# Switching to D* after 5 years with Charlie



## JBKing (Mar 23, 2002)

I got aggravated at E* last night and cancelled my account. I've been debating this for some time, but wanted to wait and see how D*'s Spaceway satellites/MPEG4 thing shaped up.

Anyway, for those who care..... read below, for those who don't ....









Besides my 510 acting flaky lately, the signal on the 105 sat often drops to the lower 30's thereby causing signal loss, although 110 and 119 are both strong as always. I assumed the dish needed a realignment. I've installed several dishes over the years, but never a SuperDish and didn't want to climb on top of the roof to do it. So, I call E*'s tech support, and after the normal battery of tests, it was determined someone needed to come out and check the alignment.

It seems my 1.99 monthly warranty would bring the $99 service call down to $49. This may be a case where I was looking for something for nothing, but I was not going to pay a single dime to have someone fix my dish that should already be working. I went through the spiel about being with E* since 2000, and told the CSR to see how many ClubDish referrals I have. He was able to bring the service call charge down to $25, but that was all. I told him that I wasn't going to pay anything, and if he couldn't tell me the service call would be free, I would cancel right then and switch to D*.

He called on a Customer Specialist, who offered a free service call, IF I committed to another 12 months of service. Now, I can understand the reasoning, why should they have someone fix my dish, only to see me cancel soon after. But I decided I didn't want to commit for 12 more months and cancelled my account on the spot.

Here's what really got me - After canceling, the Specialist said that if I decided to come back to E* at some point, they would waive the $25 reactivation fee for being a long term customer! Found it strange they would waive a $25 reactivation fee to get me back, but not a $25 service call to keep me! I always knew current subs were lower on the ladder than new subs, but didn't realize that returning customers are placed above current subs!









So anyway, looks like I'm going back to D* after 5 years.

I'll have to say both CSR's I talked to were very nice, I guess there is only so far they are allowed to go.


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## KingLoop (Mar 3, 2005)

JBKing said:


> So anyway, looks like I'm going back to D* after 5 years.


Actually, for being a good customer, you can come back to E* after 6 months and sign up to the DHA, you can lease a 811 or 522 (or both) for free... Only catch you have to commit for 24 months.

Something to ponder.


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## crkeehn (Apr 23, 2002)

You're lucky they offered you that much. When I cancelled E* I was offered the $25 fee plus the requirement to pay two months in advance, to resign.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

We were told six months (or so, in a follow-up phone call asking why we canceled) after canceling DISH that they'd give us a new receiver free and no reconnect fee to come back. We canceled because they REFUSED to give us a new receiver for less than $50 (we had a DISHPlayer, used just as a normal receiver, which the hard drive died in). Guess what, we went to Pegasus DirecTV then when Bresnan came to town and upgraded the cable to 860MHz 2-way and added new channels and Internet service we went to cable. Still have cable now, and it's looking that way for awhile thanks to recent cable upgrades (got rid of the awful tan guide, adding Music Choice in the next few days).

If DISH had offered a new receiver free BEFORE we canceled, they would have kept us for at least another year as it turned out. Oh, and the guy on the phone who offered a new receiver said "I can't believe they didn't just give you a new receiver".

Charlie is an idiot with no business sense. He'll push hard to get a customer back or to get a new customer, but he happily lets existing customers walk out the door over relatively cheap to resolve equipment issues. A new receiver, or in your case re-aiming a dish is MUCH cheaper than acquiring a new customer. But stupid Charlie will never get that.


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## davejacobson (Mar 14, 2005)

I always wonder why people expect service for free. Its your dish on your house and you want someone to repair it for free. I dont get it. What else do you expect for free?? The warranty you paid for was going to give you what you agreed to what else do you want.I would bet both sat companies have similar repair polices on an installed dish more than 6 months old. I think next time I have my car repaired I will make GM pay for it becouse I did buy it from them and it shoud work without a problem forever even though I have had it for more than 5yrs.


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## KingLoop (Mar 3, 2005)

MarkA said:


> Charlie is an idiot...
> 
> But stupid Charlie will never get that.


Mark do you think that Jesus thinks Charlie is an idiot?


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## pez2002 (Dec 13, 2002)

do you still have your old directv stuff or are you going to have to buy new things ???


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

JBKing said:


> I got aggravated at E* last night and cancelled my account. I've been debating this for some time, but wanted to wait and see how D*'s Spaceway satellites/MPEG4 thing shaped up.
> 
> Anyway, for those who care..... read below, for those who don't ....
> 
> ...


Personally I think its dumb for you to complain. Dishnetwork is in business to make money.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

"Mark do you think that Jesus thinks Charlie is an idiot?"

No, but I think he's probably operating outside of his giftings (customer service not being a gift he was given) and should hire someone else (or if he has, pick a better person) to run the retentions department, or lack thereof.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Welcome to the club John :goodjob:

From what I gather it looks like you've been thinking about leaving E* for a while now, but needed some type of reason. Well this sounds like a good reason to me.  At least they offered to drop the $25 reconnect, when I canceled they just told me when (not if, but when) I decide to come back there would be a $25 fee.

So what hardware are you going to get? A few DirecTiVos maybe? 



> I always wonder why people expect service for free. Its your dish on your house and you want someone to repair it for free.


Just last week on our living room DTiVo my mom noticed skips on recorded content, didn't happen on live TV, only on recorded. Called up our D* retailer, they were here the next day (Saturday), with a brand new R10 to replace the Hughes DTiVo. And the R10 has an 80GB hard drive apposed to a 40GB. Last year during a storm the power went out, when it came back on the DTiVo in my room was skipping on both live TV and recorded programming. Again free replacement. We do not subscribe to any protection plans either.

With cable, a while back I was periodically losing the signal on Road Runner, come to find out the line that runs underneath my house went bad, new line was ran. About two months ago I was noticing severe slow downs on my connection. Called up Time Warner and got a free modem replacement. (I never paid or a modem, and there is no lease fee, so it is free)

If I can get this type of service without charge from both DirecTV and Time Warner Cable, why does Dish have a problem with it?

So yeah John, you have every right to vote with you're wallet and leave and I back you 110%!


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

Exactly Steve, DirecTV (even in the Pegasus days) and Bresnan (cable company) both understand that they're actually in a free market. DISH behaves like a monopoly, as does Centurytel (phone company). They provide the minimum level of service and have a "whatcha gonna do" attitude. No, they don't OWE us anything, but in a FREE market we're free to leave companies that don't treat the customer right. I have cable (Bresnan) and a Verizon Wireless cellphone. Much happier than in my DISH + DSL + landline so I can have DSL + Blackfoot el-cheapo cellphone days. Thought about going back to DirecTV and maybe keeping cable Internet, but I can't justify the price increase (because with cable I get a bundle package Internet + 1 digibox + HBO + Starz!/Encore at a substantial discount) for a moderate picture quality increase, not to mention the loss of on demand services.


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## JBKing (Mar 23, 2002)

For part 2 of this riveting saga....... 

Just got back from Best Buy and bought (2) 80GB D*Tivo's for $99 each, but (2) $50 rebates and a $50 BB gift card on the way. I got one extra el cheapo receiver for my daughter. She hardly watches TV anymore in her room, let alone record anything.

You hit the nail right on the head, Steve. Driving back from Evansville tonight, I was thinking I was probably just looking for an excuse to switch anyway. Can't wait to see a Tivo in action. 

BTW, No, I don't think I was asking too much for my dish to be realigned. As I told the CSR, if I wasn't one of these unfortunate ones with a SuperDish, I wouldn't have needed an alignment. Dish is in business to make money, but sometimes you have to give a little in order to keep someone's business.

Once again, the car analogy doesn't work with dbs. DBS is a service that you pay for each month. There is a reasonable expectation of continued service, IMHO, without the need for dish realignments. I had D* for about 3 years, installed myself and never needed an alignment. I then installed a Dish 500 myself and never needed an alignment. Only when I got a Superdish _professionally_ installed did I need realigning. :whatdidid


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

JBKing said:


> DBS is a service that you pay for each month. There is a reasonable expectation of continued service, IMHO, without the need for dish realignments. I had D* for about 3 years, installed myself and never needed an alignment. I then installed a Dish 500 myself and never needed an alignment. Only when I got a Superdish _professionally_ installed did I need realigning. :whatdidid


I guess the dumb question of the day would be, why did you pay to have the SuperDish professionally installed if you were 2-for-2 in self-installs? Was it a requirement or something when you bought it? I'm not being sarcastic or snide, I don't have a SuperDish so I don't know if it is something they force you to take a paid install for or not.

As for the rest of the subject... I understand that even a perfect install could get out of whack with normal weather conditions over a period of time, not to mention storms and such that are extra-nasty... so while I would expect some sort of reasonable warranty on an installation, I wouldn't expect them to come out and adjust my dish indefinately for free.


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## JBKing (Mar 23, 2002)

At the time (and still maybe?), yes, the SuperDish was required to be professionally installed.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Welcome to the club JB. You will really like the Tivo. Very solid DVR. Yes, the guides can be slow but WHO CARES! The darn thing just works. 

One thing that I've really liked about the Tivo software is the wishlist feature. Example: After Amercan Idol ended, I wanted to see all of Carrie Underwood's appearances on other shows. I entered "Carrie Underwood" and "American Idol" and the Tivo automatically recorded everthing that had those key words in the description. Very cool stuff!

Anyway, the Tivo software will take some getting use to but once you adapt, there is no going back.


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## KingLoop (Mar 3, 2005)

Chris Blount said:


> Anyway, the Tivo software will take some getting use to but once you adapt, there is no going back.


Well they do say once you go TiVo, you'll never LeaVo.


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## reddice (Feb 18, 2003)

The Tivo does not just work. Sorry but when I had it I had nothing but problems with it. With Dish PVR I have no problems at all.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

All of mine just work, other then the 'issues' I said above I have had no problems with my DirecTiVos. Solid as a rock!


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## JBKing (Mar 23, 2002)

Still waiting on my installer, but I received a call from Dish Retention Department wanting to know why I cancelled. I'm sure he had the story in front of him, but I went through it all again. He then offered to send someone out to align the dish for free and waive the $25 deactivation fee! I told him that if they had offered that the other night I would have stayed. He apologized for making the offer too late and said I could come back anytime under the same offer.


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## JBKing (Mar 23, 2002)

Installer was schedule to arrive between 1 and 5 PM. He arrived after 7:30PM and finished at 12:45AM! :eek2: He said the night before he worked until 2:30AM.

Afterward, it took me quite a while to get the DVR functionality working. The unit had trouble making a connection to obtain a local number. I have DSL but with filters on every phone and receiver. Through sheer luck, finally made a connection with one of the receivers, but had to use an initialization string on the other to finally get it to work. Everything is running fine now. The software certainly takes some getting used to.

I'll post an _unbiased_ review of D*Tivo and E* 5xx DVRs sometime in the future, but at first glance, I would say E* certainly has the edge as far as ease of use and simplicity. But then again, my TIVOs haven't missed a recording yet!  It's probably due to the fact that I've used the 5xx DVRs for so long, but as of now, I prefer E*'s interface, it's definitely cleaner, simpler, and faster.


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