A Parting Note to E*--Hello D*

[RickyMac]

I have been with E* since 1993. I have had a 2700, DVHS Receiver and 510 and recently purchased 921. Also, I have had Tivos for years. NBR is GREAT!

No NBR on 921 was the last straw. I went to Circuit City last night and purchased D* HD Tivo and installed myself.

This morning I got a RA# from E* and returned the 921.

I finally realized that I wanted to watch good TV and not be a bug tester.

When I started looking at the HD Tivo I was confused at first. IT WORKED AS ADVERTIZED! I typed in my zip and the OTAs loaded and LISTED automaticly. The setup was simple for anyone that had previously owned a Tivo.

Last night I recorded two HD OTA shows that were on at the same time and did not feel like I was working a VCR.

I will continue to report on my D* HD Tivo. I have earned the right after putting up with all the E* lies.

But you know what, it's not E*s fault; it's the fault of everyone that puts up with this kind of treatment. With all the lies E*s numbers have continued to increase. If you want to make E* a better company, then leave. Right now they have no reason to get better.

HD TIVO, I love it. If? I find anything wrong with it I will let you know.

 

[cr0mag]

I think you've made a wise choice! While every company has their issues, D* seems to be the lesser of all of the evils and as far as the D* tivo units are concerned... The things just work! Period! I don't have the HD tivo (yet), but my wife and I have enjoyed the SD tivo unit for about 18 months and I can't wait till the day that I can get a new HD model!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

When I started looking at the HD Tivo I was confused at first. IT WORKED AS ADVERTIZED!

This is one of the big things I have been trying to hammer home with Charlie in my emails back and forth with him. This is something Dish really needs to learn and quickly.

 

[boba]

This is one of the big things I have been trying to hammer home with Charlie in my emails back and forth with him. This is something Dish really needs to learn and quickly.

Scott it's too late for Charlie to learn that lesson. Back in the days of "C" band they made the Houston Tracker brand and learned with their Power Supply Problems that the PUBLIC will accept an almost working receiver. As a dealer I have also complained about the constantly lousy software. Dec.15th I terminated my subscription to DISH "Notwerk" and now have only Directv at home. He is going to have to lose millions of subscribers before his stockholders wake him up.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Some constructive criticism.......

I like the programming (although I wish I could get Sunday Ticket, I know that D* locked it up until the next decade...... and please add any missing teams like the Yankees to Extra Innings), but I hate the hardware. I've been a subscriber since 2000 and I remember wrestling with the Dishplayer, then the 721, then the 921. Problems with Dolby Digital feeds cutting in and out. Bizarre behavior on the Dishplayers. Yanking features willy nilly that were core reasons for getting the unit (Removing games from the Dishplayer, abandoning internet access on the 721, no keyboard for the 721 or 921 as shown in marketing literature, and removal of the Firewire ports on the 921.)

If you don't have a feature we want on a new receiver, we are disappointed. When you yank it AFTER it has been promised (or worse after we have bought it), then we are ANGRY. Making your customers angry is a bad idea (most of us came to satellite after cable failed to learn this lesson as well so you aren't alone, but still....).

I WANT to stay with Dish. I like the faster guides, the programming options, a CEO who actually talks to us once a month (we all ridicule the misstatements, but D* avoids the problem altogether by not saying anything), the Sirius deal, and a maverick leader who actually stands up to price increases occasionally (I hate the programs going dark, but I understand it as a necessary evil to keep prices from going nuts).

What I DON'T like are the "Lucy yanking the football" moments where I buy into the hype AGAIN and then wind up on my back staring at the sky and seeing stars again as ANOTHER gotcha gets unveiled.

I expect the transition to more HD channels next year with MPEG4 to be the next big atom bomb on the horizon. People who shelled out $1000 for the 921 will be angry when they are told that their equipment will not be able to get any more HD channels then they already have. People who shell out for a 942 receiver and ALSO can't get the new channels (as is currently estimated) will be spitting nails angry.

Combine this with a competitor who has his eye back on the ball and it adds up to a disaster in the mid-term. PLEASE wrench the ship hard to starboard and change the status quo mindset of your people or you will wind up like Primestar in 5 years.

In November 2003, I extended my commitment for 2 years in exchange for a free 510 upgrade (and an extra SW64 switch). For the first time since I signed up I'm staring at the November 2005 page of my calendar and seriously considering an exit strategy from E* if things don't change.

As a customer who spends $190 a month on your service, I implore you to heed our warnings and change things for the better.....

Oh, and...

P.S. Bring back a Laurie Farkas like type on channel 101 to give us regular updates on issues of interest. Start using us as allies in your attempts to get Congress to treat us all better. Keep us informed and let the hundreds or thousands of complaints get attention for issues important to both you and us, the customers. You would cut down call volumes for your CSRs dramatically if you let your viewers know about these forums. We are not the enemy. We are your first line of defense in dealing with bugs and can disseminate information about programming MUCH faster than you can.

Oh, and take the guy who decided to outsource the development of your flagship HD receiver to a foreign country with PAL standards as the norm and box him upside the ears. Outsourcing didn't work with the boys at Redmond, and it REALLY hasn't worked again this time either. They've had a year to fix the bugs in the 921 and they introduce 4 new bugs for every 3 bugs they fix.

 

[Enforcer]

Well folks I made the switch from E* to Direct today. I am tired of beta testing receivers and lost promises from Charlie and company. I have been with Dish for over 2 years, and I have always stuck up for them in thick and thin, however my patience has worn to the limit.

So I call Dish today to cancel my service and of course they transfer me to the customer retention department. Well, I let them try, or at least I thought I would. An unnamed lady came on and asked to verify my account information. Then she asks me why I want to cancel my service. I gave her my reason, and she insisted that Direct was no where near superior technology wise as dish. I then said, do what? You don't even have basic receivers that work correctly. She asked what I thought the problem was, and I replied that rebooting receiver, no named based recording on the 510, not to mention all the poor souls that forked over 1000 bucks for a 921 who aren't happy with the product and that it doesn't have the advertised features. She said, of course it does!! I ended it there, I didn't feel like arguing. She said in a harsh voice, fine sir, goodbye.

That encounter today just put the icing on the cake. Being a retention department they sure didn't try to keep me. Didn't offer anything to keep me as a customer. Nothing! She yelled at me on the phone saying how bad directv was and bla bla. I am glad I made the switch. BTW, Scott thanks for the heads up on valueelectronics.com. I called and spoke with Wendy and placed my order. Wow, what a class act! Extremely helpful and courteous. She emailed me everything I needed, including the tracking number of the shipment. Direct Tivo (R10) model along with a Phase 3 dish should be here tomorrow. I will report on how it goes. Thanks for the 10% Scott!!

 

[ScottChez]

At times your guide will get really slow on the HD Tivo. Here is the fix.
I switched just like you and it takes a while to get used to the guide. After a while you dont use the guide much as everything you want to watch is already on the Now Playing list.

TIP #1

Make sue both turner are not on a HD channel (they both record live), change the one your not watching to a channel number that does not exist. It will speed the guide up as the other tuner will not be recording HD or SD.

TIP #2
Also if will get slower after several days of use, just goto the menu and reset the Thumbs up and down data, even if you are not using them. What is happening is for ever channel change it records you usages so it can up load it to tivo.

Other than the slow guide, it runs perfect. I have mine on a UPS with 100% up time since May. No bugs no crashes, just a slow guide.

I have been with E* since 1993. I have had a 2700, DVHS Receiver and 510 and recently purchased 921. Also, I have had Tivos for years. NBR is GREAT!

No NBR on 921 was the last straw. I went to Circuit City last night and purchased D* HD Tivo and installed myself.

This morning I got a RA# from E* and returned the 921.

I finally realized that I wanted to watch good TV and not be a bug tester.

When I started looking at the HD Tivo I was confused at first. IT WORKED AS ADVERTIZED! I typed in my zip and the OTAs loaded and LISTED automaticly. The setup was simple for anyone that had previously owned a Tivo.

Last night I recorded two HD OTA shows that were on at the same time and did not feel like I was working a VCR.

I will continue to report on my D* HD Tivo. I have earned the right after putting up with all the E* lies.

But you know what, it's not E*s fault; it's the fault of everyone that puts up with this kind of treatment. With all the lies E*s numbers have continued to increase. If you want to make E* a better company, then leave. Right now they have no reason to get better.

HD TIVO, I love it. If? I find anything wrong with it I will let you know.

 

[rad]

I'm glad to see that folks are finally starting to come to their senses and stop spending $'s with a company that treats their customers like E* does.

 

[Neutron]

I left DISH when they started showing their ass back in March over the whole Viacom contract dispute. What good came from it? Did DISH's price stay the same? Nope, they increased it. So what was it worth? Looks like DISH will be doing another rate hike early next year.

Ever since I switched both my wife and I have been VERY happy with DirecTV's products. We have vowed to stay with DirecTV. They actually have a plan on future HD channels. What's DISH's future plans? They will force everyone to get a new receiver to get new HD channels. I bet you my HTL-HD will be able to pick up the new channels just fine.


My co-worker just called me here at work from his house and he said that he got a flyer in the mail for a free R10 DTivo if he signed up with DirecTV. There's another E* convert. He's never had D* and he thought it was awesome that the DTivo had dual tuners on it. He currently has a 510 and his contract just ended this month.

 

[sparker]

Welcome to the Receivers that work club. I am so glad I dumped E* and switched to D*. My HD Tivo has worked perfectly since May.

 

[jdspencer]

I reluctantly had to go to Dish in order to get the Superstation pack. I wanted to divorce myself from my cable company. With waivers in place for DNS on DirecTV, I only needed TWC for WB and UPN. So I bought a Dish 301 (piece of s__t, the guide is awful, especially when you are used to DirecTV DVRs) and use it with my DVD recorder for timeshifting. If and when DirecTV either provides a national/regional WB and UPN or my locals are available from DirecTV or become available OTA, I'll cancel that Dish subscription as well.

 

[Adkeith]

I just jumped ship last week myself. I started with Dish eight years ago and have had the 2000,5000,508's and 811 recievers. I have been happy with them as my 508's worked great and the 811 with the exception of the OTA guide. We wanted HiDef recording ability and with the 921 being such a piece of junk we sprung for the HDTivo. I now can record OTA in HiDef with the guide plus all of the other options of the Tivo. Dish did whine and cry when I canceled but I went ahead and paid them while I had them on the phone so I can divest of my equipment. I told the CSR the reason was because of the HiDef equipment and even suggested to her that they try and steal someone from Tivo to straighten out their equipment.

 

[mini1]

Welcome to the home of the best HD DVR on the market. You can start expecting things to actually work now, and with a real DVR, not just a digital VCR you can actully record stuff with names!!

 

[Fgsilva]

Welcome to the home of the best HD DVR on the market. You can start expecting things to actually work now, and with a real DVR, not just a digital VCR you can actully record stuff with names!!

Hi all,

Current E* customer, but most likely moving to Direct when my year commitment expires in February. Although I may still have to pay a $99 fee (I used their dish mover deal) I think it may be worth it. Hopefully also by then Direct will have a better offer for the HD Tivo than the current $1,000. OUch, a bit pricy I might say!!!

 

[robert luzzi]

scott ,

why are you trying to save dish junk net??

 

[hancox]

scott ,

why are you trying to save dish junk net??

Very simple. Because lots of people (a la our users) have service from E*. Rightly, wrongly, for whatever reason, they do. We're here to help people get the most from ANY service they might have, so it's a case of trying to get the best service for people from a given provider. We try to be impartial (I would bet any of the staff here would go in guns blazing if D* tried to pull anything like this now) in order to help ALL of our users.

There are numerous reasons for anyone to choose any dbs provider. E* has more local markets, D* appears to have better equipment and a clearer future at this time. My opinion - I'll probably switch from E* to D* next year, unless something changes (which it very well may).

I'll continue to try and help whomever might come with any question they might have, and that includes people I disagree with.

 

[rolandv]

It's good to see I'm not the only one who's going to switch/has switched to D*. Last weekend my Dish Network DVR 522 dumped all my recordings. Needless to say, it was the straw that broke the camels back. Right now I'm trying to decide between switching to DirecTivo or just getting a Windows Media Center 2005 PC.