Now if they just would make their blackberry player be compatible with their first generation boxes... I still don't like Sling.

I love hearing stories like this. This is way better than paid advertising and I definitely give preference to companies that take care of their customers.

Too many companies would rather pay for advertising that is mostly lies that nobody fully believes anyhow. Service like this is cheaper and better for everyone,

I bought the first model Slingbox years ago, and my first one was defective. I blogged about it, and the company president commented on my experience. Really cool.

Sling is definitely great at customer service (though now they are owned by Dish, so things might have changed).

A few months ago I contacted Sling support on my out of warranty Slingbox pro and I was told that I had to pay $29.99 to get them to help me. When I told them that I wasn't interested in paying for support on a device that I had paid so much money for I was basically told to have a nice day and disconnected.

Maybe the difference is I was using chat support not phone support. I guess that should be a lesson to me. Call them and maybe you will have a decent experience.

Typical for Sling. My Slingbox AV went toes up a couple of weeks out of warranty, they replaced as a matter of course.

I had a problem with the Slingbox software, I contacted customer service and they also told me about the $30 fee before they would even talk to me. I was unaware of the 90 day support limit which starts when you first hook up the box and not on the time you first require support.

They wouldn't budge on the $30 fee. So not only do they have an unhappy customer here who will no longer support or recommend their products, but they lost on the sale of two SlingCatchers I was planning on purchasing.

I'm glad the OP got someone to help him, but be aware that his experience is probably not the norm.

My experience with SlingMedia has not been satisfying. The product is great when it works. I think the problem is that there are so many links in the chain to make it work remotely -- the SlingBox itself, the link between the SlingBox and your router (often wireless, so there's another set of problems), the router configuration, your ISP, the software on the receiving device, and the receiving device itself -- that it's often extremely difficult to diagnose a problem, and the problem is often not with the Sling products themselves.

I bought by SlingBox Solo about 18 months ago, along with their SlinkLink (powerline ethernet) boxes. I experienced progressively poorer performance from the SlingBox until finally I realized the problem was that one of the SlingLink units no longer functioned. So far SlingMedia hasn't shown any interest in replacing the defective unit (which, to be fair, is out of warranty).

Glad to hear this one went OK, my experience with Slingbox was not so good. I tried to connect up a Slingbox Pro to a Roadrunner drop using a cable modem with built-in router that had five static IP's (provided by the local cable company). The Slingbox would not recognize the net connection provided by the router under any circumstances. Called the support center, opened a support ticket and troubleshot for about an hour, finally determined after a callback that the particular brand of router that was provided was "not supported" by Sling and that no assistance was available to resolve the problem. FAIL.

I checked for alternate routers and nothing that was available from the cable company was supported, when you use static IP's you are pretty limited in offerings. Couldn't exactly ask the cable company to provide a router that Slingbox would support, so the Slingbox is sitting dormant in a closet. I suppose if I wanted to pay for DSL service I could get it to work, however I went that route with the local telco about two years ago. Their facilities (the above-ground telephone cable) in my neighborhood are so crappy (installed in the mid 1960's) that I can't keep a reliable DSL connection without constant dropouts.

In the end it was a no-win situation for me, it's just disappointing that Slingbox doesn't support a wider range of modems/routers....

Glad to hear. Wish I could say I had a similar experience with Sling Support. I spent 30 minutes trying to explain that the Ethernet port on my Slingbox was dead out of the box, and the tech insisted that it was because my router was running DD-WRT instead of the stock Linksys firmware.

Someone needs to explain the OSI Model layers to their support...

@elc32955:
there's plenty of routers that support static IPs ... not sure about 5 of them though, but some of the business end linksys ones should definitely do it.