Purchased a new Winegard Anser portable antenna, to receive Bell ExpressVu, exactly one month ago. During first week of camping unit got interfered with by security cable and small geared drive belt in unit broke. Very visible as belt flopped out bottom of unit.
Support from Winegard was abysmal. They accused me of voiding warranty as how could I know belt was broken. I live in Canada and they wanted U.S. $70.00 just to assess problem. Then, I would have to ship entire unit to/from their factory for repair - adamantly refused to sell me only the belt - which is all that is necessary for repair.They say their policy is to only deal with entire units, and this is confirmed by several RV dealers here. Everyone says the same thing, just call Winegard and have them send you the belt. Their reluctance to do so is quite amazing. To send the whole dish to them, at my expense both ways, to install a belt worth a few dollars is crazy. Not a very good level of customer support.
I called over 20 potential suppliers searching for a suitable belt. It seems that Winegard have utilized a very uncommon geared drive belt in this dish.Eventually, I found the required neoprene belt from McMaster Carr and they will be mailing one to me.
Such a simple problem made so complex due to Winegard's intransigence and incredibly poor customer service.
Be aware: if you purchase a Winegard antenna system and some component fails you will be required to return the entire unit, not just the failed component, to them at your expense with a minimum $70.00 assessment fee, plus all other repair costs. Warranty is worthless with Winegard.
