I know this is TLDR but I've seen some Dish responses here and I guess I'm hoping someone who can actually help might see this.
I called my phone company and did their bundle. I told the lady which receivers I wanted and she said, "Oh great! You already know which boxes you want." Ordered a 922 and 2 plain old HD receivers.
First guy came out and told us we could put the dish on the roof or the middle of the yard. I didn't want the middle of the yard, so tell him we'll take the roof location. Showed him my rooms, where I needed boxes and where the 922 was going and he said everything was fine. I knew there were splitters in the walls and the installer wanted to drill new holes and make new plates etc. in not as convenient spots, so I told him my husband would run the cable and then they could come back and install it. He said the cable just needed to go to the attic.
Saturday 6/25 - A different installer comes. He can't put the dish on the roof there's no signal at all. He calls a supervisor to come out to check if the position in the yard is good enough. I will have to get a pole and buried cable in the yard.
They didn't have the 922 on my order and don't carry them as spares according to Joshua. He's friendly as we stand in my driveway and he talks to various supervisors and eventually I authorize them to charge me for the 922 I wanted. They give me a few pay-per-view movie coupons.
Second bunch of people came out, Joshua was the lead tech. No 922, but one of them wants to see it installed because he's never seen one. He's very nice and tells me he wants one himself.
They will get someone to bring it. Ended up with 5 guys at my house. None of whom were certified to set up the 922 they tell me, though Joshua had the most experience with doing so.
A guy who wasn't Joshua and didn't know how to set up the 922 (he told guy-who-wants-922 who was standing nearby that he hates them) set it up. Josh later said the guy configured the remote wrong and fixed it. They give me the wrong channel guide pamphlet and leave.
I didn't realize any of the problems that would occur later when I took the phone survey and gave them good marks because it seemed like our install was a huge ordeal for some reason and they were all very polite and at our house until like 8pm. Not sure why, because my husband did all the cabling in the walls. I guess 3 boxes is a lot? There was a lot of waiting for people to show up. All TVs were working when they left. Hate the TV2 picture (horrible pixelation at times), but will live with it I guess.
Next day -
Discover that in the morning, video one was a black screen with no video on the 922 television, though I can hear audio. TV2 was working. Hard reboot (power off) of the box fixes this.
The 922 tells me it's at 218% full with 0 recordings. Greeeeat.
922 fails to record a few times. Sometimes it does record, no rhyme or reason that I can see. The shows that don't record do appear in "timers" but never record. They can't be deleted because it's in a weird state. It says it's deleted, but doesn't actually do it. If I try to hit record on the channel, the timer one says there's a conflict--but doesn't record anything. A hard restart fixed this. Every time I do this, I have to wait forever for the stupid box to boot. I would say how long, but I always get impatient and leave to do something else. I'm getting nostalgic for cable when I would just turn the box on and TV would appear and stuff recorded when I wanted it to.
Monday 6/27
Spoke to customer service and she said she would note that the guy should bring another 922 out to my house. The guy on Saturday will make the boxes happy before he buries the lines. She says she will note the account that they should give me a credit for the week. Does this mean I get a credit for the week? Or that there's just a note that they should give me one. I don't know. I learned later that "notes on the account" are not worth much.
Got an email about the appt and saw no note about the 922, it says no equipment changes. I want a replacement. I've read that receivers with these same problems die and lose everything. Why do I have to start out with a lemon? Will check on the ticket later in the week. Didn't want to call back that night.
Living room TV says "Press 0 to configure your receiver" or something like that and that it needs 10 minutes to download a channel guide. Weren't these already configured? Or is this a step I need to do? Why is the channel guide not downloading at night?--according to broadband lady I spoke to later, this is happening because I didn't power off the boxes at night. So I need to power them off so they can update. Ok, stupid me, never had satellite. I do that and this problem hasn't reoccurred.
Bedroom when turned on, comes up with video 1, no picture, just audio again. Change to tv2 (video2) and it's working. I imagine if turned off (power) and on again it will fix itself again. I don't feel like waiting for a reboot so I watch TV2.
Monday
Called Dish and told new customer support about the problems. She says the earliest they can get someone out is my already scheduled appt for Saturday 12:00-5:00. I say ok. I request they put a 922 on the truck because mine appears to be flaky. First she says they always have spares of all receivers on the trucks. I told her when they initially came out they didn't have the 922 I ordered on the truck and we had to wait an hour and a half or so to get one from another guy, and ask her nicely to please put it on the ticket. She says ok.
Wednesday evening
I called customer support to ask why I was unable to sign up for my HD for life or get my HD channels like Joshua told me to do. I noticed the HD channels were not there then because I'd bought a new HDTV for the 922 and then saw only like 4 channels. What package do I have?
He says that because there's a service ticket open, he can't help me at all until that's closed. He says something about a whole different contract I have to sign for HD even though it's free. No one has mentioned this. He apologizes a bunch of times, but does essentially nothing. He gives me more free movies. I now have 10. He refers me to broadband support to talk about my problems with the 922, because when I try to confirm there will be one on the truck, he sees no sign of it and says his dept (same one I spoke to before) is unable to order a replacement. I have to go through the broadband department.
He transfers me to the broadband department. I tell her what is wrong with the 922. She says the black video is caused by loose cabling. (My husband and I had both tightened the cables, but I think perhaps it was set up incorrectly initially or something because when we got the HDTV and connected the cables ourselves, the black screen no audio in the mornings problem went away. Or, benefit of the doubt, maybe it was the TV somehow?) Tech says she thought they had fixed all the odd percent problems (it said it was at 172% that day, I believe) and says that the recording problems I'm having are not normal. I ask her to make sure a replacement 922 is in the truck and she agrees. She calls Chris at dispatch to make sure.
Saturday 7/2
3:20pm
Good news! The 922 is reporting disk space correctly just in time for someone to come and not see it not working. But then:
David the installer calls to say he's on the way and he has no idea about any 922, doesn't have one for me and doesn't know how to install one if he did. He knows nothing about any of my receiver problems. He calls his supervisor, then calls me back and says there's no record of the 922 receiver problems on the ticket. He asks me what's wrong with the receiver. I tell him the problems. He says, yeah that sounds like you need a new one. He calls the supervisor back, but there's no one who can install the receiver today, can he come back tomorrow and I can name the time to have him do the pole and another guy will do the receiver. I tell him 9am. He says fine.
4:15pm
David calls me back and says he has the receiver and would it be ok if he comes to do the pole and the receiver tonight. I ask him if he knows how to set it up and he says, no, he doesn't. I say, then no, it isn't ok. He is supposed to come out tomorrow at 9am.
5:30pm
Tomas calls me and asks if the technician came out today. I explain everything for what feels like the 100th time. He then says he's calling to confirm my 9am appointment for tomorrow. Then he says he couldn't read the notes or the notes didn't make sense? I don't know.
I have no idea what to do to improve this so far really horrible experience. I'm about to see if what my cable company says is true about having 30 days to cancel and accept the deal with the devil I know to drastically reduce what I was paying them for the same service plus a movie channel. I told them to call me back in a week to see how the satellite situation was going.
I've spent hours of time on the phone with different reps who appear to listen and "note my ticket" and there's no result except extreme frustration when I talk to the actual techs. It's as though the techs and the customer support people are living on different planets and have no contact with each other. If there's anyone from Dish who knows how I can fix this mess, please let me know, because if they don't get it right tomorrow, I'm cancelling. I also read that they tell you it's one rate for 2 years and then they raise your rate, which scares me too, because that's not what I was told by TDS. I'm ready to bail on this failed attempt to lower my TV bill.
I don't want more movie coupons. I just want TV that works for a bill that isn't insane.
I called my phone company and did their bundle. I told the lady which receivers I wanted and she said, "Oh great! You already know which boxes you want." Ordered a 922 and 2 plain old HD receivers.
First guy came out and told us we could put the dish on the roof or the middle of the yard. I didn't want the middle of the yard, so tell him we'll take the roof location. Showed him my rooms, where I needed boxes and where the 922 was going and he said everything was fine. I knew there were splitters in the walls and the installer wanted to drill new holes and make new plates etc. in not as convenient spots, so I told him my husband would run the cable and then they could come back and install it. He said the cable just needed to go to the attic.
Saturday 6/25 - A different installer comes. He can't put the dish on the roof there's no signal at all. He calls a supervisor to come out to check if the position in the yard is good enough. I will have to get a pole and buried cable in the yard.
They didn't have the 922 on my order and don't carry them as spares according to Joshua. He's friendly as we stand in my driveway and he talks to various supervisors and eventually I authorize them to charge me for the 922 I wanted. They give me a few pay-per-view movie coupons.
Second bunch of people came out, Joshua was the lead tech. No 922, but one of them wants to see it installed because he's never seen one. He's very nice and tells me he wants one himself.
They will get someone to bring it. Ended up with 5 guys at my house. None of whom were certified to set up the 922 they tell me, though Joshua had the most experience with doing so.
A guy who wasn't Joshua and didn't know how to set up the 922 (he told guy-who-wants-922 who was standing nearby that he hates them) set it up. Josh later said the guy configured the remote wrong and fixed it. They give me the wrong channel guide pamphlet and leave.
I didn't realize any of the problems that would occur later when I took the phone survey and gave them good marks because it seemed like our install was a huge ordeal for some reason and they were all very polite and at our house until like 8pm. Not sure why, because my husband did all the cabling in the walls. I guess 3 boxes is a lot? There was a lot of waiting for people to show up. All TVs were working when they left. Hate the TV2 picture (horrible pixelation at times), but will live with it I guess.
Next day -
Discover that in the morning, video one was a black screen with no video on the 922 television, though I can hear audio. TV2 was working. Hard reboot (power off) of the box fixes this.
The 922 tells me it's at 218% full with 0 recordings. Greeeeat.
922 fails to record a few times. Sometimes it does record, no rhyme or reason that I can see. The shows that don't record do appear in "timers" but never record. They can't be deleted because it's in a weird state. It says it's deleted, but doesn't actually do it. If I try to hit record on the channel, the timer one says there's a conflict--but doesn't record anything. A hard restart fixed this. Every time I do this, I have to wait forever for the stupid box to boot. I would say how long, but I always get impatient and leave to do something else. I'm getting nostalgic for cable when I would just turn the box on and TV would appear and stuff recorded when I wanted it to.
Monday 6/27
Spoke to customer service and she said she would note that the guy should bring another 922 out to my house. The guy on Saturday will make the boxes happy before he buries the lines. She says she will note the account that they should give me a credit for the week. Does this mean I get a credit for the week? Or that there's just a note that they should give me one. I don't know. I learned later that "notes on the account" are not worth much.
Got an email about the appt and saw no note about the 922, it says no equipment changes. I want a replacement. I've read that receivers with these same problems die and lose everything. Why do I have to start out with a lemon? Will check on the ticket later in the week. Didn't want to call back that night.
Living room TV says "Press 0 to configure your receiver" or something like that and that it needs 10 minutes to download a channel guide. Weren't these already configured? Or is this a step I need to do? Why is the channel guide not downloading at night?--according to broadband lady I spoke to later, this is happening because I didn't power off the boxes at night. So I need to power them off so they can update. Ok, stupid me, never had satellite. I do that and this problem hasn't reoccurred.
Bedroom when turned on, comes up with video 1, no picture, just audio again. Change to tv2 (video2) and it's working. I imagine if turned off (power) and on again it will fix itself again. I don't feel like waiting for a reboot so I watch TV2.
Monday
Called Dish and told new customer support about the problems. She says the earliest they can get someone out is my already scheduled appt for Saturday 12:00-5:00. I say ok. I request they put a 922 on the truck because mine appears to be flaky. First she says they always have spares of all receivers on the trucks. I told her when they initially came out they didn't have the 922 I ordered on the truck and we had to wait an hour and a half or so to get one from another guy, and ask her nicely to please put it on the ticket. She says ok.
Wednesday evening
I called customer support to ask why I was unable to sign up for my HD for life or get my HD channels like Joshua told me to do. I noticed the HD channels were not there then because I'd bought a new HDTV for the 922 and then saw only like 4 channels. What package do I have?
He says that because there's a service ticket open, he can't help me at all until that's closed. He says something about a whole different contract I have to sign for HD even though it's free. No one has mentioned this. He apologizes a bunch of times, but does essentially nothing. He gives me more free movies. I now have 10. He refers me to broadband support to talk about my problems with the 922, because when I try to confirm there will be one on the truck, he sees no sign of it and says his dept (same one I spoke to before) is unable to order a replacement. I have to go through the broadband department.
He transfers me to the broadband department. I tell her what is wrong with the 922. She says the black video is caused by loose cabling. (My husband and I had both tightened the cables, but I think perhaps it was set up incorrectly initially or something because when we got the HDTV and connected the cables ourselves, the black screen no audio in the mornings problem went away. Or, benefit of the doubt, maybe it was the TV somehow?) Tech says she thought they had fixed all the odd percent problems (it said it was at 172% that day, I believe) and says that the recording problems I'm having are not normal. I ask her to make sure a replacement 922 is in the truck and she agrees. She calls Chris at dispatch to make sure.
Saturday 7/2
3:20pm
Good news! The 922 is reporting disk space correctly just in time for someone to come and not see it not working. But then:
David the installer calls to say he's on the way and he has no idea about any 922, doesn't have one for me and doesn't know how to install one if he did. He knows nothing about any of my receiver problems. He calls his supervisor, then calls me back and says there's no record of the 922 receiver problems on the ticket. He asks me what's wrong with the receiver. I tell him the problems. He says, yeah that sounds like you need a new one. He calls the supervisor back, but there's no one who can install the receiver today, can he come back tomorrow and I can name the time to have him do the pole and another guy will do the receiver. I tell him 9am. He says fine.
4:15pm
David calls me back and says he has the receiver and would it be ok if he comes to do the pole and the receiver tonight. I ask him if he knows how to set it up and he says, no, he doesn't. I say, then no, it isn't ok. He is supposed to come out tomorrow at 9am.
5:30pm
Tomas calls me and asks if the technician came out today. I explain everything for what feels like the 100th time. He then says he's calling to confirm my 9am appointment for tomorrow. Then he says he couldn't read the notes or the notes didn't make sense? I don't know.
I have no idea what to do to improve this so far really horrible experience. I'm about to see if what my cable company says is true about having 30 days to cancel and accept the deal with the devil I know to drastically reduce what I was paying them for the same service plus a movie channel. I told them to call me back in a week to see how the satellite situation was going.
I've spent hours of time on the phone with different reps who appear to listen and "note my ticket" and there's no result except extreme frustration when I talk to the actual techs. It's as though the techs and the customer support people are living on different planets and have no contact with each other. If there's anyone from Dish who knows how I can fix this mess, please let me know, because if they don't get it right tomorrow, I'm cancelling. I also read that they tell you it's one rate for 2 years and then they raise your rate, which scares me too, because that's not what I was told by TDS. I'm ready to bail on this failed attempt to lower my TV bill.
I don't want more movie coupons. I just want TV that works for a bill that isn't insane.
to Sat Guys. I have read your post and I am truly sorry for everything we have put you through to this point. I would like to intercede on your behalf and see what I can do to get your remaining issues resolved ASAP! If you will please send me a PM with your account information so I can review what has been done to this point and we can go from there. Please just let me know! Thank you!
