[ChuckofTahoe]

This is kind of a long story but I will try and make it as short as I can:


I have been a D* customer for the last four years. I subscribe to Sunday Ticket so my annual expenditures with DirectTV are slightly in excess of $1,200. Probably more if PPV is included. I am located in a mountainous area south of Reno, NV. and I am a Raiders fan (sigh) and have never had a problem with a blackout. I really never got that much use out of Sunday Ticket other than to watch the Raiders games.


This past Sunday, my sister drives over 400 miles to watch the Raiders Saints game with me. We watch the first half fine and then when the second half is supposed to start, it is blacked out. Of course this ruined our day and was a particular bummer for my sister and her husband who are very avid fans and had driven quite a ways.


We contact D* after the second half starts and the explanation is that local Reno network TV has picked up the game and thus it is blacked out on Sunday Ticket. They explain that we need to get the oval dish and sign up for the local channel package. I should also mention that the D* service people on the phone were somewhat surly about the whole thing if not outright rude.


Fine. So I contact D* again this Monday morning to get the oval dish and the local service so that I can see the Raiders probably lose to the Chargers next Sunday. They inform me that they can't get out this week. Additionally, I inquire about getting an HD tuner hooked up and they inform me that this will cost me about $350. The icing on the cake is that to get my dish upgraded for local channels, they want me to sign a one year commitment to D*.


At this point, I am beginning to get irritated (the customer service surliness continued as well) as I feel I have spent a lot of money to get the games I want to watch and that I was never really informed about this need to upgrade my dish and now that it is the middle of football season and they cannot even try and accommodate me by hooking it up ASAP. The amazing thing about this customer service story is that if they had been halfway nice over the phone, I would have likely bitten the bullet and signed up for a one year commitment and just waited on the new oval dish.


So I call Dish Network and they are wheeling and dealing. For $49 which is credited on my first bill, I get an HD tuner plus two other tuners and they are going to be hooking up the whole thing this Thursday. With respect to the programming, I am going to get the local alphabet stations which air the Raiders.


I get everything I got on D* except for Sunday Ticket (which I hardly made use of) and the total service is probably $15 less per month than D* (not including the Sunday Ticket).


So after all this I call D* to have them discontinue my service at the end of the month and the lady on the line makes an extremely weak effort to retain the business. Basically saying "we have no control over NFL blackouts and the local affiliates blah blah". Finally she closes with "we are number one in customer service per J.D. Power etc.". Basically implying that my complaints and dissatisfaction were baseless and unreasonable. I checked this last fact out on the JD Power web site and found that D* had been number one on JDP in prior years but that for 2004, Dish had been ranked #1. So this last statement from D* was an exaggeration if not an outright misrepresentation or lie.


I am done with D* for a while. Please wish me luck with E*.

 

[MnGuy]

Good luck with E*.

 

[PRMan]

Way to go. Hit 'em where it hurts.


I would do the same but I am addicted to TiVo.

 

[ChuckofTahoe]

Quote:

Originally posted by PRMan Way to go. Hit 'em where it hurts. I would do the same but I am addicted to TiVo.

****. I have TiVO too. But as a stand alone box. You mean this won't work with Dish?

 

[AFH]

Good luck Dish Network. Make sure you get the Dish 500.

 

[CPanther95]

Did E* make you sign a 1 year commitment?

 

[AcuraCL]

Hi Chuck --

Welcome to Dish


It's proably no where near as bad as you may have read here.


The main advantages (to some) are Sunday ticket (and we know where you stand on that) and their HD Tivo. You didn't mention that being a big factor for you, so if you can tolerate the occasional bug and workaround with their 811 HD receiver, you'll do just fine.


Plus, the HD looks better with Dish too.


Have you tried to pick up your Reno locals with an antenna?

 

[ChuckofTahoe]

No 1 year committment. But I don't own the equipment and they repo if I disconnect.


No biggie. I originally bought all of my D* equipment and now it is headed for the trash heap so a lot of good owning it does.

Quote:

Originally posted by CPanther95 Did E* make you sign a 1 year commitment?

 

[ChuckofTahoe]

Quote:

Originally posted by AcuraCL Hi Chuck -- Welcome to Dish It's proably no where near as bad as you may have read here. The main advantages (to some) are Sunday ticket (and we know where you stand on that) and their HD Tivo. You didn't mention that being a big factor for you, so if you can tolerate the occasional bug and workaround with their 811 HD receiver, you'll do just fine. Plus, the HD looks better with Dish too. Have you tried to pick up your Reno locals with an antenna?

No over the air reception in the mountains here. With respect to Tivo I think a separate unit will work with the 811 HD receiver which is what I am getting. I checked the TIVO web site and it says it will work with any of the newer E* receivers. I may not have the disc space to capture HD quality but I can record in standard quality I am guessing.

 

[CPanther95]

You can't record HD on a standard Tivo regardless of disc space available.

 

[miniz]

First of all, D* has DOES NOT control the blackouts for NFL games. This is simple, you should have known it. (it is in your contract) The NFL is in complete control of ALL black-outs no matter which provider is carrying their feed. If you want to complain to someone, it is the NFL. DirecTV was in no way responsible for any black out you experienced. I hear this all time, everyone think DirecTV just likes to mean to you and for some unkown reason black you out of your fovorite game. Needing the oval dish for locals is nothing new, you should have had it already. If you had done any reading on this forum you would have known that you qualified for the $99 HD receiver deal from DirecTV. All you need to do is call customer retention and they will give it you, after you talk with them about your problems. Real HD tuners (Which Dish Nework fails to supply) cost $. Again, if you had done any reading you would have known that in order to get a free oval dish (which costs DirecTV money) you must sign into a one year contract. I can't see why this is bad? In the end you will be sorry that you gave up the $99 deal and switched to a far worse provider. If its HD or a DVR you want Dish Network is not the place. Just read for yourself all the numerous problem reports on the receivers at www.satelliteguys.us or www.dbstalk.com. Don't even get me going on the 921, (which requires multiple support forums) and lets not even get into the lack of (near) future satellite space Dish has for more HD programming. I wish you good luck-you are sure going to need it!

 

[bonscott87]

Quote:

Originally posted by ChuckofTahoe No biggie. I originally bought all of my D* equipment and now it is headed for the trash heap so a lot of good owning it does.

Why would you do that? e-Bay it and get something out of it or sell it to a friend. Probably make more money off it then you originally paid for it, espeically if you have any DirecTivos.


To be honest it sounds like you are upset mostly by the fact they couldn't get an installer available in your area this week. Not a whole lot they can do about that if the installers are are all booked.


Good luck.

 

[bullgates]

Be nice if we would have had some other choices for ST. Canadians have a large selection of providers for half the price. BEV & SC charge $120 and cable providers charge $80 from what I read here on AVS.

 

[ChuckofTahoe]

First of all I don't really frequent these forums very much so I admit I may be technically uninformed. I never heard about needing the oval dish until yesterday when the game I was expecting to watch was blacked out. I guess that is all my fault just because I have been a loyal four year customer of D* and never encountered this trouble before yesterday. Gosh I am sorry and apologize.


In fact, the the tone and argumentativeness of your post is very similar to what I experienced on the D* customer service line yesterday. So who can blame me for switching.


As for the technical aspect of HD on this network or that network I am willing to take the risk. I can always switch back to D* in a while and it seems they are treating new customers better than existing customers. In any case, I hardly doubt the FCC or the competitive nature of our economy will allow one company to dominate the satellite transmission business as you seem to intimate.

Quote:

Originally posted by miniz First of all, D* has DOES NOT control the blackouts for NFL games. This is simple, you should have known it. (it is in your contract) The NFL is in complete control of ALL black-outs no matter which provider is carrying their feed. If you want to complain to someone, it is the NFL. DirecTV was in no way responsible for any black out you experienced. I hear this all time, everyone think DirecTV just likes to mean to you and for some unkown reason black you out of your fovorite game. Needing the oval dish for locals is nothing new, you should have had it already. If you had done any reading on this forum you would have known that you qualified for the $99 HD receiver deal from DirecTV. All you need to do is call customer retention and they will give it you, after you talk with them about your problems. Real HD tuners (Which Dish Nework fails to supply) cost $. Again, if you had done any reading you would have known that in order to get a free oval dish (which costs DirecTV money) you must sign into a one year contract. I can't see why this is bad? In the end you will be sorry that you gave up the $99 deal and switched to a far worse provider. If its HD or a DVR you want Dish Network is not the place. Just read for yourself all the numerous problem reports on the receivers at www.satelliteguys.us or www.dbstalk.com. Don't even get me going on the 921, (which requires multiple support forums) and lets not even get into the lack of (near) future satellite space Dish has for more HD programming. I wish you good luck-you are sure going to need it!

 

[AFH]

Chuck in Tahoe, you can get a Dish Network reciever that will record SD (standard def). The rec has a hard dish in it like the Tivo but it also allows you to reciever Dish Network programming. Try that out! You can put the recorder on one tv and have the hd reciever on your hd tv.

 

[AFH]

Quote:

Originally posted by ChuckofTahoe First of all I don't really frequent these forums very much so I admit I may be technically uninformed. I never heard about needing the oval dish until yesterday when the game I was expecting to watch was blacked out. I guess that is all my fault just because I have been a loyal four year customer of D* and never encountered this trouble before yesterday. Gosh I am sorry and apologize. In fact, the the tone and argumentativeness of your post is very similar to what I experienced on the D* customer service line yesterday. So who can blame me for switching. As for the technical aspect of HD on this network or that network I am willing to take the risk. I can always switch back to D* in a while and it seems they are treating new customers better than existing customers. In any case, I hardly doubt the FCC or the competitive nature of our economy will allow one company to dominate the satellite transmission business as you seem to intimate.

Well Chuck my boy, you do need the oval dish if you want to recieve any of the recently added local stations and your city maybe one of those that was recently added. That way you could have watched your Raiders thru your local CBS affil on DTV but only with the three lnb oval dish.

 

[miniz]

"As for the technical aspect of HD on this network or that network I am willing to take the risk. I can always switch back to D* in a while and it seems they are treating new customers better than existing customers. In any case, I hardly doubt the FCC or the competitive nature of our economy will allow one company to dominate the satellite transmission business as you seem to intimate."

Its fact that Dish doesn't have any orders placed for satellite's that take multiple years to make, as DirecTV does. two of which go into use next year. The FCC has absolutly nothing to with regulating the number of HD channels a provider has. We already have a provider doing this very fact, it's name is Voom!

 

[vurbano]

Isnt the equipment pretty cheap on ebay?

 

[rotohead]

The Raiders are usually broadcast on the Reno CBS station but this weekend they were carried by the Fox station because they played a NFC opponent at home and the team Fox usually carries, the SF 49ers, had a bye. I agree with you that the blackout rules are a bunch of whooee but if you have LOS to the top of the Mt. Rose ski area you could get the CBS HD feed w/ a OTA antenna (also the ABC and NBC HD feeds). You probably won't get the Fox HD feed from where you are located (it's on Peavine Mt, NW of Reno). I feast on ST so I will be a D* patron for awhile longer but it won't take much to get me to switch to Charter if they expand their local HD feeds. I've been a faithful D* fan for eight yrs but they need to expand the HD content over the next two yrs or I'm gone too. Can't you get DNS waviers where your at? I've talked to a number of Incline people who have waivers to all networks and that would give you CBS, NBC and soon Fox in HDef but you do need the oval dish to get all that.

 

[ChuckofTahoe]

As you quoted me, I can switch away from E* anytime as there was no committment period.


So if it sucks as you say, I can move back to D* and probably get updated equipment for free as I would at that point be a new customer.


Unlike D* which requires a year lock up for their oval dish which will probably cost them $50 to put in. Pretty stupid customer service and policy by D* to pull the plug on a $1,200+ per year customer to save themselves $50 install risk.


And your "$99 for a hd direct tv receiver" customer retention deal is a huge myth as far as I can tell. I spoke to three different people at D* who did not know anything about it. I even mentioned it to the person who processed my disconnect request. So maybe this like the double secret HD receiver deal that only Miniz is in the loop on.

Quote:

Originally posted by miniz "As for the technical aspect of HD on this network or that network I am willing to take the risk. I can always switch back to D* in a while and it seems they are treating new customers better than existing customers. In any case, I hardly doubt the FCC or the competitive nature of our economy will allow one company to dominate the satellite transmission business as you seem to intimate." Its fact that Dish doesn't have any orders placed for satellite's that take multiple years to make, as DirecTV does. two of which go into use next year. The FCC has absolutly nothing to with regulating the number of HD channels a provider has. We already have a provider doing this very fact, it's name is Voom!