Dish Network Support Stinks

[mdrobnak]

And my mother wonders why I didn't want to call them...

Well, the PVR is acting up again...This time it's getting worse...the disk didn't even spin up last night...So I called them, and told them the error message that I get - error 0457 ( I could swear there was a leading 0)...and the guy's like "it's only a 3 digit code", Then he's like -- it sounds like there's a problem -- but without the error message on the screen, we can't troubleshoot..

:mad:

[Cheyenne]

Don't get me wrong, I think you definitely have a technical problem. It is important to aways give the person on other end of phone as much pertinent info as possible to help you.
I have previous experience giving technical support over the phone and must say it is not an easy task.
Did he try an talk you through on how to find the error code required? If not, you got a tech that is not doing their job and most likely hates their job.
Try again you may get one that will go that extra step in assisting you. And please understand that it is not the tech's fault you had a failure, most just want to help you.

[mdrobnak]

Unfortunately, I didn't have the error onscreen -- the battle with this PVR has been going on ever since 1.69 came out ( a few weeks I think), but now it's a hardware problem as well. (Before the drive would spin up, but the "Please Wait for the disk to spin up" message would stay on screen...last night the disk didn't spin at all......

-Matt

[mdrobnak]

Ok, talked with Advanced Tech Support..Took a few mins with them, honestly the only thing that got them to swap out the receiver was the error 0457 that I got a while ago....The disk not spinning up didn't seem to be a big thing.

Hopefully second time is the charm.....

-Matt

[Mike123abc]

Unless you talk to a real tech support person (known as advanced on Dish) you will get somone that simply types your problem into the computer and asks you the questions that come up and follow the questions and answers as provided by the computer. They are there to find out simple things like your wife vacuumed up the power cord or something like that rather than diagnose the intimate details of the box. If it is a common failure it will end up on the computer Q&A and they will be able to talk you through the common way to fix it (i.e. they will read the instructions to you off their screen).

[Bob Haller]

For awhi;e I did national tech support on laminators. The worst problems were talking with professional service techs. We were doing national ship in service on laminators and as a good buddy who was helping me said bob we arent mental giants what does it make these folks?

Its a hard job and communicatring things correctly is tough. I spoke with a advanced tech the other night with my endless reboot problem. He was friendly and nice and pretty well trained. But had been a tech just 9 months there were off the wall problems he wasnt skilled enough with. Plus the 721 PVRs are pretty new.

I have tested techs for a variety of problems over the years. Have a exotic wierd problem? Ask first about a known simple bug. If they give you a reasonable knowledgable answer then ask about your REAL problem. A clueless answer gets a quick thanks and a new CSR roulette call.:) Saves wasting lots of time with someone who cant help you.

I dont get mad at techs as long as they are trying to help. If they are working to help I am happy.

Unfortunately as of late I have had lots of wierd problems. The techs havent all been able to help but seem fairly well trained and friendly.

This is a huge improvement over a few years ago when some were rude, hostile and completely clueless. Consolidating most of tech support in virginia has helped a lot.