DVR Return?

[Steveknj]

I have a rather interesting situation...

I had a repair tech here 2 weeks ago because I was not getting certain stations after the new SAT went up. I KNEW the dish had to be repositioned, but the tech insisted that we try and swap out my HR20-700 with an HR21-100 and see if that fixed it. And of course it didn't!! So anyway, he just left the HR21 hooked up, and told me that DirecTV would send a box back to send the HR20 back. It's 2 weeks later, no box, nothing. So here's my dilemna:

I'm thinking that if I called D*, I could probably activate the HR20 to replace one of my old SD TiVos (would they know if I purchased the HR20 or not?) and thereby have a second HD-DVR. But, will they end up catching up with me eventually? I have no problems returning it, but I'm not going to BEG them for a box to ship it.

Is it normal for them to take weeks before they send a shipping box? I don't recall the tech even mentioning that he replaced the box.

Also, I had one other semi-related question. Does the HR21 have bigger hard drive than the HR20? To me, that seems to be the ONLY compelling reason to have it. The HR21 seems slower than the HR20 in doing just about everything AND I lost the ability to bring in OTA. What are the advantages of the HR21 if not for a bigger HD?

[evan_s]

The HR21 might have a slightly bigger hd but not enough to be noticeable in regular use. (some hr20s had 300gb hds, all hr21s have 320s). Any time a tech swaps a receiver they should take the old one with them so no idea what this tech was thinking. Theoretically if DirecTV is expecting a receiver back then you would get charged a non return fee eventually which is several hundred bucks.

At this point I honestly have no idea if DirecTV is actually expecting you to return that hr20 or not or if the tech is just going to end up short on his inventory because he screwed up.

[Steveknj]

The HR21 might have a slightly bigger hd but not enough to be noticeable in regular use. (some hr20s had 300gb hds, all hr21s have 320s). Any time a tech swaps a receiver they should take the old one with them so no idea what this tech was thinking. Theoretically if DirecTV is expecting a receiver back then you would get charged a non return fee eventually which is several hundred bucks.

At this point I honestly have no idea if DirecTV is actually expecting you to return that hr20 or not or if the tech is just going to end up short on his inventory because he screwed up.

That's what I thought, that he would take it, but he specifically told me they would send a box. So is there ANY advantage to having an HR21 over and HR20? I'm thinking of sending the HR21 back when they send a box and reactivating the HR20. My HR21 seems to be a dog.

[RegGeek]

Is it possible that the tech activated the new box but didn't deactivate the HR20? Easy to check - go to your account on-line and see what is listed as active. They wouldn't send a collection box if that HR20 was never deactivated - which also means you're paying the monthly fee for it. If it's still active, just have them deactivate the old SDTivo you want to replace. Even if he did deactivate I, I can't see a problem with you calling in to turn it back on.