Is there a Catch?

[jrv331]

I posted a question about the 322 receiver and got several good responsed. Thank you. I have a follow up question. Im looking at vmcsatellite, that have a 4 room deal using the Dish 500 and two 322 receivers for 44.99( 120 pacakge). They say it comes with lifetime warranty from Dish. I was told that these are leased receivers, but the 44.99 included the lease price. Basically there are no hidden costs. Has any one checked out this package or have any information on it? One more- if for some reason I cant get reception , I was told they'd refund my 49.99 activation fee. Will I have a fight on my hands here?

Thanks for all the help, Im looking at ordering this week if all goes right.
John

 

[Mainstreet]

I posted a question about the 322 receiver and got several good responsed. Thank you. I have a follow up question. Im looking at vmcsatellite, that have a 4 room deal using the Dish 500 and two 322 receivers for 44.99( 120 pacakge). They say it comes with lifetime warranty from Dish. I was told that these are leased receivers, but the 44.99 included the lease price. Basically there are no hidden costs. Has any one checked out this package or have any information on it? One more- if for some reason I cant get reception , I was told they'd refund my 49.99 activation fee. Will I have a fight on my hands here?

Thanks for all the help, Im looking at ordering this week if all goes right.
John

VMC is a "certificate" seller. They just sell you the piece of paper for the $49.99. You then must contact DISH directly with your certificate for them to fulfill the order. Do you not have any local source to purchase your system from. ALL DISH Network promotions are the same no matter where you sign up. You just have to decide who you want to service your equipment if you need help later on. I highly recommend researching what is available locally. If there is no other option, or if your local sources don't have a clue what is going on, then you can just buy a certificate. It comes with much less personal service, though.

Just my opinion - although mine is probably very biased.

 

[WLong]

I posted a question about the 322 receiver and got several good responsed. Thank you. I have a follow up question. Im looking at vmcsatellite, that have a 4 room deal using the Dish 500 and two 322 receivers for 44.99( 120 pacakge). They say it comes with lifetime warranty from Dish. I was told that these are leased receivers, but the 44.99 included the lease price. Basically there are no hidden costs. Has any one checked out this package or have any information on it? One more- if for some reason I cant get reception , I was told they'd refund my 49.99 activation fee. Will I have a fight on my hands here?

Thanks for all the help, Im looking at ordering this week if all goes right.
John

No there is no catch I know of. You may have to agree to some amount of programming for a year (maybe not since you are doing the Digital Home plan). I ordered my Dish equipment from a certificate reseller, and I have been pleased with the end result (1 - 811 HD Receiver, 2 - 311 SD Receivers).

I had Dish come once before and I had some trees in their way. Getting a refund only took one phone call.

Bill

 

[mboy]

I went thru VMC a month or so back and basically got a couple of codes and a phone #. Cost me $49.99. I got an 811 and a 522-top 120/Hbo/Max-DHP plan. Got 4 months credit @ 49.99 a pop. Dishnetwork came out themselves (not local contractors) to install it and did an awesome job, even hooked up a 301 I had lying around for free. I Couldn't find any local retailers around and other site's didn't have advertised what I was looking for, but VMC did and answered my ????s when I emailed them, so they got my business. I have no complaints.

 

[dlsnyder]

There has been some discussion here over the last few days about that "lifetime warranty" they offer. Since Dish leases the equipment to you it seems reasonable that they should fix it for no extra charge if it breaks. What they seem to be doing though is getting their lease customers to pay for the $4.99/mo extended warranty program that they offer to their customers who own their equipment. That is on top of the $49.99 or whatever they already pay each month. Be sure to ask about what the included warranty covers and how much you will have to pay to use it before you sign up.

 

[gpflepsen]

Use a Gift Card instead. They are free. If you need one, I could hook you up, and I'm sure many here would do the same.

 

[Mainstreet]

There has been some discussion here over the last few days about that "lifetime warranty" they offer. Since Dish leases the equipment to you it seems reasonable that they should fix it for no extra charge if it breaks. What they seem to be doing though is getting their lease customers to pay for the $4.99/mo extended warranty program that they offer to their customers who own their equipment. That is on top of the $49.99 or whatever they already pay each month. Be sure to ask about what the included warranty covers and how much you will have to pay to use it before you sign up.

To answer the original topic, no, there is no catch. You get to use the equipment for as long as you subscribe to DISH basic programming. If you cancel service, you must send it back.

The Digital Home Protection Plan is $5.99 per month on top of whichever package you go with.

The standard DHA plan without purchasing the additional protection gives you a lifteime warranty on the equipment. If something happens, you pay $24.99 shipping to have a replacement sent out to you, and that includes the shipping of your defective equipment back to DISH. If you need a service call where someone has to come to your house, there will be a $99 charge.

If you purchase the DHPP for $5.99, you get free shipping both ways on mail in service. If someone has to come to your house, you pay a discounted service call rate of $29.99.

If you're dead set on not helping your local businesses and local economy, and must use a certificate, you can get one from this site's store, www.dishstore.net. I believe they only charge $39.99 for the certificate anyway. That way, you would at least be helping fund this site.

 

[skaeight]

To answer the original topic, no, there is no catch. You get to use the equipment for as long as you subscribe to DISH basic programming. If you cancel service, you must send it back.

The Digital Home Protection Plan is $5.99 per month on top of whichever package you go with.

The standard DHA plan without purchasing the additional protection gives you a lifteime warranty on the equipment. If something happens, you pay $24.99 shipping to have a replacement sent out to you, and that includes the shipping of your defective equipment back to DISH. If you need a service call where someone has to come to your house, there will be a $99 charge.

If you purchase the DHPP for $5.99, you get free shipping both ways on mail in service. If someone has to come to your house, you pay a discounted service call rate of $29.99.

If you're dead set on not helping your local businesses and local economy, and must use a certificate, you can get one from this site's store, www.dishstore.net. I believe they only charge $39.99 for the certificate anyway. That way, you would at least be helping fund this site.

A couple of corrections:

With the DHA it is a $14.95 shipping charge, not $24.99. The following quote contains the complete terms of the DHA warranty:

Warranty
Standard warranty includes no-cost repair/replacement of manufacturer defects during the first 90 days. After the first 90 days, a $14.95 shipping charge applies to warranty equipment replacement by mail, and a $99 in-home warranty trip service charge applies. For complete warranty information, including our optional DISH Home Protection Plan, revisit our website at www.dishnetwork.com or call us at (800) 333-DISH for full terms and conditions.

This comes from http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/getDish/disclaimers/dishPVRplans/index.shtml

Secondly, www.dishstore.com needs to update their site. The plan that they are offering appears to still be the now defunct Digital Home Plan. Even if you look at the prices, they are the old prices. This makes me very hesitant to buy from them, because I want to be absolutley sure that if I order a 4 room setup with a dvr, I am in fact going to get a 522/322, not a 510 and 3 301's. There is a huge difference in the monthly fees

Finally, as far as I can see, the deal that VMC is offering is no different than the stock DHA plan from www.dishnetwork.com. I really see no compelling reason to order from VMC. I wish there was a local retailer other than Radio Shack in my area, however there isn't, so I most likely will order directly from dish.

 

[boba]

there is a couple of fees missed, if both 322s are not connected to telephone lines 24/7 there will be 2 additional $4.99 fees for mirroring the additional tuners so the $44.99 will go up by $9.98/Mo. You must also have dual cables run from the dish to each receiver if you don't have dual cables and they cannot be run you cannot use the 322. The hidden cost is the 322 is a new receiver and is still showing some bugs, historically as DISH has sent out new software to correct old problems they tend to introduce new bugs that are sometimes worse than the ones they cure.

 

[skaeight]

there is a couple of fees missed, if both 322s are not connected to telephone lines 24/7 there will be 2 additional $4.99 fees for mirroring the additional tuners so the $44.99 will go up by $9.98/Mo. You must also have dual cables run from the dish to each receiver if you don't have dual cables and they cannot be run you cannot use the 322. The hidden cost is the 322 is a new receiver and is still showing some bugs, historically as DISH has sent out new software to correct old problems they tend to introduce new bugs that are sometimes worse than the ones they cure.

Very true about the phone line fee, not a problem as long as you have a land line.

Please elaberate on what bugs you have seen in the 322. I've heard about the info screen popping up randomly, and the caller id not working perfectly. I've heard you can fix the info screen by either turning it off in the menu or switching the remote channel to anything but channel 1. I don't have caller id so the latter problem won't affect me.

Anything else that you've heard about?