Dish offered me a deal to upgrade to a 508, should I accept it?

[MarkL]

Hey guys, I have been with Dish for 2 years now and I currently have a 5000 reciever in the living room, a 3900 in the bedroom, and another 3900 in our basement. I have been getting really annoyed at the slow EPG on the 5000 after using the fast EPG on the 3900s I have(and I like the picture in the guide feature as well), so I wanted to ditch the 5000 and upgrade to a PVR. I called Dish yesterday and they offered to send me a 301 for free, but I told them I wasn't interested since I wanted a PVR. So this morning I get a call back from someone at Dish and they said "since you are a valuable customer to us we will let you upgrade to a new PVR 508 for $99 and you can keep your 5000 reciever and do what you want with it". I told them thanks for the offer and to let me think about it and I'd call them back. Is this actually a good deal or are they just yanking my chain with the "because you are a valuable customer.." crap? Should I take them up on this offer or could I get a better deal on a 508 elsewhere? I figure if I get the 508 from them, I can turn around and sell my 5000 on ebay and get some of my $$ back(how much do 5000s fetch on ebay, anyone know?). What do you guys suggest I do? Thanks for any help.

[scooper]

You're not going to get much better - take it.

[HTguy]

This offer is only occasionaly made to existing subs & only directly from DISH.

It's a no brainer. I'm surprised you have to ask.

[Jacob S]

You should have taken them up on the offer while on the phone with them. Now when you call back the csr may not know anything about the deal and may not be able to offer you a deal like that. I remember calling in asking for that deal a while back when hearing about others getting the deal and no can do.

[Bob Haller]

Take it, ebay the 5000. What about one year of top 150 W/cc autopay? Required?

[Mark Lamutt]

That's a GREAT deal, and I'd jump on it in a heartbeat!

[MarkL]

Yea I am aware it's a pretty good deal, but I was HOPING for a free upgrade to a 508 since I take a lot of programming from Dish. Should I be able to get at least $99 for my 5000 on ebay? It's in excellent shape, it's been well taken care of.

[gcutler]

I was happy with a 508 @ $199, and would have been happy with a 501 @ $99, a 508 @ $99 is a great deal.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by MarkL
Yea I am aware it's a pretty good deal, but I was HOPING for a free upgrade to a 508 since I take a lot of programming from Dish. Should I be able to get at least $99 for my 5000 on ebay? It's in excellent shape, it's been well taken care of.

Does the 5000 have the High Definition, or UHF remote or Digital Dolby or Event Timers? If not they you probably won't be able to get much. If a 301 gives you a fast guide and Event Timers for $99 New, what would be the draw of the 5000? HD, UHF or DD are the only things that would make it noticable.

[MarkL]

Jacob - I got the man's name and personal # that called me before I hung up, he said he was from Dish's corporate offices and not from a customer service center. So I can get back in touch with him if I take the offer.

Bob - No, I didn't have to committ to anything else. I currently pay annually for the Top 150, HBO, Showtime, east/west/supers pack, but I am not on credit card autopay. My annual subscription runs out in the middle of March. All I did was be rather firm with them and let them know I was not happy at all with the performance of my 5000, and I would have second thoughts about continuing my subscription with them in March if this matter wasn't taken care of. The CSR's supervisor then offered me the free 301, but after I said I wasn't interested, she told me she would give her supervisor at the corporate offices my # and he would be in touch with me. I guess that is who I got the call from this morning.

[MarkL]

Originally posted by gcutler


Does the 5000 have the High Definition, or UHF remote or Digital Dolby or Event Timers? If not they you probably won't be able to get much. If a 301 gives you a fast guide and Event Timers for $99 New, what would be the draw of the 5000? HD, UHF or DD are the only things that would make it noticable.

Nope, it's just the 5000 as it was when I bought it. I have added nothing to it.

[Jacob S]

I will have to remember this the next time an annual bill is paid on Dish considering all of the channels are being ordered, as there have been 721 problems. The 721 was purchased before the 508 with the larger had come out and the 508 may be the only one needed. Its a lot cheaper too and would qualify for the $199 deal but should be able to be had for $99.

[DVDDAD]

This sounds great! If it's truly only $99, you can't go wrong. Dish is currently offering a promo (ending 1/12/03) (http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/offers/501_upgrade/index.shtml) that allows some of its sub's to get and 501 or 508 (whatever they have on hand) for $199 with some restrictions (1 year commitment AT150 & credit card auto-pay). If you can get a 508 for just $99with no strings attached, see how many they'd be willing to send you. I'd buy two of them from you at $150 each plus your shipping charges (no kidding send me a PM if you can get them).

[minnow]

"Dish is currently offering a promo (ending 1/12/03) that allows some of its sub's to get and 501 or 508 "

I wonder what the new offer will be on January 13th ? Maybe a Dishplayer 7100 or 7200.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by MarkL


Nope, it's just the 5000 as it was when I bought it. I have added nothing to it.

Then I doubt you'll get more than $50 for the unit as someone can get a brand new 301 for $99. And the Model 1000/2000/3000/4000/5000 had low memory making them a pain with the guides (as you witnessed)

[Scott Greczkowski]

Great offer take it, if Dish made me the same offer to replace my Dishplayers with 508's for $99 each plus a 1 year contract for AT 150 I would take it in a heartbeat.

[Jacob S]

Yeah and you get to keep the dishplayer too. You get your money back or make a profit by the time you sell your dishplayer, plus no more fees every month.

[gcutler]

With the soon to be glut in DPs on E-bay, better sell it soon before it becomes a buyers market.

[Bob Haller]

Dps may not glut, they are reportedly idea for :( purposes....

[ehostler]

Originally posted by minnow
"Dish is currently offering a promo (ending 1/12/03) that allows some of its sub's to get and 501 or 508 "

I wonder what the new offer will be on January 13th ? Maybe a Dishplayer 7100 or 7200.

They have been rolling over the 501 for $199 since the begining of last year. Once the 508 was out, they added it. So, on the 13th, expect to see the exact same deal with an expiration of Feb 13.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Bob Haller
Dps may not glut, they are reportedly idea for :( purposes....

Ah, Was only thinking on the Legit side of things. But still if 1000+ show up all of a sudden when there were only 100 per week, it will still drive the price down. Unless those not so nice people have such a high demand for these boxes?

[dmodemd]

About 4-5 months ago I sold my 5000 for $150 on eBay with Buy it Now in a day. Others went for as mush as 160-200! I dont know how much they are going for now but I imagine they are dropping fast.

The value in the 5000 is the integrated local channels (from cable or antenna) with the sat channels. Useful to someone who gets locals over cable or antenna. (Thats why I bought it and for future upgradeability...pfft)

Lee

[RJS1111111]

Originally posted by gcutler


Does the 5000 have the High Definition, or UHF remote or Digital Dolby or Event Timers? If not they you probably won't be able to get much. If a 301 gives you a fast guide and Event Timers for $99 New, what would be the draw of the 5000? HD, UHF or DD are the only things that would make it noticable.

If you want the really fast 7-to-9-day guide, you need a PVR.
I haven't heard anything good about the 301 guide, have you?

[Bob Haller]

5000 has UHF remote standard, some have IR as well, think its a G in the serial number. HD module is obsolete with stuff going to new compression.

I got my 508 coming too no strings. Of course I made a BIG stink with sky reports. E has a problem BEYOND the DP. They have forgotten customer satisfaction and I told the that.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by RJS1111111
If you want the really fast 7-to-9-day guide, you need a PVR.
I haven't heard anything good about the 301 guide, have you?

Oh, From personal Experience, the 301 guide is better than the xx00 series recievers. It responds faster and the Info and guide come up immediately compared to the xx00 recievers. But it still has the limitation of the 44 hours (non-cached max). So it is the best NON-PVR guide,

[RJS1111111]

Originally posted by gcutler


Oh, From personal Experience, the 301 guide is better than the xx00 series recievers. It responds faster and the Info and guide come up immediately compared to the xx00 recievers. But it still has the limitation of the 44 hours (non-cached max). So it is the best NON-PVR guide,

Hmmm, interesting. Does it allow you to navigate to the
desired channel and time area, without freezing to display
the hated gray area and "Please wait or cancel." message?

I'm willing to wait 30 seconds or whatever to see the area
of the guide that I want, but I only want to wait once for
each intended destination!

It would also help a lot if you could progressively view the
same few channels on the guide forward into the future,
without incurring a wait for each block of time! In other
words, if it wouldn't waste guide memory on channels
that I don't currently care about!

It doesn't seem to me that I'm asking too much...
Echostar should have hired me when they had the chance.

;)

[gcutler]

Originally posted by RJS1111111


Hmmm, interesting. Does it allow you to navigate to the
desired channel and time area, without freezing to display
the hated gray area and "Please wait or cancel." message?


Most of the things you mentioned aren't in the 301 guide (fault inherent in the system I guess). Most of the speed boost must come from more RAM or faster CPU in the unit? You still get the "Please Wait or Cancel" every couple of hours, but it seemed to either finish quicker or not as often. But you would still get it several times if looking 44 hours into the future.

[EL34dude]

Consider this.... I just switched from Dish to Direct. I was a 4+ year sub with a 4000 and a 4700 (upgraded) + Dish 500. I bought two new DirecTivo2's + 18x24 dish, free install + 5yr ESP for $516 - $100 2 room rebate - $175 (sold my old dish gear in less than 1 wk) : net cost = $241 for two brand new PVRs, dual tuners, less compression. Ba-Bye Charlie.

BTW, I got the same offer from Dish for a $99 508 and thought this was a beter long term plan.