WHY DO I DO THESE THINGS? on Dish Network & Echostar 3720
Written: Aug 17 '00 (Updated Sep 18 '00)
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Pros: toon disney
Cons: COST
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| spodgorski's Full Review: EchoStar 3720 Dish Network System |
Okay, I admit it -- I got Dish Network because I was mad at the cable people! Being the "cut off your nose to spite your face" type of person I spent more money to get Dish than I would have spent on cable.
The installation of this is $199 for 1 receiver and dish -- which they will return to you (although it has been awhile and I haven't seen my $199 yet!) in exchange for a year of your viewing the DISH 500 America's Top 150 (which I describe later). However, with only 1 receiver all the TV's in your house have to watch the same channel at the same time. Being a house full of people we also have a house full of Televisions which are generally on different shows (the 13 year old is addicted to ESPN, the 4 and 6 year olds like Cartoon Network or Toon Disney, the 11 year old watches Nick and my husband and I watch the biggies like ABC, NBC or CBS) so this would have posed a problem for us and we ended up getting 4 receivers!
I did decide the TV in the kitchen (which is only 12 inches and therefore smaller than the receiver would have been anyway) to put that one on the same receiver as the one in the master bedroom. This is such a pain in the neck! When I am cooking dinner and want to watch the news, chances are the 6 year old is watching Gargoyles in my room... and soooo guess what I am watching?!? Also, if I do get to watch a program I want while doing the dishes and it ends, to change the channel I have to go down the hall to the bedroom to do it! Okay, I am lazy the house isn't THAT big and the hall isn't THAT long but the point is I have to stop what I am doing, leave the room and change the channel then come back and resume the dish washing.
The cost to put in so many receivers was pretty hefty -- the $199 that I am supposedly getting back plus another $140 for each receiver including installation AND the multi-switch needed to run several receivers ($80)-- plus tax of course! And the monthly charges are no bargain either! For the deal of $39.99 I get the Top 150 which includes approximately 50 music stations (and I don't use them, I turn on the radio if I want music -- we bought them, so we might as well use them). That price sounded pretty good until the rest of the monthly charges were added in.
The monthly rates are: America's Top 40 for $19.99, America's Top 100 for $29.99 and the one we have the Top 150 for $39.99. Now keep in mind you have to also pay $5 per month for each receiver over 1 (and we have 4 total, so pay an extra $15 each month) PLUS if you want to watch your local stations (and they aren't available everywhere) that is an additional $4.99 per month, want the Superstations (WPIX, KTLA, WSBK Boston, WOR and WB2)? Another $2.99 (for us, because we also have the local stations, otherwise it was another $4.99). We opted to pass on the extra movie channels, but they are available for more money (set up in packages: $10.99 for 1, $19.99 for 2, $28.99 for 3 and all 4 packages would be $35.99).
When looking for a show all you do is click the Guide button on the remote, find what you want and hit select -- sound easy enough? Ha! Fooled you! The channel numbers start at 100 (the cable companies have the lower ones), so none of the station numbers you know will work -- during your search you have to go through all the music stations, PLUS the 20 or more pay per view stations that are listed, PLUS the titles of shows on the X rated stations (although you can't pull up the shows, the titles are pretty raunchy when you have kids searching for shows! For example, actual titles for shows on today: Submission, Sexorama 22, Hot Sex 2 and Red Heads in Bed!)
You can set 20 favorites in a list and only pull up that list, but when you are paying for 150 stations, you shouldn't be limited to 20 (or at least that is MY opinion). I would rather be able to program it to pull up the 75 or so that I might want to check out!
My neighbor has Dish Network and she is the one that recommended we get it. "We love it" she informed me... until yesterday when she came over to complain that their receiver went bad and it will cost them $15 (or was it $50, I am not sure) to replace it (they just got it in April) and was informed that if the card that plugs into the front of the receiver goes bad (about the size of a credit card -- surely to be pulled out of our set several times by the kids...) it would cost almost $100 to replace it! Neither of us was informed of repair costs to the machines or what their warranties are....
They told me of the wonderful reception I would be getting ("so much better than cable") -- I haven't seen it, the shows look just like they did with cable. We got tons of channels with cable for the same monthly fee without having massive receivers on every set, a big dish on the back of the house and a large installation fee (plus upcoming costs in maintenance/replacement if parts go out!). Cable will go out with bad weather or if a cable gets cut by workmen, the local cable employees here are arrogant and rude -- but you know what? For the money it would have saved me I should have put up with it....
As I said, I am the cut off your nose to spite your face type.... and I pay for it!
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 420 plus the $199
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Epinions.com ID:
spodgorski
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Member: Susan P.
Location: San Diego Area, CA
Reviews written: 54
Trusted by: 53 members
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