New equipment being replaced by refrubished equipment? This can't be right!

[Paradox-SJ]

I bought my 6000 receiver new 11 months ago for full retail. As of this past weekend I can no longer create scheduled timers or even view timers already created due to a VRAM failure. Due to the unit still being under warranty Dish has offered to replace my 6000 but with a refurbished unit.

They will only give me a warranty on the refurb unit until my warranty on my original unit is up which will be in two weeks.

They tried to tell me that this is what all electronic manufactures do.

Is it their standard practice to replace new equipment with refurbished? Has anyone fought this? Due I have any recourse to this thievery?

It's been my experience that if a peace of equipment fails during the warranty they either give you a new unit, a new unit of equal value or refund your money.

Am I missing something here?

 

[rjallen]

Call executive CSR, see if you can upgrade to an 811. It goes for $149.00 to longterm customers. Perhaps you can get for less or even free. It is in Dish's interest to keep equipment as modern as possible. This way you should get a 12 month warranty.

Good luck

PS This needs to be discussed with EXECUTIVE CSR not the 3474 number.


Rick Allen

 

[gpflepsen]

I wouldn't take a $149 receiver in place of a $600 one. If you are looking for the 811, sell the 6000 on fleabay and buy the 811.

 

[HookedOnTV]

I think most manufacturers would not consider a unit new after 11 months. Typically you could expect your broken unit to be fixed (which is all that a refurbished unit is). Them offering to swap you with an already repaired unit saves you the down time. Very typical. Often the problem would need to occur in the first 30 days for a new replacement.

 

[markdl]

How do you figure your 6000 that you have used for 11 months is new? And where in the terms of warrenty does it state that a broken receiver under warrenty will be replaced with a new unit?

Now personally, I don't agree with this policy either, but I know that at least one other electronics company has this policy. My 2 year old Harman Kardon receiver died just before the warrenty period ended. It was fixed (temporarily) by a service center twice after that, and ended up dying in exactly the same way both times after a couple of months. So, the 3rd time (out of warrenty now at this point) HK replaced the receiver with a refurbished one. It arrived DOA. So, they replaced that one with a 2nd refurbished one. A month later, it also died. The 3rd replacement was finally a new one.

Not a pleasant story, but that's the way it works.

 

[Kagato]

Most vendors replace units with refurbs (or repair the original.) The part about the refurb unit only having a two week warranty seems shady. Last time I replaced a STB they told me the unit came with 30 days, or the end of the original warranty, whichever was longer. 30-90 days parts and labor is typical for refurb replacements.

 

[boba]

When you got your 6000 it came with an instruction book. If you take the time to read the explanation of the warranty in the book you will find the procedure is exactly what DISH has followed.

 

[cdru]

Now personally, I don't agree with this policy either, but I know that at least one other electronics company has this policy. My 2 year old Harman Kardon receiver died just before the warrenty period ended. It was fixed (temporarily) by a service center twice after that, and ended up dying in exactly the same way both times after a couple of months. So, the 3rd time (out of warrenty now at this point) HK replaced the receiver with a refurbished one. It arrived DOA. So, they replaced that one with a 2nd refurbished one. A month later, it also died. The 3rd replacement was finally a new one.

Usually lemon laws come into play after the 3rd consecutive failure. This and the fact that some locals where either you or the manufacturer are located at could have additional consumer protections might have helped.

In Dishes case, I would have expected them to stand behind their refurb-ed receiver for at least 90 days. They shouldn't have to give you a new 1 year warranty and definitely shouldn't HAVE to give you a new 6000.

 

[bytre]

Are there still new 6000's?

 

[JosephF]

When I got my 508 replacement about a month ago, I was told the warranty was the remainder of my original warranty or 90 days. Whichever was greater.

I also agree with Mark. An 11 month old unit is far from new.

 

[HookedOnTV]

Are there still new 6000's?

On some dusty shelf somewhere

 

[reedl]

I have had much better luck with re-furbished equipment from manufacturers simply because a single person is checking all the functionality of the entire unit rather than a simple power on check that new equipment gets.

I have a Sony VPL-HS20 projector that had some convergence problems, it went in for repair, and came back with pretty much new internal guts (including a new lamp). It now works better than the new ones I have seen simply because it was "hand fixed". The picture is simply amazing now.

Anybody who expect to receive anything new on a replacement of an 11 month old unit just does not understand how a company operates.
I have never gotten a new unit from a manufacturer when an item has failed under warranty, but instead have always gotten the item repaired. Now with a retail store, you are correct you get a replacement unit when you bring it back if it has failed. Although many stores now limit that to 30 days (infant failures of equipment), not 11 months out. It also has alot to do with the price of the item. For example an electronics store deal with has a 7 day DOA warranty where they will replace the item during that period. After that you are on your own with the manufacturer.

As to the Harman Kardon receiver, that sounds like a design failure instead of a single item failure. To have that many fail the same way means the item is basically very badly designed.

Reedl

 

[dfergie]

MY 501 was refurbished when I got it a couple of years ago, have had no problems with it at all.

 

[sampatterson]

Sounds standard to me from many manufacturers that I have dealt with. Everything that I have sent back so far has either been repaired or they have sent a refurbished unit. (cell phone, pda, printer, 2 6000s, 3 811s)

 

[normang]

Refurbs are standard operating procedure. The only issue I can see in this case is that the warranty on the refurb should be at least 90 days from the re-install or the remainder of an existing 1 year warranty, which ever is longer.

 

[Stargazer]

I had Dish Network not want to replace my receiver with a new one refusing to after the third one had went bad and then when I finally talked to someone that was willing to they said that was their policy that they do not replace with a refurbished one after the third one, WHATEVER!!!!! The lady acted like they would not have said such a thing. They really REALLY need to get their act together. That really ticked me off!