DTV Woes

It all started innocently enough. 

While getting our 5th wheel trailer ready to go, I was replacing all of the double-A batteries in TV remotes, smoke alarms, etc., when I discovered that the DirecTV receiver was dead.

After a couple of calls (I accidently hung up on one rep after five minutes of navigating their automated system) I finally reached a young lady in Oregon – the one I cut off was in Georgia.  After assuring her that

• The receiver would not turn on via the remote or by using the on/off switch on the front of the unit.
• Yes, there was power at the plug.
• Yes, I had tried plugging it in somewhere else.
• Yes, I had unplugged and reinserted the power cord from the back of the unit.
• Yes, I had tried pushing the reset button.
• No, it still didn’t work

She had a new receiver sent to me by overnight delivery.

Once it arrived, all I had to do was activate the unit by entering the serial number on their website and it would be good to go.

That’s what was supposed to happen, but it didn’t. 

The new (refurbished) unit does turn on, but it doesn’t receive anything.  Early in the setup process, it fails to find a satellite and continues to tell me to retry.  At this point, I have replaced all coax and even swapped out the LNB on my dish, but nothing works.

After about an hour on the phone with tech support, they told me that while they don’t normally send service technicians to work on units in RVs, since it is located in my yard at home, they would.  He is supposed to be here Wednesday morning.