Ripped Off by Sky Angel and IPTV

[Corkykn]

Hi all,

I looked for a Sky Angel Forum in order to vent today - so you all get to be the "victims" of said venting.

Via conversations with Sky Angel agents, I have confirmed that I would need an IPTV box for EACH tv for which I wanted to watch Sky Angel (in the event that my husband wanted to watch sports and I wanted to watch a different program). That output $300-$600 for boxes to enable 2 to 4 of our TV's to get S.A. is terrible - especially considering that it was just over two years ago that we signed on to S.A. and forked out over $400 in receiver and Dish equipment to get S.A. reception.

I was also informed today by a Sky Angel IPTV representative that the monthly charge, ($14.99 to $24.99) would be for EACH box!!! - nearly $50 per month if we wanted only two boxes to run two TV's!

Since late 2005, we have had two Dish receivers, in order to get S.A. on 4 tv's, and have paid about $24 per month. (But, the lady said, we could simply unhook one box and move it around the house to our four TV's! Yipes! Wouldn't that be fun? (And, of course, I'd be watching football with hubby or he'd have to watch HGTV with me) LOL)

So, we decided to make the switch to the DISH family package at $19.99 per month and use our existing equipment. That would cost a $60 re-positioning of our Dish; however, Sky Angel informs me that they will NOT refund any of my money. (In addition to the money we pay DISH every month for local and for the receiver rentals, we paid S.A. for a year in advance through August, 2008). An S.A. agent told me that when they stop all satellite reception at the end of the first quarter of 2008, it will be THEIR fault I'm not getting coverage so they will give me whatever refund is due then. If I quit now, I'll not get a refund because "it's your fault".

These people are NOT service oriented. They never answered a letter of inquiry I sent them, and their agents give different answers to questions. This appears to be an example of a "Christian" business that is going to leave a bad taste in the mouths of its customers.

If any of you have any ideas for getting my refund, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for listening, folks! (Oh, and have a Merry Christmas!

Corky in Montana

 

[jashobeam]

So, we decided to make the switch to the DISH family package at $19.99 per month and use our existing equipment. That would cost a $60 re-positioning of our Dish;

Sign up for Dish and have them give you new equipment (most new custmoers get the stuff without paying up front for it). We are switching to most likely Dish and we will have another satellite put in for that and new receivers. When we get rid of SA, we will take down the first dish and get rid of it. The old receiver will go on ebay or to a family member or be donated depending on what we decide then.

There is no way in the world I would pay to have a receiver on each TV for SA and pay for double the monthly fee. That's nuts!

 

[jegrant]

It does seem bad that SA* won't even offer secondary boxes in the same household a reduced rate. I mean, as long as the secondary boxes aren't subsidized, how much extra can it possibly cost to just activate them?

 

[Stargazer]

Just get GloryStar and forget about SkyAngel.

 

[catkoko]

dish has some receivers that can broadcast to 2 tvs. otherwise I bleieve its still $5 a month for additional receivers. a far cry from $24.99 per tv

 

[Mr Tony]

Most of Dish's boxes now are 2 tuner boxes. If you plug them into the phone line there is no extra receiver fee. So you could have a dual tuner going to 2 TV's and each tuner is independent of each other

 

[Corkykn]

IPTV extra boxes

I received a helpful and informative post from a gentleman who explained that there would also be a problem with more than one IPTV box and signal strength. The IPTV needs 1.5 broadband speed to run, and a second box will lower the speed each has available. So, if a person decided to go with an extra box, they'd be forced to pay for much higher DSL speed too. IPTV just appears to be a poor solution for those of us who want to operate more than one TV on different channels!