A Note to Dave and Charlie

[BirdieMod]

Why I test:
My RCA 303 H card unit, Yeh way back, Was hit by lightning. Called Dave and told him, DTV said tough shit, Buy a new one. OK. Cancel me. They kept billing my credit card 4 months after until I cancelled my credit card. Pissed me of and never got the money back.
Thats Dave.

Dishnet, Called them and bought a 2700 from them for 99 bucks, No free stuff back then, Set it up and called to activate. Only got about 12 channels, WTF? Turned out I had sat 110, Not 119, So tryed to get 119, Just was not possible, Too mant trees on the next door lot and the neighbor wouldn't let me trim them. Called and said I just couldn't get 119 on my lot anywhere so cancel ( Subbed for about 2 hours). They too billed my for 3 more months and refused to let me return the 99 buck 2700.

After that screwing, Became a tester, Two can play the screw you game I feel. :)

[showngo]

OK here's my FUCK YOU to DN. Loyal paying customer for 9yrs. DID NOT know about testing untill I had a party and had a beer spilled on my 2700.
Called customer service and was about to get another reciver when the tech. entered in my file "unit damaged from what customer says was a drink spilled, same time as E.C.M. Very suspect!!!!!" Well that's when I went online and found out what a ECM was. Thank You for opening my eyes to a world I never knew was out there.
PS Thanks to everyone who added info, replied to posts, host sites, and sell products (even it they had no directions).

DISH ---TREAT PEOPLE WITH RESPECT, You might get some back. DN I wouldn't spare a drop of piss if you were dying of thirst on the side of the road!

[copakeman]

in may,1997 i bought a dtv hitachi and paid for 1 yr programing (i had too, forced). paid over 600 usd, no hbo or any of that stuff. after 1 yr the bills were over 80 usd a month. terrible.

dish had an offer of 2 irds 3 months free and free install. cancelled dave , got charley. i paid 199, wanted to own not lease them. after 3 months the bills were 80usd and more. after 1+ yr went back to dave because of nfl ticket. they had changed the type of card, h - hu. i had to buy the new one for 90.usd. paid for nfl ticket but was not happy.

i know i had been taken for a ride by these dirtbags who would sqeeze blood from a stone, but i thought there is nothing i could do about it.
then i discovered testing about 12 -18 months ago. bills r now ZERO, my favorite number with tv.

a side note, i cannot get any over the air free (networks, locals, ect) tv where i live.

i am a happy camper now.
c

[SecurityRisk]

Hmmmmm - I just like free stuff. Gotta be some Pirates here just pirating to pirate. ;)

[LuckLarry]

I test for a very good reason...I can.

[Fro66er]

I won't pay for satellite (or cable) because they do not offer "al la carte" programming. I have to sub to a 29.99 package just to be able to sub to HBO? Bullshit! Yep, you can not just order HBO without their basic programming package which is garbage informercoals half the day anyway. They should pay us for these "cable" channels like MSNBC/discovery/etc (because of the commercial revenue they generate for that network). I'm not into sports, but lots of that basic 29.99 package network alloted portion goes to ESPN and its sister channels - I could give a rats ass about sports, so if I don't watch them EVER, why the f%$k should I have to pay for these????

If they just would allow us to order what we want, and not the rest of the garbage, that would 1) make everyone happy 2) make the stations provide better programming so we would pay for them.

The satellite providers do not have the ability (at this time) to offer a channel by channel subscribtion. Fine by me, but at least group simular channels together like and allow subs that way:
News (MSNBC,FOX CNN CNNhl, bloomberg)
Kids( disney and the 20 other kids channels)
Sports (ESPN ESPN2 FoxSports
Special Interest(Discovery channels, National Geographic, etc.)
Movies packages (keep them like they are now)

Remember 20+ years ago when they told everyone we would have 1000+ TV channels to select from in the future. Everyone thought that was a great idea. What they forgot/left out was that we'd be paying out the ass for 1000+ channels.

If anyone is to get my money in the future, it will be Charlie. Screw you dave your an :asshole2:

Funny side note: notice that the provider that has a compromised system gets JDR's Power & Associates award for the year? Notice that once dave became unhackable, Charlie started getting more subs? Maybe having a hackable system can be a good thing as long as you keep it under control - i.e. ECM from time to time and make things miserable from time to time. I probably was responsable for 10-15 DTV subs because I told them it was a great service provider. Now I tell people that Charlie is the only way to go. Having a hacked system might not be a bad thing in the long run.........

[mili]

I moved to the Bahamas and subscribed to DTV through a friend in the USA. DTV would not sell me the network channels. Ex wife wanted her soaps so I had to look around for a way to get it. Bought a Litronic 210 and things went downhill from there.

mili

[BirdieMod]

If it can to having to sub to get tv, Charlie would get my money.
Yeh part of hacking is the fun I must admit. I'd be pissed subbing to 180 paid advertisements late nights which is about the only time I turn it on. Also having all the non spotbeamed locals and ones in my spotbeam have me spoiled.

[Chief]

Well, I'm a bit like LuckLarry....I subscribe to the old "why does a dog lick his dick" train of thought...however, I'm into testing for two main reasons.
First, it's a scientific/electronic related hobby, of which I have always been interested in....and my wife, who is confined to the den and a recliner due to a debilitating illness - and TV is her lifeline to the world.
A plat subscription plus all the PPV expense just didn't set too well with us - so I....oh, hell, you know the rest. :)

[Satan]

I test to have fun ..?..I love it when they send a good old ECM..?...make's have to read and understand a lil more...maybe write a new patch ..?..I'v never payed for TV...even when living in apartment's ..?...Not to hard to slip downstair's and hook yourself up ..?..lol...

All fun aside ...I can't see the sence in paying for a sub when a hour show has 25 min's of commercial's...it's like I'd be paying in order to watch someone advertise..?..the amount of commercial's is what get's my goat .!!!...PPV is OK...but the truth is ..if you want to see a good movie...go see the show at the cinnaplex...with the big screen and the sound-system ..and other people ..?..lol...

[BirdieMod]

It is amazing that a 30 min show is actually only 20-22 minutes. Equals 16-20 paid advertisements per half hour. Good time to hit Pause at the first commercial on the dishplayer PVR and do something for a bit, Make a snack or so on, Then come back and use the 30 second skip feature the rest of the show. LOL!!!

[JT]

So how many minutes of ads are there in the average football game? The game clock only runs for one hour, but a game lasts 3 1/2 hours largely due to the hour plus of ads in that time period. Hell, they even have TV timeouts where the producer of the broadcast gets to stop the game so they can try and sell you something. So in short, the major networks make thier money coming and going. Then after that they sell the rights to rebroadcast to the satellite broadcasters for even more $$$.

[BirdieMod]

You hit it right on JT, A 15 second play, A little chat and commercial break again.........

[Morpheux]

Aside from being a cheap bastard, back when I got my system DN will only offer sat 119, wouldn't include any locals for PR, and blacked out galavision/univision since they have a local station here (even when we couldn't get them using dish).

They didnt include ABC/NBC/FOX/Etc.. either (so much for a top 50) and I love my Simpsons, and there was no way of getting them even on the most expensive Premium package, while cable tv offered all those channels and some more in their basic package.

Now DN Offers them, but require an extra $5.99 a month and buying the 2nd dish. Too late for me, I really don't want their installer showing up in my house nowadays :)

[Rax]

I test for pretty much something to do.. I sub to DAVE and also at one time tested Dave. Now I sub to Dave and test Charlie :)
I have to admit it's kinda nice takeing a dish hunting and watching wide open ppv, porn and movie channels.

[JT]

When both DTV/USSB and DishNet started up they had great customer service. Not only did you get a superior product to cable you got service with a smile so to speak. At first, the customer support was great with both providers. Now days, it doesn't matter what provider you go with, they both know they have you by the balls because cable sucks so bad; so they raise the price, offer packages that encourage you to buy a bunch of shit just to get a couple channels you really want, as well as offering customer support just as bad as the cable companies. Do we need any other justification to take part in this hobby? How about it's kind of satisfying to screw a big coorperation because the standard is getting screwed yourself? How about they give the signal to me? After that it's mine to do what ever I want with!

[BirdieMod]

I still miss Kmart selling complete new systems with wide open cards for 69 bucks. Shit, When we couldn't unloop HU yet, Who cared, Kmart, DTV RCA 420, Dish, HU remote.etc. 69 Bucks LOL!!! Better yet was the RCA 303 and H card systems, 49 bucks complete at Kmart.
I must still have about 35 IRD's new in the plastic here that I just used the card from........

[Crazy1_79]

How about my reason, I have rebel pulsing through my veins and I am not happy unless I am getting away with something that I am not suppose to be getting away with. This has a lot less chance of another prison term along with, also, it helps to keep my mind occupied from other substances that I know now I must refrain from otherwise I get myslef into awhole lot of trouble.

[shadowpyro]

I just believe that anything that falls on my head in my yard is mine to keep. If I can use it more power to me.