Four seperate Dish DVR upgrade experiences.

[Arcade]

Dish is currently running a promotion to upgrade your DVR and get 3 months of Starz free.
Myself and 3 other family members decided to take advantage of this.
Dish calls it "Dishing it up" and it requires a 24mo. extension.
The DVR upgrade is free "excluding the 922" and Starz will automatically cancel itself in 3 months.

Well here is the fun part.

All four of us currently had 622 DVR's and use a rooftop antenna to record 3 programs at a time. We all upgraded to the 722k in order to be able to record 4 programs at a time.

Well apparently the 722k does not come with the antenna module. It has to be installed separately.
Not much of a DVR "Upgrade" without this very important part.
After 4 installs I have learned one very important thing. People at Dish and most of the Dish techs have no idea what this module is or how it works. LOL.

Install #1 went great, the guy just went back to the truck and popped the antenna module in place. Done.

Install #2 had to go back to the office and get the module. After a 30 min. trip the install was done. Yay.

Install #3 The tech calls my dad and says he is coming. My dad asks him if he has the antenna module on his truck to try and save him a trip back. The tech tells him he has no idea what he is talking about. When he gets to the house, more arguing with my dad ensues. I come over and point out the little panel on the back where the module goes. He still is clueless.
I finally call his supervisor who runs the module out to the house.
The original installer was horribly rude the entire time but that is another story.

Install #4 My mother-in-law just called me a little bit ago. She records a lot of TV from the antenna so I made it very clear in my sign up with dish that she would need the antenna module. The said no problem.
Well the installer just called to say he was on his way.
She asked him if he had a module and he had no idea what it even was. (WTF)
So I called Dish directly. The girl I got on the phone had no idea what I was talking about and said the 722k was no different than the 622. (Well if that is the case, then it is really not an upgrade at all.) lol.
Finally the tech guy called his office and had to go back once again to get the antenna module.

Long story short - People with Dish have no idea how their own equipment works.

Now I realize that dish leaves this part off the 722 because most people do not use an outdoor antenna.
But if you are upgrading from a 622 that has an OTA tuner built into it, to a 722, Dish should have no problem with this, especially for a customer that just signed a 2 year agreement.

 

[Dishman1978]

Replying as an installer in califotnia, even though i know what an OTA is) many do not know, when the 722k came out we recieved no training on the OTA module.

No excuse for the installer to of been rude, however, most techs see thier job as just that, just a job, and dont apply them selves to learning more that what is presented in training. Sorry you had a lousy experience. But just like any profession, there are people who only care enough to get paid and not much more.

 

[Arcade]

Thanks for the reply from an installers perspective.
Three of the four techs that came out were very nice. (They just had no idea, what I was talking about).
Only one was rude and argumentative beyond belief.
The point of my post was not to belittle the tech guys, just point out the fact that hardly anyone at Dish Network knows how a 722k receiver works.
Even the people in customer retention had to get a supervisor to figure out what I was talking about, all the while spouting off incorrect information to me.
It is sad when the customers know more about the product that the company people.
Maybe Charlie needs to go on "Undercover Boss" like the Direct TV guy did so he can straighten this absurdity out.

 

[Hall]

The girl I got on the phone had no idea what I was talking about and said the 722k was no different than the 622. (Well if that is the case, then it is really not an upgrade at all.)

It is an "upgrade" after all. The 722k with the OTA module gains you (1) add'l OTA input.

As you said, and I speculated this when the 722k came out and people whined about the OTA portion being "modular" now, I'm 100% confident that Dish spent a lot of money building that module into the 622 and 722 and had a very small percentage of customers actually use it. Still to this day, you ask the average Joe if they use an antenna for TV and most will respond "what ? are you nuts ? why would I want a fuzzy, snowy picture ?".

 

[DishSubLA]

Yes, 722K came along when a great many DMA's were getting HD LIL's, at least the big 4 people really want. So Dish save money not providing the OTA module built-in and have the module for power users. The ATSC OTA tuner was CRITICAL in the years before good HD LIL coverage.

There are quite a number of people who (myself included--but I got a new one 2 years ago) have long gotten rid of the antennas because they get SD locals from cable or sat and saw no need for the thing anymore, especially when it was the analog OTA with all its noise. So, if Dish made a big deal about the OTA module, I'm sure subs would whine that now they need to buy an OTA antenna to be able to use it.

 

[SaltiDawg]

It is an "upgrade" after all. The 722k with the OTA module gains you (1) add'l OTA input. ...

And of course you mean the OTA module gets you (2) add'l OTA inputs when compared to the basic 722k.

 

[Hall]

He's coming from a 622, as I recall. That's 2 satellite inputs and 1 OTA input. With the 722k - he said he got the OTA module - he has 2 OTA inputs now, hence an "upgrade".

 

[Arcade]

Yep. The whole reason for the upgrade from the 622 was to be able to record 2 HD over the air channels and 2 HD satellite channels.

For instance, for the first time ever I was able to record Chuck, How I met your Mother and House while at the same time watch Monday Night Football.
My 622 could not pull this off.