Advice on system issues; OR How to make the most of my tech visit!?

[toddjb]

Ugh, after a 65 minute very frustrating call to Dish last night I got them to come out and fix an install that has been troublesome since it was put in place over 60 days ago. They wanted me to pay $99 for the visit or sign up for their service plan to pay for an install that was never completed correctly. I'll spare you phone details but I had to go through 4 operators before getting a good answer.

So, to make the most out of my service visit today, do you have any theories on what could be causing the following problems;

One 508 - no signal at all. Worked for a couple weeks now it can't acquire any satellites.
One 722 - frequent drop outs "part of this recording/program has been lost" It only loses seconds of programming but this comes up every other day.
Second 722 - frequent loss of synchronization between audio and video.

Two dishes are up on the roof, they claim the 2nd was needed due to the 508. They seem to have a clear line of site to the right part of the sky. No obvious obstructions.

Be curious to hear any advice that might make my long fought for service visit worthwhile.

Thanks!

-todd

 

[harshness]

First off, make sure there is entirely unobstructed access to everything. If the tech has to move mountains to get to where they need to be, it is going to go slowly and patience will fade quickly.

Secondly, let the technician work. Don't pepper them with expectations, examples and unrelated observations/theories/opinions. At the same time, be ready to offer direct and concise answers to questions about the symptoms you've observed.

Finally, if you're not satisfied with the results, DO NOT sign documents indicating that you are.


I would suggest making notes of what you're expectations are and reviewing the work order up front to see if everything is on the order. If you don't agree, don't take it out on the technician as they didn't write the order.

 

[toddjb]

Thanks.

This should be interesting as one receiver is an obvious problem that they can observe, and the other two are intermittent. I'm hoping signal level shows something. One of my 722s was in the low 70s last night with a clear sky. Not sure if that is normal or not....

 

[AgentOrangeSkies]

Thanks.

This should be interesting as one receiver is an obvious problem that they can observe, and the other two are intermittent. I'm hoping signal level shows something. One of my 722s was in the low 70s last night with a clear sky. Not sure if that is normal or not....

You need 18 to watch Dish. 50 to have great signal. 60+ = rare issues during storms. I'm not sure what your gripe is with signal strength, if that's your concern. Ignore the 125

 

[toddjb]

You need 18 to watch Dish. 50 to have great signal. 60+ = rare issues during storms. I'm not sure what your gripe is with signal strength, if that's your concern. Ignore the 125

no gripe with signal strength. have a gripe with my service problems and was just asking if this was related. apparently not.

they came out and said the switch on my roof is bad. apparently they put a refurbed unit on there and actually had trouble with it during initial installation. didn't even make it into the house. want to get a new switch, put it on, and then see how things are.

 

[toddjb]

Final re-cap. They came out to replace the switch (put a new one on the roof!) and found out that the switch wasn't the issue. But, I got a new switch out of the arrangement so that was nice. He debugged the system for a while and found that the system failure causing all the problems was a bad diplexer on the side of the house. He replaced that and everything now works.

That is something I could have hit myself, but I'd much rather have the techs troubleshoot and get it right.


I seem to have good luck with the techs that serve my area (ATV) but dealing with Dish Network to get them out here is an absolutely painful experience. As I watched my refreshed television service last night the first commercial that came up was Charlie selling everyone on Dish Network as having the best customer support out there. How the hell he arrives at those metrics is beyond me. Dish Customer Service sucks! The next issue that pops up with them will send me to DirectTV. They have long ago used up all their free passes from me. They are just awful...

 

[mstregamer]

Wow....I sure hope my experience is going to be resolved...I have the exact same problem after my install...have to pay for them to come out just to see t.v. again....cant watch a thing right now tech is scheduled to come out tommorrow and it is supposed to thunderstorm here in wisconsin, it was glithchy from the get go after upgrading from 119/110 to 72/61.5/77. this sucks....been with dish since 96 never had any problems before...oh well I still like my HD.

 

[Jimmerinwi]

Wow....I sure hope my experience is going to be resolved...I have the exact same problem after my install...have to pay for them to come out just to see t.v. again....cant watch a thing right now tech is scheduled to come out tommorrow and it is supposed to thunderstorm here in wisconsin, it was glithchy from the get go after upgrading from 119/110 to 72/61.5/77. this sucks....been with dish since 96 never had any problems before...oh well I still like my HD.

Make sure your signal levels are where they should be. Eastern Arc dishes are very touchy as far as getting them tuned properly. I really prefer Western Arc for 110 119 129 but HD locals here are on 61.5. Which is why I have the 1000.2 and a 61.5 wing dish. Never want to get onto EA, its levels suck and I know EA gets more rain fade than WA.