Really disappointed with Dish and the Hopper

[toddsanderson]

I hate for this to be my first post, but I guess there is no other option. Had 2 hopper installed last week (one with Sling) and 4 Joeys. Within an hour the Joeys would go into the "Looking for a Hopper to connect to" message with the 1303 error code. Prior to going into this mode the Joeys and the Hoppers would show a full 4 bar green MOCA display and worked fine. If they reconnect by themselves (usually not) they would show as "connected" to the hopper with everything looking good on the diagnostic page, but would show "unliked" on the "whole home" page. At that point you could only watch what the hopper was already tuning. Anything recorded on the DVR would not show on the Joeys. Only a hard reset would correct the problem. The Joeys would then operate properly anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours and then disconnect again. Sometimes instead of disconnecting they would simply "lock-up" similar to what you see when you watch a youtube video that is buffering due to slow internet connection.

So, I call customer service for a service call. A very nice tech shows up and fixes a coax where the initial installer put a screw through one of joey coax lines where a splitter was intstalled. That does not fix the problem so he changes the Duo-node and the splitters. He then changes some terminations. That does not work either so he spends time resetting Joeys/hoppers, etc. He then flips the Joey's around in two of the rooms and that does not help. He is completely baffled after 2 1/2 hours and tells me that it is probably the hopper causing the problem, but will need another service call from someone with more technical knowledge. As I sign his ticket on the phone he has he tells me that he will initiate a new service ticket and Dish will be getting with me shortly.

Well, I wait until noon the next day and get no reply from Dish, so I initiate a chat session with tech support. They set up an appointment for 8-12 on Tuesday. I take off work on Tuesday and wait until 10:00 AM thinking I would get a text update. I did not get one, so I started a new chat session. The new rep informs me that I had no appointment (even though one was made), but will make one immediately for 12-5. I'm already home, so I take the rest of the day off. Nobody shows up, no phone call, email, text, nothing. At 5:40 PM I send an email to customer support asking them what I should do with the system as I no longer want it. I should have stayed with DTV I guess. I can understand technical problems, but I do not understand them not showing up for appointments.

 

[Scherrman]

I hate for this to be my first post, but I guess there is no other option. Had 2 hopper installed last week (one with Sling) and 4 Joeys. Within an hour the Joeys would go into the "Looking for a Hopper to connect to" message with the 1303 error code. Prior to going into this mode the Joeys and the Hoppers would show a full 4 bar green MOCA display and worked fine. If they reconnect by themselves (usually not) they would show as "connected" to the hopper with everything looking good on the diagnostic page, but would show "unliked" on the "whole home" page. At that point you could only watch what the hopper was already tuning. Anything recorded on the DVR would not show on the Joeys. Only a hard reset would correct the problem. The Joeys would then operate properly anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours and then disconnect again. Sometimes instead of disconnecting they would simply "lock-up" similar to what you see when you watch a youtube video that is buffering due to slow internet connection.

So, I call customer service for a service call. A very nice tech shows up and fixes a coax where the initial installer put a screw through one of joey coax lines where a splitter was intstalled. That does not fix the problem so he changes the Duo-node and the splitters. He then changes some terminations. That does not work either so he spends time resetting Joeys/hoppers, etc. He then flips the Joey's around in two of the rooms and that does not help. He is completely baffled after 2 1/2 hours and tells me that it is probably the hopper causing the problem, but will need another service call from someone with more technical knowledge. As I sign his ticket on the phone he has he tells me that he will initiate a new service ticket and Dish will be getting with me shortly.

Well, I wait until noon the next day and get no reply from Dish, so I initiate a chat session with tech support. They set up an appointment for 8-12 on Tuesday. I take off work on Tuesday and wait until 10:00 AM thinking I would get a text update. I did not get one, so I started a new chat session. The new rep informs me that I had no appointment (even though one was made), but will make one immediately for 12-5. I'm already home, so I take the rest of the day off. Nobody shows up, no phone call, email, text, nothing. At 5:40 PM I send an email to customer support asking them what I should do with the system as I no longer want it. I should have stayed with DTV I guess. I can understand technical problems, but I do not understand them not showing up for appointments.

You have have a crappy experience. Don't let that decide what your opinion on the Hopper system is. Once you actually get some good service and they have your system up and running the way it is suppose to be I'm sure you'll love the Hopper.

What sucks about some of these problems is that it could be something very simple that is messing everything up. Sometimes it just takes a while to find the problem, it's not fun for the customer or the tech.

 

[sparc]

I do not understand them not showing up for appointments.

private message someone at DIRT. They'll get you fixed up.


On the bottom of the main forum page in the section marked "Online Support Staff," you'll see the DIRT (Dish Internet Response Team) usernames in red with @DISH Network at the end. Those are official reps from Dish that are active on the forum right now. Just send them a private message with your account or phone number.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum.php (scroll down to the bottom)

 

[satnewb]

You've got a bad hopper. Most likely the non sling H is a reman and is causing some moca signal issues. We've had a run of them lately with similar issues. The system really is fantastic when running properly.

 

[ZachS@DISH]

I would like to look into this. Can you please send me a PM with your account information?

 

[Rey]

welcome to satelliteguys todd. if you don't know how to pm zach please click HERE.

 

[KE4EST]

Welcome to the site Todd.

 

[toddsanderson]

Working with Zach now. Thank you for the help everyone. Hopefully they can fix the problem. I turned on the upstairs bedroom Joeys with the basement Hopper off and the living room (with sling) Hopper already on. Neither Joey could hook up to the Hopper for 2-3 minutes. One bedroom finally did and displayed a good picture for 60 seconds or so and then started to "freeze" the picture every 10 seconds or so. MOCA indication was solid green bars the whole time. I wish I new more about multimedia over coax. If you have solid green bars on the indication does that imply you have the required bandwidth capability over the coax? I know my Hopper units are supplied with RG-6 (I believe QS), so they should be good and also two of the Joeys are RG-6. All the Joeys fail frequently, so I have a hard time believing the other two on RG-59 are creating a problem, but I suppose anything is possible. Furthermore, the RG-6 Joeys will fail even with the RG-59 Joeys turned off. I just don't get it.

 

[Scherrman]

If you have two Hoppers you should have RG6 to all units. I was just at Team Summit and took a troubleshooting class, they said all cable needs to be RG6 when doing 2 Hoppers. Maybe that's what's going on.

 

[toddsanderson]

If you have two Hoppers you should have RG6 to all units. I was just at Team Summit and took a troubleshooting class, they said all cable needs to be RG6 when doing 2 Hoppers. Maybe that's what's going on.

Interesting, that is the first I have heard of that. I specifically asked that before they installed the system and the reply was that only the Hopper needed RG-6. I hope that is not true since running RG-6 to the upstairs bedrooms would be nightmare. You could get a new cabe into one side of the upstairs bedroom if you went up the outside wall and in the attic (not something I would want to look at - pretty particular about how my house looks.) Getting into the other bedroom would require going around the house since the attics are seperated by a vaulted ceiling room.

 

[TheKrell]

If you have a network and your Hoppers are connected, you can try unplugging the coax to the Joeys and just plug them into the network instead.

 

[Scherrman]

I don't have it in writing or anything like that but I'm pretty certain that's what the guy said. In a 1 Hopper install only the Hopper needs RG6 but in a 2 Hopper install there should be RG6 to everything. I think the biggest cause of problems with these systems is to much db loss through the cables.

Everything should be checked from the cable, fittings, node, splitters, wall plates and any other connections.

 

[dangue]

I don't have it in writing or anything like that but I'm pretty certain that's what the guy said. In a 1 Hopper install only the Hopper needs RG6 but in a 2 Hopper install there should be RG6 to everything. I think the biggest cause of problems with these systems is to much db loss through the cables.

Everything should be checked from the cable, fittings, node, splitters, wall plates and any other connections.

Interesting. I have a 2 Hopper 1 Joey setup and only have RG6 from the node to the Hoppers. The line to the Joey is RG59. I asked about that over a year ago during install and the tech said it wouldn't be a problem (and it hasn't been). I wonder what has changed in that time to make RG6 to everything the new standard for 2 Hopper systems.

 

[Scherrman]

Interesting. I have a 2 Hopper 1 Joey setup and only have RG6 from the node to the Hoppers. The line to the Joey is RG59. I asked about that over a year ago during install and the tech said it wouldn't be a problem (and it hasn't been). I wonder what has changed in that time to make RG6 to everything the new standard for 2 Hopper systems.

It may be a case where it will work but they have found problems because of it over the last year. They may prefer to use all RG6 now. Like I said, I do not have any official documents that say it must be done but I'm pretty sure the guy from Dish told us during class.

 

[toddsanderson]

I don't have it in writing or anything like that but I'm pretty certain that's what the guy said. In a 1 Hopper install only the Hopper needs RG6 but in a 2 Hopper install there should be RG6 to everything. I think the biggest cause of problems with these systems is to much db loss through the cables.

Everything should be checked from the cable, fittings, node, splitters, wall plates and any other connections.

I am not an expert on Multimedia over coax, but I'm not sure the db loss would apply. From what I understand it is the capability of the coax to handle the full spectrum needed for the Hopper to work, whereas the Joeys only need what a RG-59 can provide. I could be wrong there.

I do agre that all connections should be checked including the wall outlets. The bedroom wall outlets are 23 years old. Hard to say how well they were terminated initally.

 

[navychop]

Def try the RJ-45 and then wireless routes.

Tech can always lay equipment next to each other with short temp coax and portable TV, or lay coax lines temp thru house to determine where problem is. Isolate the wiring then all but one piece of equipment and proceed from there.


Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[agentc13]

As a DNS tech I have been told to run all RG6 in a 2 Hopper system. Like it has been said, no official documentation, but our FSM (and the QAS) expects us to. It might not be an issue, but has solved similar issues to what has been described here.

Also make sure that the Hoppers have 3ghz rg6.

How long are the runs to each location from the node?

 

[3HaloODST]

I personally don't trust ANY amount of RG59 in a Hopper/Joey system. It certainly wouldn't be acceptable for my setup, so I'm not surprised that 2-Hopper setups have issues with it as well.

 

[Tampa8]

OP, you're handling this well, in the end I really think it will pay off and you will happy with the system. Dish not sending a tech when they said they would is really not acceptable. When everything is working correctly see if a DIRT member can get you something for your trouble, free programming etc...

 

[toddsanderson]

As a DNS tech I have been told to run all RG6 in a 2 Hopper system. Like it has been said, no official documentation, but our FSM (and the QAS) expects us to. It might not be an issue, but has solved similar issues to what has been described here.

Also make sure that the Hoppers have 3ghz rg6.

How long are the runs to each location from the node?

The RG-6 runs to the hoppers are less than 30 ft each. RG-6 runs to the 2 Joeys are less than 30 ft each. One of the RG-59 runs is 30 ft and the other about 60-70 ft. Not sure if the RG-6 is 3G. It was purchased in 2007 from a high end AV shop and is quad shield.