Question about upgrade installation fee's

[eazyc10]

I have a question about my current situation:

I currently have a super dish, 811 HD, 625 DVR and 311 receiver. I'm scheduled to have an install tomorrow and upgrade my 625 to a 622, and trade in my 311 for a 211 HD. I'm using the dish n it upgrade program to upgrade my receivers. I was told I would need a 2nd satellite dish in order to receive the new HD channels which I'm fine with, but I was under the assumption that the install was free of charge with the upgrade?

Am I mistaken here? They are charging me $60 for the install.

 

[mdonnelly]

I have a question about my current situation:

I currently have a super dish, 811 HD, 625 DVR and 311 receiver. I'm scheduled to have an install tomorrow and upgrade my 625 to a 622, and trade in my 311 for a 211 HD. I'm using the dish n it upgrade program to upgrade my receivers. I was told I would need a 2nd satellite dish in order to receive the new HD channels which I'm fine with, but I was under the assumption that the install was free of charge with the upgrade?

Am I mistaken here? They are charging me $60 for the install.

Is the installation being billed as a separate item? If so, that's wrong, it should be free. Looking at the Dish website, I think the 622 upgrade fee is supposed to be $149, and an 18 month committment. The 211 upgrade fee is $99. You should get $50 in credits for each 622 and 211 upgraded. See the Dish'n it up page on the website.

 

[bhelms]

Either way, I believe you are only receiving some of the "national" HD channels in the older MPEG-2 format on your 811 from E*8 in the 110 deg. slot. Much of the HD content including all the voom channels and some newer additions in MPEG-4 are coming from either the 61.5 or 129 slots. (Some of the newer HD channels in MPEG-4 are on E*8.) You'll need a newer or second dish to point to either 61.5 or 129. In the case of 129 the Super Dish you have now could be replaced with a Dish 1000 to receive 110, 119, and 129. If you need to receive the 61.5 sat. or you want to keep the programming you got only with with the Super Dish, you'll need a second dish. Much of the northeast and the FL penninsula can't receive 129 due to its low angle. If you can receive 129, many have reported better results with a 2-dish solution vs. using the D1000. Good luck with your upgrade! You'll really like the 622 and all the new HD content...

 

[thowe21]

I recently upgraded via "Dish it up" to a 622. They replaced my Dish 500 with a Dish 1000 and replaced my switch. The upgrade was completely free. You may want to call back and ask why the fee when you understood it was free. If you push the right buttons, you might get lucky.

 

[eazyc10]

Is the installation being billed as a separate item? If so, that's wrong, it should be free. Looking at the Dish website, I think the 622 upgrade fee is supposed to be $149, and an 18 month committment. The 211 upgrade fee is $99. You should get $50 in credits for each 622 and 211 upgraded. See the Dish'n it up page on the website.

I got billed $300.XX for the entire upgrade. The lady I spoke with originally made no mention of any upgrade fees. I also recall asking a previous time with a CSR if there would be any install fees for the dish portion and she said it's included.

I will call them up again.

An update:

Installers came yesterday and it turns out they were able to just replace my superdish with a 1000.2 so that means I did not need a second dish (wife was happy)

However they had an issue with my 622 receiver working properly. I can get the free channels (101 and the nasa channel) but when I turn to any SD channel I get a black screen. When I go to the HD channels I get sound but no picture. It gets even weirder - I can get clear picture and sound on ESPN2HD, NFLHD, HGHD and FOODHD. Nothing else.

They are supposed to replace the receiver but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this? Does it sound like a bad receiver? I know the connection is fine as the guide comes up fine on all channels and along with the select HD channels, I can get local OTA HD's fine as well.

Another interesting thing I found is that on my 811 receiver, I can pick up some of the newer HD channels but not all of them? I believe whats missing are the channels I can view on the 622??

A correlation possibly??

 

[eazyc10]

Called back - turns out that the tech transposed some digits and they had the wrong receiver number. Got the channels fixed but I was denied again on the install charge. They are saying since they replaced the dish, I'm charged $60 for the install and material. Along with that they left the superdish. I have no use for this? I was under the assumption that the dish was not my property.

 

[dishcomm]

I have a question about my current situation:

I currently have a super dish, 811 HD, 625 DVR and 311 receiver. I'm scheduled to have an install tomorrow and upgrade my 625 to a 622, and trade in my 311 for a 211 HD. I'm using the dish n it upgrade program to upgrade my receivers. I was told I would need a 2nd satellite dish in order to receive the new HD channels which I'm fine with, but I was under the assumption that the install was free of charge with the upgrade?

Am I mistaken here? They are charging me $60 for the install.

the charge is correct..The free upgrade was indeed an assmption on your part...Enjoy the new services..

 

[dishcomm]

Called back - turns out that the tech transposed some digits and they had the wrong receiver number. Got the channels fixed but I was denied again on the install charge. They are saying since they replaced the dish, I'm charged $60 for the install and material. Along with that they left the superdish. I have no use for this? I was under the assumption that the dish was not my property.

Trash the dish...It is in fact your property..For example, if you had moved and requested a dish mover install at your new home, Dish would have instructed you to leave the dish behind at your old home..In any event, the upgrade agreement specifically informs the customer that the installer IS NOT responsible for the retrieval or removal of the dish in place...Only to install a new one..If the current location is ok, we use it. But we are not responsible for removing the old dish from the customer's property...

 

[KE4EST]

Is nice to get things free, but $60 for what you are getting is not bad at all.

 

[dishcomm]

Is nice to get things free, but $60 for what you are getting is not bad at all.

It is that expectatation (an unreasonable one IMO) by custs that EVERYTHING involvoing EQ and the install should be "free" is what makes this business a pain the ass for those of us in the field.
We are the only trade type industry where gettting ful value for work performed is not allowed by the seller...
Yes, one could say choose another industry. Question: what would happen if all the good hardworking techs decided to leave the business?.
With costs of materials, fuel, wear and tear on vehicles rising and no additional revenue provided to cover these expenses, the sat co's are going to have to make a decsision. E* and D* will either have to bring all work in house OR they will have to start passingt costs along to the consumer. Cable does it in the form of yearly 5-6% rate increases. We'll see I guess.

 

[TheKrell]

With costs of materials, fuel, wear and tear on vehicles rising and no additional revenue provided to cover these expenses, the sat co's are going to have to make a decsision. E* and D* will either have to bring all work in house OR they will have to start passingt costs along to the consumer.

I moved 2.5 years ago and went with the Dish Mover program. The first brain-dead tech who came out to do the antenna install first showed up on the wrong day, took down the previous homeowner's DirectTV dish, and disconnected my cable modem (which also unplugged my 3 VoIP telephone lines and my servers in the basement) before I could come home and tell him to stop. Three more techs and a month later, I finally gave up and finished the job right myself, including fishing new cables through walls, drilling holes, and in general doing a professional installation that I could be proud of.

Obviously (to you!) I was expecting way too much from the Dish Mover program. One of the 4 techs told me that he made $25/job on these E* installations. It is no wonder that these techs are marginally trained and do slap-dash jobs. $25/job is not a living wage in this part of the country (Washington DC area), even if the truck and equipment was all provided for the tech. He has to fit so many installs into each day that there is no way he could do a neat and professional job. Crawl through the attic? Drill holes? No time for that.

I recently installed Sky Angel for my mother who lives in Tennessee. I failed to check on the transponders on 61.5 before showing up at her house, and I didn't realize that the 1st 8 transponders were dead. As a consequence, I couldn't find 61.5 to save my life! So I called up a local tech who aligned the dish for me in about 5 minutes, charing $50. (I gave him $60 in cash.) Now that's a more reasonable fee for service.

Well, now. I just checked dbstalk for channel assignments, and it shows transponders 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8 as living. Now why did 1-8 all show up wiith zero signal strength on various receivers between Christmas and New Years? Hmmm.

 

[dishcomm]

I moved 2.5 years ago and went with the Dish Mover program. The first brain-dead tech who came out to do the antenna install first showed up on the wrong day, took down the previous homeowner's DirectTV dish, and disconnected my cable modem (which also unplugged my 3 VoIP telephone lines and my servers in the basement) before I could come home and tell him to stop. Three more techs and a month later, I finally gave up and finished the job right myself, including fishing new cables through walls, drilling holes, and in general doing a professional installation that I could be proud of.

Obviously (to you!) I was expecting way too much from the Dish Mover program. One of the 4 techs told me that he made $25/job on these E* installations. It is no wonder that these techs are marginally trained and do slap-dash jobs. $25/job is not a living wage in this part of the country (Washington DC area), even if the truck and equipment was all provided for the tech. He has to fit so many installs into each day that there is no way he could do a neat and professional job. Crawl through the attic? Drill holes? No time for that.

I recently installed Sky Angel for my mother who lives in Tennessee. I failed to check on the transponders on 61.5 before showing up at her house, and I didn't realize that the 1st 8 transponders were dead. As a consequence, I couldn't find 61.5 to save my life! So I called up a local tech who aligned the dish for me in about 5 minutes, charing $50. (I gave him $60 in cash.) Now that's a more reasonable fee for service.

Well, now. I just checked dbstalk for channel assignments, and it shows transponders 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8 as living. Now why did 1-8 all show up wiith zero signal strength on various receivers between Christmas and New Years? Hmmm.

'Excuse me...where did you read in my psot anythng to that effect..You had a rough time with an incompetent installer who knew what not to do and went ahead an did it...you're right..The guy did a lousy job..What does that have to do with rising costs and no corresponding rise in available revenue?...Got a question..If you owned a business and your costs kept rising, would you NOT pass those costs along to your customers?..If you say no, you are either a philanthropist or you should not own a business.
I am wondering why you decided to take aone sentence out of my post and use it out of context....Byut then again I should not be surprised. The menatlity of the American consumer is not how much value am I paying for but how little can I pay to get that value..Never mind the fact that someone has to pay for that value to get to market.
Now that fee for the Dish mover is a carrot and stick to the customer to keep the service..I get paid as though it were a new connect on a DM..So the fee you has nothing to do with the amount I make..Here's why....It cost E* $704 for each new subscriber in 2006..E* is willing to pay for an install in order to keep that customer. So the tech didn't fod a poor job because of the amount he was to paid, he just didn't know what he was doing or he didn't care. The tech that told you he was getting $25 per dish mover is either full of sh*t or he is working for a contractor that is ripping off their techs.. Trust me, Dish is paying the contractor for an install. Unfortunately ther are coontratcors in this business that are out solely for themsleves...They do things that are in direct violation of state and federal labor laws..It hurts the business. But these peopep do not care.So the cusiomer gets victimized by shoddy work and crummy customer service. Iam fortunate to work for a contractor that treats us well...That encourages us to do the highest quality work. In fact we are called upon by Dish to go behind other contractors work to check it out....
So before you go jumping down throats, do a little homework....Got that!

 

[TheKrell]

'Excuse me...where did you read in my psot anythng to that effect..You had a rough time with an incompetent installer who knew what not to do and went ahead an did it...you're right..The guy did a lousy job..What does that have to do with rising costs and no corresponding rise in available revenue?

Huh? Dishcomm, I was trying to agree with you! I don't know what techs make in reality, but the $25/job that I was quoted makes sense given the slap-dash job these 4 different techs did at my place. Did Dish pay A1 some astronomical sum, and they pocketed it and gave their techs only $25? Don't know. Did each of the 4 techs get $25? In my one Dishmover case, it's clear to me that Dish (or A1) could have given one tech $100 for the job and it probably would have gotten done right the first time. After the 1st joker came and went (oh BTW he wanted to charge me $100 for the 2nd dish), I called up Dish and told them to give me anybody but another tech from A1. But they had some exclusive deal and wouldn't do it.

 

[dishcomm]

Huh? Dishcomm, I was trying to agree with you! I don't know what techs make in reality, but the $25/job that I was quoted makes sense given the slap-dash job these 4 different techs did at my place. Did Dish pay A1 some astronomical sum, and they pocketed it and gave their techs only $25? Don't know. Did each of the 4 techs get $25? In my one Dishmover case, it's clear to me that Dish (or A1) could have given one tech $100 for the job and it probably would have gotten done right the first time. After the 1st joker came and went (oh BTW he wanted to charge me $100 for the 2nd dish), I called up Dish and told them to give me anybody but another tech from A1. But they had some exclusive deal and wouldn't do it.

Ok..I get a little cranky when I think I see us good people get lumped in with the poopheads..Apologies...

 

[moltomateo]

I recently upgraded via "Dish it up" to a 622. They replaced my Dish 500 with a Dish 1000 and replaced my switch. The upgrade was completely free. You may want to call back and ask why the fee when you understood it was free. If you push the right buttons, you might get lucky.

It's not about pushing buttons or getting lucky, the 60 is probably for a 118.7 install for local channels in hd, should be able to waive it though, I do. Call and ask them where they can tell you where we can only speculate.

 

[dishcomm]

It's not about pushing buttons or getting lucky, the 60 is probably for a 118.7 install for local channels in hd, should be able to waive it though, I do. Call and ask them where they can tell you where we can only speculate.

correct. the upgrade fee is pay for the dish 1000 plus..It is a much more coastly piece of EQ that also includes a DPP 44 switch..That switch retails fro $199..So the 60 bucks is quite a bargain...The very idea that no matter what the upgrade. no matter what the EQ requested, there are some customers that think they are entitled to all of it free of charge leaves me scratching my head.....

 

[Stargazer]

Wow a 622 for only $60 with a Dish1000 upgrade? That is getting by cheap! That is wholesale cost of the Dish1000. I think the Dish1000 Plus is around $200 but they would expect the lnbf back if you disconnect service so it is still more of an install fee than anything. The DPP44 switches are going for $100 on ebay even and I think the retail for about $150-200. You could probably fetch about $50-60 for that SuperDish on ebay with it's DP-34 switch. Seems like a bargain to me. If I could get it that cheap I would.