Sanity check ... can someone confirm what I was told today by Dish rep who called?

[fivebyfive]

Hi, all --

I'm hoping someone here might be able to tell me whether a call I got today from a Dish sales guy is legitimate. I mean, I’m sure he WAS with Dish, because the appointment he set up for me has indeed shown up in “My Appointments” online ... but my question is whether what I’ve been told is true.

So here's the rundown. We’re longtime Dish customers and have three Dish 722 dual-tuner DVRs, which have been totally sufficient for our needs. We have 3 HDTVs and 2 standard TVs, and only have 1 HDTV currently connected to one of the 722s. We use external hard drives if we want to “port” some show from one room to another, which doesn’t happen all that often.

I know a lot of people like Hopper, but a lot of people don’t. I’ve read reviews here and there, and for the most part, have not been tempted to "upgrade" ... my primary concerns have been the complaints about (1) poor readability of on-screen text; (2) the 1:00 or 1:30 am nightly “shutdown”/reboot (WAY too early for us); (3) reports of frequent Hopper/Joey linking problems; (4) reports of missing or not-recorded programs, or deleted programs; and (5) any dependency on fast Internet connection (we live in a rural area with extremely slow DSL (<0.5MBps down)).

But today, I got a call from "Eric," who identified himself as a service rep for Dish calling with "technical information" about my Dish account (which he seemed to verify by telling me the amount of my last bill and the last four digits of my credit card). Eric explained that Dish had launched “a new HD satellite” and was running a months-long, nationwide campaign to ensure all existing customers would be able to receive signals from it, and needed to run a remote test to make sure my Dish receivers could receive signals from this new dish (something to do with "frequency compatibility"?).

After asking me for my Location ID and Receiver CA ID (this was the point where I asked for some confirmation that he was calling from Dish, which was when he supplied the amount of my last bill and final cc digits), Eric then remotely tested my "system," and soon reported that regrettably, my 3 existing 722 dual-tuner DVRs were "not compatible with" and WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RECEIVE signals from Dish's new HD satellite. He explained that this meant my 722s would basically cease to receive Dish programming when "the switchover" to the new HD dish was completed at some unspecified (but imminent, as in "possibly within a month") time.

He then offered on Dish’s behalf to solve this problem by replacing our 722s with 2 Hoppers and multiple Joeys. If we agreed to this exchange, he explained, we would receive some discounts and have to sign a new 2-year contract, and also pay a $195 installation "processing" fee that would be refunded to us in full (plus $55) over a 10-month period in $25 increments on each bill.

I tentatively agreed to set up an installation appointment on Saturday to replace my 722s ... but the problem I'm having is that since I hung up, I have been scouring the Web looking for ANY information or discussion from Dish or other Dish customers about being told THEIR 722 DVRs were somehow "incompatible" with a new HD satellite Dish has launched, and I have not yet found a whisper of such a thing. Or any info about a new HD satellite at all. The lack of "secondary confirmation" is making me nervous.

As much as many people like the Hopper, I don't know that we want to upgrade to it and lose our 722s (which, as I’ve said, is a system we understand and that mostly works for us) if we don't have to.

I’ve emailed Dish directly to ask for any confirmation in writing that I MUST now either allow Dish to replace my 722 DVRs with Hoppers and Joeys OR lose my ability to receive Dish programming in the near future ... but I thought I’d post here and ask if anyone here has heard anything about this “new satellite” or similar stories to mine?

Does this sound fishy to you? I’m wondering if this is just a hard sell to get me to abandon equipment that has been working well for us and pressure us into upgrading unnecessarily and lock us into a new 2-year contract (or previous one has either already expired or is about to) ... or if this story about a new HD satellite is actually legitimate, is there really some logical reason why my 722s (which seem STILL to be a supported/available product on the Dish.com site) wouldn’t “work” with such new HD satellite?

Thanks for any insight, info or clarification you can provide to a "non-tech-savvy" 722er!

Pikay

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Seems strange to me. 722's are fully compatable with DISH's new HD.

Hopefully a DIRT member can chime in and find out whats going on for you!

 

[TheKrell]

Sounds like some sort of scam to me. I have one 722 and two 612s and I have received no such call.

 

[Rangers484]

If DISH called and they had access to your CC info and last bill info why would he not already have your receiver RA numbers in his system? My guess is a retailer calling to try and "scare" you into an upgrade to Hopper along with a new 2 year commitment. PM any DIRT Member and they will confirm this was DISH or not.

 

[KE4EST]

That is what I think too, that it is a retailer, trying to get people in his personal database upgraded. His business is probably slow right now.

 

[old corps]

We have a 722 and a 722K and are perfectly happy with that as well. Due to HDMI splitters and mirroring we have HD on 5 TVs and 2 projectors. This whole song and dance sounds like BS to me.

Ed

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have contacted the DIRT team on the posters behalf and they will be contacting him in a little bit and hopefully make some sense of this for everyone.

 

[boba]

Cancel the upgrade and get your credit checked.

 

[Scherrman]

I have heard of retailers calling their customers and talking them in to upgrades when business is slow but this is to the extreme. If it was a retailer I'm not sure if that appointment shows up on the customer's online account, does it?

Regardless, the Hopper system is awesome and should fit your needs much better than three 722 receivers. That's just my opinion, but I have not had many issues with my system at all. I still don't understand how people struggle to read the text but I see a lot of complaints about it. All I can think of is that these people have poor eyesight or have small TVs.

 

[king3pj]

I have heard of retailers calling their customers and talking them in to upgrades when business is slow but this is to the extreme. If it was a retailer I'm not sure if that appointment shows up on the customer's online account, does it?

Regardless, the Hopper system is awesome and should fit your needs much better than three 722 receivers. That's just my opinion, but I have not had many issues with my system at all. I still don't understand how people struggle to read the text but I see a lot of complaints about it. All I can think of is that these people have poor eyesight or have small TVs.

My house is all HD so the hopper/joey system is great. My parents have 27" SD TVs in two of their bedrooms hooked to Joeys through composite cables. I can see where the readability issues come in if you are using a smaller SD TV. The hopper guide just doesn't work as well on smallish SD TVs as their old 722s did.

 

[Scherrman]

My house is all HD so the hopper/joey system is great. My parents have 27" SD TVs in two of their bedrooms hooked to Joeys through composite cables. I can see where the readability issues come in if you are using a smaller SD TV. The hopper guide just doesn't work as well on smallish SD TVs as their old 722s did.

So it's with smaller TVs and SD TVs?

 

[king3pj]

So it's with smaller TVs and SD TVs?

I think even smaller HDTVs are ok. They have a 22 inch HDTV in another bedroom and the guide is easier to read on that than the two 27" SDTVs. They have two 50" HDTVs in the living room and even with their poor eyesight there are no troubles there.

 

[Hall]

After asking me for my Location ID and Receiver CA ID....

I'm pretty certain that this is the red flag ! Kinda along the lines of "your bank" calling you and asking for your account # - they'll NEVER do that.

I’ve emailed Dish directly to ask for any confirmation in writing...

Got a reply yet ? Didn't think so.... Pick up the phone and call them !

 

[navychop]

And it sounds like he's charging you full freight. If you want Hopper, talk with DIRT and they may get you a better deal.

I have a Joey on a 27" SDTV and it is readable.

Those ViP722 series receivers will work fine for many years to come. You're sure that's the correct model #?

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[Briant73]

This sounds fishy to me also, I would contact a dish team member or call Dish yourself. Also in the future if you want to verify if a call is from a certain company you can always ask for that person to leave call back information and google it.

A few times I have had calls from people claiming to be representatives of a company and it turns out to be either a retailer or telemarketer instead. I not only ask the false representative to not contact me but write the company they claim to be representing to let them know someone called pretending to be calling on their behalf and supply them with what information I can. Good luck!

 

[Teehar]

That can't be legit!

 

[SomeDishGuy]

Hi, all --

I'm hoping someone here might be able to tell me whether a call I got today from a Dish sales guy is legitimate. I mean, I’m sure he WAS with Dish, because the appointment he set up for me has indeed shown up in “My Appointments” online ... but my question is whether what I’ve been told is true.

So here's the rundown. We’re longtime Dish customers and have three Dish 722 dual-tuner DVRs, which have been totally sufficient for our needs. We have 3 HDTVs and 2 standard TVs, and only have 1 HDTV currently connected to one of the 722s. We use external hard drives if we want to “port” some show from one room to another, which doesn’t happen all that often.

I know a lot of people like Hopper, but a lot of people don’t. I’ve read reviews here and there, and for the most part, have not been tempted to "upgrade" ... my primary concerns have been the complaints about (1) poor readability of on-screen text; (2) the 1:00 or 1:30 am nightly “shutdown”/reboot (WAY too early for us); (3) reports of frequent Hopper/Joey linking problems; (4) reports of missing or not-recorded programs, or deleted programs; and (5) any dependency on fast Internet connection (we live in a rural area with extremely slow DSL (<0.5MBps down)).

But today, I got a call from "Eric," who identified himself as a service rep for Dish calling with "technical information" about my Dish account (which he seemed to verify by telling me the amount of my last bill and the last four digits of my credit card). Eric explained that Dish had launched “a new HD satellite” and was running a months-long, nationwide campaign to ensure all existing customers would be able to receive signals from it, and needed to run a remote test to make sure my Dish receivers could receive signals from this new dish (something to do with "frequency compatibility"?).

After asking me for my Location ID and Receiver CA ID (this was the point where I asked for some confirmation that he was calling from Dish, which was when he supplied the amount of my last bill and final cc digits), Eric then remotely tested my "system," and soon reported that regrettably, my 3 existing 722 dual-tuner DVRs were "not compatible with" and WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RECEIVE signals from Dish's new HD satellite. He explained that this meant my 722s would basically cease to receive Dish programming when "the switchover" to the new HD dish was completed at some unspecified (but imminent, as in "possibly within a month") time.

He then offered on Dish’s behalf to solve this problem by replacing our 722s with 2 Hoppers and multiple Joeys. If we agreed to this exchange, he explained, we would receive some discounts and have to sign a new 2-year contract, and also pay a $195 installation "processing" fee that would be refunded to us in full (plus $55) over a 10-month period in $25 increments on each bill.

I tentatively agreed to set up an installation appointment on Saturday to replace my 722s ... but the problem I'm having is that since I hung up, I have been scouring the Web looking for ANY information or discussion from Dish or other Dish customers about being told THEIR 722 DVRs were somehow "incompatible" with a new HD satellite Dish has launched, and I have not yet found a whisper of such a thing. Or any info about a new HD satellite at all. The lack of "secondary confirmation" is making me nervous.

As much as many people like the Hopper, I don't know that we want to upgrade to it and lose our 722s (which, as I’ve said, is a system we understand and that mostly works for us) if we don't have to.

I’ve emailed Dish directly to ask for any confirmation in writing that I MUST now either allow Dish to replace my 722 DVRs with Hoppers and Joeys OR lose my ability to receive Dish programming in the near future ... but I thought I’d post here and ask if anyone here has heard anything about this “new satellite” or similar stories to mine?

Does this sound fishy to you? I’m wondering if this is just a hard sell to get me to abandon equipment that has been working well for us and pressure us into upgrading unnecessarily and lock us into a new 2-year contract (or previous one has either already expired or is about to) ... or if this story about a new HD satellite is actually legitimate, is there really some logical reason why my 722s (which seem STILL to be a supported/available product on the Dish.com site) wouldn’t “work” with such new HD satellite?

Thanks for any insight, info or clarification you can provide to a "non-tech-savvy" 722er!

Pikay

SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM

Seriously, call Dish now, let them know about it, they'll need to get you to the fraud prevention department. There is nothing wrong with a 722, it works on every satellite Dish has.

Dish has nothing that is a $195 installation processing, and does not spread things like this over a bill.

Again, this is a scam (or a sleazy retailer, and I think that is possible too). Call Dish if you don't hear from DIRT. Don't wait on some kind of email response.

 

[ohioankev]

Hi, all --

I'm hoping someone here might be able to tell me whether a call I got today from a Dish sales guy is legitimate. I mean, I’m sure he WAS with Dish, because the appointment he set up for me has indeed shown up in “My Appointments” online ... but my question is whether what I’ve been told is true.

So here's the rundown. We’re longtime Dish customers and have three Dish 722 dual-tuner DVRs, which have been totally sufficient for our needs. We have 3 HDTVs and 2 standard TVs, and only have 1 HDTV currently connected to one of the 722s. We use external hard drives if we want to “port” some show from one room to another, which doesn’t happen all that often.

I know a lot of people like Hopper, but a lot of people don’t. I’ve read reviews here and there, and for the most part, have not been tempted to "upgrade" ... my primary concerns have been the complaints about (1) poor readability of on-screen text; (2) the 1:00 or 1:30 am nightly “shutdown”/reboot (WAY too early for us); (3) reports of frequent Hopper/Joey linking problems; (4) reports of missing or not-recorded programs, or deleted programs; and (5) any dependency on fast Internet connection (we live in a rural area with extremely slow DSL (<0.5MBps down)).

But today, I got a call from "Eric," who identified himself as a service rep for Dish calling with "technical information" about my Dish account (which he seemed to verify by telling me the amount of my last bill and the last four digits of my credit card). Eric explained that Dish had launched “a new HD satellite” and was running a months-long, nationwide campaign to ensure all existing customers would be able to receive signals from it, and needed to run a remote test to make sure my Dish receivers could receive signals from this new dish (something to do with "frequency compatibility"?).

After asking me for my Location ID and Receiver CA ID (this was the point where I asked for some confirmation that he was calling from Dish, which was when he supplied the amount of my last bill and final cc digits), Eric then remotely tested my "system," and soon reported that regrettably, my 3 existing 722 dual-tuner DVRs were "not compatible with" and WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RECEIVE signals from Dish's new HD satellite. He explained that this meant my 722s would basically cease to receive Dish programming when "the switchover" to the new HD dish was completed at some unspecified (but imminent, as in "possibly within a month") time.

He then offered on Dish’s behalf to solve this problem by replacing our 722s with 2 Hoppers and multiple Joeys. If we agreed to this exchange, he explained, we would receive some discounts and have to sign a new 2-year contract, and also pay a $195 installation "processing" fee that would be refunded to us in full (plus $55) over a 10-month period in $25 increments on each bill.

I tentatively agreed to set up an installation appointment on Saturday to replace my 722s ... but the problem I'm having is that since I hung up, I have been scouring the Web looking for ANY information or discussion from Dish or other Dish customers about being told THEIR 722 DVRs were somehow "incompatible" with a new HD satellite Dish has launched, and I have not yet found a whisper of such a thing. Or any info about a new HD satellite at all. The lack of "secondary confirmation" is making me nervous.

As much as many people like the Hopper, I don't know that we want to upgrade to it and lose our 722s (which, as I’ve said, is a system we understand and that mostly works for us) if we don't have to.

I’ve emailed Dish directly to ask for any confirmation in writing that I MUST now either allow Dish to replace my 722 DVRs with Hoppers and Joeys OR lose my ability to receive Dish programming in the near future ... but I thought I’d post here and ask if anyone here has heard anything about this “new satellite” or similar stories to mine?

Does this sound fishy to you? I’m wondering if this is just a hard sell to get me to abandon equipment that has been working well for us and pressure us into upgrading unnecessarily and lock us into a new 2-year contract (or previous one has either already expired or is about to) ... or if this story about a new HD satellite is actually legitimate, is there really some logical reason why my 722s (which seem STILL to be a supported/available product on the Dish.com site) wouldn’t “work” with such new HD satellite?

Thanks for any insight, info or clarification you can provide to a "non-tech-savvy" 722er!

Pikay

FYI if you have ever used Dish.com(and maybe used pay by phone) to pay with a credit card and if your dish.com account becomes compromised then the person who compromised it could see the last four digits of the "last card used", and your bill amount.

 

[manteca]

you must cancel this order immediately, put a watch on your credit card and reclaim any charges. that part on asking the location id of the receivers sounds that the call came from the audit team, are they now part of an scamming to force clients to change the equipment to make their jobs easy? keep your 722s, no need to change ANYTHING!

 

[whitewolf8214]

to SatelliteGuys fivebyfive and contact Dirt on here they will help you!!