I purchased my own equipment from an authorized Dish dealer over the internet and installed it myself. I couldn't activate it with Dish as they said the receiver was invalid. I called the dealer I bought it from and he set me up with a month-to-month account with the channels I wanted. After a year I received a bump in my monthly fees for insurance on my receiver and against future price increases. I called Dish, explained to them I owned the receiver (which their records indicated) and that I didn't care about insurance for a guaranteed service price. They removed the insurance rider and refunded the extra charges that where posted on my account. Haven't had a problem since then and my price has been basically the same. Oh, the dealer also set me up with a Dish account so I can order movies, upgrades, channels, etc all from my computer directly with Dish.