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!

LOL, with my cable company it took over an hour to get a programming change. And if it screwed up, as it did often, it could take a full day to re-download the programming.

I made a programming change via the website last Friday night. Of course, you get an email confirmation of the changes, which was correct. Next morning, not only did I have the pick and pay channels screwed up but the eastern feed was changed as well. As you say, maybe the phone is the better way to order changes on the spot. I had to phone them anyway.

Decided last night to order Leafs TV. Called, got an operator in under 2 minutes, within about a minute I had the channel working on my TV.

Happy Customer

SC acknowledged my desire to have only 1 receiver activated. But 2 bills later,
a $5 charge for extra receiver was added. Same thing for the $1 guide.
At least it was easily settled on the phone. But you better watch the charges.

For the most part everything has been fine with SC and haven't had a need to bother them.

Had some great experiences with SC lately tho.

First, 3 weeks ago I called them about the recent price increases. I have the Plat pkg with Movie Xtra. Told them I wasn't happy with the increase and wanted to downgrade my pkg, but then would get hit with the multiple receiver charge. Got an rep in 2 rings. Nice. She was very nice and understood and got me in touch with customer relations in about a minute or so. Again a very nice person, we spoke for about 5 mins she thanked me for my loyalty and for taking the time to call them about it. Next thing I know she offered me a $10 monthly discount for the next 2 years, no obligation on my part and I get to keep the exact same pkg I already have. NICE !


Second, last week my wife noticed our HD channels on the 505 would sometimes pixelate and audio would drop off for a split second and then go back to normal every 20 seconds or so. I checked it out, she's right. Call SC.
Got a tech rep in less than a minute.

After about 10 minutes of checks, says he'll need to send someone out here asap to check it out. He suspects it's outside at the dish since more than once receiver has the same issue. He offers to credit me some free PPV's for the trouble and sets up an appointment with me in 2 days (my request). I get a call that morning, tech is on his way. Gets here right on time, checks the signal strength. Says it looks low at 35 on F2, but F1 is good. Goes outside does some testing, replaces the LNB. Everything is great and HD is perfect. Shakes my hand and says anything else just give us a call. No charge for the service call. Nice.

This a good company and these are good people that know how to treat customers right. They'll continue to have my business for a very long time.

I've always had good service from *C when I finally get through on the phone, but the Dialogue Zone is hopeless. It's painfully hard to use, and like most companies, *C tends to send cut & paste responses which are only superficially related to the enquiry (if they are related at all!). I've often wondered why companies don't put more effort into their email/online responses, since you would think that it would cost them less than dealing with simple enquiries on the phone. My guess is:

a) It's too easy to send email/on-line enquiries, so they they get a lot of poorly-thought-through spurious junk. It's better to have a barrier that makes customers think harder before they waste your time, or give up and go away if it's not really important.

b) Answering email/online enquiries all day is probably mind-numbing, so the most useless and lowly-paid rookes get stuck with the job.

I'm a new subscriber to StarChoice and I'm very happy with their support.

I had to called them, and they were great. I didn't have to wait 20 minutes or more as it is the case with the competition. We can reach them also during the week end.

Thanks Starchoice

Normally, StarChoice has amazing phone support. They say all the right things...

However...

I called today to complain about my 530 NOT recording anything yesterday. This was yet another new problem.

I told the tech this, and he said "Quote, it is software, you'll always have problems like this".

WOW, wait just one minute here.

I told him that I would prefer to talk to a supervisor. He said no. I said I'll wait, and he hung up on me. The Balls!

Well, I needed a hobby today, so I called back, got a new agent, talked to a surpervisor. Told him the story. Got the call log off my Vonage web page to check the time.

The supervisor was non-too pleased and said they would pull the voice recording transcripts. I likely won't find out what happened, but I hope I returned the favour and made his day hell.

Now, that doesn't help my 530 problem. My next call is to ExpressVu to see what they can do for me.

At least you won't be too surprised at their ignorance and arrogance.

I'm not sure why a lot of what you can subscribe to is not openly advertised, such as Superstations without Movie or a different feed of Fox with your Nets. For the longest time, I subscribed to Spokane Nets but with Fox Seattle. I got a 530 around Xmas with a dish upgrade so now I get Fox Seattle HD which has the exact same shows as Fox Seattle SD so I decided to swap out Fox Seattle SD for Fox Spokane, mainly because Spokane runs "I Love Lucy" in the afternoon. The CSR says to me that she is sorry but I cannot swap out one feed, I have to change all the nets. She didn't have too much to say when I told her I was receiving the Seattle nets with Fox Spokane. If the situation were reversed and someone was receiving all the nets from one source and wanted to swap a different Fox feed, you can see that there would be a problem with the CSR insisting that it couldn't be done.

Actually, we do have a few swapping options, but it is true that we can't switch just one channel. Though all Spokane is available.

Don't forget sometimes, you might get someone that is newer. In the first days, it's not easy to try to deal with all the informations and questions that people give you or ask you.

Actually, we do have a few swapping options, but it is true that we can't switch just one channel. Though all Spokane is available.

Huh? I don't think you read my post. Spokane nets with Seattle Fox or Seattle nets with Fox Spokane is definitely available.

Don't forget sometimes, you might get someone that is newer. In the first days, it's not easy to try to deal with all the informations and questions that people give you or ask you.

The correct answer, then, is to tell the customer that you don't know and will check for them and not the common answer today of making up an answer that you think might be right.

Always quick response and gracious tech support.

But I'll temper that assessment somewhat.
A defective SPDIF on my HD receiver was graciously and quickly exchanged with another unit (because I had an insurance, it seems).

The replacement unit always "freezed" after 15 minutes i.e. it was not possible to change channel or switch off.
The only way to get it back was a hard reset (press the switch on/off for 15 seconds).

After numerous calls and various resets, the problem persisted. Finally, a Level 2 technician authorized another replacement unit after checking the unit serial number buried somewhere in the menu.
I believe he did know from that serial number that the unit was seriously/terminally defective.

I understand the need to recycle refurbished units but sending a defective unit just increases the cost of business for SC and in the end the cost for the consumer.

Morality: If the unit is seriously defective, just don't recycle it to your customer Mr StarChoice...

Cheers

From what I've seen, a great many RTC'd units come back with No Fault Found.
And a replacment unit sent to that original customer often experiences the exact same problems, yet works 100% when it comes back.
Sometimes it can be attributed to the dish/cable/switch installation or location, other times its the power in the area and others it's just plain the operator.

Unfortunate what happened for sure, but for hopefully those few occasions that slip though, most will be just fine.

Imagine the costs you could incur if all returned units were simple written off.

While no excuse, the unit's are likely only checked for basic functionality.
Perhaps *c ought to track the reported defect and verify them or not.

I am a CSR in Calgary and love my job, I am glad to see so much positive feedback :)

Routing the Sat Feed on a 5XX through a surge protector is a huge contributor to freeze ups I find. The chances of lightning hitting a dish and frying the system are slim to none. I find the machine preforms better when the Sat Feed is connected directly into a wall outlet.

Most all Surge Protectors with coax connections are made for RG59 wires. RG59 coax wires can only handle up to 1000Mhz. Satellite coax wires are RG6 which can handle up to 2500Mhz. And there is a voltage being sent back to the dish from the receivers which these surge protectors aren't made to do. It can create a bottle neck effect I guess. Bad connections can work for a while but will eventually fail and run the rish of shorting out everything. Most dishs already have a grounding block when they were originaly installed illiminating the need for that. How much did you pay for your Surge Protector if you don't mind my asking?

I only have a $25 belkin, but I never knew the reason why the Sat Feed wont work through a surge protector. I just knew never to connect a Satellite cable through one. Since *C channels range from 950Mhz to 2440Mhz, Sat cables going through surge bars probably contribute to ALOT of lock ups, and unit failures. Well at least some.

Will connecting RG6 cable through a surge protector burn the surge protector out faster?

a typical surge protector is a MOV (metal Oxide varistor) shunted to ground, when it sees' a voltage applied that is somewhat higher than typical 120 Vac, it depletes and shunts (shorts) to ground. This itself shouldn't affect IRD operation - IMHO. But, they (surge suppressors) can also be capacitively coupled to ground either, or in addition to the MOV. a capacitor will provide a low impedance path and "could" allow less signal to reach the IRD - which "could" result in glitching operation.

RG6 won't burn a surge protector any faster than RG59.

Bent is right. RG59 or RG6 wouldn't make a difference to the Surge Protector and it would not help the signal between the LNB & receiver. If you have an Areal UHF antenna then you should consider running it threw the Protector. I would be far more worried about lighting hitting such an antenna rather then a satellite dish. Unless the instructions manual of the Surge Protector specifically says it can handle Satellite connections, I wouldn't even think about it.
To protect my expensive Home Entertainment System I wouldn't look at anything under $50 worth. High end Surge Protectors usually promise insurance for 1000s but I wouldn't base my choice on that nor trust their insurance company. The one which has the highest Joules rating is one way to choose.