New E* Repair and Refurbish center

[enoree]

E* announced yesterday that it is opening a new repair and refurbish center in Spartanburg SC, that will employ about 1300 people. They said they expect to have it up and running by late summer in an existing building in a business park off of I-85.

 

[navychop]

Odd. To repair and refurbish what? New MPEG-4 boxes that shouldn't need much repair any time soon? Non MPEG-4 boxes that are being phased out?

 

[M Sparks]

To convert all the 942s they are buying back. (Just speculation, but it seems pretty obvious.)

 

[webbydude]

There are plenty of people out there who do not have hi-def receivers or televisions. And yes, the occasional 625 or 311 will go kaput. Not to mention numerous LNB's and switches that get returned during upgrades and repair call.s

 

[navychop]

They need to pull the non-MPEG-4 receivers and the non-8VSB from the field. They cannot shift to MPEG-4 very much until they do. First, the HD will go to MPEG-4. Then they'll move to SD channels, perhaps from the high end channels and maybe movie packages, on down. They need to do this to recover bandwidth and thereby provide the same programming at a lower cost (to them). Last semi-informed estimate I heard had HD converted over spring '07, and the process basically completed in 2010.

Converting 942s to Canadian use? How many could be used that way?

 

[Mr Tony]

Converting 942s to Canadian use? How many could be used that way?

The ExpressVu 9200 is a 942 so its very possible they could do that

 

[navychop]

Yes, but I'm guessing there are way more 942s than potential customers for the 9200. Or maybe I'm overestimating the number of 942s produced?

 

[Poke]

http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060601/1296350.html?.v=1

bizjournals.com
EchoStar bringing 1,300 jobs to S.C.
Thursday June 1, 12:37 pm ET


EchoStar Communications Corp. will employ 1,300 people at a new repair center in Spartanburg County, S.C., the satellite TV company announced Thursday.
Jobs will start at $8 an hour. The site will employ technicians, managers, test engineers and other support staff.

The facility will be the company's fourth repair center. EchoStar already has similar sites in Denver, Atlanta and El Paso, Texas.

The center is expected to open by the end of the summer, an EchoStar spokeswoman said.

EchoStar (NASDAQ: DISH - News) is the second-largest satellite TV company, with more than 12 million subscribers nationwide.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

With 20 million or so receivers out there, I'm sure there is a lot of repair work.

Plus they probably need to test all returned units from people dropping their subscriptions. And repack in the cables, remotes, etc.

 

[Mike500]

I just wonder if they are designing a "Frankenstein" receiver using components of older receivers like their power supplies and modulators.

Since they will be 5 miles north from me, I guess I will find out from their employees.

Spartanburg beat out the others by having a facility built prior to finding a tennant. They will start operating in two months.

 

[Van]

The oversea's facility that refurbs and repairs E gear truely sucks ass, out of 100 refurbed dp - 34 switches I would bring back 20 - 35 that were faulty, hopefully this new location will have better people doing the job.

 

[technoguy]

Odd. To repair and refurbish what? New MPEG-4 boxes that shouldn't need much repair any time soon? Non MPEG-4 boxes that are being phased out?

Well Actually I have a 411 that I ordered for a costumer and doesn't power up,so go figure

 

[Van]

All lnbfs, switches, receivers, and remotes get refurbed, anything that is sent to you aside from a first model run of a receiver within the first 6 - 8 months is a refurb. Dish pro plus 44 switches are now available in refurb condition and have been for over a month atleast.

 

[danwolf101]

I am surprised that dish has not shipped all these jobs to india like there call center????Anyway having my dish installed back in decemer I never looked at the paper work.But under close inspection my LNB,s are refurbished as is the DP34 switch.And dish told me I would be getting a new system!!!!The Dp34 switch died and I have alreday replaced that.What next the LNB's.But I would rather have the dish over cable any day of the week.

 

[Van]

Read the rest of the paperwork including the dha form, but I can tell you that alot of the lnbfs that dish techs are using right now are refurbs including the dish pro plus twins, the dish pro duals, the dish pro singles, the legacy twins, and the legacy duals. The new stuff is the legacy quads and the dp -34's as well as the legacy and dp -21's, the dpp-44's are remaned right now as are the 301/311/322 receivers being installed.

What I ment by read the forms is that dish does reserve the right to install refurbished equipment though I cant remember if its on the dha form or the work order, I do know its on all the csg cover sheets.

 

[Stargazer]

Once Dish Network started the lease program they must have started getting back a LOT Of hardware (receivers, lnbf,s and switches). Directv is bound to need a bit more people to refurbish their hardware as well since they just started their lease program.

 

[dougruss]

Well...when my 811 is unusable, it's going out in the Driveway and getting run over !!
Wouldn't want another "Unsatisfied" Customer using it after it's "Refurbished"(yea right? ) !!

 

[Van]

Well...when my 811 is unusable, it's going out in the Driveway and getting run over !!
Wouldn't want another "Unsatisfied" Customer using it after it's "Refurbished"(yea right? ) !!

If its a lease and you return it that way they will charge you the original retail price for it.

 

[ToddMeister]

1300 people?????? Wow in addition to their other centers? Incredible... I'd say look for another rate increase next year...

 

[navychop]

20M STBs, yes. But I expect most will be pulled out of service to be replaced by 8PSK & MPEG-4 compliant units, not refurb'd. Maybe the other items will fill the bill. And maybe the ViP622s are being reprocessed into version E or later models. Or maybe they have a plan to upgrade some of the older units, such as the 721s, to be 8PSK & MPEG-4 capable. I doubt it.

But as the MPEG-4 boxes are more readily available, I can't picture them refurb'ing a 301, 811, 508 or even 625. Every non 8PSK, non MPEG-4 box they ship out will have to be replaced again in the next 3 years or so.