Dish Hopper Deal?

[SamSam]

Yep. I called the regular number. My approach is to nicely remind them that I am a long time customer and I keep get mailings/seeing commercials for new customers offering cool stuff so how about making an old loyal customer happy aswell because I would hate to have to switch providers after being with DISH for so long. They are always very helpful. Once, the guy couldn't help (I do think he was inexperienced though) in that instance, I asked to be transferred to a Supervisor, everything was easy from there

Pre-kids my background was in marketing specialising in New Customer Base & Customer Retention

Thanks, I'll try that approach.

 

[DenMig]

I've had dish the last 10 years and had direct for 4 years prior to that. It really is 6 of one, half dozen of the other. Some people get so adamant about which is better, but it's like pepsi vs coke, McDonalds vs Burger King. I prefer Dish, but both have their horror stories and their great customer service stories.

As far as the Hopper, they are pretty adamant about $99 per hopper. If you have the protection plan, the installation is free. I spend a lot each month with them and I still paid the upgrade fee. It's not in my personality to argue for them to drop it, but I've heard some have been successful. There are some good forums on satellite guys.

The Hopper is an incredible system. It allows all TV's to be HD connected, the second tv is no longer sd. The on demand and guide functions are better and much much faster. Each Hopper has 3 tuners and they aren't assigned to a particular tv, you can "hop" between tuners, join the other tv, etc. Prime Time anytime is the best. It automatically records every program on cbs, nbc, abc, and fox from 7 to 10 and doesn't use up your DVR space. It does use 1 of the 3 tuners though. (you can disable this if you aren't interested in prime time tv). At midnight that night each prime time show can be viewed with all commercials removed, known as autohop. (being sued for this). You can now watch your DVR on any tv, pause on one, pick up on the other, etc, the whole home DVR concept. I would suggest if you have more than 3 rooms with a tv to get 2 hoppers. I have 5 tv's , 2 hoppers and 3 joeys. The joeys can switch from hopper to hopper. Each hopper can access the other hopper's dvr menu, but not their tuners yet, though that is possibly in the works down the line. They have already updated the software numerous times. There are many cool features I am forgetting.

In conclusion, it sucks they charge for an upgrade, but I have to say the Hopper and joey system is incredible.

 

[Phatoomch]

I've had dish the last 10 years and had direct for 4 years prior to that. It really is 6 of one, half dozen of the other. Some people get so adamant about which is better, but it's like pepsi vs coke, McDonalds vs Burger King. I prefer Dish, but both have their horror stories and their great customer service stories.

As far as the Hopper, they are pretty adamant about $99 per hopper. If you have the protection plan, the installation is free. I spend a lot each month with them and I still paid the upgrade fee. It's not in my personality to argue for them to drop it, but I've heard some have been successful. There are some good forums on satellite guys.

The Hopper is an incredible system. It allows all TV's to be HD connected, the second tv is no longer sd. The on demand and guide functions are better and much much faster. Each Hopper has 3 tuners and they aren't assigned to a particular tv, you can "hop" between tuners, join the other tv, etc. Prime Time anytime is the best. It automatically records every program on cbs, nbc, abc, and fox from 7 to 10 and doesn't use up your DVR space. It does use 1 of the 3 tuners though. (you can disable this if you aren't interested in prime time tv). At midnight that night each prime time show can be viewed with all commercials removed, known as autohop. (being sued for this). You can now watch your DVR on any tv, pause on one, pick up on the other, etc, the whole home DVR concept. I would suggest if you have more than 3 rooms with a tv to get 2 hoppers. I have 5 tv's , 2 hoppers and 3 joeys. The joeys can switch from hopper to hopper. Each hopper can access the other hopper's dvr menu, but not their tuners yet, though that is possibly in the works down the line. They have already updated the software numerous times. There are many cool features I am forgetting.

In conclusion, it sucks they charge for an upgrade, but I have to say the Hopper and joey system is incredible.

Question: as you have two hoppers, isn't that two subscriptions?

 

[DenMig]

Question: as you have two hoppers, isn't that two subscriptions?

No it is only 1 subscription, but of course there is a monthly fee. The 1st hopper has no fee, but for every joey or hopper beyond that they charge $7/month plus $10/month dvr fee. So my fees for 2 h/ 3 j is $28/month for the boxes. I didn't pay as much when I had 2 722's. I know this is the budget board so some of the costs really add up. It comes down to if that is what you want for your tv viewing and if you are willing to pay for it.

 

[ski_mom]

I would suggest if you have more than 3 rooms with a tv to get 2 hoppers. I have 5 tv's , 2 hoppers and 3 joeys. The joeys can switch from hopper to hopper. Each hopper can access the other hopper's dvr menu, but not their tuners yet, though that is possibly in the works down the line. They have already updated the software numerous times. There are many cool features I am forgetting.

No it is only 1 subscription, but of course there is a monthly fee. The 1st hopper has no fee, but for every joey or hopper beyond that they charge $7/month plus $10/month dvr fee. So my fees for 2 h/ 3 j is $28/month for the boxes. I didn't pay as much when I had 2 722's. I know this is the budget board so some of the costs really add up. It comes down to if that is what you want for your tv viewing and if you are willing to pay for it.

We are considering upgrading to this system and I have a couple of questions.

We have 4 tv and really only watch 3 of them regularly, but I wasn't aware that you could get 2 hoppers. Our biggest issue would be the number of tuners with only having one hopper I think. So, am I understanding you correctly that if we would set all 4 of our tv's up with 2 hoppers and 2 joeys, we could have 6 tuners and could access any of the recorded shows from any of the tvs? That would be awesome!

I don't really follow the part where you said that each hopper can access the other hopper's dvr menu, but not their tuners yet. Does that mean that hopper 1 can see what hopper 2 has recorded, but can not take one of hopper 2's live feeds and watch it in real time?

Thanks for your help!

 

[DenMig]

We are considering upgrading to this system and I have a couple of questions.

We have 4 tv and really only watch 3 of them regularly, but I wasn't aware that you could get 2 hoppers. Our biggest issue would be the number of tuners with only having one hopper I think. So, am I understanding you correctly that if we would set all 4 of our tv's up with 2 hoppers and 2 joeys, we could have 6 tuners and could access any of the recorded shows from any of the tvs? That would be awesome!

I don't really follow the part where you said that each hopper can access the other hopper's dvr menu, but not their tuners yet. Does that mean that hopper 1 can see what hopper 2 has recorded, but can not take one of hopper 2's live feeds and watch it in real time?

Thanks for your help!

Yes, you are correct. I would recommend 2H/2J so you can have 6 tuners. The only extra cost is an extra $99 upgrade compared to 1H/3J unless you can get out of it. With 2H you get 6 tuners, and then you can disable prime time anytime(ptat) on one of them, so even during 7-10 pm central time while it is recording every network show, you'd still have 5 tuners to do whatever you want with. ( w/ 1 hopper you'd be down to 2 tuners during ptat). If Hopper 1 records ptat Hopper 2 as well as the joeys can view them off the DVR. You are correct in that currently the Hoppers can't access each other's tuners, only their DVR recordings. Hopper 1 can watch Hopper 2's dvr recordings and vice versa. Joeys can be linked to either hopper and you can switch them any time from the joey. Let me know if you have any other questions. It's a really great system, I love it.

 

[ICF]

I
I'm surprised to read someone say that Direct TV has bad service. I've asked everyone I know who has it and they're all pleased. I hope that we have the same experience!

Like with anything, those that are unhappy complain 10 times louder than those that are happy.

I've had direct for 3 1/2 years and have nothing but good things to say about them. If / when you sign up...try to find a referral that you can use to save $10 off a month for 10 months.

They used to offer a AAA discount as well for the 1st two years, but am not sure if that is still going on or not.

 

[ski_mom]

Yes, you are correct. I would recommend 2H/2J so you can have 6 tuners. The only extra cost is an extra $99 upgrade compared to 1H/3J unless you can get out of it. With 2H you get 6 tuners, and then you can disable prime time anytime(ptat) on one of them, so even during 7-10 pm central time while it is recording every network show, you'd still have 5 tuners to do whatever you want with. ( w/ 1 hopper you'd be down to 2 tuners during ptat). If Hopper 1 records ptat Hopper 2 as well as the joeys can view them off the DVR. You are correct in that currently the Hoppers can't access each other's tuners, only their DVR recordings. Hopper 1 can watch Hopper 2's dvr recordings and vice versa. Joeys can be linked to either hopper and you can switch them any time from the joey. Let me know if you have any other questions. It's a really great system, I love it.

Wow, that does sound great! Now I just need to try to explain this to DH!

 

[CarlisleMom]

It must be who you get on the phone and what services you have. At the time of my call, I did have the service plan (due to a receiver being flaky). We got our first HDTV. Called Dish. They came out, installed a new dish, 2 new receivers, upgraded to free HD channels...all with no additional charge.