Dish Network Advanced Technical Support....Total Failure

[Wix]

ALoha,

It's 11.22 pm here in Hawaii and as I look down at my IPhone I see I have been on hold by Dish's Advanced Technical Support for 1 hour and 31 minutes. Incredible!

Called Dish with a problem with error code 743 showing up on several Starz HD Channels, the rep was polite, but more politely, incompetent. Her name was Denise. Denise passed me on to Alex (female) who was her supervisor and she was even more problematic. She told me the Federal Government or the State of Hawaii had determined that these HD channels should be blocked from viewing in my area. So Starz HD, Starz west HD etc. can't be viewed, but that I could watch the Standard def versions. I asked to pass on up the ladder to Advanced Technical Support and low and behold I got to speak with a true brain trust in the person of Bill. Bill is foreign but he could Hablo engrish purty gud, but he couldn't think in engrish too well. He also told me that the Federal Government or the State of Hawaii had determined that these channels could not be viewed in my area. He put me on hold several times, each time returning as if he had some great revelation but all he had was the same story. About now I realized that Dish Advanced Technical Support isn't really that advanced.

Now here's the problem...

While watching a channel, pull up the guide, select Starz West from the menu.
The receiver makes no effort to retune but immediately flashes an error message 743 This program is not available for viewing in your area. Select "OK" to go back, or select "HELP" for more information.

Let me check...I am at 1 hour 45 minutes on hold. Do you think that this hold thing is in their book of Advanced Technical Solutions?

WIX

 

[primestar31]

Well, I'm sure others will chime in eventually, (it's 4:56am here in Michigan) but I can offer you this thread I just found that might give you a little more info in some of the posts:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/295027-Dish-Hopper-Hawaii-Major-Problems?highlight=hawaii

Oh, even though the thread talks about the Hopper system, it might not be just that receiver with issues on some of the HD transponders for Hawaai and Alaska.

 

[TheKrell]

Bizarre. I'm having trouble thinking up any reason why the Federal Government, or the State of Hawaii, would try to block you from seeing these channels. Did you ask them to send you a "hit" to reauthorize your receiver(s)?

 

[Wix]

The problem is on all receivers at the house here. One (1) 722 and two (2) 211's. I did a force software download on all receivers. I had the rep send hits to all the receivers and no change. What is surprising is that there is no technical knowledge available on the Dish Network Storefront to the public. When you call you get a person who actually knows nothing about how any of it works. No ready answers, just pauses and holds while they check their reference guide. The supervisor actually asked me if I was sure all the connectors were connected. She stated that perhaps some of signal was leaking out of a loose connector. I asked her do you really think everything else is fine but only Starz HD is leaking out of the connectors?

I am not sure we are going to make it as a race. We build our empires and then outsource our tech support to countries where water buffalo crap is still a viable fuel for cooking.

WT@ is Dish Network doing? They have a product and a market why put it at risk....only one answer GREED.

WIX

 

[The Fat Man]

This one has me scratching my head. All I can think of is this: For subscribers of other TV providers in Hawaii, what feed of Starz do they receive? If they receive a delay for your time zone that could be why the Eastern and Pacific time feeds are blocked. But I'm still baffled why the SD channels are viewable then. My suggestion, as I am five hours ahead of you here in New England, check into all other providers. If it is just limited to Dish, then Lucy has some explaining to do.

 

[Juan]

pm a DIRT member

 

[mike123abc]

If I had to guess, it sounds like your account is not in the correct location so it will not show the HI spot beam channels.

 

[Hall]

The supervisor actually asked me if I was sure all the connectors were connected. She stated that perhaps some of signal was leaking out of a loose connector.

I love that one !!

 

[Hall]

Here's the specifics for Starz (West) HD for Hawaii:

351 | STRZW (351) | Starz (West) | MPEG4 HD | 119°W | 01 | 8PSK (2/3) | Spotbeam A27

Since Dish puts the channel on a spotbeam specifically for Hawaii, it's odd that there's a legal reason it's not available there.

 

[mike123abc]

Here's the specifics for Starz (West) HD for Hawaii:

351 | STRZW (351) | Starz (West) | MPEG4 HD | 119°W | 01 | 8PSK (2/3) | Spotbeam A27

Since Dish puts the channel on a spotbeam specifically for Hawaii, it's odd that there's a legal reason it's not available there.

Which makes me think that the Dish computer thinks their service address is not in HI, but on the mainland.

 

[Yespage]

Which makes me think that the Dish computer thinks their service address is not in HI, but on the mainland.

Wouldn't that affect locals as well?

 

[mike123abc]

Wouldn't that affect locals as well?

It should, but op never mentioned if they were a "mover" or not.

 

[redsalmon]

We have the same problem in AK with Starz. There was a thread on this a few weeks ago. The channels show as non-available in the 300 range but in the 9000 series they are there. Why this occurs only Dish knows but they aren't telling. Look in the 9000 series channels and see if you can find them there. That's the only way we receive them here in Ak.

 

[lucky86]

Are the channels sometimes missing in the map down range or are you always seeing a 743 message? If the channels are appearing in the map down range and the upper range but sometimes missing from the mapdown range then I would try the following steps. These are for a Hopper but I believe they should work the same for VIP models. I know this fixed an issue with someone who had channels intermittently disappearing from the map down range.

1. Try re-running a checkswitch test with the "Alternate" turned "ON" before running the checkswitch test.

2. After running the checkswitch test, users in AK/HI should see yellow check marks next to the 129 satellite. If the checkmarks are NOT yellow then the software does not perform the removal of the 129 conus channels. the reason for this is could be either that "Alternate" was not enabled or you may be seeing good signal on 129 conus transponders (using a larger dish)

3. Once you have succesfully completed step 2, the receiver box will start removing the 129 conus channels AFTER the next nightly update.

This is going to be changing this in the future software releases so that they remove immediately.
Remember that after doing these steps, you need to wait until the next day after the nightly update to verify that it worked.

 

[Hall]

Damn, that's an impressive answer !! It's AMAZING what regular Dish customers know about these systems !

 

[3HaloODST]

Damn, that's an impressive answer !! It's AMAZING what regular Dish customers know about these systems !

Lucky86 isn't your average Dish customer .

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

 

[TheKrell]

Lucky86 isn't your average Dish customer

Hall hasn't found the emoticon for "tongue in cheek".

 

[Hall]

Hall hasn't found the emoticon for "tongue in cheek".

I would have thought my comment was 'tongue in cheek' enough !

 

[3HaloODST]

I was pretty much the first to drag it out .

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

 

[Wix]

Did as you suggested Lucky86. There are additional listings for Starz HD channels in the 5500 and 9000 range but respond with the same error when selected. Ran the Check switch with alternate checked and 110 and 119 checked green while 129 checked yellow. My 129 dish is a 1.2 meter.

Thanks for the advice, but still blacked out. I will probably ponder a move to Direct TV. Not sure if that is any better I am not real pleased just now with Dish.

WIX