Tech Support Rant

generj

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Jan 27, 2007
59
3
I have a 722K and this morning it went into a loop. It would show the Splash (page starting up in the bottom right of the splash page) for about a minute then the screen would go blank for about a minute and the process would start all over again. I called in and after about twenty minutes, I was told that I needed to have the unit replaced. I asked when a tech could come out with a replacement. I was told that they would send me a replacement unit. I told the tech that my unit has an OTA module and I would prefer a tech to come out. I was told that that was not possible. I explained that I have had 722ks replaced and a tech would come out. I explained that I have been a subscriber for over twenty years and have never been treated like this. I hung up and called back in. I have been on the phone for over an hour. I have now been transferred to Dr. Dish. I have been told that since the problem is with the receiver, that a unit will be sent out. They no longer send out a tech even though I pay the monthly maintenance fee. I don't expect anyone to solve my problem, I just needed to vent .
 
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Another example of how terrible Dish customer service has gotten!! Yes it's easy to say just replace the module and receiver but that's not possible for all people..My Mom is 85yrs old and there's no way she could change out the receiver herself so I'm sure there are others out there the same.. Dish has no problem sending a tech to your house and installing a new customer with Covid-19 going on so that's no excuse..I don't understand why people want to make excuses for Dish like they own the company..The Customer service Sucks!!!!
 
I have a 722K and this morning it went into a loop. It would show the Splash (page starting up in the bottom right of the splash page) for about a minute then the screen would go blank for about a minute and the process would start all over again. I called in and after about twenty minutes, I was told that I needed to have the unit replaced. I asked when a tech could come out with a replacement. I was told that they would send me a replacement unit. I told the tech that my unit has an OTA module and I would prefer a tech to come out. I was told that that was not possible. I explained that I have had 722ks replaced and a tech would come out. I explained that I have been a subscriber for over twenty years and have never been treated like this. I hung up and called back in. I have been on the phone for over an hour. I have now been transferred to Dr. Dish. I have been told that since the problem is with the receiver, that a unit will be sent out. They no longer send out a tech even though I pay the monthly maintenance fee. I don't expect anyone to solve my problem, I just needed to vent .
That's funny, I had pretty much the exact opposite experience just last month, when my purchased ViP612 died. I wanted Dish to just send me a replacement unit, so I could hook it up myself. I was told that my ViP receiver model was really old and obsolete, so it would not be possible to send out a replacement, since they don't even have any of those in stock anymore. Instead, they required me to upgrade my entire system to a Hopper system. I asked if they could just send me a Hopper Duo, since I have used that model before, so I am familiar with how to hook it up. They insisted on sending a technician. They also required that my purchased ViP222k (which is still working just fine) be deactivated, in order to do the Hopper upgrade. They could not give me the Hopper Duo as a "purchased" replacement for my purchased ViP612, so they made me lease that unit. However, they did agree to give me the Joey 3 client as a free "purchased" receiver, since they were forcing me to upgrade, and since I was replacing purchased receivers. I had not been paying for the monthly protection plan, but they did give me one free month of Dish Protect Silver to cover the technician visit. (It actually worked out to be more than just one free month, since I added it in the middle of my billing cycle. So, I immediately got a one-time credit to offset the partial month charge, plus a one-time promo credit to cover the following full month's charge.) There was no mention of any upfront cost required for this upgrade at all. All I had to do was agree to a new two-year contract, which I did. All of this was set up through Dish's Loyalty Department.

So, fast-forward until after my technician visit, and I checked the balance on my Dish account. It had jumped sky-high. It turned out that the Joey 3 is indeed listed as purchased, but they charged me $50 for the purchase, instead of giving it to me as a free replacement like they had promised. Also, there was a $25 lease upgrade fee for the Hopper Duo, which had never been mentioned to me at all, so I did not find out about it until after it was already installed. If I had known that there was going to be any upfront cost for this upgrade, then I never would have agreed to it. I called to complain, explaining what had been offered to me on the previous call, and asking to have these charges removed from my bill. I was flat-out told that the charges were legitimate, and there was no way that they could remove them. (This was even after the call was escalated to a "Senior Account Specialist.") I was also told that I could have avoided the $25 lease fee if I had refused the Hopper Duo at the time of the installation, and dug out my old purchased Hopper Duo to use instead. I would have done that, but like I said, I did not even know that there was going to be a $25 charge until after the leased Hopper Duo had already been installed, when it was already too late to avoid that fee. The only thing that they could do for me was to let me out of my two-year contract, since I was calling to complain within a couple of days after the installation. Otherwise, even cancelling the contract would not have been an option.

Naturally, I deactivated this entire new system out of protest, and went back to simply using my old trusty ViP222k, which I had no problem reactivating through the mydish site, even with the Hopper Duo still on the account, even though the phone CSR's had no clue how to activate that model on a Hopper account. I am still waiting for the return box from Dish so I can send this leased Hopper Duo back, in an effort to get that $25 fee refunded to my Dish account.

So, getting back to the OP's rant, it would be really funny if Dish ends up shipping generj a Hopper Duo as a replacement for the ViP722k, and expect generj to do the installation without a tech visit. It seems like Dish is actively trying to give us the exact opposite of what we want. This thread seemed like as good of a place as any for my own rant, since the title is Tech Support Rant.
 
Get a Phillips screw driver and swap then OTA unit. It’s really no big deal.

It costs money to roll a truck and to send out a technician.

Have them mail you the replacement box, try doing it yourself. If you can’t figure it out after talking to tech support, then make the argument you need a technician to come out.

With covid and all the other stuff going on right now, I wouldn’t want one of their techs in my house anyways


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I was trying report a physical channel move in my area to the Tech dept and Dr. DISH via chat Friday afternoon so they could change the ota guide information. I told them that my FOX station in Beaumont, Tx had moved from 4.1 to 6.3 as of Feb. 1st. The guide still shows 4.1 as Fox with the logo and the guide is from Fox even though the actual channel is now called DABLE. Also there is no guide for FOX on 6.3 but it is listed as FOX 4. The same company owns both KFDM and KBTV in our area. I told them that they needed to change the channel identifier to the new location so we could still get ota guide information and use it for recording. I also reported that the Lake Charles dma 65miles away that we can receive via ota also had a problem with it's FOX 29.1 station. They had no guide information on 29.1 which is where the actual station for FOX is located and it was instead at 29.3 which is CIRCLE, complete with the FOX logo. Again no way to get any recordings using name based recordings.

After reporting all this the tech said I needed to report this to Advanced tech or "Dr. DISH". First thing after indentifying myself the first thing they asked was what error message was I receiving. Back to square 1. After repeating all of this again I got a tired response that there was nothing we could do and that we had to wait till DISH got around to fixing it. I told them that the Lake Charles Fox channel had no guide information for over a year now , would I have to wait that long for the Beaumont dma? Again tired response from them and I said well can they give this information to the engineering dept so they could make this easy switch at their level? Response was no again. I asked them don't you want your subscribers to have a positive experience rather than a negative one with DISH as their provider. Another "of course but no" answers. So I told them maybe I should call the DISH loyalty dept. and they would give this information to the appropriate dept so it could be fixed. No answer , no goodbye, just no response so I ended the chat.

Now what happened next was not expected. The next day I was going to watch the local channels and I see that they aren't my sat locals anymore , they were locals from Otis ,Louisiana . I checked online and my service address was changed to Otis, Louisiana which is 131 miles from my area. My billing address was still correct for my area. I had to call DISH and get them to change my locals and my service address back to what it was.

Now, I don't want to sound paranoid, but I have never had my locals and my service address changed to a town I have never been to or heard of ,especially when I never requested a change . I can only think that "Dr. DISH" decided to screw with my account, because I said I would contact the DISH Loyalty dept. to see if they would give the information to the appropriate dept. to get this fixed.

The customer service and technical departments have been lacking in my opinion ,every since DISH became a stand alone company and split off from Echostar. I used to be able to write to dishquality@echostar.com and report local channel issues over sound or video quality and yes even Guide information when something was wrong. I would even get a phone call from them and an engineer would take my report down and even tweek the channel or tell me when the change would come in the next week if it was a guide issue. But now they don't seem to care about being accurate or listening to a subscriber with over 24 years with DISH and 3 separate DISH accounts for my aunt, parents and myself. I wasn't expecting them to be vindictive like that. I might still call the DISH loyalty dept tomorrow to see what they think of this.
 
Get a Phillips screw driver and swap then OTA unit. It’s really no big deal.

It costs money to roll a truck and to send out a technician.

Have them mail you the replacement box, try doing it yourself. If you can’t figure it out after talking to tech support, then make the argument you need a technician to come out.

With covid and all the other stuff going on right now, I wouldn’t want one of their techs in my house anyways


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Wow... Did you read my response? So some 85 yr old person should unhook the coax cables probably like at least 3..get a phillips screwdriver and remove the cover plate on the new receiver.. remove the module from the old receiver and install it in the new one.Hookup the all the coax back to the proper ports and all of this is because it cost Dish money??? The customer is paying for the dish protect service fees for this kind of service?? Crodrules doesn't want a tech or need one but Dish insist he has one but a customer that needs one can't get it..Wow
 
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I was trying report a physical channel move in my area to the Tech dept and Dr. DISH via chat Friday afternoon so they could change the ota guide information. I told them that my FOX station in Beaumont, Tx had moved from 4.1 to 6.3 as of Feb. 1st. The guide still shows 4.1 as Fox with the logo and the guide is from Fox even though the actual channel is now called DABLE. Also there is no guide for FOX on 6.3 but it is listed as FOX 4. The same company owns both KFDM and KBTV in our area. I told them that they needed to change the channel identifier to the new location so we could still get ota guide information and use it for recording. I also reported that the Lake Charles dma 65miles away that we can receive via ota also had a problem with it's FOX 29.1 station. They had no guide information on 29.1 which is where the actual station for FOX is located and it was instead at 29.3 which is CIRCLE, complete with the FOX logo. Again no way to get any recordings using name based recordings.
I've reported this twice to DISH, the first time a couple of weeks ago. Of course, I had to go through the usual BS, resetting the receiver, re-scanning, forcing a guide update, etc. In the end, the CSR says that it will be reported at once to the engineering department and will be taken care of.

Actually, Fox has been broadcasting on 6.3 and 4.1 for the whole month of January, so DISH has had plenty of time to make the guide data transition. My Tivo and Tablo both took care of this about three weeks ago.

I'm wondering if DISH still has the Fox station on 4.1 on their satellite service. If so, they may never change it for those of us who use the ota module.
 
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Wow... Did you read my response? So some 85 yr old person should unhook the coax cables probably like at least 3..get a phillips screwdriver and remove the cover plate on the new receiver.. remove the module from the old receiver and install it in the new one.Hookup the all the coax back to the proper ports and all of this is because it cost Dish money??? The customer is paying for the dish protect service fees for this kind of service?? Crodrules doesn't want a tech or need one but Dish insist he has one but a customer that needs one can't get it..Wow

What difference does it make being 85 years old or not.

We elected Biden as our president, he will be 82 before his term ends.

Someone being 82 years old can’t run our country?

Not to turn this into a political argument, but age has nothing to do with this.

People age differently, and are capable of doing different things

You have Dish ship the replacement receiver and you call tech support to help hooking it up.

You can’t just demand a technician because you don’t want to try. That’s as bad as Dish sending out a replacement remote control, and a customer demanding a tech come out and program it to control the volume on the TV


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Now, I don't want to sound paranoid, but I have never had my locals and my service address changed to a town I have never been to or heard of ,especially when I never requested a change . I can only think that "Dr. DISH" decided to screw with my account, because I said I would contact the DISH Loyalty dept. to see if they would give the information to the appropriate dept. to get this fixed.
Congrats on the nice rant. That is the best one in this thread, and that is really saying something, coming from me. I wouldn't chalk this one up to vindictiveness, though, but rather sheer incompetence. You were reporting an issue with OTA local guide information, and you also specifically mentioned a channel in Louisiana. Well, "OTA" sounds an awful lot like "Otis" so the result of changing your service address and satellite locals to Otis, Louisiana is somewhat understandable, although still incredibly stupid.
 
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You know, when you call in to Customer Service, very rarely are you calling Dish Network, but instead an outsourced call center that handles multiple accounts. They are barely trained and completely naive to whatever it is that Dish actually does, I'm sure.

Dr Dish is in Columbus, actually Dublin, OH. They're not techs, either, just better-trained call center employees, but they are Dish, so I'm surprised they wouldn't send a tech, BUT the secret is to let them send the box and tell them you need a tech to install it. The actual work-order is called Setup RA'd Receiver.
 
You know, when you call in to Customer Service, very rarely are you calling Dish Network, but instead an outsourced call center that handles multiple accounts. They are barely trained and completely naive to whatever it is that Dish actually does, I'm sure.

Dr Dish is in Columbus, actually Dublin, OH. They're not techs, either, just better-trained call center employees, but they are Dish, so I'm surprised they wouldn't send a tech, BUT the secret is to let them send the box and tell them you need a tech to install it. The actual work-order is called Setup RA'd Receiver.

Techs cost money. Average truck roll costs Dish $160. Doesn’t matter if it’s to swap a receiver or repoint a Dish

Factor in insurance, gas, hourly pay etc


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What difference does it make being 85 years old or not.

We elected Biden as our president, he will be 82 before his term ends.

Someone being 82 years old can’t run our country?

Not to turn this into a political argument, but age has nothing to do with this.

People age differently, and are capable of doing different things

You have Dish ship the replacement receiver and you call tech support to help hooking it up.

You can’t just demand a technician because you don’t want to try. That’s as bad as Dish sending out a replacement remote control, and a customer demanding a tech come out and program it to control the volume on the TV


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You are correct that it shouldn't matter what age the customer is..When one of Dish's highly trained tech support personal LOL determined that the receiver is bad the work order should be started to repair the customers TV.. Especially when the customer has been paying for the protection plan Not just stick a receiver in the mail and say please return the old receiver..I have road hazard protection on my tires and recently had a blowout..Goodyear didn't just ship me a tire and ask for the old one back..They paid for the new tire and the tow..I didn't have to take the tire off the car or touch anything...Dish makes plenty of money to warrant a service call when someone has been paying for the protection plan.. What's the use in having a protection plan? I know several cases where they replaced receivers with no protection plans..
 
You are correct that it shouldn't matter what age the customer is..When one of Dish's highly trained tech support personal LOL determined that the receiver is bad the work order should be started to repair the customers TV.. Especially when the customer has been paying for the protection plan Not just stick a receiver in the mail and say please return the old receiver..I have road hazard protection on my tires and recently had a blowout..Goodyear didn't just ship me a tire and ask for the old one back..They paid for the new tire and the tow..I didn't have to take the tire off the car or touch anything...Dish makes plenty of money to warrant a service call when someone has been paying for the protection plan.. What's the use in having a protection plan? I know several cases where they replaced receivers with no protection plans..

I agree that’s what “should” happen, but that is not dish network policy when it comes to replacement receivers.

Every provider I know of will ship replacement equipment to the customer when it’s determined to be defective

I do not believe the dish protection plan covers sending out a tech to swap a box.

They ship the box first, and if after speaking with tech support you can’t figure it out they may send someone out

However my point is they won’t just send someone out, for free, protection plan not without trouble shooting first and or shipping replacement equipment


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However my point is they won’t just send someone out, for free, protection plan not without trouble shooting first and or shipping replacement equipment
My point is that the tech already diagnosed the problem being the receiver..If a 20+yr customer request the technician to install the defective equipment (if Dish was any decent company) they would take care of that customer..The dish protect agreement states that it's the discretion of the administrator (Dish) phone clown as to what you receive...Back to my Original point...Dish Customer service Sucks..I wouldn't pay a penny for their protection plan..Next they will send you coax and tell you to replace the bad sections and send back the old so they can scrap the copper..
From the Protection Plan Agreement..
What type of service is available? The Administrator, at its sole discretion, may either ship a replacement
Product to You or dispatch an authorized service provider to Your location.
 
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My point is that the tech already diagnosed the problem being the receiver..If a 20+yr customer request the technician to install the defective equipment (if Dish was any decent company) they would take care of that customer..The dish protect agreement states that it's the discretion of the administrator (Dish) phone clown as to what you receive...Back to my Original point...Dish Customer service Sucks..I wouldn't pay a penny for their protection plan..Next they will send you coax and tell you to replace the bad sections and send back the old so they can scrap the copper..
From the Protection Plan Agreement..
What type of service is available? The Administrator, at its sole discretion, may either ship a replacement
Product to You or dispatch an authorized service provider to Your location.

I’m not disagreeing with you

It’s a bad policy, but at the same time if dish branded equipment dish’t have such a high failure rate (unlike Directv) we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

I wouldn’t spend my $10 for the protection plan either.

First, no dish trained monkey is stepping foot on my property, which means I can fix any wiring issue myself.

Only reason why I need the warranty is to exchange a bad receiver.

If it’s a lease box, then it’s covered under warranty.

So really it comes down to paying $10 forever to save $14.95 in shipping charges if your box goes bad.

Now if you own your equipment, and it’s out of warranty it’s a toss up.

Considering dish will likely replace it anyways to keep you as a customer, also I believe out of warranty exchange is still $69.99

The $69.99 is fine for a hopper, but anything else the equipment is less than $50 on eBay

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Techs cost money. Average truck roll costs Dish $160. Doesn’t matter if it’s to swap a receiver or repoint a Dish

Factor in insurance, gas, hourly pay etc


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They set up truck rolls when a customer can't figure out how to turn closed-captions off.

I agree that’s what “should” happen, but that is not dish network policy when it comes to replacement receivers.
And you know this, how??
Keep in mind, if you don't know since you're new here, I've been a Dish tech for almost 8 years...
 
Not just stick a receiver in the mail and say please return the old receiver..
In the OP's case, they won't want the old receiver back, since it is an old obsolete model. But I get what you're saying...

I do not believe the dish protection plan covers sending out a tech to swap a box.
In my case, it did. The tech visit was the one thing that Dish did not charge me for.

..If a 20+yr customer request the technician to install the defective equipment...
For some reason, this part made me laugh. ;)
 
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