Buying a store demo rcvr?

[tafische]

So I am at a local store that is going out of business. They are selling the demo 522 for $109. Seems like a great deal. I called Dish and got 2 different answers (a yes and a no) on activiation.

It has no smart card, but looks like it gets locals and the top 60 or 100 I think, plus music. Wonder how long that would stay active? PVR is not active, but pause is.

Anyone ever purchased one of these? What was your experience?

[philhu]

I bought a demo machine a few years back.

It got all sorts of wierd channel suscriptions for about 2 weeks. Kinda fun! Got east and west locals, a bunch of intl channels, all sports, 2 movie channels from each premium service and stuff like that.

Eventually, I had to subscribe it.:lol:

[boba]

So I am at a local store that is going out of business. They are selling the demo 522 for $109. Seems like a great deal. I called Dish and got 2 different answers (a yes and a no) on activiation.

It has no smart card, but looks like it gets locals and the top 60 or 100 I think, plus music. Wonder how long that would stay active? PVR is not active, but pause is.

Anyone ever purchased one of these? What was your experience?Are you going to lease it or own it? Sounds like you are owning it for $109, be very careful. The smart card is built into the circuit board if you went to the info screen it would display the R00 and S00 numbers. If pause works but DVR dosen't I would be very leary of problems with the receiver. If it is activated the DVR service is also activated. If you were leasing it DISH would own it and be responsible for it working.:)

[tafische]

I assume I would own it. I called Dish again and was told I could buy it but would have to purchase a smart card for $50.

Looks like another round of CSR roulette.

I guess I could buy it on my Amex Blue and if they would not let me activate I think Amex would take it back ;)

[P Smith]

Buy 522 and they will send you new card ? That's something new !

[harsh]

It has no smart card, but looks like it gets locals and the top 60 or 100 I think, plus music.It doesn't have a smart card because it doesn't need one! The 522 comes with the smart card functionality built in.

Make sure you get both remotes and you run a check on the serial number of the machine to confirm that it isn't "encumbered".

Note that if there is any question about warranty coverage, you might be better off buying a new 522 or 625 (or leasing). All 522 receivers are likely out of warranty at this point.

[Stewart Vernon]

I was tempted recently at a Radio Shack store that is in the process of liquidating... seriously thought about picking up a cheap receiver as the prices came down... but I didn't.

[UHF]

I was tempted recently at a Radio Shack store that is in the process of liquidating... seriously thought about picking up a cheap receiver as the prices came down... but I didn't.

I bought a 508 from my local Shack for $90 that was an in store demo. No problems with it at all. Got a bunch of free channels on it for a couple weeks until it got the deactivation hit.

[Gremraf]

Radio Shack down here in Texas was told to send all the units back as they were leased and could not be sold.

[Stewart Vernon]

I would imagine that it is possible that in-store-activated receivers may very well have been leased units if they were activated with programming... so that'd be a different can of worms.

Around here, the units I saw on display were hooked to a satellite to "demo" the receivers... but all you could watch were the "free" channels you normally would get on a non-activated receiver.

So different stores may do things differently with regard to their demo units.

[UHF]

In my case it was not a company store, but a dealer, and they owned the receiver. I had no trouble at all getting it activated.

[SummitAdvantageRetailer]

Smart card is built in. You'd be a fool to try to take it out since you can't so forget thinking that you have to buy this $50 smart card.