Dish Network Prepaid Question

[WB8GRS]

system down for maintenance

I called the 1-888-347-4132 number today at 12:30 EST and got a recorded message saying the system is down for maitenance and to call back later. I have tried several time, but keep getting the same message. Is this normal? Is there another number I should call? I've only have the system for about a months and use the pay-by day plan to watch HBO on Sunday evening (true blood). It's worked fine the last 4 Sundays, but today I get this record message. Hope they fix this before 9PM today. Hope this is not related to prepaid comeing to an end and I sure hope I did not spend $100 and the satellite system won't work anymore on a pay-by-day.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

I just tried the 1-888-347-4132 number at 5:17pm EST, and got the same message.

Uh oh. This could be either the beginning of the end.

Or it could be a way for them too change the day to day option when using the GDMP(this would not surprise me). Or maybe they are going to add NEW options for programming that people have been waitinf for(DOUBT THIS. Since when has Dish ever done anything lately in the past couple of years to help/please it's customers).

Lastly, it may just be what they say it is. Maintenace to improve it. But with Dish's past record of doing things to piss people off, and erode their customer base, this may not be right either.

Dish Prepaid: TICK, TOCK CLARICE!

 

[chdn]

I was trying to call too to add more days, but it's under maintenance, it hasn't done that for me yet, this is the first time in 3 months.

That's why I like to have at least 2 weeks left before adding more time, incase they do this and who knows how long it will be before they let us use it.

hopefully they aren't making changes so that we can't buy short amounts of time with the green dot money pack. Sometimes it's nice to have something running all the time and then just buy 1 day of something else.

I love prepay, I don't ever want to see it end.

 

[Hermitman]

From past experience, I found that Dish does make their software updates on the weekends. The system is usually back up around 10 AM Eastern on Monday morning. As for the Dish Now program being terminated, the information so far has been vague and indirect. I'll continue to use my system with a GDMP card as usual till some official word comes out with a real system turn-off date. I enjoy the Dish Now system the way it currently exists and when the program goes away, I won't replace it with one of Dish's new programs. I'll find something else to do. I do understand Dish's desire to make more money with these new programs and that the Dish Now costumer-base may not be large enough for a desired profit. Its called business, some costumers will like the new programs and some won't. I'll be one of the ones who won't. Good luck to all.

 

[chdn]

Actually, the more I read the link I posted, the more I wonder IF:

1. After places like Saudon run out of the DP301's to sell for the Dish NOW!/YA! program, it might just mean that no NEW customers for Dish NOW!/YA! prepaid service will be offered. You would have to get the new FlexTV account thing set-up.

2. People who already have it, will continue to have it. It will be like grandfathered in, but no new customer signups for it will be available AFTER July 31st, 2009.

I may be wrong(probably), but prepaid Dish could continue to be available to those of us who have the equipment.

Then again, it may just be like I thought, and it will go away completely after July 31st, 2009.

I hope they let us keep it and use it for at least another year, I just bought this thing. They should at least give us a huge discount on new equipment if we have to change.

Hey Direct TV people, can you help us out.

They better make it last, since they are still selling these boxes to people on ebay or there will be a lot of mad people.

 

[chdn]

From past experience, I found that Dish does make their software updates on the weekends. The system is usually back up around 10 AM Eastern on Monday morning. As for the Dish Now program being terminated, the information so far has been vague and indirect. I'll continue to use my system with a GDMP card as usual till some official word comes out with a real system turn-off date. I enjoy the Dish Now system the way it currently exists and when the program goes away, I won't replace it with one of Dish's new programs. I'll find something else to do. I do understand Dish's desire to make more money with these new programs and that the Dish Now costumer-base may not be large enough for a desired profit. Its called business, some costumers will like the new programs and some won't. I'll be one of the ones who won't. Good luck to all.

You have more antennas than NASA, I've never seen so many antennas in one place. You are the King.

 

[lukasat]

vector,

And another thing. They should not have given you a 16 digit account number at all. Something is up. They would have created a "shell" account which would have included your name, address, telephone #, Receiver #, Smartcard #, and e-mail address. You would have no account number associated with a prepaid account.

So far I`ve avoided having to give them an email address, everytime they ask but I keep saying I don`t have one.

If we are starting a poll.........If they end Pre-Paid then I say goodbye to Dish!

Something is not right, there is talk about the end to Pre-Paid but they are still selling and advertising them? If you use the July 31 end, what happens to the guy that doesn`t know and buys a system on the 30th? (that would be a pretty expensive 1 day of TV)

 

[WB8GRS]

OK, I just called the 1-888-347-4132 number and got a voice recording saying "our automated service could not process your request, please hold while we transfer your call". The call was transfered and then I was disconnected. Tried 3 times with the same results. I waited a few minutes and tried again and I got the other recorded message saying "the system is down for maitenance and to call back later". I waited a few more minutes and got the "our automated service could not process your request, please hold while we transfer your call" message again. The call was transfered and then I was disconnected again.

What gives???

EDIT: The system is working again at 4:15 PM on 6/29/09

 

[vector]

hey guys.....i'm up & runnin!!!

called 1-888 today at 5:05 pm, east coast, & surprised to find the system running.

per my last post, yesterday 10:03 am, had problems with dn telling me my 301 was showing up as a regular & not prepaid.

decided to take matters into my own hands. called the automated system & proceeded as if i was already activated, chose - add more programming - option. gave required info step by step, got to the end & before i was sent to a csr & promptly hung up my receiver went into authorization mode. ordered 1 day of family pack. even better, the 1 day of family pack i ordered with the csr from a few days ago was not used up(receiver was never authorized). when a channel is changed says - 2 days remaining. thought that first day of programming was wasted.

just to be clear, the 2 days of family pack were paid for & deducted from my GDMP.

thanks again to all that got me hooked on prepaid. let's hope the grandfather period last years.

 

[r10fret]

I contacted dish corp offices at 3:17pm and they got back to me at 3:24 and said they will look into it. At 4:05 they said it should be working now. All times eastern!

I didnt get into the future of prepaid with them, Did respond back that chs 101, 181, 212, 872, 9850, 9903 and several others channels are still missing from the guides @ 110, 118, 119. I want ch 872 MTVtres since I sub to LatinoMax. Steelers mentioned 181 TheN is missing from 200 pack, the others are public interest or free chs 101( you can tune to 480 or 490 instead), 9850 KBS world, 212 DishEarth, 9903 118.75 satellite card.


Does anyone have any other channels which they need to add in the guide so that when you sub you can actually tune them if your have the right dish for 110,119 + 118 for international.

 

[Ozzy33]

Anyone else having issues with activating programming in the last hour or so? IVR process confirmed my purchase w/ standard "may take up to fifteen minutes to switch on" It's been over 45 minutes and channels are still not available. Receiver was on and receiving good signal the whole time from 110 & 119.

 

[r10fret]

Call back and select option for tech support/troubleshooting, then press 1 for already installed, give it R#, press 2 for "no" when it asks have you tried trouble shooting before, press 1 for already activated a pin before, press 1 for having a picture problem, follow prompts press 1 for on screen message, give it error code 129, say "ready" and it will send a rehit.

 

[Ozzy33]

Call back and select option for tech support, then press 1 for already installed, give it R#, press 1 for already activated a pin before, press 1 for having a picture problem, follow prompts press 1 for on screen message, give it error code 129, say "ready" and it will send a rehit.

My channels were authorized within about 20 seconds after doing this. Thanks for the help; glad to know how to do this w/out talking to a csr.

 

[WB8GRS]

I contacted dish corp offices at 3:17pm and they got back to me at 3:24 and said they will look into it. At 4:05 they said it should be working now. All times eastern!

I didnt get into the future of prepaid with them, Did respond back that chs 101, 181, 212, 872, 9850, 9903 and several others channels are still missing from the guides @ 110, 118, 119. I want ch 872 MTVtres since I sub to LatinoMax. Steelers mentioned 181 TheN is missing from 200 pack, the others are public interest or free chs 101( you can tune to 480 or 490 instead), 9850 KBS world, 212 DishEarth, 9903 118.75 satellite card.


Does anyone have any other channels which they need to add in the guide so that when you sub you can actually tune them if your have the right dish for 110,119 + 118 for international.

I think your phone call must have made a difference.

Thanks!

 

[STEELERSRULE]

I didnt get into the future of prepaid with them, Did respond back that chs 101, 181, 212, 872, 9850, 9903 and several others channels are still missing from the guides @ 110, 118, 119. I want ch 872 MTVtres since I sub to LatinoMax. Steelers mentioned 181 TheN is missing from 200 pack, the others are public interest or free chs 101( you can tune to 480 or 490 instead), 9850 KBS world, 212 DishEarth, 9903 118.75 satellite card.


Does anyone have any other channels which they need to add in the guide so that when you sub you can actually tune them if your have the right dish for 110,119 + 118 for international.

R10Fret,

Is there something I need to do in order to get these channels? I am still NOT getting 181, or any of the other ones you mentioned that are missing.

I only use satellites 110/119. I don't use 118 at all.

Right now, I have no programming added to my receiver, so this could be the reason why they are not there. But I figured they would at least appear in the channel lineup in RED(menaing I am not subscribed to them) either way.

I always disconnect my cable coming from my satellite dish everytime my programming runs out(and unplug the DP301) because I don't have the connection properly grounded, and want to avoid lightning hits ruining the equipment.. I will always reconnect it, about 30 minutes before I order programming. I did reconnect about 2 hours ago, but have yet to order any programming. Channel 181(The N) and the others you listed are no where to be found in the channel lineups off of 110/119, at least on my receiver(DP301). All others are there though.

Do I have to call Dish technical services and tell them to add these channels to the Dish NOW! prepaid lineup? They should already be there anyways, so I can't understand why they are not.

 

[Sadoun]

Update: We asked the DN account rep the following:

Will the 301 prepaid receivers work after July 31st? If not,
what will happen to the existing customers that currently have 301
prepaid systems?

I received the following response from a DN account rep:

"(We) have not announced what exactly will happen to existing customers
with the prepaid systems. (We) previously said that the systems will
still work, but may need to have new software downloaded on them. They
should announce it on the next chat."

Conclusion: No concrete answer yet until the next chat. Stay tuned.

 

[bcsman]

Sadoun,
Thanks for the update for the prepaid. Just purchased one a week or so ago and getting hooked up now! Not easy to find a prepaid as they are not getting restocked. Knew about the upcoming change to the Flex program, but decided to get one anyhow, maybe get lucky and get some use out of it!! Spent money on dumber things before....

Keep us informed on any news..please and thanks!!

 

[vector]

sadoun:

should we be making good use of the time before the next chat to bombard the charlie chat email link on the DN website?? i'm talking about positive feedback to charlie about the value we derive from prepaid, why we are dn customers & why we will NOT be customers should our service end or change substantialy(as in gdmp no longer accepted).

does anyone have a direct email link(s) to top executives that may have more impact?

i'm willing to make an effort as part of a larger group. willing to spread the word at all other forums i visit in order to max-out the impact of an email campaign. if everyone here on this forum agrees to do the same would our efforts, collectively, influence the future of the service we all want to continue?

we all know the lack of customer service or the hit-n-miss variability of cs when calling dn. maybe emails sent to the right people would/could make a difference.

what does everyone think?

my experience with ppd after a few weeks is all positive. ordered programming on 4 occasions including once at 1:30 am with no issues with the automated system. really lik'n this system & the savings.

 

[Sadoun]

Vector

I agree with your sentiments about PPD and how good it has been for so many people. This offer took a while to become popular. I don't think DN should pull the rug from under its feet while it is up and running like a champ.

If you feel an email campaign would help, by all means. I think emphasizing the positive aspects of the PPD offer would be appreciated.

Maybe even a comparison with the FlexTV offer is in order to show why you prefer to keep the DishNow PPD instead of switching to the FlexTV.

 

[RVD420]

I know I like the prepaid system for the cabin.

If and when pre-paid goes away I'll just take a receiver from home to the cabin when I go up.

The pre-paid system is great for me. I really don't like the hassle of having to being a receiver from home. But That is what Dish is going to force me to do.

I am not going to get a sub for the cabin when I only spend 2 weeks there and every other weekend.

You would think that they would want more of my money...I guess not.