Well, my previously well-behaved 522 (mostly) finally fell victim to the massive audio dropouts that many have complained about here. I've read here (in many threads) about how Dish tech support is nothing but worthless.
My experiences were different. No, they didn't fix my dropout problem, but they were anything but rude, stupid, uncaring, and all the other things I've heard reported. The firstline tech was very nice. When I got the feeling that I was going to be requested to soft-boot the thing, I came up with a preemptive strike and said "Please don't tell me to reboot this thing - that doesn't work." To which she replied, "No, it usually doesn't." She seemed genuinely interested when I mentioned this has gotten to be a problem only after the 2.x releases of the software. I asked what was the deal with this 2.01, 2.02, and 2.03 in rapid sequence, and she said the latest ones were to get that special Olympics stuff working right. She did some kind of search to see how many people may be complaining about audio dropouts. She said it didn't appear to be widespread, or at least people weren't complaining about it much. She then said she'd enter a case against it to make sure it was followed up. She then volunteered that she would move me on to the second line tech support to make sure THEY were aware of the problem and would follow up on it. I cannot say at all that I was angry with Dish's response thus far.
The second line tech, another very nice lady, was also very good. Again, the problem was not solved on this call, but I feel genuine efforts were made to address the problem. This tech again checked and said that reports of this problem were rare. MY RECOMMENDATION - CALL AND REPORT THE PROBLEM, LET'S NOT JUST SIT IN MISERY WITH EACH OTHER!
This second tech asked very reasonable things in my opinion to try to isolate the problem. Does it happen on both TV outputs? With recorded shows? With live shows? With an almost-live show spooled back a few minutes? She mentioned that dropouts are often times due to signal problems. Check my antenna feeds for tightness. Try switching antenna feeds on the back of the 522, etc. She said to check signal strength. She mentioned that most customers are in the 90's on signal strength, but 80's are fine. The problem with the 80's she said, is if it degrades for some reason and you fall into the 70's, then that's where all kinds of problems really start occurring. Targetting 80's (at least) on install gives customers a reasonable buffer to start with.
All of what I encountered appeared to be very truthful and sincere. The second tech said that this doesn't sound like a problem with my individual 522, other than the possibility that signal strength could be at the root of my problem. She did not dwell on this possibility, but went on to say that they are very sensitive new issues that come up with software upgrades. The more they hear of problems occurring, the harder the engineers will work to try to duplicate a specific complaint. I did point her to this forum as a source of info (with the caviot that they may have to work through a few rants before getting to good info).
I do not know if Dish will actually follow up on my complaint. I expect more than one follow up post here to call me an idiot for even hoping so. But I was NOT blown off or treated rudely on the phone by Dish. Far from it. I was friendly on the phone and tried not to appear as an idiot by going off on mindless rants about every little problem I've ever encountered. This may or may not have been a factor in how I was treated. Maybe the evening shift techs are just better than the daytime ones!
My experiences were different. No, they didn't fix my dropout problem, but they were anything but rude, stupid, uncaring, and all the other things I've heard reported. The firstline tech was very nice. When I got the feeling that I was going to be requested to soft-boot the thing, I came up with a preemptive strike and said "Please don't tell me to reboot this thing - that doesn't work." To which she replied, "No, it usually doesn't." She seemed genuinely interested when I mentioned this has gotten to be a problem only after the 2.x releases of the software. I asked what was the deal with this 2.01, 2.02, and 2.03 in rapid sequence, and she said the latest ones were to get that special Olympics stuff working right. She did some kind of search to see how many people may be complaining about audio dropouts. She said it didn't appear to be widespread, or at least people weren't complaining about it much. She then said she'd enter a case against it to make sure it was followed up. She then volunteered that she would move me on to the second line tech support to make sure THEY were aware of the problem and would follow up on it. I cannot say at all that I was angry with Dish's response thus far.
The second line tech, another very nice lady, was also very good. Again, the problem was not solved on this call, but I feel genuine efforts were made to address the problem. This tech again checked and said that reports of this problem were rare. MY RECOMMENDATION - CALL AND REPORT THE PROBLEM, LET'S NOT JUST SIT IN MISERY WITH EACH OTHER!
This second tech asked very reasonable things in my opinion to try to isolate the problem. Does it happen on both TV outputs? With recorded shows? With live shows? With an almost-live show spooled back a few minutes? She mentioned that dropouts are often times due to signal problems. Check my antenna feeds for tightness. Try switching antenna feeds on the back of the 522, etc. She said to check signal strength. She mentioned that most customers are in the 90's on signal strength, but 80's are fine. The problem with the 80's she said, is if it degrades for some reason and you fall into the 70's, then that's where all kinds of problems really start occurring. Targetting 80's (at least) on install gives customers a reasonable buffer to start with.
All of what I encountered appeared to be very truthful and sincere. The second tech said that this doesn't sound like a problem with my individual 522, other than the possibility that signal strength could be at the root of my problem. She did not dwell on this possibility, but went on to say that they are very sensitive new issues that come up with software upgrades. The more they hear of problems occurring, the harder the engineers will work to try to duplicate a specific complaint. I did point her to this forum as a source of info (with the caviot that they may have to work through a few rants before getting to good info).
I do not know if Dish will actually follow up on my complaint. I expect more than one follow up post here to call me an idiot for even hoping so. But I was NOT blown off or treated rudely on the phone by Dish. Far from it. I was friendly on the phone and tried not to appear as an idiot by going off on mindless rants about every little problem I've ever encountered. This may or may not have been a factor in how I was treated. Maybe the evening shift techs are just better than the daytime ones!
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