# Dish Home Protection Plan (DHPP)



## mark069 (Jan 10, 2007)

I have seen posts asking about the value and necessity of paying for DHPP and I talked to Dish and got some additional information to clarify things. 


Rented or leased equipment is automatically warranteed.
DHPP will cover the cost of shipping the unit for repair ($14.95).

Of course DHPP covers repair to other items and in home service but I was mainly concerned with the coverage of the VIP 622. I didn't ask about "adding" DHPP after something breaks but that would be my approach after the initial free DHPP goes I am getting expires.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

DHPP can also cover receivers that you own, which are otherwise out of warranty... so folks with older owned receivers can benefit.

What is and isn't covered on leased receivers has always been sketchy.

I know DHA (or DHPP) warranty covers shipping and provides some free or reduced cost service calls that otherwise cost you money. I had a 501 replaced last year, for instance, and they just shipped me a new (refurb) one free and a return tag to send the broken one back. If I had not been on that plan, it would have cost me to ship the unit back.


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## jimstick (Feb 5, 2007)

HDMe said:


> DHPP can also cover receivers that you own, which are otherwise out of warranty... so folks with older owned receivers can benefit.
> 
> What is and isn't covered on leased receivers has always been sketchy.
> 
> I know DHA (or DHPP) warranty covers shipping and provides some free or reduced cost service calls that otherwise cost you money. I had a 501 replaced last year, for instance, and they just shipped me a new (refurb) one free and a return tag to send the broken one back. If I had not been on that plan, it would have cost me to ship the unit back.


Hmmm. $6.99 per month for 18 months, or $14.95 shipping IF you need to. The box is waranteed for 12 months, anyway. Anything else that goes wrong I can fix myself.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Yep... sometimes an "extended warranty" saves you money... but much of the time it does not. Alot of people miss that... Think about it, no company would ever offer a "deal" for an extended warranty if they didn't think they were making money doing it!

Most companies believe in their products... and believe they know the mean-time-between-failures as well as the types and expense of fixing those failures. They reason out that they can sell an extended warranty or service contract to customers at a per-month fee that is low enough to tease the customers... but will make them more money in the long run.

If every receiver failed every couple of months, there is no way they would have a $5.99 per month warranty service!

So... most folks paying the warranty will pay more than they will get back from it. If it didn't work that way, the company wouldn't offer it. The house always wins!


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

Dish tells me that the DHPP also covers the dish(s), LNBs, DPPP44 switch, the coax and the cost of a service call if the dishes need any adjustment.


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

Steve H said:


> Dish tells me that the DHPP also covers the dish(s), LNBs, DPPP44 switch, the coax and the cost of a service call if the dishes need any adjustment.


If you read the agreement you will find that it does not cover coax. and that service calls are $29.00.


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## Guitar1969 (Oct 19, 2006)

BNUMM said:


> If you read the agreement you will find that it does not cover coax. and that service calls are $29.00.


I have the DHPP(but its free because of my 18month commitment) too and I am not sure why. When my commitment is over I will cancel it I don't actually own anything(I paid a lease upgrade fee of $199 when I signed up so I don't own my VIP622) so if the thing breaks its their problem(its their equipement) - If they try to charge me I will just cancel my service.

I love how we have been conditioned to pay for equipmentto use their service(Which we pay for as well)


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

BNUMM said:


> If you read the agreement you will find that it does not cover coax. and that service calls are $29.00.


I have had three service calls in the past few months at no charge and one included new coax from the dishes to the TV's...................they must not have paid attention to the contract.


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## Rovingbar (Jan 25, 2005)

We've had several Dish receivers for years. We seem to upgrade faster than they fail. In the past, we'd upgrade after 3-5 years. With all the DVR and HD advances lately, it seems that we upgrade much faster.

BTW: A CSR told me that we can sign up for the plan AFTER we experience a problem, and then get the benefits. I personally feel this is dishonest, but it is an option for someone on a tight budget.


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## dclaryjr (Mar 11, 2007)

Guitar1969 said:


> I have the DHPP(but its free because of my 18month commitment)


Hmmmm...I just signed up for 18 mos and there is a charge for DHPP on my bill.

NEVERMIND: Found the credit on the back page!


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

If a component fails, call dish and sub to DHA. Call back and report the problem. After it's fixed - cancell.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Rovingbar said:


> BTW: A CSR told me that we can sign up for the plan AFTER we experience a problem, and then get the benefits. I personally feel this is dishonest, but it is an option for someone on a tight budget.


If Dish offers this as an option, what is dishonest about it?


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## ezra (Mar 10, 2007)

once you get caught you will lose it. The adding and removing of dhpp is monitored and the notes the csr's type are read. dhpp does not cover customer damage, such as droping the recver, insects, or mods that bbq your recver... so even if the equipment is owned and you set up an ra you will be charged the full price once the damage is assesed at the refurb center.. the best reason to have dhpp is because the remotes are the one unit that expericences the most wear and they are free with dhpp- good to have in a home with children. also once you have a tech visit you have a 90 day warraty on parts and labor so if another tech has to go back out with in the 90 days its free..having been a tsr i would not be with out it...also if you decide to do the labor yourself they will send you whatever part is the culprit free of charge and free shipping with return tag so you can send the old one back, this applies to lnbf, separators, diplexers, and switches. Im a diy kind of guy so why pay the 29 for the tech when i can do the job myself...


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## PhantomOG (Feb 7, 2007)

I've never had any type of satellite service so the whole protection plan thing is really odd to me.

I just signed up with Dish under no committment. I can cancel at any time with no fees. Just have to send the hardware back that I'm "leasing" postage pre-paid. So, while paying for their service, if their equipment that is "leased" to me fails.... how am I responsible for paying for it?? Just doesn't make sense to me. Intentional damage I can understand, but how it is my fault/responsibility if Dish sends me a lemon unit?

I guess I'm just used to the way cable works as far as fees/equipment. The CSR who signed me up also suggested the "sign up for this if you do ever get a problem" plan. Just seems like odd business for your CSR's to be saying this.

It just seems like they are trying to have their cake and eat it too. If I'm paying a monthly equipment lease fee, THEY should be responsible for fixing hardware as THEY own it. If I buy the hardware to avoid a lease fee, then I would feel more ok with them charging me to fix it.


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## TallGuyXP (Sep 19, 2006)

PhantomOG said:


> <snip>
> If I'm paying a monthly equipment lease fee, THEY should be responsible for fixing hardware as THEY own it. If I buy the hardware to avoid a lease fee, then I would feel more ok with them charging me to fix it.


I know this isn't really an apples-to-apples comparison, but if you lease a car for a duration longer than the warranty, and something fails after the warranty expires, do you expect that "THEY should be responsible for fixing hardware as THEY own it"?


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## PhantomOG (Feb 7, 2007)

TallGuyXP said:


> I know this isn't really an apples-to-apples comparison, but if you lease a car for a duration longer than the warranty, and something fails after the warranty expires, do you expect that "THEY should be responsible for fixing hardware as THEY own it"?


I've never leased a car so I wouldn't know. I just assumed people who leased cars had bumper to bumper warranties for the lease period. If not, its even more of a bad deal for them.

Can you imagine leasing a car for X months, and the engine needing to be re-built (faulty manufacturing) in the X-1 month just beforing turning it in? I can't imagine anyone being happy with paying that much money to repair a car just before handing it back to a dealership.

Besides, the analogy clearly doesn't hold water because car dealerships sell/lease cars. The "hardware" being the product, not a continuing service. Dish is selling its service, the hardware is just a means to the end. Without the service, the hardware is useless. Another reason why buying Dish hardware doesn't really make sense to me, since I can't use the hardware without continuing to pay for the service.


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## Guitar1969 (Oct 19, 2006)

PhantomOG said:


> I've never leased a car so I wouldn't know. I just assumed people who leased cars had bumper to bumper warranties for the lease period. If not, its even more of a bad deal for them.
> 
> Can you imagine leasing a car for X months, and the engine needing to be re-built (faulty manufacturing) in the X-1 month just beforing turning it in? I can't imagine anyone being happy with paying that much money to repair a car just before handing it back to a dealership.
> 
> Besides, the analogy clearly doesn't hold water because car dealerships sell/lease cars. The "hardware" being the product, not a continuing service. Dish is selling its service, the hardware is just a means to the end. Without the service, the hardware is useless. Another reason why buying Dish hardware doesn't really make sense to me, since I can't use the hardware without continuing to pay for the service.


I totally agree, but aren't cable companies charging a fee for their equipment now(I don't know for sure as I haven't been with cable for over 12 years now)


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## PhantomOG (Feb 7, 2007)

Guitar1969 said:


> I totally agree, but aren't cable companies charging a fee for their equipment now(I don't know for sure as I haven't been with cable for over 12 years now)


Yep, they do charge for equipment. But at least with Time Warner here, there is no such thing as a "Home Protection Plan" you pay for. If you equipment or cable goes out, they send someone out to fix it, absolutely no charge. When you terminate service, you give back your equipment. If Time Warner came out with a new receiver with better features, you just take your old receiver to their office and switch it with their latest and greatest, free of charge.

I switched from cable to Dish because Dish is alot cheaper. But as far as reliability and signal quality, cable has it all over Dish. I've had more audio/video problems, signal loss in this first month with Dish, than I had in the past 6 years with cable. That said, I still find Dish to be acceptable for the price. Hopefully service with the 622 with be alot better soon with updates.

EDIT: By fee, I mean a small monthly equipment fee. NOT a huge purchase price of equipment. I don't think they even let you buy the equipment if you wanted to.


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## dclaryjr (Mar 11, 2007)

PhantomOG said:


> Yep, they do charge for equipment. But at least with Time Warner here, there is no such thing as a "Home Protection Plan" you pay for. If you equipment or cable goes out, they send someone out to fix it, absolutely no charge. .


I've had Road Runner with them for several years (still do even though I dropped their TV for Dish) and it has been mostly trouble free. The one time it went down and I couldn't resolve the problem myself, their tech came out and and replaced the NIC--no charge. I was pretty impressed with that.

I had a hard time making the decision to switch because I was happy with the service--it was only Dish's programming choices that pushed me off the fence!


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## mark069 (Jan 10, 2007)

Rovingbar said:


> We've had several Dish receivers for years. We seem to upgrade faster than they fail. In the past, we'd upgrade after 3-5 years. With all the DVR and HD advances lately, it seems that we upgrade much faster.
> 
> BTW: A CSR told me that we can sign up for the plan AFTER we experience a problem, and then get the benefits. I personally feel this is dishonest, but it is an option for someone on a tight budget.


What's dishonest is quoting $29.99 for a monthly service agreement and then charging $40+ after all the additional "fees" and taxes have been added to this figure. It's as bad as with car rental companies.....


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## BJK (Feb 21, 2007)

HDMe said:


> DHPP can also cover receivers that you own, which are otherwise out of warranty... so folks with older owned receivers can benefit.
> 
> What is and isn't covered on leased receivers has always been sketchy.
> 
> I know DHA (or DHPP) warranty covers shipping and provides some free or reduced cost service calls that otherwise cost you money. I had a 501 replaced last year, for instance, and they just shipped me a new (refurb) one free and a return tag to send the broken one back. If I had not been on that plan,* it would have cost me to ship the unit back.*


Unless you have credit card auto pay.


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## offline (Feb 14, 2004)

I ended up purchasing it when one of my neighbor's trees grew sufficiently to cut off the signal, meaning I either had to ask them to top their tree (can't do that) or relocate my dish.

I opted for the latter.

Since I live in an area where this kind of thing is likely to happen again, it was worth the money.


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