Dish Network Troubles

PitbullMidwest · Apr 6, 2005

We have had Dish Network for about 7 years and recently started having reception troubles. We can receive about 45 out of the 60+ channels available to us, on the rest we get pexilation and interupted reception or an error message that the signal has been lost. I have checked all connections and cables and all is fine.

Dish Network ran us through the routine of run this, check that all with no improvement. In the end they decided that it must be the receiver, cable or LNB (which pretty much captures it all). I pointed out that the receiver was working on most channels and that they "upgraded" us to a Dish 500 last year and I felt that while possible, I didn't believe it to be an equipment problem. When she found out that the receiver and LNBs were out of warrenty, she offered to send a tech out to check our equipment for $90 or we can replace the receiver for an additional $5.99/month.

Signal strength: 93
Weather: crystal clear

All of this to ask:
1. Is anyone else experiencing reception problems with Dish Network
2. Would you upgrade
-or-
3. Switch to Direct TV and get the equipment "free" as a new customer

Curt

slowrev · Apr 6, 2005

Just drop service for a month if you have fulfilled your prior requirements and then sign up as a new customer. You will get new equipment and it will be in warranty. Amazing how they treat existing cuatomers. Maybe you want to go to direct TV ?
Ben

ducati996 · Apr 6, 2005

Dish has a retention department which will basically waive the install fee or service fee as long as you dont leave them /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The dish either has to be re-pointed, the lines have to be re-check especially those little grounding straps that are placed in line. Maybe one of your LNB's are failing if this problem is on both receivers...any way its a easy fix with an on-site visit..
Remember to look at all the transponder levels as well. Depending on the channel, some transponders will come in stronger than others. The oval shape 3 LNB dishes tend to lock in good on all 3 LNB's (one for each satellite location) but not excellent on all 3...trade off of signal levels happen...
Have someone stop by from Dish after you get the retention dept to credit you...

Ducati

reb · Apr 6, 2005

Dish programs come from 2 or 3 satellites. Did you verify the alignment of your dish(es)?

I might be inclined to change providers. Dish Network has become a bit more difficult to deal with since we started with them, about 3-4 years ago. My neighbor just looked into signing up and was told she would have an extra $5/mo charge if she did not keep her phone line connected to her receiver.

jwstewar · Apr 6, 2005

( she would have an extra $5/mo charge if she did not keep her phone line connected to her receiver )

When we were with Pegasucks (DirecTV service) we were told that then as well. We were also told that when we went with Dish. Every now and then the TV in our Daughter's bedroom will say that to "avoid an additional $4.99 charge it must stay connected" but this is the same receiver (dual tuner) that is in our living room and is always connected but I've never seen that message in there. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Now one thing, she usually doesn't turn her "receiver" off - just the TV. In the living room I have the remote programmed to turn off the receiver as well.

btolle · Apr 6, 2005

Try moving the dish slightly while someone watches the signal strength meter. It could be a little out of alignment.

If you have a Dish 500 it should have 2 wires coming out of the LNB. If it does and one is not in use try switching to the other wire. If there is only 1 wire coming out take the LNB off and switch the wire to the other connection on the LNB. I had 1/2 of my original LNB go bad and that fixed it for me.

We carry it in the motorhome and I suspect a pothole killed the one side. Now I have a foam rubber sponge that the LNB rides on.

I don't know how many trees you have around your place but I have a LOT of trees and suspect I may have to do some tree cutting eventually or will lose my signal.

Bill Tolle

Glenn9643 · Apr 6, 2005

I might need to check over my bills. I've got two dish network receivers and neither has EVER been attached to a telephone line. We just don't have any desire to watch the pay-per-view channels. It's amazing what you can learn here!

Phils · Apr 6, 2005

I've had Dish for 9 years. This same problem happened to me last year. I cut off some trees that I thought might have grown into the signal path. No luck. I checked connections. I "rebooted" the receiver a few times. I finally called Dish, they diagnosed it as a bad receiver (we have the DVR model). I pay $2.99 a month extra for warranty on any piece/part branded 'Dish'. They shipped a new receiver 'next-day' and it cost me $14.99 (that's the terms of the extended warranty). It solved the problem.

An option for these receivers (provided you have Caller ID) is to have incoming callers identified on your TV screen when the phone rings. A month ago, that quit happening. Further checks indicate the modem has failed. That also happened to our very first receiver 13 months after we got it (but before we started buying the extended warranty). We lived with no modem for at least 6 years, and just couldn't buy pay-per-view without calling or going online ($1 more than if you select it through the receiver). One of these days I'll get another receiver coming, but since we rarely watch pay-per-view anyway it's not a pressing issue right now. I've never gotten a message nor been told about $5/mo for not having a phone line hooked up to the receiver. I have a second [non-DVR receiver] not hooked to a phone line and there's never been a message on it nor any message from Dish about that charge.

I DO miss the caller ID popping up on the TV screen when the phone rings, but I lived without it for years and can do so again for awhile. There's things on the Digital Video Recorder that I've recorded for DW to watch (she took a vacation with her mother, I opted to stay home and do work with my tractor?). Once all those have been watched, I guess I'll call Dish and spend another $14.99 for a new receiver.

Phil

rozett · Apr 6, 2005

Curt, We've had Dish for about three years. Within the last few months, we started having the exact same symptoms that you have. We see the same behavior on both receivers, so that tells me that it is not the receiver nor the LNB, unless they are both bad (not likely). We got little satisaction from Dish since we bought the Dish 500 receivers when we signed up. On 119 West, we get between 90 and 120 signal strength. I do not believe it has anything to do with equipment on our property. We've talked about switching to DirecTV.

rlw · Apr 7, 2005

It seems to me that I recall a lawsuit several years ago regarding requiring a phone line attached to the reciever and the satellite providers lost due to the fact that they couldn't force you to have a telephone. The only real purpose of the phone line is so they can download your pay-per-view activity. I was told by Dish that if I chose not to have a phone line attached they would just disable my ability to get a pay-per-view movie without calling in to order (of course there is an additional fee when calling to order).

I had Directv (billed thru Pegasus) before Dish. At that time Pegasus charged about $5 more a month for the exact same packages as Directv. If you're on Pegasus, I suggest you check the pricing on Pegasus website versus Directv's site. If there is a price difference, call Pegasus and threaten to leave due to the price difference - they should adjust your prices. When I called to quit to switch to Dish they offered the discount to me. I told them it was a little too late for them to say they'd stop screwing me when I never wanted screwed in the first place.

Regarding bad reception on Dish, I haven't been experiencing any. Tell them you are going to leave for Directv and they'll likely get someone out there - none of the satellite providers want to lose a customer.

coachgrd · Apr 7, 2005

The only problem I've been having with Dishnetwork is their unwillingness to carry the NFL Network. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

SnowRidge · Apr 7, 2005

We have DirecTV, and I do not recommend it.

A few months ago, they screwed up an OTA (Over The Air) programming download. It caused failures in certain receiver models. They would frequently pixilate, then reboot. It took DTV many days to diagnose and solve the problem. DirecTV reprograms their customers equipment frequently in order to frustrate would be smart card hackers.

During this time they did not:

1. Put up a general message on their website informing subscribers of what was going on.

2. Email affected subscribers, although they knew who had the models that were failing and have mass emailing capability. It would have been simple to send a short message saying, "Hey, it's our fault and we're working on it. Please be patient. We apologize."

3. Properly inform customer service (The Boys In Bangalore), so that subscribers who called in and actually got through (most couldn't) got an accurate idea of what was going on.

As a consequence, many of their customers called out service techs and paid wholly unnecessary fees for troubleshooting problems that were entirely due to a programming error by DirecTV.

To my knowledge, DirecTV has never publicly acknowledged the failures or apologized to the subscribers that were affected. A typical Rupert Murdoch way of doing business.

As to the phone line requirement. Both companies are afraid that neighbors will share receivers and split the bill on accounts with more than one box by running coax next door. They use caller ID to verify that all the boxes are on the same phone line and -- theoretically, at least -- on the same premises.

ducati996 · Apr 7, 2005

You dont have to have a phone line with DTV, you just wont have the ability to order PPV through the receiver. Thats the only reason why, you can mirror your package on another receiver for $4.99 a month and that dosent require a Phone line either.
DirectTV solved the "hacker" issue over a year ago when a new card was issued. The updates you mentioned were either specific to your brand and where not across the board....The DVR models most likely were updated because of software bugs, not security issues....

Ducati

Freds · Apr 7, 2005

( ...unwillingness to carry the NFL Network )

Yeah, that stinks /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Have you tried to get local channels yet? I get two, Fox and ABC, both out of NY. I'm told that CBS and NBC did not approve my request to get those channels, yet I see them advertising all four and PBS all the time.

MadReferee · Apr 7, 2005

( I had Directv (billed thru Pegasus) before Dish. At that time Pegasus charged about $5 more a month for the exact same packages as Directv. If you're on Pegasus, I suggest you check the pricing on Pegasus website versus Directv's site. If there is a price difference, call Pegasus and threaten to leave due to the price difference - they should adjust your prices. When I called to quit to switch to Dish they offered the discount to me.)

Pegasus and DirecTV are no longer in partnership. The deal was terminated last September. All DirecTV customers are billed directly thru DirecTV and have all the features and conveniences of the DirecTV website and technical support.

Anything is better than Pegasus was. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bob_Skurka · Apr 7, 2005

I looked at Dish Network and DirecTV and went with VOOM. From what I can see, and this is from the perspective of a guy who never had any cable or satellite service of any kind, I would say that ALL brands have problems and all have advantages.

I'm glad I have VOOM, it has some stuff the other guys don't, and when HDTV broadcasts are factored in, it is competitive in price (but if you don't have HDTV, then Voom is expensive). We did have to have one of the boxes replaced, but they came out and did that without any hassle. They download updates via satellite so the only reason I need to hook up a phone line is to initialize the box the very first time it is turned on. After that it doesn't need it. By the way I get all the local channels with Voom, but they come via a regular roof mount antenna and are fed through the Voom receiver so when I want to watch a local station I do NOT have to fiddle around with the "input select" or "antenna-cable" settings, I just select the channel # and it goes seemlessly from antenna broadcasts to satellite and back to antenna.

We've got friends who have all the other brands too. I'd say my complaints are similar to theirs and theirs are similar to mine. I've come to the conclusion that there is NO good system out there. Satellite TV is just like cell phones, all of the networks are good sometimes and all of them stink other times!

Moon · Apr 7, 2005

I have Direct TV, and like it. But wanted to post a gotcha that I have not seen mentioned here.

I live far enough out that I got a waiver from my local stations so that i can get NBC, ABC and CBS network TV from Direct TV. I receive feeds for both East Coast and West Coast Broadcasting (NY and LA). I like this setup and pay an extra 6.95 per month for it.

Now Direct TV is pushing the local channels. They wanted us to sign up now that our local channels are available, so I tried it but could not get my local channels without upgrading to the oval dish. Didn't want to do that. I was also told that i could keep my New York and LA network feeds with my local channels. That was about a year ago. We added DVR (Tivo) service this year and were told if we did sign up for local network tv they would have to pull both NY and LA network feeds. So I'm still doing without local network coverage. I've learned to live without it, no biggie. But, I wanted to warn any of you thinking of signing up for Direct TV that you cannot have both local channels and the national broadcast feeds.

Also, FWIW, the DVR/Tivo feature is awesome. I would highly recommend that to anyone considering it. It also requires a phone line hookup to 'do it's thing'.

Moon of Ohio

SnowRidge · Apr 7, 2005

You dont have to have a phone line with DTV, you just wont have the ability to order PPV through the receiver. Thats the only reason why, you can mirror your package on another receiver for $4.99 a month and that dosent require a Phone line either.

Unless they have changed their policy since we signed up two years ago, which I received in writing, ordering the second receiver does requires a phone line on both receivers. Here's a current quote from DirecTV:

 Q: If I have more than one receiver, do I have to pay a full monthly subscription for each receiver?

A: No. DIRECTV allows you to connect more than one television in a single household to our services. If your receivers are connected to the same phone line, we can "mirror" your subscription. In other words, the programming you request for the primary access card in your receiver is copied for all of the access cards in the other receivers and you are authorized to receive this same level or programming on these televisions. Instead of charging you a separate monthly subscription for each receiver, we simply charge a $4.99 monthly service fee for each additional receiver.

When we "mirror" your subscription to additional receivers, we do verify that all your receivers are continuously connected to the same phone line. If we find that a receiver with "mirror" service is not connected to the phone line, we will discontinue service to that receiver and you will need to call us to re-establish that service. 

You are correct that it is not required on single receiver installations unless you want PPV.


DirectTV solved the "hacker" issue over a year ago when a new card was issued. The updates you mentioned were either specific to your brand and where not across the board....The DVR models most likely were updated because of software bugs, not security issues.... 

We have had DTV for two years. We have never been issued a new card. No one will ever "solve" the hacker issue; they can only fight it continually. As long as there is something to steal, some people with always try to get it for free.

The updates were across the board and involved a general reprogramming of access cards, a routine anti piracy activity, according to the information I received. The problems themselves were specific to only certain groups of receivers. We were lucky enough to have two of them. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

We do not have a DVR.

The fact that you have different information on what happened than I, illustrates the lack of communciations and customer care from DTV.

PitbullMidwest · Apr 7, 2005

UPDATE: Went home last night, turned on the TV and ALL channels are back with no reception problems at all. Apparently my equipment is self healing or it wasn't my equipment.

I talked to several family members who also have Dish Network. They were all having the same problem and when they called DN they were told that they would be sent a new yellow security card. This solved their problem. So, I called last night to inquire about the new card and was told that because I wasn't using a Dish 500 receiver it didn't affect me. They were very surprised to find out I was still using a Model 4000 receiver and suggested that I immeadiately upgrade to a newer receiver. No dice.

I was told by a friend who is the General Manager for a communication equipment manufacturer that both DN and DTV routinely send out "Electronic Security Packets" that cause disruption in service. If I understood right, these ESPs will disable hacked cards or at least cause enough problems that you call and complain about your service.They can then varify the validity of your card. He said it would probably affect older cards as well.

As for having a phone line hooked up, never have and never will and I'm not being charged any additional fee.

Curt

buckle97 · Apr 7, 2005

Unless they have changed their policy since we signed up two years ago... 

I read that policy when I signed up in June of 2003 with three receivers. When I called Directv to activate my service I asked them about that policy. Their response: " You only need a phone line hooked up to order PPV from your receiver ."
I have never had a phone line hooked up to any of my three receivers and have never been charged extra. I have also never had to call and reactivate my receiver.

Lawrence