Local Stores vs WWW

[ColorWizard]

Hi folks,
this site is great!!! I am a total newbie to all of this so please bear with me. The more I read about FTA the more I like it. However I am a bit frustrated and need your help. Here is my problem:

How do you locate local stores that carry FTA equipment or is going online and paying $50> for shipping the best way.
I am from Minneapolis and if I google "satellite fta minneapolis" all I get is one DDish or DirectTV site after another. They are like pest. Even the yellow pages are not any better. It looks like every decent satellite store is either DDish or DirectTV exclusively.

I would like to see and touch equipment before I buy it and if possible not pay $50 for shipping. For that money you can motorize my system.

 

[voomvoom]

You might try this guy:
http://www.psbsatellite.com/
he's in Minnesota somewhere? He has a phone number on his website as well as a couple of email addresses. Give him a call or email him.

Al

 

[Anole]

Don't feel bad.
I live in the Los Angeles area, where a lot of the equipment importers are located.
You would think I could get a good local deal, and avoid all that shipping.
(more recently, I've found better suppliers, but ...)

Couple of years ago, I tracked down a local place.
Their web site had the front of a fancy building as their "offices"
Once I actually found them, they turned out to be just a suite in a bunch of tilt-up office buildings in an industrial park.
(which was fine)
The fancy building front sure wasn't their office!
But when I asked about a 36" dish and a hot LNB, all they had was one size (30"), and one cheap LNB.
I wandered away, and ordered from Sadoun in Ohio!
Better choices, decent prices, and if you didn't get too crazy on dish size, the shipping was okay. (and no tax)

I'd say if you can find anyone within a couple of hours drive-time, go for it.
And good luck. :up

 

[Mr Tony]

You might try this guy:
http://www.psbsatellite.com/
he's in Minnesota somewhere? He has a phone number on his website as well as a couple of email addresses. Give him a call or email him.

Al

Pete is in St Paul suburbs

 

[techno935]

I feel your pain. Luckily there is ONE local place to get SOME FTA stuff where I live in South Florida. The Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop has 2 booths. One indoor, one outdoor for satellite stuff.


Thank God the indoor dealer has some decent LNBs, switches, compasses, cable, receivers, and 30" Fortec dishes.


Thats about it.

C-band solutions in Florida suck. The Miami dealers sell overly expensive mesh dishes.

 

[stogie5150]

I haven't found anything down here, in fact I called one place in New Orleans and they told me they STOPPED carrying FTA stuff because so much of it was being used illegally, even though it is designed for lawful use. Not good.

I've ordered my stuff from all different places, all pretty good so far, some good prices, some not so good. ALL of them ship slow.

 

[Tron]

Yeah, nothing in New Orleans but Dish and DirectTV There are a couple of 4DTV dealers in the 'burbs, but they don't generally carry DBS Ku FTA stuff. One did have a 1 M Channel Master dish ($75), which is where I got my CM from

 

[RVD420]

Pete has good prices. And will treat you fair.

But I do wish there was more FTA stores in the MPLS/St. Paul area.

 

[iafirebuff]

No one in my area either I wish I lived close to Sadoun - well, maybe, I would probably be broke!

 

[Keith Brannen]

In my area of Ontario, Canada, the trend seems to be that computer stores are selling FTA and "other" unmentionable dish supplies. I am aware of at least three such stores, but have only shopped at the one store where I had bought computer supplies in the past (but had never noticed they had FTA, until I was looking for FTA and saw an advertisement they had).

Only thing they didn't have was 22Khz switches, which I ordered from a great FTA supplier in Montreal.

I did venture to another so-called FTA store while looking for a 22Khz switch, but they must have been dyslexic, as they weren't selling FTA (free-to-air) but only were selling TFA (theft-from-air). In fact, when I started to ask the salesman about the switch he stated "Free to Air is down"! I sort of blew up at him and told him the difference between FTA and TFA.

 

[yahmon]

Stogie 5150, I am going to check out a place in Gulfport, Ms. this week. Will let you know what they carry.

 

[stogie5150]

Do that. I'd love to have somewhere close to get stuff, even if I have to drive a bit and pay a few bucks more.

Where is it?

 

[Sadoun]

Shopping online is just as convenient as shopping locally.

Most of the time, you will find what you are looking for online rather than at a local store. S/H is almost equal to the value of your time and gas to dive to the local store to pick up an item.

Either way, both are good methods. Of course, we encourage you to shop online with the forum sponsors above like Sadoun to help sustain this valueable forum and the education people get here.

 

[iafirebuff]

I consider Sadoun my "local" store as there are no local ones in my area.

 

[stogie5150]

But, if I shop online I won't have an excuse to drop by the casino like I will while I am in Gulfport.

But I have done some business with one of the site sponsors, GoSatellite.com, for my Coolsat 5000. Nice folks to do business with. :up

 

[Mr Tony]

I've done business with 4 of the sponsers here

- Sadoun (T90 dish, Fortec classic, lots of LNB's and stuff)
- Gosatellite (Coolsat 8000, 5000 and other receivers)
- DishStore (got my DIsh 508 a while back)
- Invacom (had a Invacom quad for a little bit)

all top notch

 

[yahmon]

Our sponsors are great,but sometimes you need things fast. The place is on hwy 49 north of the interstate about 4 miles (not sure how far). I will take a ride tomorrow. Will pm you with info.
And remember,The casinos are not there to give away money. lol

 

[stogie5150]

Our sponsors are great,but sometimes you need things fast. The place is on hwy 49 north of the interstate about 4 miles (not sure how far). I will take a ride tomorrow. Will pm you with info.
And remember,The casinos are not there to give away money. lol

Seems like I remember a satellite store up there a ways, cannot remember if its past Pat Peck Honda or before it. Let me know, my wife's B-day is the 3rd of March and she's already told me she is going to the casino with a little bit of her bonus check....so I'll be over there...

I have a little casino game...see how long you can make a $20 bill last.....so far my record is four hours....LOL...

My wife's family is from the coast, so she has a 'home' connection to the coast. Me, I am a coonass boy through and through, but I like the coast, too.

 

[1inabillion]

My wife's family is from the coast, so she has a 'home' connection to the coast. Me, I am a coonass boy through and through, but I like the coast, too.

I was a hollybeach coonass till Hurricane Rita came .

 

[partyharty]

I dunno of any local stores to me either. I just use sadoun for purchases (just got a satellite meter from them this week). I do wish there was a place local though (so I could see the receivers up close prior to making a decision as to what I wanted).