I received a call from D* the other night and they had me go through the signal strengths off my HDTV box (HR21-700). They said they were getting a lot of messages off the box's reporting poor signal strength. Anyway, they are sending a tech out to the house to do a free check-up on the dish/receiver. Anyone else hear about anything like this?

Can they monitor your refrigerator also and call you when you are low on beer?

I wish. I'll have to call them back and see if the service guy will bring a case.

I received a call from D* the other night and they had me go through the signal strengths off my HDTV box (HR21-700). They said they were getting a lot of messages off the box's reporting poor signal strength. Anyway, they are sending a tech out to the house to do a free check-up on the dish/receiver. Anyone else hear about anything like this?

Well, I could probably drive down the road and find a house with a Satellite dish on the roof, cross-reference a name, find a telephone number and make a call if I wanted to as well.

Question becomes why do they want to get inside your house.....he might be taking something from your house instead of bringing a case of beer to it.......

If it were me, I'd call D* and see if they have a Service Call scheduled for your account just in case.

Sounds suspicious to me.

I thought that I read a post claiming that DISH Network receivers call in to report weak signals if the levels are sustained over a long time. You might do better posting this at DBSTalk or SatelliteGuys forums, since there are more satellite dealers there.

I received a call from D* the other night and they had me go through the signal strengths off my HDTV box (HR21-700). They said they were getting a lot of messages off the box's reporting poor signal strength. Anyway, they are sending a tech out to the house to do a free check-up on the dish/receiver. Anyone else hear about anything like this?


I had the same thing happen to me, the caller said D*Tv had detected that my receiver was not receiving as strong a signal as my neighbors. They suspected that my dish may be out of alignment and offered to send a tech out for free to check my signal strength. The caller said I would be charged a service call fee of 79.99 but 79.99 would be credited back to my account. I was suspicious but agreed to the service call.

I checked my D*Tv account on line and sure enough I had been charged 79.99 and had been issued a credit of 79.99. When the tech showed up I again became suspicious, it was two individuals in a privately owned vehicle (no D*Tv markings). One of the "techs" had on a shirt (unbuttoned all the way down) that had the D*Tv logo on it, the other had on jeans and a t-shirt.

I only let them check out the TV in my front room which is right off the front door so they did not get into the rest of my house. One of the guys looked like he knew what he was doing while the other did not have a clue.

Some adjustments were made to my dish and my signal strength did improve some. After the "techs" left I still felt a little uneasy so I called D*Tv to confirm that this whole action was initiated by them. They did confirm that it was not a scam and that they had initiated the call and free service call.

After thinking back on it I remembered that on the first call they suggest I could subscribe to warranty plan for 5.99 a month or something like that to get free service calls for these type of issues if they should ever arise again in the future.

Bottom line I believe is D*Tv is trying to persuade (con) it's subscribers into adding on a 6.00 a month warranty to protect against non-existent problems!

D* called this week to tell me my H20 was part of a lot that is having a high failure rate. Wanted to send me a new box. I said, "Not unless it receives off-air" and the girl said, "You're not the first to say that. I have a box to check to make sure the replacement receives off-air."

If it doesn't, it goes back. I get locals from three markets with my antenna and all digitals from here. Don't much feel like changing that.

D* called this week to tell me my H20 was part of a lot that is having a high failure rate. Wanted to send me a new box. I said, "Not unless it receives off-air" and the girl said, "You're not the first to say that. I have a box to check to make sure the replacement receives off-air."

If it doesn't, it goes back. I get locals from three markets with my antenna and all digitals from here. Don't much feel like changing that.

Just got a similar call that one of my two H20's might be bad. I asked "What might be wrong?" Tech guy at D* "Flux Capacitor"...I kid you not. I even asked twice and got the same answer. I'm pretty sure it was D* though cause he was able to bring up my account number and knew the equip I have. Something to do with the codes on the bottom of the receiver. I was at work so I have to check it tonight. From life experience, fixing the unbroken worries me. :D

Just got a similar call that one of my two H20's might be bad. I asked "What might be wrong?" Tech guy at D* "Flux Capacitor"...I kid you not. I even asked twice and got the same answer. I'm pretty sure it was D* though cause he was able to bring up my account number and knew the equip I have. Something to do with the codes on the bottom of the receiver. I was at work so I have to check it tonight. From life experience, fixing the unbroken worries me. :DWas his first name Emmett?

Me, too. The new box is an H20 as promised. Slightly earlier model with pretty blue lights instead of red ones. OTA tuner isn't quite as good as the old box. One of the Toledo stations I can get on my other ATSC receivers refuses to lock up on the H20. Not a huge issue. But I'd have rather waited until it failed.

They've offered me another H-20 with no rental fees if I'll retire my Zenith DTV1080. We'll see if that happens as advertised, too.

Was his first name Emmett?

Me, too. The new box is an H20 as promised. Slightly earlier model with pretty blue lights instead of red ones. OTA tuner isn't quite as good as the old box. One of the Toledo stations I can get on my other ATSC receivers refuses to lock up on the H20. Not a huge issue. But I'd have rather waited until it failed.

They've offered me another H-20 with no rental fees if I'll retire my Zenith DTV1080. We'll see if that happens as advertised, too.

I didn't catch his name but I told him I would check and call back sometime next month tomorrow:cool:. Seriously, I'll post what I find tonite...and eventual results.

I called D* back and seems my receiver is one of the recalls. It seems they are finding defects in H20-600 receivers. There is a sticker on the bottom that will either say ECO1.0, ECO2.0 or be completly missing. If yours has an ECO1.0 sticker or none at all, it's prolly part of the recall. They send a replacement and a label to return your "defective" unit. If yours is one of these recievers you can call 800-932-7288 for replacement info. They will ask you if you need a OTA hook-up. My replacement is supposed to be here tomorrow. I'll post results as soon as I install it.

Updated: My replacement is an h20-100. Working fine so far!