HR20 from Best Buy - this is a lease?

[steve13]

I just joined DBSTalk yesterday, and I have enjoyed reading and learning about what is going on with the HR20.

I ordered my HR20 from Best Buy on 9/3, and I have an appt. to install the 5-LNB dish on 9/9. I originally bought the HR10 because Best Buy and D* both assured me the HR10 would get my locals in HD if I had the 5-LNB dish. I was very angry when I found this was incorrect, and had to order the HR20 online and wait until it comes out.

My confusion, now, is that I am buying the box for $399.99, but the web site says this is a lease price and that I will have to pay $4.99 a month to D* to lease the box that I just bought. What is up with that? I have bought 5 or 6 different receivers/DVRs in the past, and I have owned them all out right with no lease fee. What is different about the D* HD equipment? Is it just to allow them to offer the boxes at a lower initial cost and offset that with lease payments? When they say "lease fee", they don't mean the DVR service fee, do they?

Thanks to anyone who can clear this up for me!
Steve

[iceman2a]

Back in March D* implemented the lease policy on all eqpt. You pay $399 to BB so you can lease from D*!! The good part is that you won't pay the $4.99 mirroring fee that you pay on your "owned" rcvrs, just the $4.99 "lease fee". And, when your done with the rcvr you'll have to return it!

AND WELCOME TO DBSTALK!

[captain_video]

The lease fee and the mirroring fee are one and the same. They just call it by a different name depending on whether you own or lease the hardware.

Nobody lied to you about getting HD locals with the HR10-250, just about getting them through the dish. You should be able to get DC locals in HD with a UHF antenna. You should also be able to get the Baltimore locals in HD, depending on your location.

Consider this a lesson learned. DTV CSRs are not technically savvy. If you want to know about a receiver or DVR come to a forum such as this and start reading. You won't learn squat from a DTV CSR or BB salesperson.

[steve13]

The lease fee and the mirroring fee are one and the same. They just call it by a different name depending on whether you own or lease the hardware.

Nobody lied to you about getting HD locals with the HR10-250, just about getting them through the dish. You should be able to get DC locals in HD with a UHF antenna. You should also be able to get the Baltimore locals in HD, depending on your location.

Consider this a lesson learned. DTV CSRs are not technically savvy. If you want to know about a receiver or DVR come to a forum such as this and start reading. You won't learn squat from a DTV CSR or BB salesperson.


I have definitely learned a lot here the past few days, and I will continue to read about what is going on with the HR20 situation. The CSRs and Best Buy people did at least give me incorrect information (probably not an intentional lie) about getting the locals in HD with the HR10 because they said it would only work with the 5 LNB dish, not the 3 LNB dish, which implies they were talking about via satellite rather than OTA. An antenna was never mentioned by anyone.

Thanks for clearing up the lease issue!

Steve

[BillyT2002]

I have found with DirecTV that if I want anything customer service related, I never do better than going throuigh the retention department. I never get a foreign accent which my ears (and post 40 hearing) cannot parse on that line and I usually get answers which are more correct than if I were to call the normal CSR lines. I have also found though that when my questions are technical in nature, my best bet is to call or ask for technical support or the advanced services group at DirecTV as they usually have more technical knowledge than the rest (including the folks in retention), although occasionally I get one of them with no technical knowledge as well (I'll bet when that happens they're just new). Also, the technical support folks sometime have a much lessened bedside manner when contrasted to the retention folk. The regular CSRs are hit and miss on just about everything.