Free dish: dumb question

[TopCat99]

Has anyone convinced E* to pony up the free dish for the remaining must carry locals without professional installation? CSR tells me it can't be done (which is why this thread is probably a moot point, but I'm good at making an a$$ out of myself :lol:).

My argument with Dish covered four points, all of which they shot down:
1) I installed the original Dish 500 myself
2) I'm rural; the closest Dish retailers are all at least 20 miles away--and none want to drive out to me
3) I'm never home during business hours
4) I prefer to do any drilling on my house myself rather than have it done by someone I don't know and has no desire to be here in the first place (we all have contractor horror stories)

Any ideas? Any hope? :)

Thanks,
Mike

[Nick]

TopCat, there are no 'dumb questions', just dumb answers. This is one of them.

[scooper]

If you REALLY got to have the 2nd dish, and you REALLY don't want them to do it, you can always go BUY and INSTALL the 2nd dish yourself...

[navy8ball]

i thought i would jump in here about a second dish issue i have.there are two local channels i cant get without a second dish but they have no programming that i am interested in (both are religious channels) is their any other reason i should get the second dish installed. something i might not be aware of.

[TopCat99]

scooper, I know I could *buy* the second dish, but that takes all the fun out of it :P

navy8ball: besides the obvious (free dish, more programming), the biggest incentive I see mentioned on Usenet is a free switch--a SW64 no less. Standalone, they cost well over $100--even on eBay.

Ah well. Guess I'll just have to buy the d*mn thing after all ;)

[Mike123abc]

My local dish retailer did my changes on Saturday. So, it is possible to get it done on a weekend.

[xgrep]

I tried to get the dish free instead of having them install it. Like you, I've done my own installations. The reason given was that since it was required by the FCC's ruling on the locals, it had to be done professionally so that they would have proof that they had met their legal obligation. I wouldn't expect them to budge on this. I've seen this kind of inefficiency before in other industries, and have accepted that that's just the way it is.

For what it's worth, I went out and bought the extra gear and installed it myself. We don't live in an area where you can trust the average installer to get it right and not cause you much grief, so it was worth the modest expense.

x

[dishrich]

Why don't you just go ahead & order the 2nd dish & schedule a time for the installer to come out. When he gets out, just tell him you KNOW how to do this & you'd be more than happy to do it yourself. If he's like most of the DNSC installers, he'll be more than happy to drop it & run & you'll still get your free equipment.

[xgrep]

I sort of tried that approach by calling a local installer and proposing that. They refused, saying they didn't know my ability, and if anything went wrong, they'd have to answer to Dish. I didn't push it or try a different installer (beside, lead times were becoming an issue). But it might work. Trouble is, once they're out at the site, if they don't go along, you have to let them do it. Not that that's such a bad thing.

x

[poeppe]

There is nothing that says you can't help the installer or ask him to do the install your way. I too would have preferred to do the install myself but was told I had to have the professional install. I finally agreed and then visited with and helped the installer do the job. All in all it was a pleasant experience, he was very willing to let me help and even came out on a Saturday to do the install.

As for the SW64, don't hold your breathe. On my installation we ended up replacing my 2 twin lnbs (on the dish 500) with the combined one (not sure what its called) and then re-used one of the twin lnbs on the dish 300 and re-used both of my sw21s. Giving me a three satelite two receiver solution.

[ibglowin]

The best reason to take advantage of the "must carry" law is to get a free 2nd dish for HD programming all of which are carried (redundantly) on the 148 and 61.5. I live 30 miles away from the nearest installer. He was more than willing to let me help. He even crawled into may attic to connect my SW-21's together correctly. Hard to beat that. Give them a chance to do it right and usually they will.

[Neil Derryberry]

When the DNSC service guy showed up at my house, it was raining. I convinced him to leave the dish with me, so I installed it myself.

[DoyleS]

My guy mounted the dish right where I asked him to. Installed an SW34 switch and asked me if there was anything else he could do to help. He did have the forms that needed to be filled out indicating the installation was satisfactory and all of that. When I called Dish on a Thursday to set up the appointment, the first opening was on that following Sunday. That didn't work for me so they gave me a Monday morning appointment. The guy gave me extra connectors, and cable knowing I was going to be doing some additional wiring. He left with a nice bottle of Cabernet.
..Doyle

[factory]

I had a second dish installed this week via DNSC. Everything went well, but I only received a SW21 (was hoping for a SW34).

In the Atlanta market, there is only one must-carry at this point. I expect more will be added. My main purpose in getting the second dish was to have a satellite pointed at 61.5, for future HD use. I did want the one channel added as well..

[Steve Mehs]

I'm going to have a second dish installed in a few weeks for 2 of our Buffalo channels. Right now we have just a 2 receiver set up a dual LNB Dish500 with two SW21s. What kind of switch can I expect to get?