Satellite Anger....Need Help!!

[WAID]

After my experience yesterday I had to take myself off the field to cool down (and I have a lot of patience normally). Here's where I am:

I have three standard def. TV's: one in the living room (primary), one in master bedroom, and one in a spare bedroom that is only hooked up to a DVD player (we use the room for exercise, so I'll throw in an episode of "Tales from the Crypt" to watch while I use the treadmill). When I had Dish installed two years ago they offered installation to up to four rooms. I had a DVR (great invention!) installed in the living room that could service both the living room and bedroom. One box. I can watch different shows on the two TV's, record different shows on each, it is a nice arrangement. I did not have service taken to the exercise room because I don't work out as often as I should and I didn't want to pay for another box.

Fast forward to present day: I had my first hi-def TV delivered yesterday, with a second one due next week. What I'd really like is the exact same arrangement as now, but in hi-def. Being sort of an optimist, I also wanted to check the cost of bringing standard service to the exercise room and possibly another guest room, since I now have enough TV's to go around (and the big screen standard Mitsubishi is scheduled to become a gift to my sister this weekend). That doesn't seem that complicated to me...

When I contacted Dish a couple of weeks ago about upgrading, they were not very good. Although I simply wanted to upgrade my existing service and give them more money, they told me that the service call was to be $99. Then I have to buy or lease a new box for more money. Then the programming increase is $20 per month. That didn't sound great so I thought I'd look into alternatives.

The current DirecTV sounded okay. You get everything they offer free for three or four months (including free installation in up to four rooms) when you purchase the NFL package for $70 per month. Thing is, although I like football, I don't like it enough to sign up for a package that allows me to watch regular season games that don't start for several more weeks. Besides, if I really want to see a particular game I can go to a sports bar and see multiple games at once in a fun atmosphere, and it won't cost me more than the $70 monthly fee. So in short, I see it as during a promo period of a few months where you essentially get a free NFL package that is useless in the middle of summer. You also get a personal DVD player.

Last week I'm at Costco and they have a DirecTV kiosk. Even though their brochure says the promo period ended at the end of June, their offer is this: Free install, free DVR or HD receiver upgrade ($100 rebate), free HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime for three months, $100 Costco cash card (brochure says $50 and I guess this is instead of the free DVD player), and their "ultimate" HD & DVR package is $60 per month for 12 months. The guy also says that if you buy an HDTV from Costco, DirecTV will send you $100. The guy says I have to lease the HD DVR for $270, less $100 instant rebate, to provide the service to two hi-def TV. But I wouldn't have other lease fees. Plus, there is no cost for the standard def receivers required for the two other rooms, and no leasing fees. He also mentioned that I would need a third standard receiver for the master bedroom even though the HD DVR would provide the HD DVR service to both rooms. Done! We set the install up for yesterday (the day I was expecting the hi-def TV and already had to be away from work for half a day).

The Samsung TV arrives and is beautiful. Great start to this process.

Then the DirecTV install guy shows later. I took him to the living room and showed him the Dish receiver to replace. I told him the hi-def TV had just arrived for upstairs and the hi-def TV for the living room was arriving next week for the living room. He looked puzzled and asked if I wanted hi-def service in the bedroom. Of course the answer is yes, I just spent quite a lot on the new set and hi-def programming was the whole point. He said he couldn't complete the install because he doesn't have the right equipment. He has the HD DVR for the living room but three standard receivers for the three other rooms. I suggested he do the install anyway and I'd get the right box for the bedroom later, perhaps through the mail. He said it doesn't work that way; he could do the install but the upgraded receiver would require another visit (another charge) and that once we did the install I am no longer a new customer so am not entitled to the discounts on the upgraded box. He suggested calling DirecTV to start over.

He also said that I would need another HD DVR (not just an HD receiver) for the bedroom. He said that while Dish uses one cable to accomodate both the playing and recording on the DVR, DirecTV uses one for each. I had him clarify that getting HD DVR service to the two hi def TV's would require four wires, as opposed to the one I have now. The extra wires would be wrapped around the exterior of my house to get upstairs. He leaves without doing the install.

I call DirecTV. The rep said since I had arranged service through Costco I would have to cancel that order to start again (thus losing the better price and the $200 in cash cards). She also said that they only allow one HD DVR per household, so I can't have DVR service to the bedroom! WTF?? I am getting pissed at this point and tell her to cancel nothing.

I call Costco and get the number to the kiosk. I explained to the rep (a different guy) my set-up and what I want to do and he suggested a splitter from the HD DVR to service both TV's. He had to clarify that with a sepervisor, then told me I'm not allowed to do that. He said that I DID need an HD receiver for the bedroom for $100 and the HD DVR should provide DVR service to both rooms. At this point I am even more pissed and told him to cancel the entire order until I decided what to do. He couldn't; I had to call DirecTV to cancel the $170 charge I paid last week at Costco.

In my mind, I don't know who at DirecTV to believe, but screw those guys. I call DirecTV to refund my payment. After waiting on hold to reach someone, I ask for a supervisor. I wait for almost ten minutes before some bitch gets on the line. I just want a straight answer, and "possibly" reschedule (you know how you invest so much effort you hate to trash it all?). She is the worst. She tells me that more than one HD DVR is allowed in a home but only one is allowed per order. Therefore I could lease one for $299 less a $100 instant rebate ($30 more than at Costco), then place another order for a full-price $299 HD DVR. She didn't even offer the same offer her earlier rep had suggested. She seemed to be actively fending off my potential business, and gave me a monotone "I'm sorry you were given three different answers." I told her to cancel the charge. She said that in spite of the fact that I was immediately charged at Costco, my refund would be processed in 5-7 business days. These people suck and swallow!!

So I call Dish to tell them NOT to stop my service at midnight, and ask about their upgrade to HD. Of course no offense here, but eventually I had to ask to verify that this rep was NOT located in North America and, besides the slight awkward pause before hearing answers back and forth, English is not her primary language. What I think I understood was that upgrading to HD is just $20 per month and a no-cost install would be required (another half day at work missed, but maybe I can arrange when the other TV is scheduled to arrive). That's for programming only. Then the equipment: I either buy the HD DVR for $500 or lease for $170 less $100 instant rebate. I asked how much the monthly fee was for the lease. She said there is no cost. So why, I asked, would anyone pay $500 for a proprietary box when they could pay $70 instead. She had no explanation. Since I again was not sure I was getting the right info, I just verified that my service was not cut off at midnight.

I called my brother out-of-state to ask what he uses. He uses Dish for the past year and a half. Twice the equipment has failed but they have been good at replacing quickly. He also suggested that unless I want a premium channel or Discovery in HD I should just keep my existing system and go to Home Depot and get an old-fashioned antennae (spelling?). He said that a guy was at his home and set an antennae on his lawn and ran a coax cable from it to the back of his HDTV and immediately the picture was stunning. No install from Dish, no monthly expense for programming that we largely don't watch (we mostly watch the networks and news), and local channels in hi-def (the networks).

So I am fried and need some help here please. The antennae sounds perhaps like the right way to go. Does this make sense to all of you? With the standard DVR from Dish, will new cables improve the picture quality (I bought the HDTV cable kit but it is unopened) or should I upgrade the box?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!!!

[chlngr1970]

Dealing with cable and satellite ( or cell phone ) vendors should replace buying a car as the worst customer service experience known to man.

I don't know how dish works, but with DirecTV, you can have as many HDDVRs as you want, as long as you are willing to pay for them. They run about $300 each. I know of people at the AVS forum that have more than one.

One idea you might try, go to value electronics website. See what you can get that way. I hear they have just absolutly incredible customer service ( and Robert at VE is an AVS special member )

Or you can go to your cable company ( I HATE Comcast here in WA ) Or, if you are only interested in network HD, an antenna will probably give you the best HD picture since it is a native HD digital stream, and not compressed to go over the transmission lines of the cable company or through DBS...

j

[Iguana Man]

WAID, that's a lot to swallow (what you wrote).

My suggestion is to go here with your questions. This is the place I found out about for a great deal on an upgrade that cost me $20. I got a boatload of stuff for that $20 too!

[WAID]

You guys are awesome; I'll roll up the sleeves and start researching when I have some time tonight.

I agree w/ chlngr1970 that Comcast blows chunks. I don't know much about native HD streams but maybe that's the way to start since it's inexpensive and doesn't involve too much trouble. What still isn't clear to me is if I buy the antenna is it coax to connect it with or do I mess with the HDMI stuff (and if so, how). Also, do I connect the antenna straight to the HDTV or to the Dish receiver. Seems to me that straight to the TV makes sense except that if I want to watch those channels I probably would have to switch sources on the TV each time (which would get old).

Iguana Man, I have no idea what HR20 is (a bad Halloween sequel?), but I'll start crawling through the threads in search of great ideas. Thanks!

[sub780lime]

Yeah, your brother was talking about HDOTA which is pretty much, High Definition Over The Air. Some people can get a great picture with this as long as you are near a primary signal tower. There are sites on the net that can tell you by location what kind of signal you would be able to pull. Also, there is no guarentee, if you do it this way, what channels you will get. I have HD through Time Warner Cable, but I only have it in one bedroom so i havent dealt with the crap you are talking about, but none of it sounds very fun, sorry dude.

[Dogg]

OTAHD works great for those that are within range AND have TV's with built in receivers. Not all TV's have internal HD receivers.