Dish Network Smart Card Swap Delayed

OK, I don't get it.

I have a 625. I did nothing....didn't call them, didn't Email them, didn't chat with them......and I got my card in the mail yesterday. They sent instructions on how to install it. Now granted that I can't order porn channels until I put the card in but everything else is working and will continue to work after I put the card in.

I think this is a board for the Over Reactors Club of America sometimes. :rolleyes:
 
OK, I don't get it.

I have a 625. I did nothing....didn't call them, didn't Email them, didn't chat with them......and I got my card in the mail yesterday. They sent instructions on how to install it. Now granted that I can't order porn channels until I put the card in but everything else is working and will continue to work after I put the card in.

I think this is a board for the Over Reactors Club of America sometimes. :rolleyes:

It may only be porn and international channels you need the card for today, but it could be all premium channels and/or HD any day now. So I would be worried as well if my cards had not shown up or are working at this point.
 
HARSHNESS SAID
Not to excuse the rest, but you've known for how long that your ViP622 was going to have to be replaced?

Transferring 30 hours should take less than a day and it should not interfere with the ongoing use of the DVR. I can't really say I feel like you're in real trouble.
You ask how long have I known they want to replace my 622. What, about a week or so, when the Warning Popup first started showing.

Yes, it would be nice to transfer what's on my 622 in less than a day, BUT it's going to take almost 5 times as long. Transferring 1 HOUR of HD = Transferring about 5 Hours of SD. This is just for the programs I want to watch and then erase. I've still got a lot of other recordings of things I want to save to watch more than once.

LT DISHER SAID
Moving to Directv will also result in losing your EHD recordings since they won't play on anything but a DISH player.
That is true, but at least I'll get something back from Direct TV that I want but can't get from DISH...............THE NFL AND MLB packages. I know computers and hard drives fail but if Dish had not done all this security stuff, my hard drive works fine. It didn't fail, DISH changed things that now keep it from working.

Stopping the changes, stops the problem. That's simple, isn't it.
 
Yes, it would be nice to transfer what's on my 622 in less than a day, BUT it's going to take almost 5 times as long. Transferring 1 HOUR of HD = Transferring about 5 Hours of SD.
My experience is decidedly different from yours. My estimate was based on HD content. I recently transfered about 13 hours of James Bond movies (from a recent Encore marathon) starting after 10pm and it was done and the EHD was asleep by 7:15 the next morning.
 
harshness. I'll try transferring some HD content and see how long it takes. I think I heard somewhere the size of the EHD may have something to do with how fast it can receive transfers. The bigger the drive, the slower it is. Mine is 750 megs. Also I would think how compressed the programing is would affect how fast to transfer it.

Do you know for sure yet if you can play stuff you transferred to your EHD on your new receiver, which I'm guessing is a different model. Also, not as important, but can you move programs from your EHD to your new receiver, if it's something you want to save back on the receiver. It is kinda hard to understand why it's easy to transfer programs to and from an EHD, but we can't transfer from one receiver to another receiver. Thanks for the info.
 
harshness. I'll try transferring some HD content and see how long it takes. I think I heard somewhere the size of the EHD may have something to do with how fast it can receive transfers. The bigger the drive, the slower it is. Mine is 750 megs. Also I would think how compressed the programing is would affect how fast to transfer it.

Speed usually doesn't differ say between a 500 gig to a 750. Nothing you would really notice with a 722. Some say the larger hard drives are faster.

It doesn't matter how compressed a program is, its still a bunch of 1's and 0's. A 4 gig MPEG2 file should transfer the same as a 4 gig MPEG4 stream. I can't see the receiver taking longer to encrypt the file due to the compression.
 
Also I would think how compressed the programing is would affect how fast to transfer it.
Obviously compression plays into it. The movies I transferred were MPEG4. Either way, it shouldn't be a matter of days versus hours. I have both a 750GB FAP and a 750GB MyBook 4 and the speeds are comparable. Because the files are relatively large and the number relatively small, I can't imagine that the number of files comes into play.
Do you know for sure yet if you can play stuff you transferred to your EHD on your new receiver, which I'm guessing is a different model. Also, not as important, but can you move programs from your EHD to your new receiver, if it's something you want to save back on the receiver. It is kinda hard to understand why it's easy to transfer programs to and from an EHD, but we can't transfer from one receiver to another receiver.
It isn't hard to understand at all, but it isn't the case so you don't have to wrap your head around it. You can play the movies either direct from the EHD or you can transfer them back (I cannot recommend this approach) using any ViP DVR associated with your account. That's the beauty of the DISH method of handling external drives.
 
After approximately 10 calls to try and rectify my black screen on my international channels, I was told for the third time today that shipping of "G3" smart cards has been "postponed" until an unknown date.

Two CSRs and and 2nd level tech said I am basically SOL and that I am not targeted to receive new cards before July. They cannot turn the black channels back on. I have to wait for the cards.

BUT, all orders for "Purple cards" have beed delayed. They do not know when they can ship them.

So I guess the card swap has run into a snag. Perhaps they have run out of cards?

I threatened to cancel and they were happy to accomodate me even though I pay over $150 a month autopay on credit card for six years.
To put this thread back on track.

Yesterday I got 2 of 3 needed purple cards, today I tried to activate them and failed. Reason is they shipped me 3 more purple cards (the correct number needed) so I will have 5 cards for 3 receivers, 2 of which can't be activated. That dosen't sound like a shortage to me.
 
Something just happened that illustrates my above posts perfectly.

I administer a commercial account with a shipload of receivers installed in meeting rooms, executive offices, and public spaces at a high tech company. A few weeks ago, I start getting a popup message on one of the receivers that my smartcard is about to expire. So, I call to inquire.

They tell me that they mailed out a set of new smartcards for all of the receivers to our billing address a few weeks before, and I should have certainly received them by now. I check with the staffers at our billing address, who have received no cards, and let the CSR know that not only did they not receive the cards at the billing address, I need them at the SERVICE address, which is where the receivers are. Duh!

They tell me they are sending a new set to the service address, and I should receive them in a few days. Sure enough, a few days later, I receive an envelope full of G3 cards, which I proceed to install in all of the receivers, which are installed in ceilings and behind panels, and are generally a huge pain in the butt to access. A few of the receivers didn't accept the new cards until after a SW update. But, all eventually did. Success. Or so I thought.

Today, I see in my mailbox at work a SECOND set of G3 cards. It turns out that THIS set is the one the CSR said they would send to my service address, and the ones I broke my ass installing were the original set they said they mailed to the billing address which are going to be deactivated! IOW, if I want my service to continue on all the receivers, I have to climb into the ceilings of the CEO, and Chairman, various VP's AGAIN.

WTF is wrong with these idiots? They aren't just incompetent, they are Sofa King incompetent.
 
I don't get why they dont just keep the other one's activated instead of making you swap them again! Sounds pretty crazy to me.
 
@GaryPen.

I'm sorry that you have to go through all of that work again.

I'm not sure it is the fault of DISH. The first envelope was addressed to the bill to address, which is where I understand the smart cards are sent by default. This makes sense in 99% of cases because service addresses may not be deliverable by the post office. So the cards sat around your home office for a period of time. Perhaps some blame falls there.

I don't fault you for not knowing that if a second set of cards is issued the first set becomes inoperable. The CSR should have told you that if the first set arrives, you should discard them, but I don't think this is a terrible error on DISH's part. We don't know for a fact that they did not. I understand it is causing you a lot of work and you like to dump on DISH, but I'm not sure they deserve it.
 
In my case it was when I tried to activate my new purple cards that I was told they were being replaced with another set. They also should have known Garys cards weren't going to be any good.
 
Finally got 2 more smartcards. Now all my receivers have them. Of course they cannot be activated online, I had to call. 45 minutes later both activated. A long hassel really caused by Dish computer problems. The computer/billing system/security system/whatever never seemed to think my receivers needed smart cards, so they never sent them out. When I got the popups they sent 1, not 3. Then they had to do 2 separate orders for the 2 cards since they could not get the system to do it, so they did it manually. The cards arrived but they were not assigned to receivers, so they had to manually activate each one.
 
Update:

I am getting more messages that I will lose more programming April 16. I managed to get Dish to send me a new card UPS (not here yet). They would only send one. I need four. They asked me to pick one receiver and that is the only one they will send it for.

Again, they told me I am not targeted to receive new cards yet. They said shipping of new cards has been delayed and they could not tell me when I could expect the other three I need.

If I lose anymore channels before I get the rest of the cards I am canceling. I am fed up.
 
I'm not sure it is the fault of DISH. The first envelope was addressed to the bill to address, which is where I understand the smart cards are sent by default. This makes sense in 99% of cases because service addresses may not be deliverable by the post office. So the cards sat around your home office for a period of time. Perhaps some blame falls there.
Wrong. They actually did send them to the service address. They only said they sent them to the billing address. (I thought that was clear in my post.)

I don't fault you for not knowing that if a second set of cards is issued the first set becomes inoperable. The CSR should have told you that if the first set arrives, you should discard them, but I don't think this is a terrible error on DISH's part. We don't know for a fact that they did not.
I know for a fact they did not. But, that is a moot point, as I thought the cards I installed were the second set, as they said they sent the first set to the billing address.

I understand it is causing you a lot of work and you like to dump on DISH, but I'm not sure they deserve it.
They certainly do deserve it. They are idiots. Maybe idiots is too strong a word. Grossly incompetent is more accurate.

I don't like to dump on Dish in particular. I simply have no patience for BS. And, Dish just happens to be a very productive bull.
 
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)