# My dead 501...and the dumbest thing a Dish CSR ever said....



## mnassour (Apr 23, 2002)

If I'm wrong here, someone correct me.....please.

I just ordered a refurb 501 from Dish Depot to replace my elderly 3800. This is for a commercial account located in McAllen, south of where I live in Austin.

Thinking I would go ahead and activate the box through my old Dish 500, I plugged it up. It immediately went to the checkswitch screen, kind of a surprise, but whatever. I ran a check switch, all looked good and it got all kinds of signal everywhere. It then went to "please do not move downloading..." etc. Underneath that in the same white area, it said "acquiring satellite".

30 minutes later, it's at this same screen, no movement on the progress bar below.

I call Dish....and the tech support person tells me....

"You can't activate that receiver where you are. You don't have an active account there and it's not getting the same signal that it will in McAllen."

    
:eek2: :eek2: :eek2: :eek2: 


Uhhh....I'm in the exact same footprint of the same satellites, folks. Am I missing something here or have I just witnessed yet another classic moment in the history of Dish customer support?

FWIW, a second call to another tech support person yielded different results. She had me do a boot on the receiver from the front panel. While holding the button both lights stayed on....not going off...as they do on my other 501. She pronouced it DOA and recommended a return to Dish Depot after it gave us a "serious hard drive" error, number 311.

Sigh...................


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## Satpro92 (Jan 30, 2005)

Typical,I have found that most "techs" at Dish know very little,it is best to hang up and call back(as you did ) and get another tech who may or may not be able to help.

I can understand less accomplished "techs" on the consumer line,as most consumer's problems are easily fixed,but they need better people to talk with retailers.

I have gotten a couple of 501 refurbs that had the same problem,in fact my experience as a whole with refurbs is less than desirable


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Your 501 is probably OK. CSR #2 doesn't know much more than #1.

Try pulling the power plug. Let it sit a few minutes, then try again.

My 501 has given me that hard disk error message a couple of times over the years.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Refub department appears to have improved, there used to be more DOA boxes.

I heard ALl DVRs get a brand new hard drive each time they vacation at E....

Wonder what E does with all those questionable hard drives?

crusher or wipe and sell as scrap, to be resold on e bay?


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## ClaudeR (Dec 7, 2003)

Bob Haller said:


> I heard ALl DVRs get a brand new hard drive each time they vacation at E....


 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

That is a good question Bob Haller. I dont know if Dish Network would really be willing to put a brand new hard drive in every new receiver everytime they arrive there even if they did not need them unless they have a deal with the hard drive manufacturer to do so or just send them back regardless.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

You think charlie would spend the money on a new drive if the existing one wasn't screaming bloody murder from it's bearings?

Heck, I've seen reports where they didn't even bother to reload the drive and it had the previous owner's content on it!


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## mnassour (Apr 23, 2002)

Well, thanks for the replies, folks. The REAL error number was 0457. As far as I can tell, that means your HD is hosed, either due to a hardware or software failure. Talked w/Mark at DishDepot and he is getting another sent from Dish.


We. Shall. See.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

SimpleSimon said:


> You think charlie would spend the money on a new drive if the existing one wasn't screaming bloody murder from it's bearings?
> 
> Heck, I've seen reports where they didn't even bother to reload the drive and it had the previous owner's content on it!


Is that a recent report? Given hard drives being fragile and flaking out in normal use I believed the rumor all DVRs got them replaced true, since the shippiong and handling of RMAed boxes exceeds the cost of say a 40 gig drive...

Given the costs involved it appears sensible


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

HD = High Definition
HDD = Hard Disk Drive

Please don't try to confuse me anymore than I already am. :grin:


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## homeskillet (Feb 3, 2004)

I got a Referbed 522 a year ago February and when I got it activated and running all of the sudden that night it started recording programs and I went to the DVR menu and it had about 25 ABC news recorded and some local newscasts from a New England ABC Affiliate.... I had to delete ALL the timers it had, plus everything on the hard drive. This was my 5th 522 box, and it seems to finally be a stable one.

I guess mine didn't get the E* Vacation Package.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

And there we are. 


Bob Haller said:


> Given the costs involved it appears sensible


Considering your history, Bob, I thought you knew better than that. E* ALWAYS does the opposite of sensible.


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## mnassour (Apr 23, 2002)

Just for what it's worth, my replacement 501 arrived yesterday from El Paso and came up without any incident. And no, no one else had left their shows on the hard drive!


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