Rapid Satellite and DTV Bait and Switch???

[Hightech]

Hello everyone, long time lurker, first time poster, here is my situation sorry about the long post. I currently have Dish Network and was looking for a change, and under my current setup with dish, direct tv had a better deal, so I decided after much research that I would try them out. Now with reading several reviews and looking at many a message board, I decided on using rapidsatellite.com to order my equipment, one directivo, and 2 other rooms for a total of 3 rooms with the triple LNB dish cost me $107 upfront.

Now the fun begins, ordered my equipment via phone on 6/28/04, all looked well, I was all excited because basically I was going to get an extra room and more programming for what I currently pay for my current dish (before you say it, I did try several times to get dish to give me a better deal considering my original contract was up over 2 years ago, but no dice, they only care about "new" customers, and yes I realize thats all any provider cares about but im a "new" customer to dtv). On 6/29/04 I recieve another email from rapid, saying congratulations, order sent to warehouse, bla bla bla, then the "real" fun begins, I awaited the call from an installer, (they said I would recieve a call a couple days from the day I ordered) well a couple days passed and I heard nothing, (this is clue number one) on 7/1/04 I recieved an email from rapid again, now saying my order had been CANCELLED, it was a canned message with not much usefull info about WHY!!!!! So obviously I called right away and talked to a rep that indicated to me it was cancelled due to NRTC bla bla bla....... gave me directs number to call, so I did. Rang up direct only to find out that the nrtc agreement which by the way was with:

Pegasus Satellite Television, Inc.
123 FELTON STREET
Marlborough, MA 01752
866-426-7488

Considering I live in Indiana, anyone see a problem here? Anyway they proceed to tell me at Direct that they can sell me the system since Pegasus agreement is up and they dont have any plans on renewing bla bla bla.....
Only one problem, 1. rapid still has my money till it gets refunded on my card, and 2 they wanted exactly TWICE as much for the equipment up front then rapid did. So obviously I declined, and called rapid back, and gave the nice lady that answered my call the scoop about they should be able to serve me bla bla bla,,, and she said she was going to have to hand it to her supervisor and I would know something in 24-48 hours. So now I have to play the hurry up and wait game and see if rapid actually does check into it or if they just blow me off. I know one thing, direct will never have me as a customer if rapid either A: blows me off or B: they cant service me.

Does raise a question or two though about rapid, shouldnt they have known about the nrtc thingy WHEN I ORDERED< GEESH, could have saved me alot of headache it seems.

Thanks for letting me vent, and if you have any usefull info for me I would appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[al]

I would contact Rapid Satellite. Effective 06/24/2004, you can activate with Directv in Pegasus and other NRTC areas. My guess is that Rapid is either being cautious, or their verification system is not up to date. They should be able to take care of you.

You can also contact a local retailer. You will typically receive better service, and a better installation.

Good Luck

 

[PSB]

I agree with Al, go local if at all possible, someone called me last night at around 10pm with a question, try that with ANY of the big boys! You just cant beat the personal touch!

 

[sksatellite]

Consumer should realized once your system is installed by someone from those out of town company, they mostly uses installers from an installation company or hack installers with cheap rate, if you lucky enough, the installer maybe located at where your town is, you may able to get service if there any problem in the future. If not, you may wait a month before getting your problem solve, basically, use a local dealer or the national BIG seller make not much difference in price, maybe just a bit difference, but you get the personal service from your local, not someone hundred of miles away and maybe not being able to service your system in time when you need it.

Consumer only encounter a single case of his/her own, but we the installers, I means the real installers, have had enountered many many of these kind of cases, so we know what its all about.

What I saying here is, use your local dealer and you may actually saving yourself the trouble in the future.

 

[tach18k]

I might be numb here, but why didnt you contact dtv for the sale and install?
Or go to a local rep. If you buy from online retailers, your better off doing the install yourself, Like I did 9 years ago, but that is different, I know. Money is always a factor, but how much is your time being wasted by saving a few dollars?

 

[boba]

Hightech maybe you are too high tech a local retailer probably could give you the same deal with out the internet. Directv's current promotion until 7/17/04 is upto 3 base model receivers FREE with FREE installation. DirecTiVo is $99 for new or existing customers through the same date. So two base model receivers and a TiVo would be $99.00 plus taxes.

 

[slacker9876]

Hightech maybe you are too high tech a local retailer probably could give you the same deal with out the internet. Directv's current promotion until 7/17/04 is upto 3 base model receivers FREE with FREE installation. DirecTiVo is $99 for new or existing customers through the same date. So two base model receivers and a TiVo would be $99.00 plus taxes.

EXCEPT for Best Buy who currently has the RCA TiVo and the Phillips DSR704 fro $79.99

 

[Hightech]

Hello everyone and thanks for all the comments, but everyone is missing one key component here, The rapid satelite deal was exactly "half" the cost as direct tv direct or anyone else for that matter, the direct tivo was only 49 dollars through rapid as opposed to 99 through direct. I agree 100 percent on the local guy thing, and I do most of the time, but not when its going to cost me double the cost as somewhere else. Anyway Ive since decided to just keep my dish network and they have made me a deal to stay with them as well.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Cancel your order with Rapid all together. You can get 1 Tivo and 2 Basics with Triple LNB for $59.96 + $19.99 S&H thru Robert or Wendy at VE (Value Electronics). They are super nice folks and easy to deal with. They usually answer the phone 24/7 (I know they are there late at night at least).

I'm in the Pegasus territory as well and I had no problems with VE. I opted for the self-install and will get a $50 rebate.

VE is a sponsor here and if you do a search you will find mostly good references.

 

[Gerry863]

Here's who not to order from: RAPID (what a joke for a name) SATELLITE. I'm new to all this but the setup for putting in a system is a nightmare. I ordered a 4 room system from Rapid and the HD receiver was dead on arrival. The installer, a different company, kept trying to get me to pay more for installation after he started even though it seemed like a basic install (whatever that means)and I did most of the drilling through walls. It's been 3 weeks now and I still don't have a replacement. Talking to DirecTV doesn't seem to help ( they're a 3rd company in all this). The receivers seem out of date. For example, none of the manuals talk about DVDs only VCRs. I have 3 Hughes(SD-HBH) and one dead Samsung (SIR-TS360).
The whole system is flawed: Dealing with 3 different companies, long waits for replacements, the customer having to mail back defective parts, etc. I experienced 12 years with cable and had no problems with them or their equipment. I dealt with one company. I guess sat is better but at what price?