D won't ship an HR20, insist in installer

I just went through the same circle. Online the price for me is $199 for an HR20, but the stores are $299. I called to schedule the install for the order I placed on the directv website and they gave me a date of March 13th as well. I asked if they would credit me the difference and after answering a few questions about who would install it they agreed to credit my account once I activate the new receiver that I purchase from the store.

I just did the same exact thing for my dad as I had ordered him an upgrade before christmas and they gave a Feb 27th date for install. Went through the same process but when I was activating it I mentioned that I wasn't very appreciative of having to pay for upgrading equipment and they credited his account for $100 more so he got the receiver for $99. He was using an old samung hd receiver but now is pleased with his HR20.

Greenflag said:

I just ordered a 2d HR20 to add to my current system (HR20, HR10 and H15). the wiring is all in, so all that's needed is to attach the 2 antenna leads and hook 'er up to the receiver and TV. D WILL NOT ship me the HR20. They insist on having it installed by one of their installers. They acknowledge that I can buy a unit from a retailer and install it myself, but they still won't ship it to me. According to a retention supervisor the reason for this is that they warranty the install if they do it, but would have to charge for a tech to come out if I install it and something's wrong.

There are 2 things that bug me about this. First is that the next install date is 3/14, more than 2 months out. (BTW, I'm a so-called "A" list customer, for what that's worth, which is apparently nothing). I do have the number for the install company to see if they can do it earlier, but..... Second is that I'll have to waste 1/2 day waiting for this guy.

Anyone have any ideas why they won't ship HR20s?

David

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circuitcity.com had them last week - got one in 2 days. I just checked and they still appear to be in-stock for delivery.

This was my second one. I purchased the first one from Value Electronics, but DirecTV still came out to install the free 5 LNB dish. You probably won't get a discount or credit from DirecTV this way, but you will still get the new dish if you want/need it.

Some here on the forum have installed the new dish themselves, but in my case, they had to put it on a pole off to the side of the house. I was going to swap out the mounting location for an old 3 LNB, but the installer "sighted" it and said that the new dish would hit the side of the house before it was properly aligned. Sure was glad THEY were the ones digging the hole for the new pole!

When they came out, I had already hooked up the HR20 to existing lines going outside the house, but had not activated it. I decided to wait and do the receiver setup only one time. For the second one, it was "plug and play" into existing coax lines from the multiswitch.