If you upgrade that 4.99 goes away DO THE MATH.

$4.99 versus $20+, now...let's see!

Did they charge you for the dish service? Are you on "Simple Satellite"?

That's the thing...because I am on "simple satellite", all service was free and prompt, except for that dreaded $13.99 handling fee times 4.
Bye the way, I didn't realize that Star Choice was following this thread. I put a good plug in for *C with Sound and Vision magazine and Michael Antonoff called me back. Supposed to be printing something in Feb issue...how about a rebate?

Are you referring to starchoice or Star Choice?

Well, "thumbs up" for SC !!

i installed my own dish + DSR205 entry level reciever. activated over the phone + quickly was up + runnung !!

GREAT !!

Way back when, Star Choice had the worst, and I mean the worst Customer Service I had ever seen with its 90 minute waits and their not so informative Customer Service. I am very happy to say that all that has changed and the Customer Service is great!
That said, there are two things that I'm not pleased with.
1---My dish moved off line a little in a storm and my HD Channels were affected. I had to pay 60.00 to get my dish aligned. I said, but I can get a whole new dish with a receiver installed for less than that, but that's the way it was.
2---I moved up to the DSR500 Receiver and have had nothing but problems with it locking up, changing channels on it's own among other things. I was told after I bought it that I had to wait a week and all would be fixed.Ya Right!

I thought about upgrading to a higher package to waive the $4.99 fee but to me it is convoluted logic. Would I rather only pay $4.99 or upgrade and pay about $20 more per month in programming I would rarely watch? I choose option one pay $4.99.

There is nothing wrong with our math skills.

I love the callback feature. The technicians know what they are doing, they will not mount dishes in unsafe or unstable areas which would cause them to move off alignment in a wind storm.

The instantaneous change in programming packages over the phone is painless and easy.

Customer Service is a tough job. I do it for a living. The answers given to customers are only as good as the information received by the Customer Service Reps. Absolutely no complaints. Keep up the good work in the face of demanding clientele.

3 years ago, everything was crap! I use the french cs and the wait was over 2 hours long. I know, I chrono it twice.
After 6 months of problems with my receiver, they NEVER accepted to change it. I had 2 and paid the 4.95/month. I had to pay a local tech to repair it. I had so many problems in the past. They even refused to activate a movie on VC because of a password. I never had any password on my account. They lost a lot of customers in Quebec.

Today, the customers relations is better. But the 4.95 is still there for nothing. If I upgrade combo, They bring it down to 2.95. Big deal!!! If it wasn't for Customers relations rep named Simon, I would be with Bell now.

He helped a lot and gave me the free install of the comming DSR530 and a little rebate on the purchase. Bell is even worst and dvr receivers are crappy. Given the choice between average and bad...

Just dropping a little note abot my experience with StarChoice so far....

I was about to purchased a 315 from THE BRICK since they offer the normal 10 fre PPV's and an addtional $50.00 programming credit. On my way there Friday after work I happened to notice a small electronics dealer in the same area.

I stopped in just for the heck of it. I explained The Bricks's deal an he offered me a better deal... I recieved a 205 plus an older 405 - which has 5.1 plus dual A/V RCA outputs and caller ID. I went for it. $115 tax in.

I then asked about an install date...he said "How about tomorrow?" Great!

Installer was out with both recievers and the dish Saturday morning @ 11:00am - Was up and running by 1:00OPM

I only activated the 405 for now.... One thing I noticed was a change to the IPG Sunday morning...it had the smaller guide with picture option which it didn't have upon the orginal install Saturday - It must have been software updated overnight.

So far so good....

I watched channel 299 and saw the chezzy promo for the DSR 530...The actor stated Summer 2005....We'll see.

Oh by the way....I had zero hold times the two times I called in.

Cheers
Rob.

Unless its a REALLY REALLY old one, more than likely you just pressed "Guide" twice which brings up the mini-Guide (two lines at the bottom of the screen so you can still watch TV above it)

Satellite,

Nope I tested the "press twice" once it was installed Saturday. Didn't work...it ONLY gave me the full guide. I didn't think much of it at the time since I knew it was an older unit.

But come Sunday morning....it had a differnet look - even the full screen guide had a hint of the picture behind it.

When did *C enable this "mini" guide feature?

Cheers
Rob.

1 ana 2 ana 3 ...UNBELIEVABLE!
I call SC tonight to complain about some video dropouts on NBC HD for the past 2 shows and my call was answered on the first ring after navigating the tree. The rep went away for a moment and confirmed they were aware of the problems and thanked me for calling and asked if there was anything else he could do, ALL DURING A COMMERCIAL BREAK, Never missed a minute of my shows.

I'll check today, but I believe the "picture behind guide" feature was added in 2000 or 2001!
Anyway, the Mini-Guide should look like this
. And Yes, from what Star Choice's website says, its apperently a "new" feature. I'll get the date it was added tonight when I call.


This is what Guide (and Info, pictured) looked like before the picture-behind-guide was added...just so we're on the same page.