Had my dish moved, then the tech hauls in a Polk soundbar.

And let's not forget the Radio Shack Battery of the month club!

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even though the only ones I had seen were:
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You could hear the cheers from stores across the country the day the company announced the death of the battery card.While a good idea for getting a customer into the store at a very low cost eventually too many customer tried to abuse the system coming in with a fistful of cards-"these all belong to my family" and "I want all the months I missed".Plus the company wanted to discontinue that quality(very cheap) of battery.IMO the gold alkalines(made for us by Eveready)were an excellent battery.
 
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Hint. Remote with macros.Too bad Logitech went out of the remote game. My Ultimate is pretty slick.
CEC, as cool as it seems is klunky and nobody has had the smarts to make it customizable.
Alexa's "skills" are limited to a few tasks. I've written "cheat sheets" and walked clients through how to operate the string of crap they buy step by step by step. Overall they "get it".
My dad? Couldn't grasp the concept of source switching to watch DVD's he bought. Dammit I miss that guy. R.I.P.
Crestron is another option I guess. Subbed to the user group for years. Remotes are cheap on the 'bay but software, and the learning curve is a trip. An arm and a liver.
Speaking of liver. What goes better with things that begin with Mc than a nice cold Guiness?
brag brag...i got 2 turntables and a microphone. and cornwalls and belles and bla bla bla. love the smell of tubes in the morning btw. lol!!
Even the mail girl bops her head occasionally when she drive by to deliver correspondence from my best friend Bill.
Bill Collector...*&@!
Hint won't work as I forgot to mention, I live with my 94 year old mom who is illiterate in english or any language for that matter. Didn't know Logitech was out of the remote business as I still have a few Harmony remotes still in the box sealed here. LOL... Atleast they didn't send the Samoan Billings to collect the bills.
 
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You could hear the cheers from stores across the country the day the company announced the death of the battery card.While a good idea for getting a customer into the store at a very low cost eventually too many customer tried to abuse the system coming in with a fistful of cards-"these all belong to my family" and "I want all the months I missed".Plus the company wanted to discontinue that quality(very cheap) of battery.IMO the gold alkalines(made for us by Eveready)were an excellent battery.
When did the death of the battery card take place? I only had one with a friend when I was still in middle school at around 13 years old in 1986-1987. I am curious who made the AA Rechargeable 2500mAH Ni-Mh batteries, they were junk as I and many ther bought them and they all leaked and even if they didn't, they didn't even have half the advertised capacity in them.
 
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When did the death of the battery card take place? I only had one with a friend when I was still in middle school at around 13 years old in 1986-1987. I am curious who made the AA Rechargeable 2500mAH Ni-Mh batteries, they were junk as I and many ther bought them and they all leaked and even if they didn't, they didn't even have half the advertised capacity in them.
The battery card went away in the early 90's.
I don't know who made the batteries you had an issue with.I'm sure the company had many different battery vendors through the years.I don't remember any rechargeables being a particular issue(believe me I can remember some troublesome products) .
The company didn't go out of it's way to tell us who made what.At one point they did own a factory in China and some products like actual radios were made there.Sometimes it was just common knowledge,sometimes the buyer would let it slip and sometimes you could just figure it out.
One time we were told our new metal cassette tape was going to be made by a company whose name began with an "M". I immediately thought of Maxell who was regarded (along with TDK) of being the elite of tape. Turned out to be Memorex-I was crushed.Ironically it turned out to be a good tape.
 
Ambush sales guy?? Really??
"Ever think about better sound out of your TV"? is an ambush??
Get real.

As for the rest of your post, tell us that you don't know what you're talking about without telling us you don't know what you're talking about....

Yes, I’m not expecting a sales job from a tech, so that’s an ambush to me. A cheesy one too.

I don’t need a tech to tell me about sound bars or anything else anyway. Why would I buy whatever he has rattling around in his truck. Anyone with some sense would do some research and figure out what product and model they would like, not just buy something on a whim that is suggested by a guy with no other motivation than trying to make an extra dollar and please his manager. That’s a dumb decision.

From a consumer perspective, Dish does seem poorly run. Customer is bad, and the hack reflects poorly on them and their processes. Anyone can get hacked, but they obviously had put zero thought into the possibility.

Customer service is bad everywhere though. I deal with many companies like Cisco, Dell, Microsoft, Google, Verizon AT&T, and they are all terrible. Everyone tries to fend you off with useless bots, and if you can get a human they are barely trained to do anything other than follow scripts. Things were already deteriorating, but it seems like Covid made things worse.
 
With that attitude I hope you never need a tech out. Like stated a simple no thank you is fine. But shooing them out and getting mad is the wrong way to react and will make no tech ever want to help you. And every time your name poos up it will get rejected lol.
I didn’t know a tech showing up was optional, especially when you pay for the service plan. Doesn’t surprise me though given some of the other practices going on. I’m just hanging on to service for my mother as she is familiar with it and knows where all the channels are, and dish is the only carrier for some of what she watches. Hopefully the service will continue to work until I can ditch it.
 
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Yes, I’m not expecting a sales job from a tech, so that’s an ambush to me. A cheesy one too.

I don’t need a tech to tell me about sound bars or anything else anyway. Why would I buy whatever he has rattling around in his truck. Anyone with some sense would do some research and figure out what product and model they would like, not just buy something on a whim that is suggested by a guy with no other motivation than trying to make an extra dollar and please his manager. That’s a dumb decision.

From a consumer perspective, Dish does seem poorly run. Customer is bad, and the hack reflects poorly on them and their processes. Anyone can get hacked, but they obviously had put zero thought into the possibility.

Customer service is bad everywhere though. I deal with many companies like Cisco, Dell, Microsoft, Google, Verizon AT&T, and they are all terrible. Everyone tries to fend you off with useless bots, and if you can get a human they are barely trained to do anything other than follow scripts. Things were already deteriorating, but it seems like Covid made things worse.
Let me guess, you get incensed when the cashier at McDonalds, or any store of that kind, asks "would you like fries with that?" It's really simple to say no thank you. It's like the Witnesses ringing my doorbell. I open it and before they get a word out of their mouth I tell them I'm not interested, thank you. I usually get a smile as they turn and wish me a good day. Now, I get some of these door to door solar sales folks that won't take that not interested, thank you at my word that gets a door slammed in their face. :)
 
Seems to me his job should be installing equipment, not selling it.
I 100% agree. And there's nothing wrong with offering extras, as long as they're not agressive about it. But, when the higher ups get a new idea...LOL
Customer service is bad everywhere though. I deal with many companies like Cisco, Dell, Microsoft, Google, Verizon AT&T, and they are all terrible. Everyone tries to fend you off with useless bots, and if you can get a human they are barely trained to do anything other than follow scripts. Things were already deteriorating, but it seems like Covid made things worse.
And yet they won the JD power award for customer service for what...5 years in a row?
 
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I 100% agree. And there's nothing wrong with offering extras, as long as they're not agressive about it. But, when the higher ups get a new idea...LOL

And yet they won the JD power award for customer service for what...5 years in a row?
Was Dish that good or was Directv so bad?
 
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Yes, I’m not expecting a sales job from a tech, so that’s an ambush to me. A cheesy one too.

I don’t need a tech to tell me about sound bars or anything else anyway. Why would I buy whatever he has rattling around in his truck. Anyone with some sense would do some research and figure out what product and model they would like, not just buy something on a whim that is suggested by a guy with no other motivation than trying to make an extra dollar and please his manager. That’s a dumb decision.

From a consumer perspective, Dish does seem poorly run. Customer is bad, and the hack reflects poorly on them and their processes. Anyone can get hacked, but they obviously had put zero thought into the possibility.

Customer service is bad everywhere though. I deal with many companies like Cisco, Dell, Microsoft, Google, Verizon AT&T, and they are all terrible. Everyone tries to fend you off with useless bots, and if you can get a human they are barely trained to do anything other than follow scripts. Things were already deteriorating, but it seems like Covid made things worse.
Because most people do NOT do any research and it's not "rattling around in the truck". People don't know what their options are. They may know what they want but have no idea how to get it. You're one of those people who think that because YOU do something, everyone obviously does it. That's not how it works.

As for the hack, hackers evolve as protection evolves. Your comment is naive. Matter of fact, you're entire post is naive. Go look up the companies that have been hit with ransomware attacks. You may be shocked at who and how many they're are. Bank of America was hit. You think a friggin bank is lax on cybersecurity?? Gimme a break.
I totally see you as one of those "get off my lawn" people
 
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That upselling was service, not products though.
Not so much, other than of course we were expected to charge at least for the installation, if not for equipment. Charlie's expressed reasoning was that the cx needed to have "some skin in the game"- and we were the ones who were supposed to skin them! Nevermind he would soon enough be selling around us offering not only free gear & install, but $300 gift cards, etc. Skin in the game, right.

He told us to regard DiSH as a "door opener," something to make nothing on or even lose on, for the opportunity to sell them non-sat gear. What a jerkwad.
 
Was Dish that good or was Directv so bad?
It was both because DTV was "so bad" in making it part of its business plan to sell through big boxers and leave install to buyers' own devices or to dealers who would ask quite a bit to install what they didn't sell, and because DiSH at least initially was much more servicing-dealer oriented. Charlie came at DBS from C-band, where full service was basically a must, whereas Eddy & DTV/USSB were brand new to sat and focused only on making sub numbers.

Charlie in fact couldn't get into most of the big boxers- he'd wanted to but DTV/USSB had locked them up in exclusives. Thus his mainstay distribution route in the early years was the dealers transitioning from C-band. Most of their C-band base got converted to DBS, and more through DiSH than DTV, and of course they (most, anyway) already had a referral network in place from years of good servicing reputation and were also doing plenty of new full-service sat business. That, along with great content pricing, added up to happier cx's.

Charlie of course put his J.D.Powers front & center, crowing about his great satisfaction, while at the very same time doing everything to destroy that kind of goodwill through greedy practices both directly impacting cx's and harming full-servicing dealers through rewarding everything BUT service excellence. Or servicing at all. Because he had himself flipped to going for activation numbers above all else.
 
I didn’t know a tech showing up was optional, especially when you pay for the service plan. Doesn’t surprise me though given some of the other practices going on. I’m just hanging on to service for my mother as she is familiar with it and knows where all the channels are, and dish is the only carrier for some of what she watches. Hopefully the service will continue to work until I can ditch it.
Generally it's not optional, however when dealing with irate customers we can definitely reject the job. It really really takes a lot for a job to get rejected. But if a tech has been there and has expressed concerns that they feel unsafe or being verbally abused then it's a good enough reason to reject it. When a job is rejected dish will try to find another office to take it so it's possible it still gets done but if you treat the next tech the same they could reject future appointments too lol. But again it's highly unlikely for this to happen but it can.
 
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I 100% agree. And there's nothing wrong with offering extras, as long as they're not agressive about it. But, when the higher ups get a new idea...LOL

And yet they won the JD power award for customer service for what...5 years in a row?

Well the standard is pretty low, but congrats anyway.
 
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Generally it's not optional, however when dealing with irate customers we can definitely reject the job. It really really takes a lot for a job to get rejected. But if a tech has been there and has expressed concerns that they feel unsafe or being verbally abused then it's a good enough reason to reject it. When a job is rejected dish will try to find another office to take it so it's possible it still gets done but if you treat the next tech the same they could reject future appointments too lol. But again it's highly unlikely for this to happen but it can.
I’m not the type to yell at anyone. I’m generally pretty polite, but I guess you wouldn’t know it from my posts.
 
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Because most people do NOT do any research and it's not "rattling around in the truck". People don't know what their options are. They may know what they want but have no idea how to get it. You're one of those people who think that because YOU do something, everyone obviously does it. That's not how it works.

As for the hack, hackers evolve as protection evolves. Your comment is naive. Matter of fact, you're entire post is naive. Go look up the companies that have been hit with ransomware attacks. You may be shocked at who and how many they're are. Bank of America was hit. You think a friggin bank is lax on cybersecurity?? Gimme a break.
I totally see you as one of those "get off my lawn" people
People don’t know how to find a store or a website to buy stuff? Seems unlikely. I think most people like to price shop at least.

Yes, people get hacked on a daily basis. But if you lose every PC and are affected for as long as Dish was, then something is very wrong. I kind of doubt BoA customer service was offline for anything like as long. And get off my lawn.
 
Let me guess, you get incensed when the cashier at McDonalds, or any store of that kind, asks "would you like fries with that?" It's really simple to say no thank you. It's like the Witnesses ringing my doorbell. I open it and before they get a word out of their mouth I tell them I'm not interested, thank you. I usually get a smile as they turn and wish me a good day. Now, I get some of these door to door solar sales folks that won't take that not interested, thank you at my word that gets a door slammed in their face. :)
No, if I walk into a store I expect people to try and sell me stuff. That’s normal. I’m just tired of ads. Ads everywhere. Watch tv, tons of ads. Use the web, ads. Get gas, ad videos on the pump. Junk in the mail, spam in email. That’s all expected. Getting “ads” from a tech in my house is a bit too much though. That’s not what I asked them over for.
 
People don’t know how to find a store or a website to buy stuff? Seems unlikely. I think most people like to price shop at least.

Yes, people get hacked on a daily basis. But if you lose every PC and are affected for as long as Dish was, then something is very wrong. I kind of doubt BoA customer service was offline for anything like as long. And get off my lawn.
Do you think the average customer, who demographically these days is in their 60s and older knows anything about home security, surround sound or how to install it???
Please. You look a this from the wrong angle. Do you know who buys Surround Sound the most?? Old people with hearing issues. Do you think some 80-year-old can climb a ladder or have a clue how to install security cameras? And do you honestly believe that in an industry that's bleeding customers - industry-wide, there wouldn't be a way to generate more revenue? You DO know that the primary function of a business is to make money, right?

And no one said anything about not price shopping, Customers are free to and do look up prices on the stuff the tech is offering and the prices are normally the same, or less or even if slightly higher, buying them in a store or online doesn't include installation; or you can call the Geek Squad who charge $150.00 just to ring your doorbell.

Customer: We've been thinking about a camera doorbell.
Dish Tech: We happen to do that.

Customer: I want to wall mount my TV but I have no idea how to that.
Dish Tech: I do and can do it right now

Customer: I can't hear my TV
Dish Tech: I can fix that.

Customer: My WiFi is useless on the 2nd floor:
Dish Tech: I can solve that problem,

Customer: I hate all these extension chords
Dish Tech: I have something for that

Now tell me where the problem is?

Also, would you rather Dish have just paid the ransom and allowed the hackers to keep control of their files?
And I hate to tell you this, but Dish is global. With offices, services and facilities around the world.
And you're right about BoA because they paid the ransom. The highest ransom ever paid and STILL had to rebuild their systems to replace what the hackers STILL had control of.
 
Do you think the average customer, who demographically these days is in their 60s and older knows anything about home security, surround sound or how to install it???
Please. You look a this from the wrong angle. Do you know who buys Surround Sound the most?? Old people with hearing issues. Do you think some 80-year-old can climb a ladder or have a clue how to install security cameras? And do you honestly believe that in an industry that's bleeding customers - industry-wide, there wouldn't be a way to generate more revenue? You DO know that the primary function of a business is to make money, right?

And no one said anything about not price shopping, Customers are free to and do look up prices on the stuff the tech is offering and the prices are normally the same, or less or even if slightly higher, buying them in a store or online doesn't include installation; or you can call the Geek Squad who charge $150.00 just to ring your doorbell.

Customer: We've been thinking about a camera doorbell.
Dish Tech: We happen to do that.

Customer: I want to wall mount my TV but I have no idea how to that.
Dish Tech: I do and can do it right now

Customer: I can't hear my TV
Dish Tech: I can fix that.

Customer: My WiFi is useless on the 2nd floor:
Dish Tech: I can solve that problem,

Customer: I hate all these extension chords
Dish Tech: I have something for that

Now tell me where the problem is?

Also, would you rather Dish have just paid the ransom and allowed the hackers to keep control of their files?
And I hate to tell you this, but Dish is global. With offices, services and facilities around the world.
And you're right about BoA because they paid the ransom. The highest ransom ever paid and STILL had to rebuild their systems to replace what the hackers STILL had control of.
I wish the last Dish tech had mentioned wall mounts.Our bedroom TV has had a mount sitting near it for well over a year.I know my electronics but I'm a lousy handyman.From the last carpenter that was here I know wall studs happen to be in the correct space but he had been at my house for too long( a couple of weeks) and needed to move on.It's one of those out of sight out of mind projects as the tv is fully functional where it is.
 
Do you think the average customer, who demographically these days is in their 60s and older knows anything about home security, surround sound or how to install it???
Please. You look a this from the wrong angle. Do you know who buys Surround Sound the most?? Old people with hearing issues. Do you think some 80-year-old can climb a ladder or have a clue how to install security cameras? And do you honestly believe that in an industry that's bleeding customers - industry-wide, there wouldn't be a way to generate more revenue? You DO know that the primary function of a business is to make money, right?

And no one said anything about not price shopping, Customers are free to and do look up prices on the stuff the tech is offering and the prices are normally the same, or less or even if slightly higher, buying them in a store or online doesn't include installation; or you can call the Geek Squad who charge $150.00 just to ring your doorbell.

Customer: We've been thinking about a camera doorbell.
Dish Tech: We happen to do that.

Customer: I want to wall mount my TV but I have no idea how to that.
Dish Tech: I do and can do it right now

Customer: I can't hear my TV
Dish Tech: I can fix that.

Customer: My WiFi is useless on the 2nd floor:
Dish Tech: I can solve that problem,

Customer: I hate all these extension chords
Dish Tech: I have something for that

Now tell me where the problem is?

Also, would you rather Dish have just paid the ransom and allowed the hackers to keep control of their files?
And I hate to tell you this, but Dish is global. With offices, services and facilities around the world.
And you're right about BoA because they paid the ransom. The highest ransom ever paid and STILL had to rebuild their systems to replace what the hackers STILL had control of.
Many of those "in their 60s and older" customers, like me, have been doing electronics for longer than you have been alive. It's pretty disingenuous of you to think we are incapable of basic installations like installing a door bell camera, mounting a tv, etc. These are all things I, and many others, are perfectly capable of doing.
 

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