refund my $59 for buying the D1000 a couple of months ago.

I will be looking forward to posting my nightmare install/credit back on the bill!