Advice for a new Dish subscriber?

[Rhinoman]

Hey Guys,


My father-in-law is going to sign up with Dish Network and he was wanting some help. I have Directv so I don't know much about Dish, other than they now offer the cheapest package (Dish Family $19.99).

So he is looking at the Dish Family package with locals,and a DVR. I think they are offering a free dvr with an 18 month commitment and free Starz for three months. My questions...

1) Is anyone getting a better deal out there?
2) Which DVR should he get? Will he have a choice?
3) Should he go with a local company or the national #?
4) Will they give him any grief if he asks for the install to be on a pole?

Any advice would be appreciated!
My mother got Dish a few years ago and her install was a nightmare. I lived three hours away and wasn't able to help. I just want things to go smoother for him.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[mdonnelly]

You can save some $ on the install with Club Dish. PM me for a number.

The DVR of choice now (SD) is the 625.
http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/product_brochures/625_Prod_SheetWeb.pdf

 

[Rhinoman]

The letter ole Pops-in-law received is from DirectDish.
It says:
Free equipment
Free installation
Free Starz for three months
No outlet fee (what does that mean? phone outlet?)

And it says "call now and receive a free 2 room DVR" Is that the 625?

 

[SimpleSimon]

You can save some $ on the install with Club Dish. PM me for a number.

You beat me to it - AGAIN.

Well, that's at least two of your 5 for the year.

 

[RobertsD]

The letter ole Pops-in-law received is from DirectDish.
It says:
Free equipment
Free installation
Free Starz for three months
No outlet fee (what does that mean? phone outlet?)

And it says "call now and receive a free 2 room DVR" Is that the 625?

Yes, it should be the 625.

The outlet fee is for two tuner DVR's. If you have it plugged into a phoneline, you are not charged this fee. When they say "no outlet fee", I'm guessing that they will run a phone line to the DVR for you if you don't already have access to a phone line there. Thats what they did for me, although that "no outlet fee" thing wasn't mentioned on the thing that I recieved in the mail.

 

[stevenlpkr]

I was told that the installer will not run a new phone outlet, so that has to be there, or use a long phone cord. the one that came with my 625 was pretty long anyway.

steve

 

[Rhinoman]

Hmmm,
Thanks for the info.
I had forgot about needing a phone line. He will probably need to run another phone line himself before the install, in case, they don't do it for him. There is one phone jack in that room but it is on an opposite wall.

I'm hoping they won't tell him he can't use a pole for the dish. That will be a deal breaker. He is dead set against mounting a dish on his house. I don't blame him. I've seen several leak and I don't like the look. When my Mom got her Dish put in, the guy was running late, did a crappy job with the install, and didn't spend enough time there. I think he said he had done 8 or 10 installs that day?
But I digress...


Are these Dish DVR's pretty good? I love my Directv Tivo.

 

[Claude Greiner]

If you call the DISHSTORE we will waive the initial $49.99 activation Fee and also credit an additional $49.99 on the first months bill.

Its probably going to be one of the better deals your going to find on the internet

 

[Rhinoman]

You beat me to it - AGAIN.

Well, that's at least two of your 5 for the year.

Do you get credits for referring people to these companies? What do you get if you get 5?

 

[mdonnelly]

Do you get credits for referring people to these companies? What do you get if you get 5?

The one that refers you gets $5/month credit for 10 months, up to 5 referrals/year.

 

[RobertsD]

They will install the Dish on a pole, they have no problem doing it, just make sure you tell them.

 

[cdbcorn]

You can save some $ on the install with Club Dish. PM me for a number.

The DVR of choice now (SD) is the 625.
http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/product_brochures/625_Prod_SheetWeb.pdf

Actually, this is misleading. Based on my experience this week, you'd get either the 522 or 625, and you have no control over which (unless you get really frustrated and send an email to ceo@dishnetwork.com and someone offers to create a manual work order to get you what you want). The main difference is that the 522 hard drive is 120GB, and the 625 has 250GB (although only 120 is used for usual DVR activity; the rest is reserved for VOD stuff). Dishnetwork's webpage is a bit misleading, in that it connects you to the brochure for the 625, when that's not really the only rx you could potentially receive.

Also, no matter what the CSRs tell you, there is an additional $5 monthly lease fee on top of the $5.99 DVR fee - I had a couple swear that there wasn't, only to be informed by the ceo response service that there is, and it cannot be waived. Just my experience.

Oh - also: for the phone line, since we didn't have one near our TV niche, we used one of those remote kind that plugs into the electrical outlet. It works great - we've had no problem. Sure beats having a long cord snake around the room (or house!).

 

[Rhinoman]

A phone line is only necessary if you order movies, correct?

 

[mdonnelly]

A phone line is only necessary if you order movies, correct?

I don't think you even need a phone line for that:

https://customersupport.dishnetwork.com/customercare/payperview/payPerViewHowToOrder.do