New vs. Refurb receiver under "Dish Upgrade"?

4171 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by steveT, Mar 8, 2012

steveT

Discussion Starter · Mar 3, 2012

I'm confused. With my 722 dying, Dish tech support said I needed a new receiver (not surprising). After completing the RA on the phone, I asked the rep if there was any way they could send a new unit, instead of a refurbished one. She then checked to see if that was possible, and then told me I qualified under the "Dish Up" program, to upgrade to a NEW receiver. Unfortunately the order for the refurb replacement had already gone through, so she put in another order to send me a new unit as well.

To qualify for this "upgrade", I had to commit to 24-months (not an issue since I've been with Dish for something like 15 years...), plus some other qualifiers that you normally associate with programming packages. But the new unit will still be a 722. There's no charge, and the unit will still be leased, but I'm just confused as to the reasoning behind the whole process. Why does Dish consider replacing a failed unit with a New unit, versus a refurbished one, as an "upgrade"? Isn't that saying that the new units should be better in some way? The qualification process just seemed a bit strange. Any insights?...

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Stewart Vernon

· #2 · Mar 4, 2012

I'm not sure they really have a way to guarantee you a new unit anyway. I know for a fact they couldn't guarantee getting a 722 vs a 622 when I tried to upgrade my 622 to a 722 a little over a year ago... so I can't believe they flag new vs refurbished.

New customers don't even get new equipment guarantees unless they actually buy the receivers.

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tampa8

· #3 · Mar 4, 2012

Dish most certainly does not guarantee, and most likely does not even know when the order is made if they are sending a refurbished or new.
I happen to subscribe to the the idea that not only is there nothing wrong with a refurbished unit, in electronics many times it is better than when new.
I am of course assuming it was refurbished and anything known to be bad in the original units was updated, and at the very least replaced.

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steveT

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 4, 2012

Well, if that's the case, then with two units being delivered tomorrow, I wonder how I'll even know which one is supposedly the "new" one. (I'd been told the refurb would ship in 4 days, and the "new" one in 10 days, but according to UPS, they're both being delivered tomorrow...)

As for 722 vs 622, Dish doesn't even list the 622 on their website anymore, so I don't even know what the difference would be.

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Jim5506

· #5 · Mar 4, 2012

I don't know if there are any "new" 722's out there, they have been around so long the replacements are probably ALL refurbs.

You might get a new 722k but probably not a plain 722.

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722921

· #6 · Mar 6, 2012

If he gets a 722k, he should also go out and buy some lottery tickets...

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harsh

· #7 · Mar 6, 2012

722921 said:
If he gets a 722k, he should also go out and buy some lottery tickets...

Perhaps it would be better to spend that money on an OTA tuner module.

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steveT

Discussion Starter · #8 · Mar 6, 2012

722921 said:
If he gets a 722k, he should also go out and buy some lottery tickets...

How it turned out: both receivers came yesterday. Both were 722's (no 722k). The refurb'd receiver, based on the RA# from Dish, consisted of:
- Just the receiver and a one-sheet installation instruction
- sticker on box said "Model VIP722 REMFRD REPLACEMENT"
- sticker said it was made in China

The box that supposedly contained the "new" receiver, consisted of:
- Receiver
- Full set of cables (HDMI, composite, s-video, coax, etc)
- Full instruction manual
- Two sheets detailing my obligations under the "Dish'n it UP" program.
- 2 new remotes (both slightly different from my old ones, but apparently not the kind that can store settings)
- sticker on box said "Model VIP722 BULK REMFRD RECV"
- sticker says it was made in India

So, given the "REMFRD" label on both, which I assume stands for "remanufactured", both units are refurbs. Meaning the only difference was I got a couple of new remotes, a bunch of cables I didn't need, and a unit made in India instead of China.

So I still don't get the point of it all. Other than Dish getting a 2-year commitment from a 15-year long customer, seems like all I got out of it was a couple of new remotes. Despite the Dish agent telling me I would get a new rather than refurb'd receiver.

Oh, and they forgot to include a return shipping label in the first box, despite being the one labelled "replacement". Have two units to ship back now, with only one label.

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gtal98

· #9 · Mar 6, 2012

The existing label is supposed to peel off and reveal the return label on the back side of it. As for the rest of it, I've got no idea. Personally I'd tell them to keep the one requiring the 2 year agreement - what's the point of committing to that if you don't have to?

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722921

· #10 · Mar 7, 2012

Sounds like a bait and switch...

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steveT

Discussion Starter · #11 · Mar 8, 2012

gtal98 said:
The existing label is supposed to peel off and reveal the return label on the back side of it. As for the rest of it, I've got no idea. Personally I'd tell them to keep the one requiring the 2 year agreement - what's the point of committing to that if you don't have to?

You were right about the label. Thanks for letting me know that; I never would've spotted that (on the other unit, the return label was inside the box...)

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