Questions about purchasing a Hopper 3

[Altitudinous]

Forgive me if this was answered somewhere; if so, I missed it.

I'm thinking about buying an H3 due to the adjustments in equipment pricing around Jan. 14. I've had the same leased H3 since around 2016.
I talked to support the other day about it, but I wasn't getting a complete answer. They told me that to buy an H3, they would charge $350 and it would be new.
I asked how much to buy my existing H3 so that I then owned it, and it seemed that the answer was still $350. I said that did not seem right. They said I needed to
talk to someone else, which I haven't done yet.

My questions are these.

1. Has anyone been able to purchase the actual H3 (or other Hopper model) that they've been leasing, rather than swapping in a new one, returning the leased one, etc.?
If so, what did Dish charge for this?

2. If I owned an H3 (perhaps purchasing a "remanufactured" unit) and the hard drive failed completely, what would be the procedure for restoring the operating system and all software required to make the unit function again? I see the backup and restore of settings available in the diagnostics, but I'm assuming those would not be a complete backup, since it did not ask about backing up to an external drive.
Maybe this full backup and restore would involve getting the drive and a backup drive recognized in a Linux system and doing a complete disk image?

3. If I do buy a reman unit, does anyone know if that unit comes with a new hard drive with minimum hours on it, or is it a crapshoot?

Since I could not get a straight answer out of Solid Signal about the new or reman status of their units, these questions are important to me.

 

[pattykay]

1. Leased receivers cannot be purchased, under any circumstances. They must be returned to Dish when you are done with them. What Dish chooses to do with them after that (lease them to another subscriber, sell them, scrap them for recycling, etc.) is entirely at Dish's discretion.

3. Total crapshoot, at least when it comes to the Hopper Duo. Every Hopper Duo ("new" or remanufactured) re-uses an internal hard drive that was originally in at least one ViP722 receiver before ever being put in a Hopper Duo.

 

[dishdude]

I normally buy from the classified section here, eBay or Solid Signal. There's really no way to know if you're going to receive a new or reman unit, Dish ships both out without specifying which the retailer will receive. There is also no discount for a reman unit.

If the drive does fail, Dish is good about allowing the protection plan to be added after failure, you just need to keep it for 6 months. The last receiver I had fail earlier this year was an old ViP, they just sent me a replacement for the cost of $15 shipping and didn't make me enroll in the protection plan.

 

[pattykay]

I normally buy from the classified section here

Thanks for the plug.

 

[TheKrell]

I normally buy from the classified section here, eBay or Solid Signal. There's really no way to know if you're going to receive a new or reman unit, Dish ships both out without specifying which the retailer will receive. There is also no discount for a reman unit.

If Dish ships you a remanufactured unit, do you get another 1yr warranty, or something less?

 

[MikeD-C05]

I see Walmart has Wallies and Hopper Duos , rv dishes and receiver and even the wireless joey ,(but no access point equipment I could see) and remote controls too. I came across it yesterday looking for dvd recorders and the Wally popped up. About 4 pages followed of DISH merchandise for Sale through their website.

 

[Altitudinous]

Leased receivers cannot be purchased, under any circumstances.

How do you know this, and have you tried it? (not trying to be argumentative at all)
If that was the policy in the past, I'm wondering whether it still will be in light of the upcoming equipment pricing changes.

Having thought about it some more, I guess I could:
- buy an H3
- open it up while tearing through not noticing any label that might say warranty void if opened
- have a second 2TB 3.5" drive ready
- clone the H3's drive to the second drive
- put the second drive on the shelf for use if H3 drive fails.

 

[Altitudinous]

If the drive does fail, Dish is good about allowing the protection plan to be added after failure, you just need to keep it for 6 months. The last receiver I had fail earlier this year was an old ViP, they just sent me a replacement for the cost of $15 shipping and didn't make me enroll in the protection plan.

Are you saying they do this for a customer-owned unit?

 

[ewindowman]

I have always owned my own equipment and have a basement of spare receivers it’s about time that the customers that own there equipment get a price break it should have been that way for awhile. I remember in the very beginning you bought your equipment and than the fees started to show up. No Dvr fee than 5 dollars I believe back than it was called a pvr .


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[dishdude]

Are you saying they do this for a customer-owned unit?

I owned the one they replaced for me.

 

[pattykay]

How do you know this, and have you tried it? (not trying to be argumentative at all)
If that was the policy in the past, I'm wondering whether it still will be in light of the upcoming equipment pricing changes.

I know from experience that even if you pay the non-returned equipment penalty fee, that still doesn't give you ownership of the leased equipment. Dish still wants it back, and it cannot be transferred to any other Dish account. (I had two Dish accounts at the time.) When you return the receiver to Dish, they will refund the amount of the non-returned receiver fee. So, they are not giving you an option to purchase the receiver and not have to return it. Instead, they are incentivizing you to actually return all leased receivers to them.

 

[Altitudinous]

I owned the one they replaced for me.

That's interesting and surprising. Thanks.

 

[Altitudinous]

Dish still wants it back, and it cannot be transferred to any other Dish account.

I assume that this means that it cannot continue to be used on the existing Dish account that it has been used on all this time. If it could still be used, then of course one might be curious about how much the non-returned receiver fee runs nowadays.

 

[pattykay]

I assume that this means that it cannot continue to be used on the existing Dish account that it has been used on all this time. If it could still be used, then of course one might be curious about how much the non-returned receiver fee runs nowadays.

It can still be used on the same account (you can reactivate it) but then it would still be considered leased, which would not help with what you are trying to do. Once the account is in good standing again, the non-returned equipment fee would be refunded, and everything goes back to the way it was before.

 

[KAB]

Whatever happened to Dish Depot?

 

[TheKrell]

Whatever happened to Dish Depot?

IIRC they went out of business.

 

[the mack]

Every Hopper Duo ("new" or remanufactured) re-uses an internal hard drive that was originally in at least one ViP722 receiver before ever being put in a Hopper Duo.

Really? They put 10-12 year old drives in a new line of receivers?

 

[dishdude]

Really? They put 10-12 year old drives in a new line of receivers?

They reman remote controls

 

[Altitudinous]

Dish still wants it back, and it cannot be transferred to any other Dish account.

Yes, not until Dish transfers it to the account of a new sucker subscriber, after "remanufacturing" it.

 

[HobbyTalk]

Or Dish will just clam that they own your owner receiver. Just went through that when I cancelled Dish. Luckily I still had the receipt and had to get the president's office involved to get it straightened out.