Thanks for the advice, and I realize that what you are pointing out is a "service" issue, but frankly I cannot remember the last time I had a power outage in my home. I'm not sure what part of the country sees a dramatic increase in power outages in the winter, but here on the prairies you are much more likely to have a power outage during a summer thunderstorm than in the winter. Besides, I hope I did not spend $200 on a top of the line surge-protector for nothing.

I'm not sure what part of the country sees a dramatic increase in power outages in the winter

B.C.
Trees and branches falling on power lines due to soil loosened by heavy rain, heavy buildup of ice and snow on branches etc. Cars skidding on the ice and crashing into power poles. It's been pretty frequent the last few weeks.

B.C.
Trees and branches falling on power lines due to soil loosened by heavy rain, heavy buildup of ice and snow on branches etc. Cars skidding on the ice and crashing into power poles. It's been pretty frequent the last few weeks.
Yup a Prairie boy transplanted to BC agrees with the above comments.

Anyway my comments on service. I just purchased a 530HD and out of the box it was a flakey piece of junk. Once updated to CC it has become quite useable. I cannot believe that *C practice is to stay silent and let you struggle with something that doesn't work (MM/DD becomes DD/MM in your recording set ups, etc. etc. etc. so recording won't happen).

Seems to me they should warn during activation to not use the scheduled recording feature initially until it has been installed and in standby for a night or two to get the update.
Better yet...why is the newer version not loaded in the 530HD's and thus leaving Customer service to handle real problem calls instead of buggy software calls?

About shipping with old software: Any idea how much it would cost to have every non-sold receiver shipped back, opened, re-flashed, re-packed, and shipped back to suppliers every time a software update is done? Its the same with game systems like xbox/360, wii's, and PS3: its cheaper and a much better logistics decision to update at the customers end when required.

I agree completely that people should be told more a lot more than they are when a receiver is first activated, however consider that the average user doesn't have a clue what they are doing. People with the aptitude to troll/post/moderate an internet forum are not your average users.

If I'm not satisfied with the level of information that someone is giving me, be it when I'm talking to *C, Linksys, or MS, ask for someone else and they can usually escalate you.

Don't want to dwell on this as it appears to be working OK now but regarding the 530HD:


Shipping with A4 versus CC version is almost criminal since it does not do any reasonable weekly recording because it accepts MMDD then uses it as DDMM for start date and will not change to proper date. The frustration here was huge with all the bugs encountered and I can see why they have a lot of "refurbished" available for warranty and for sale. Returns have to cost huge sums in shipping checking out and also the hours of customer service on the phone.


Anyway, I went to use up the $50 PPV credit and it would not do instant PPV, so called *C. Seriously now I spent about 30 minutes, 3 separate times (90 min) to talk to service and then tech. No one could figure out what was wrong. Factory reset was done with no discussion except "DO THIS!" and I lost all settings. Same guy asked me to force a report back 7 times and wait 3 minutes in between even though I pointed out the phone number entry was 0 in the machine. This went on. I finally got a techie who almost immediately said it looked like someone forgot a "Y" on the system and away we went.
We're all human but I had planned to spend Sunday in a different fashion from noon to 6:00PM.

BTW. There should be more of a warning about the UHF part of the remote IMHO. My neighbour 80+ year old called and had a friend talk to me and ask if I got anything new from *C because he had spent all of one evening trying to watch his TV while I was trying to debug my receiver. His 500HD was doing all sorts of things. I wondered why mine occasionally jumped to Guide etc. :) Anyway we settled on separate codes and I went over a set up his remote to also control his TV so he is happy. Our lots are 90 feet wide, not typical city lots, so I can imagine the chaos in some city areas. :)

I will keep the escalation in mind, but what discouraged me recently was with Aeroplan when they took 50,000 points from me and said I couldn't get them back, then the reply during my call was "I have no supervisor. There is no one else you can talk to". PS I got the points back.

Almost criminal? How so? Don't you just have to delete and recreate the timer?

The UHF thing is a pain if you don't know whats going on, true. With the 5XX series I've set up for myself and family members thats the first thing I change once its powered on.

I really recommend getting a name and the employee number of each person you talk to, no matter what company your speaking with. I always record that information, and have had to fall back on it several time when people at *C and other companies(my bank for one) screw up. You can always try to talk to a supervisor at *C and bring up the poor service you got from the techs that weren't listening to the fact you had no report back number.

If you ever call for tech and the person don't seem to know what they are talking about, ask if they are a level 1 or level 2 tech. Often times *C will put CSRs in line to take technical calls when technical has a longer wait time, trying to weed out non-technical or easily rectified problems. If they are level 1, ask to speak with a level 2 and they will usually comply.

quote:Almost criminal? How so? Don't you just have to delete and recreate the timer?

When we tried to record weekly the start date entered as 12/09 December 9th became 09/12 September 12th. When I entered 09/12 It appeared to change it to 12/09 but if I went back in to the timer it was then 09/12.
I was a programmer, then consultant, project leader, supervisor manager and have seen my share of bugs including in my code but this bug in the 530 would have been so humorous if it wasn't so sad.
Enough said. :)

Don't disagree with you there. The programmers are either monkeys, incredibly over worked, or don't have the tools they need.

To address lists and lists of bugs can be daunting, but a team of people with the ability to flash the firmware after a software change shouldn't have these kind of issues.

Anyway, I went to use up the $50 PPV credit and it would not do instant PPV, so called *C. Seriously now I spent about 30 minutes, 3 separate times (90 min) to talk to service and then tech

Remember that *C has been experiencing a staffing shortage. This probably means that some CSR’s are not as proficient at troubleshooting. I just spent a couple of night sessions to get the PPV working. Initial authorizing was done but reportback was not done properly and after 4 weeks of no reportback, the PPV was deauthorized.
Four movies sat in the history box waiting to be reported, but the CSR had failed to put the reportback phone number so the modem could call in.
Maybe jotting down some of the fixes at the time of troubleshooting might help one work with the CSR, we all get forgetful. The reality is, chalk everything up to experience, become your own CSR by understanding the system. Like, calling after midnight to avoid the lineup, things that one shouldn’t have to do, but at least reduces the aggravation.

Don't disagree with you there. The programmers are either monkeys, incredibly over worked, or don't have the tools they need.

To address lists and lists of bugs can be daunting, but a team of people with the ability to flash the firmware after a software change shouldn't have these kind of issues.I don't see how they could be incredibly overworked with the "few and far in between" firmware upgrades that we've received over the past 2 years. None of which have worked properly. The entire ordeal is really a lot to ask from your customers. To let it go on for this long is completely asinine.

What they've done is criminal. Aside from falsely advertising their product, they have never given their customers a working version of this device.

Monkeys, Overworked or tools. hmmm?
Since I know all the IPG developers and middleware developer personally, I can attest they are NOT monkeys.
The IPG code is a new thing though for the organization.

The tools for future work have been made available, and was not impacting previous development.

Overworked, not really as they were consistently ahead of the goals for each release, so what does it all boil down too?

IMHO, a couple of things, the bureaucracy at Motorola, and the program management bwteween Shaw/Starcrchoice and Motorola.

If you only had a 530, then it would appear to be taking a long time, but if you had a 500, & 505 & 530 and had pre-ordered 1 each of the 207 & 317, then you might see that the effort was spread over several products, each one vying for attention.

Adding more people would make things worse, since they all have a common set of code.
Where time doesn't overlap very well is in product testing, of which hasn't been well structured until recently.

All parties have received a beating from it and have put steps in place to correct it going forward.
As a result, we can expect longer cycles between codes, maybe only 2 per year. But we can also expect a more disciplined approach.

I suppose if the 1.5 year ordeal of 530 code release had been kept internally, the market would have been almost totally in favour of the other boys and long time and eager *C subs would not and may never have a DVR that a great many are finally enjoying.

As much as it bummed many customers, it was a business decision with both risks and rewards.

I think it was still the right one as the customer feedback has been able to shape the 530's direction and bring some focus to a long list of bugs.

Where my comfort levels drops, until I see tangeble results would be new product and new ipg delivery and the methodical introduction of all the features that the units is so capapable of before considering a redesign and then, someone driving that has the competative knowledge, technology knowledge , customer insight and vision to make it all happen.

Remember that *C has been experiencing a staffing shortage. This probably means that some CSR’s are not as proficient at troubleshooting. I just spent a couple of night sessions to get the PPV working. Initial authorizing was done but reportback was not done properly and after 4 weeks of no reportback, the PPV was deauthorized.
Four movies sat in the history box waiting to be reported, but the CSR had failed to put the reportback phone number so the modem could call in.
Maybe jotting down some of the fixes at the time of troubleshooting might help one work with the CSR, we all get forgetful. The reality is, chalk everything up to experience, become your own CSR by understanding the system. Like, calling after midnight to avoid the lineup, things that one shouldn’t have to do, but at least reduces the aggravation.

I had a similar issue to resolve this morning. I got my phone line hooked up to the receiver this morning. I never used PPV in the past because I prefer to rent the DVDs. But, I have $50 in credits that I need to use and prefer the convienence of IPPV instead of phone calls.
Anyway, got the line hooked up with splitter and noticed that I had no phone number in the Reportback section. Called *C to see if they need to send it down or anything (information I read here). The tech I spoke to (can't remember name) tried a few times to download the info through the satellite. I did see the trip counts increase by 3 or 4, but the phone number didn't show up. He told me to try manual reportback a couple of times and let it complete (may take 8 to 10 minutes or so), so I done that. Tried twice with no success.
Called back again & spoke to Danielle. She told me that she will try reaching my receiver through the phone line & to stay off the phone for 10 or 15 minutes. Tried that. Did notice that my phone was indicating "line in use", but nobody was using the phone, so I assumed it was her. When the "line in use" went off (maybe less than five minutes), I checked the reportback section & seen the phone number was there now. I tried the manual reportback then and it was successful within a minute or so. I called back to tech support and she picked up pretty much right away. I let her know it worked perfectly and thanked her for he help.

All total, I think I made three phone calls (first tech, Danielle, thank-you call), totalling maybe 10 to 15 minutes at most, not including the time spent with the failed reportback attempts.

The few times I've had to call *C for 530 issues (all minor ones), I have to say that I am pleased with the service and the results. :D

Tried that. Did notice that my phone was indicating "line in use", but nobody was using the phone, so I assumed it was her.

That's another little detail we sometimes forget. Some of the resolutions to PPV issues need the phone line. You can't be on the phone while *C is working on them. This will require you to hangup from the CSR and allow them time to update the receiver. You may be calling them back a second time.
And, that reportback has to have the phone number entered for it to work.

I have an issue with their billing. I tried to resolve it through their Dialogue Zone, but what a waste of time that is! Don't expect much more than "cut & paste" replies so you might as well pick up the phone. I got billed for a hockey PPV package twice. Due to a "glitch", as explained by a *C rep, the first charge appeared as an equipment purchase. After this lengthy call, I finally got it sorted out and I was to receive a credit. Then the next bill shows up - no credit! ...as if I never talked to anyone. And it's not chump change, it's $180.

But here's the problem you all should be aware of; what you see as invoices (you can go back 6 months on their website), do not resemble at all what your account actually displays to a CSR. To this end, the last CSR I talked to is going to do a print and mail it to me so I can see what they see.

Other than this and the DVR530 software issues, their service has been first rate. And let's not forget about this website. The likes of ARR, Tom, and others, have given us all valuable insights into the inner workings of *C and the common problems we are all experiencing. It may be wasted on some but many of us are very appreciative of every tidbit we get!:D Great job guys!

I had a great install yesterday. When the first guy I booked couldn't make it out (SC employee) before the 28th due to bookings, they gladly set up an alternate with a private installer. He called at 8 to confirm arrival by 9 and everything was prompt. He did the dish upgrade, installed the 530, checked its operation and checked all other receivers to make sure they were functional and receiving a strong signal.

I cringe when I read about installer horror stories like westmanguy's:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=28719&page=43

because I have experienced these as well.

Called Star Choice today to inquire about some discrepancies on my bill, and they were rectified to my satisfaction. The CSR I was talking to happened to notice that my PPV credits were due to expire on Jan. 8 2007 and since I hadn't used my full allotment she extended my credits to March 27. How's that for service?:p

Last night my DVR died, said I had no recordings and would not allow me to pause live TV etc. Called *C this morning and call was returned in 5 min and the tech guy got the DVR up and running with all recordings returned and live recording working well again. So far all is well.

Jumped from BEV after being a long term customer (scince 95) to SC just
this past Xmas. The reason was for HD for which we would have to upgrade
our dish,receiver for BV. Got 2 receivers,dish installed and a portable DVD player from our dealer (The Source) all for about $60 lees than the BEV upgrades. Canceled the BEV and what do you think showed up the next month? Yup a bill:D The transitions to SC has been a positive experiance....so far

Late Sunday night I decided to make a small programming change, swapping one theme pack for another. To my surprise I got a CSR on the first or second ring.:) In less than a minute she asked me to check my TV to see if the channels I requested were on. They were. Once again I'm amazed at the speedy service especially considering the late hour.

Go try THAT with the 'other' guys!