I've got two HD-DVRs in my house, but one of them is and older HR10-250which is pretty outdated-
Wanted to call D* and exchange it for a Hr20/21 to take advantage of the expanded HD offerings, but was hoping to get a little insider info before making the call. Sure, they'll do it for $199 but usually I can find a few current threads with some more "friendly" options.
Anybody do an exchange recently? I just don't trust the CSRs over there to really put my best interests first

I got a letter from D* saying they would replace my 10-250 for free (and put up a new dish, of course) since they're switching to mpeg4. I think they're offering this region by region. Do you already have the new dish and/or have already taken them up on this offer?

When I called, I told them I was considering Dish (true) and that I would really like a second hd dvr at no charge as well. Got two hr22's for nothing. As a side note, one of the receivers kept acting up. Got a replacement today - an hr21 :(

Yeah, I think we already went through that out here. The rub was that I'd just paid for the HR10 a couple of months before and they were going to charge a monthly fee for the newer one. Having just spent a few hundred $$ I didn't feel like giving it back to them and getting a leased box in return.
Of course that was then and this is now and I probably should have...

Yeah, I think we already went through that out here. The rub was that I'd just paid for the HR10 a couple of months before and they were going to charge a monthly fee for the newer one. Having just spent a few hundred $$ I didn't feel like giving it back to them and getting a leased box in return.
Of course that was then and this is now and I probably should have...

Monthly fees are the same whether the receivers are leased or owned.

As it was explained to me at the time, they would take my fairly-new and not-cheap receiver that I'd just paid for and would then pay them an additional $5/month for the box. I did take them up on one "free" box and it shows up separately on my bill as "leased receiver" and they ding me every month for it. This is in addition to their "extra receiver" fee which they convienently add on there as well.

As it was explained to me at the time, they would take my fairly-new and not-cheap receiver that I'd just paid for and would then pay them an additional $5/month for the box. I did take them up on one "free" box and it shows up separately on my bill as "leased receiver" and they ding me every month for it. This is in addition to their "extra receiver" fee which they convienently add on there as well.

If you only have a total of two STBs (receivers or DVRs) you should only be paying a monthly fee for one of them. If the second receiver/DVR is owned the charge will show up as 'additional receiver', if the second receiver/DVR is the leased one the charge will be for a 'leased receiver'. In either case, the charge will be $4.99.

Another way of saying this is that you'll never be charged a monthly fee for the first receiver/DVR. Don't confuse this with the monthly DVR Service charge though of $5.99/month which you'll incur even if you have only one DVR on your account and no other boxes.

Kind of a moot point actually - this was a long time ago.
Getting back to the original post - "Wanted to call D* and exchange it for a Hr20/21 to take advantage of the expanded HD offerings, but was hoping to get a little insider info before making the call. Sure, they'll do it for $199 but usually I can find a few current threads with some more "friendly" options."