We currently have Dish Network and enjoy the channel selection, features, etc. The reception has been rock solid.
My one complaint is every 4 months something happens to the equipment and a call to Dish Network always results in the same thing -what they call a bad switch. This has been going on for as long as we’ve had the service, we’ve replaced the switch three times already. The last few times tech support said our “switch went bed” we left it alone and the problem cleared up the next day.
I’m a little sick of this issue and I think it’s a scam to get techs out to my house for a $99 service call to replace a item that just seems flighty.
We are looking at DirectTV as an option.
How is the service compared to Dish Network?
How about Equipment?
Programming?
Anyone ever switch from Dish Network to Direct TV and find out it was a bad move? How about the other way round?
This is coming from a guy who’s never seen Direct TV or their equipment.
I just throw this out because our radio stations go through seasonal problems (twice a year) from the satellites. It’s dropout and noise that clears itself up within a few days.
Doug: Sunspots? You know, perhaps. But,… I remember a time we were supposed to get a huge burst of something from a large solar flare. I was keen to the satellite dish that weekend because I heard speculation the super-gamma-radiation-solarflare-something-something might even knock out a satellite,. but the dish worked great the whole time. Not even a hiccup.
What happens is we’ll loose channels programed into the guides. If you happen to be watching one of these channels, it will go dead. An error shows up on the screen, but I forget what it says.
During this time when you go in to “check switch” (which is always what tech support prompts you to do next) it will give different reports on the type of switch, or say no switch found.
Tech support says “switch is dead, we’ll come out and fix it for you for the low, low price of $99 for the visit plus the cost of the part”.
Every time I say the same thing “so the switch is dead? No TV until it’s fixed?”
They say “correct”.
Sometimes within two hours of getting off the phone the problem fixes itself and goes away for several months.
The thing is, we had this very problem at our old house and we have it here. All the equipment at the new house is new except for the receivers. We’ve been here a year and we’ve had the “switch problem” 3 times now. At the old house, in two years, I think we ran into it about 6-8 times.
At the old house I replaced the switch with a brand new one. Several months later, the problem came up again. Off I went to get another switch. Several months later same problem. This time I was really busy with work and didn’t have time to get the switch and climb up on the roof… but the problem went away by itself. Several months later it was back.
Then we moved. We got a Dish Network guy here to install the new equipment. Everything checked out OK so we figured the problem was just a ghost in the old machine. Several months later the problem was back.
“it will give different reports on the type of switch”
What I mean is everytime you select “check switch” it runs the test and reports different switch models. Let’s say you run the test three times, it will report three different findings for each test… including “no switch found” from time to time.
You’re paying $99 every four months for some schlub to come fix a problem that shouldn’t be there? Geez, I’d have dropped them with a pissed-off call to customer service after the second time…
At the very least, the tech support visits should be free. Aren’t there any warranties for this stuff?
No,. I didn’t pay the $99 service call. I bought the new switches and put them in myself. They cost about 6-8 bucks each.
I guess there is a 12 month warranty that comes with the equipment, but it isn’t on site. I have to take the product in to a shop. Pretty useless when half the gear is bolted to the house.
I should be clear I really like the service outside of this quirk. But it has gotten old and of course the few times I REALLY want to watch something is when the switch decides to flake out of the night.
I guess this thread can die out now. It seems I am the only one that has Satellite TV… hehh eh…
We decided to bail on Dish Network and move over to Direct TV. It doesn’t cost anything for the new equipment with a one year contract and the monthly is a few bucks less then what we pay now. They have the same channels (except one I really enjoy called World Link).
I suppose the worse that can happen is the same problem.