R.i.p. 721

[AIsmail]

Came home tonite to discover that my 721 has kicked the bucket. I turned the unit on to get some sort of "drive failed error message." I rebooted the system and that didn't work. I called Dish to see about my replacement options and I was told that I could get another 721. When I asked about getting a different receiver, I was told that since I took advantage of the Dish'n Up program to get my 622 back in February I wouldn't be eligible till next year. I told her that plenty of folks were able to get not just one but two HD receivers back then. Anyway, I told her to go ahead and send over another 721 and then her system froze. Rather then wait, I told her I'd call back. Instead of calling back I decided to send an email over telling Dish of my problem and how I thought it was total BS that I couldn't get another 622 or a 211. Heck I'd even take a 522 instead of some refurbished relic. Do they even still have 721 available? I certainly don't mind paying for it but when I got my 622 in February, you could only get one receiver. Plus I paid $299 and now its $199 and there is some sort of HD programming rebate. Hopefully being a customer for 4+ years and having a bill that averages over $120 a month will help my cause. I guess I'll wait to see what happens.

I did do a smart card reboot and while that did work, I lost all my recordings. I had a similar problem on my 510 before that one kicked the bucket.

Any ideas or suggestions about how to deal w/Dish would be appreciated.

 

[bsolmstead]

I emailed ceo@echostar.com a couple of weeks ago asking if I could get a new 625 at no cost to replace my dying 721. I got a call the next day (Sunday) from the executive office offering me a 510 as a replacement. I told her no, I wanted a dual tuner, so she told me given my record with Dish, that she did not have a problem sending me a 522. It arrived yesterday. You might want to try emailing ceo.

 

[AIsmail]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I sent an email to customer service and they responded by telling me that I couldn't get a 622 because that would upset the supply chain for everyone else. No offense to everyone else but I really could care less about you. Anyhow they offered to sell me one for $549 which is $50 more then I would pay at the Dish Store. I called and got a supervisor who told me that there was no way he could override the system, that even the CEO couldn't override the sytem. Based on his comments I wish to issue the following warning:

WARNING PEOPLE! - Dishnetwork is part of Skynet and we are all doomed.

Anyhow I asked him if he as willing to let a customer walk because of something like this. He said no and then put me on hold to check w/another department. He put me on w/the executive resolution center who offered me a 211 only after I suggested it. Unfortunately the only way I could get a 211 is by waiting for a installer to show up. After my last experience, told to wait till 5 only for him to show up at 6 pm and he couldn't do anything, I said no. Told him to just sent me another 721 and hopefully in January I could get another 622.

I suspect that after seeing that Direct will be selling there units for $299, Dish will have to lower their price or spice up there promotion. Dish is appearing to be like every other company where if you don't need them they are great, once you do, they suck.

 

[Kaydigi]

WARNING PEOPLE! - Dishnetwork is part of Skynet and we are all doomed.

Classic...

 

[neljtorres]

Got this advice from Thomas at dbstalk.com and it work.

There is a little trick for these 721 receivers that "might" work for you and it basically forces the unit to reinitialize the hard drive.

1) Unplug power from the unit and remove the cover
2) Unplug the hard drive ide cable from the main board (Do not remove the hard drive as this will break that little 'hard drive warraty' sticker, only unplug the IDE cable from the main board connector.
3) Plug the unit back in a wait for the failure message about the hard drive
4) Unplug power from the unit again and plug the hard drive IDE cable back in and replace the cover.
5) Finally, plug power back in a let it run for about 30 to 45 minutes.

This will force the unit to completely wipe the PVR partitions on the hard drive and rebuild and reformat them.

WARNING: this procedue will ERASE all recordings and timers. One of my units did this to me and it resolved my problems with it.

The nice thing is that this doesn't void you warranty since we are simply using the recovery features that are build into the unit.