Cost to Upgrade - Are They Getting Ripped Off

[MagnumVP]

I'm writing this for my parents who are going through the upgrade process now and I think are getting raked over the coals for the cost.

Their old setup used Home Distribution with their 722 to get it to all the TV's they wanted to watch from.



They are upgrading to the Hopper with Joeys and they are currently being setup like this;



This gives them more than enough tuners (I think they can watch 5 at a time.. but I'm not sure). The Joey's will grab any tuner from any one of the two Hoppers available. It works pretty good.

However I was SHOCKED!!!! at what they paid to have someone (3rd party) come out and install everything. $1200 for everything installed and they are still LEASING the equipment. Should it have really cost that much?

Wouldn't of it been cheaper to cancel under my Mom's name then Register as "New" as my Dad and get the "New Subscriber" discount?

 

[garys]

That does sound like way too much. You should put your parents in touch with a DIRT member here or get them on a tech chat through their MyDish account online.

 

[sparc]

the two extra joeys are not covered in the basic 2H/4J lease limits so they would have to pay extra for those. Did they get the regular hopper or the hopper with sling. Sling version will cost more.

$1200 still seems like at least double (maybe triple) what they should have paid unless there was some crazy custom installation involved.

Is there an itemized list of all the charges?

 

[navychop]

Very suspicious.

 

[MagnumVP]

They are both Hopper with Sling.

 

[sparc]

is it all charges to their Dish account? If so, that can all be investigated by DIRT. At least you should be able to get a good explanation as to why you were charged that much.

Probably worth getting DIRT involved either way...

 

[MagnumVP]

It's not charged to their Dish Account. That is the amount they wrote the check for to the 3rd party installer.

There is also something that seems "off". When my parents call up Dish, they tell them that their bill is going to be $195 per month (My parents get every program possible). However, the install company tells them that with all the online subscriptions and rebates that it will be below $160 per month.

Is that possible?

 

[Dah-Henny]

$49 in receiver fees, plus $10 for the dvr fee, plus $115 programming fee? $174 plus tax?

 

[sparc]

It's not charged to their Dish Account. That is the amount they wrote the check for to the 3rd party installer.

There is also something that seems "off". When my parents call up Dish, they tell them that their bill is going to be $195 per month (My parents get every program possible). However, the install company tells them that with all the online subscriptions and rebates that it will be below $160 per month.

Is that possible?

every extra hopper or joey beyond the first one adds 7 per month to the bill in hardware costs. It could explain part of the jump in price. DIRT would be able to give you a better explanation specific to that account as to what changed. Get your parents to send them a private message...

 

[sparc]

On the bottom of the main forum page, you'll see the usernames in red with @DISH Network at the end. Those are official reps from Dish that are active on the forum right now. Just send them a private message with your account or phone number.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum.php (scroll down to the bottom)

 

[mfs54729]

Your parents had 5 TVs all sharing the same TV2 output from the 722. With their new Hopper/Joey setup each of those TVs have their own Joey so they each could be watching something different (depending on which Hopper they were paired with). If your parents don't need the individual control at each TV (they didn't before with the 722) they could mirror some of the Joeys to other TVs. To get an equivalent Hopper/Joey setup as their original 722/311 setup it would require 2 Hoppers and 2 Joeys. This would save them $28 a month.

Mark

 

[MagnumVP]

How do you "Mirror" the setup?

 

[Smwoodward]

I'm writing this for my parents who are going through the upgrade process now and I think are getting raked over the coals for the cost.

Their old setup used Home Distribution with their 722 to get it to all the TV's they wanted to watch from.

View attachment 86104

They are upgrading to the Hopper with Joeys and they are currently being setup like this;

View attachment 86106

This gives them more than enough tuners (I think they can watch 5 at a time.. but I'm not sure). The Joey's will grab any tuner from any one of the two Hoppers available. It works pretty good.

However I was SHOCKED!!!! at what they paid to have someone (3rd party) come out and install everything. $1200 for everything installed and they are still LEASING the equipment. Should it have really cost that much?

Wouldn't of it been cheaper to cancel under my Mom's name then Register as "New" as my Dad and get the "New Subscriber" discount?

What this sounds like is they paid $100 for each Joey and $300 for each hopper. If i'm not mistaken that how much you can buy them for. Since the check is already written I don't know what you could do. Dirt might be able to help.

 

[mfs54729]

How do you "Mirror" the setup?

Take the output of one of the Joeys (red/white/yellow) and feed it into an RF modulator. The output of the modulator will feed the 8 port amplifier and the amplifier will feed the remaining 4 TVs.

Mark

 

[MagnumVP]

If I output from Red/White/Yellow don't I lose the 1080p? Isn't R/W/Y only 480i?

 

[mfs54729]

If I output from Red/White/Yellow don't I lose the 1080p? Isn't R/W/Y only 480i?

Yes, you will lose HD, R/W/Y is standard def.

With your parents original setup only 2 of the TVs received high def. With the Joeys every TV receives high def. That is one advantage to their current setup.

Mark

 

[sparc]

If I output from Red/White/Yellow don't I lose the 1080p? Isn't R/W/Y only 480i?

Do some searching on mirroring and you'll find some other alternatives. here's an example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=hop...teguys.us+hopper+mirroring&fp=9b2ac09925d48a2

 

[KAB]

What this sounds like is they paid $100 for each Joey and $300 for each hopper. If i'm not mistaken that how much you can buy them for. Since the check is already written I don't know what you could do. Dirt might be able to help.

There is obviously some install $$, so can't really tell the per unit.

 

[dwarren2]

Big question. Is the new equipment purchased or leased? If purchased I can see the cost. If leased, no way. They should have gone through Dish rather than a 3rd party if they are leased.

 

[Smwoodward]

There is obviously some install $$, so can't really tell the per unit.

True, but if thy are not purchased boxes, then they must have fished every run through the walls and everything else.