Surprise $95 charge to advise 625 DVR Reciever hard drive dying

[clutchless]

I have 625 DVR receiver circa 2004 and it started acting up by scrambling certain premium channels. Dish phone help advised the dish was getting a good signal but said a tech should look at it. I sdet up an appointmen the next Sunday. They never mentioned a charge for this service. Come Sunday, we waited most of the afternoon and no one showed up. When I called Dish they advised that it had never been scheduled, so the CSR was incompetent or lied to me. The person then rescheduled for the next Saturday morning. Again, no one ever mentioned a charge for this service. The guy took all of 30 seconds to advise the hard drive was dying. He offered to swap in a new receiver but we wanted to complete watching stuff stored on the hard drive. I advised I would schedule getting a new receiver in a few weeks after we had caught up on our TV watching. He had me sign some unreadable documents on an electronic device and never gave me copies or advised what they were. He never mentioned fees. I then got my bill and it included a $95 charge for his 5 minute visit. I am angry over this unexpected charge. I think at the least I should have been advised of the charges. I also think in light of the screw up with the prior attempted service call they should have waved the fee, especially since I intended to get a new receiver, although I am not sure which one I may get. We only have 2 TVs and only one is HD. I would like Dish to waive or greatly reduce this service call. I think their failure to advise of charges ahead of time may vioilate some FCC regulations. I will look into it.

I then found this forum and learned my receiver was way past its expiration date. I now think Dish should have known about this issue and been able to diagnose over the phone that the hard drive was failing and there really was no need for a service call. I am now afraid of what extra charges they will attempt when I do get a new receiver which I want to do next week as the old one is rapidly gettng worse. I look forward to some advice from more experienced forum members on how to proceed. Thanks.

 

[lucky86]

Past its expedition date? Lots of people still have and use 625s. Sure, its old and I would personally upgrade to HD, but the 625s are not obsolete.

 

[clutchless]

I only meant the hard drive was past its normal life expectancy of 3-5 years. That all it took was the tech to barely touch the receiver to make the picture go bad. Dish could have had me do that myself over the phone.

 

[sparc]

I only meant the hard drive was past its normal life expectancy of 3-5 years. That all it took was the tech to barely touch the receiver to make the picture go bad. Dish could have had me do that myself over the phone.

there is no true expiration date on hard drives. If it works, it's still got life. Dish will run all their hard drives in their receivers till they physically stop working or test bad. Receivers conk out, it's normal whether it's a hard drive, power supply, etc.

Message someone at DIRT to see if they can address your issues.

On the bottom of the main forum page, you'll see the 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)

 

[mike123abc]

While it is a bit late now unfortunately, you can sign up for the monthly protection plan and get reduced prices on service calls.

 

[dvrexpander]

The device you signed was a service agreement - basically just says the tech was there and gets paid for showing up, checking the system and closing the WO. If you didn't sign he won't get paid so that is pretty much all that ways. But you need to have the protection plan to get a cheaper service fee which is $7/month and then a service call is $15 vs the $95 without the protection plan. You could have just opted to have them ship you a new receiver in the mail and you switch i out yourself as now the notes reflect the tech saying it was bad - to just avoid someone else coming out and you do it yourself.

 

[Stargazer]

You might fight with them for a while and be told that the fee is waived then later find out all that hard work was for nothing when they say they have no record of the fee being waived. Make sure you have it in text with Dirt member or online chat saved to send to Dish as proof.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using SatelliteGuys

 

[MaryB@SlingTV]

Hi clutchless, I am sorry about the issue you had with the charges for a recent technician visit and would like to assist you. Can you please PM me your account or phone number and the four digit security code? I will review your account and see what I can do. Thank you!

 

[Scherrman]

That is what the service fee is. It's a flat rate of $95 regardless if he's there for 10 minutes or 3 hours. If you had the service plan it would have cost you $15 but I will side with you on this one that Dish should have advised you as to how much the fee would be. It's not fair to just send techs out without disclosing what the fee is or that there is any fee all together.

 

[clutchless]

I sent a PM to DIRT team member MaryB. On Friday I sent a PM to another DIRT team member who said he would get back to me Saturday, but I have not heard anything. So it appears I can just have them send me a new receiver and I send back the old one? I recall that is what I did when I got this receiver after the first one was damaged when lightening struck a tree next to my house (it also blew out my Denon receiver, the security system and all the telephones in the house and my neighbors had similar damage).

 

[GaryPen]

Clutchless - You can use an external hard drive to copy the shows you haven't watched yet, and transfer them to the new DVR. BTW, if your TV happens to be HD, you may want to consider upgrading to an HD-capable DVR.

 

[aaronwt6]

Clutchless - You can use an external hard drive to copy the shows you haven't watched yet, and transfer them to the new DVR. BTW, if your TV happens to be HD, you may want to consider upgrading to an HD-capable DVR.

I don't believe this is an option on the 625.

 

[TheKrell]

It's not! Wish it were.

 

[clutchless]

I thought about upgrading. The TV where the cable comes into the house in the basement is SD, my HD tv is upstairs on the 3rd floor. I have the receiver on top of the SD tv as TV1 and the HD is TV2. Can I get the receiver with one HD and one Sd tv and actually use it for HD upstairs? I cannot swap the tvs due to size issues. I do not plan to get another hd tv to replace the sd for at least 6 months.