Commercial account HD question?

[PMKS]

I've never messed w/ a commercial account, or known anyone who has.

Buddy spent 20 years in the Army, got out, moved back to town and opened up a bar/sports bar in our small town. There is/was only one other bar in town. He never had a Satellite account before, only cable.

Building he acquired already had a DirecTV Slimeline Dish w/ SL3 LNB nicely mounted w/ support arms, good wiring, etc.

He calls DirecTV to open a commerical account, Tech comes downs, takes down the slimeline, puts up a Phase III dish, leaves one SD receiver. Buddy had purchased two nice big flat-screen HDTV's, and thought he was getting HD.

I asked him if he asked for HD when he called for the initial order, he claims he did. He calls DirecTV, is told that since he inspected and signed for the install, will cost more to upgrade to HD. He claims tech told him he had HD. Since he is on a budget to get the business going, he decides to hold off for now.

He went with Dishnetwork for his home after this "bad" experience with DirecTV, the Dishnetwork tech tells him he should cancel DirecTV for the bar, and put an extra HD receiver on his home account for the bar, .
The other bar in town, the owner does not have a commercial account, and uses an extra receiver from his home account for the past ten years at least.

Anyway, what other options does my buddy have to get DirecTV to come down and give him HD equipment without extra costs? He feels he was mislead by the installer, I'm still baffled on why the tech removed the slimeline w/ the SL3 LNB, none of our locals are on 110/119, so he really didn't need those sats.

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

theres nothing he can really do with out account stacking.... tell him call up directv and start bitching.

 

[Jimbo]

First of all, how long was it from the time of the install and the call to say Hey, I didn't get what I needed ?

I would think that if it was a reasonable time frame they would help the Bar Owner.

When he took down the Slimline, that would have told me that something was wrong, hopefully he didn't take the SL with him.

As for the guy that said to take a box from Home to use at the bar, well thats about as ILLEGAL as it gets.

As far as the guy saying to sign up with Dish, well, it's kinda hard to have a "Sports Bar" with DISH, seeing there is NO Sunday Ticket available, or MLB EI as well.
Two Staples for most Sports Bars.

If I were the Bar Owner, I would call D* and talk with the Commercial Account dept or the Retention dept, try Commercial first.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Your buddy could get a commercial account through Dish with HD equipment for free, and you could order it through Dishstore.

But seriously, they Directv sales people get paid enough money when they sell these types of accounts, HD should not have been an issue. I would call them and cancel if they don't give you what you need.

Since the installer stole the Dish, your literally taking $200 -$300 to fix this.

 

[coinmaster32]

The "installer" sounds like a hack job. The Phase III dish has been phased out (so to speak) for many years, and the two additional satellites it can receive are only for misc programming, and locals in certain markets. Most installers only use the slimline dish, as the chance of someone getting a new account for SD only are getting pretty rare.

 

[PMKS]

First of all, how long was it from the time of the install and the call to say Hey, I didn't get what I needed ?

The business had just opened, I was the one who pointed out to him that he didn't get HD equipment, It was a week or so after the install. The Installer took the slimeline dish after installing the Phase 3 dish. The IRD was a brand new D11. Like I said in my first post, he had never had a sat sub before and knew nothing about the dishes or equipment. He wanted to do the honest thing by having a commercial account for his business. He claims to have called DirecTV several times with no success for a free swap out. He now says he can't remember if he asked for HD when he placed the initial order, he thought everything was HD now, he also claims the installer told him he had HD equipment.

I know that the Phase 3 dishes are still sold new by DirecTV, another buddy who works for a oilfield equipment rental business, gets Phase 3 dishes and SD IRD's straight from DirecTV for the rental trailers. They have yet to upgrade the equipment to HD.

 

[Jimbo]

The business had just opened, I was the one who pointed out to him that he didn't get HD equipment, It was a week or so after the install. The Installer took the slimeline dish after installing the Phase 3 dish. The IRD was a brand new D11. Like I said in my first post, he had never had a sat sub before and knew nothing about the dishes or equipment. He wanted to do the honest thing by having a commercial account for his business. He claims to have called DirecTV several times with no success for a free swap out. He now says he can't remember if he asked for HD when he placed the initial order, he thought everything was HD now, he also claims the installer told him he had HD equipment.

I know that the Phase 3 dishes are still sold new by DirecTV, another buddy who works for a oilfield equipment rental business, gets Phase 3 dishes and SD IRD's straight from DirecTV for the rental trailers. They have yet to upgrade the equipment to HD.

At this point, I would call D* retention department.
Maybe you could call with him seeing you know more about this stuff.

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