So I just bought a new class a and want to get it set up on Dish Pay as You go. I do not use Dish at home.I was told the deal is that you pay a month in advance and you use it until that moth of time is used up. How does that work? I just called Dish and he said there was no policy in which you use it for a football weekend, then cut it off for 3 month for example and still have 27 days left. I read somewhere to expect the customer service person to explain it that way and you have to get past them, which I never could.So from your experience, exactly how does it work? Can i truly shut it off after a couple of days of use and still have 28 days left of my prepaid 30 days to use at a later date? What do I need to do on my initial phone call to them and then what is the trick to really only use a little bit at a time?

Says right on their web page:Month to month TV packages let you turn service on and off, easy as a TVIt's not day to day, it's month to month. Ex: you buy it today, it will last until 2/25. You can't save days, how would they regulate turning it on and off every day or hour? That would be a nightmare to manage. link

Thanks for the reply. Yes I know what it says. I have heard you simply call them and they de-activate it. I would assume by day, not hour. When you are ready to use again, you call them and they re-activate. Even the customer service rep said he has heard the same thing but he was not authorized to tell me so.Was just wondering of anyone on here did it and how.

When done you pay 5.00.00 and they put your acct on hold till you pay the next payment.And everything can be done online or by text

The plan is designed to be a full month or 2 full months or 3 full months, etc. If someone somehow got Dish to pause that service it was done my mistake and mistakes certainly do happen. Do not put a hold on the account as that costs $5/month, every month. I have heard that some have called and used a magic word (cancel, suspend, hold, pause, something) and the days left of the account have been retained. It's not meant to be that way but no one is saying you can give it a try. Just understand if they say no, they are doing the right thing.

Bill.Satellite wrote:The plan is designed to be a full month or 2 full months or 3 full months, etc. If someone somehow got Dish to pause that service it was done my mistake and mistakes certainly do happen. Do not put a hold on the account as that costs $5/month, every month. I have heard that some have called and used a magic word (cancel, suspend, hold, pause, something) and the days left of the account have been retained. It's not meant to be that way but no one is saying you can give it a try. Just understand if they say no, they are doing the right thing.The problem has to due with the date within the month that you suspend your account. Call Dish and ask the exact date within the month that you have to ask them to suspend the account.

Dish Pay as You Go confusion | Good Sam Community

full_mosey
Explorer
Jan 26, 2017
hogcard wrote:

Perfect. This is exactly the explanation I needed. Is it a pain to restart? Do you retain your account number since you "terminated" the service? Do they get tired of seeing you constantly cancel and restart? Seems they would catch on to what you are doing, lol. Also is there a specific number or department you call since most of the reps are not RV savvy?

Why do I even bother to post?

I will add that the $5 charge to suspend is to be able to keep any special deals. It also costs $5 to take off the suspend status which results in a $10 round trip. In effect it is a fee to extend the expiration date of your deal.

I avoid the $10 by canceling, but the downside is I am subject to any price increase when I activate.

Here is the # we call: 800 333 3474. After selecting 1 for English, they will respond with the name associated with your phone number. We always use my wife's cell phone so this will work. Next we choose option 1 to reactivate our account..............

HTH;
John
Mile_High
Explorer
Jan 26, 2017
I gave up on the Pay as you go because it seemed they rewrote policy everytime we called. It wasn't worth the hassle.

As I understand, the day to day is not longer offered, but they honor existing customers. The new pay-as-you-go is a month at a time. But then again, I was talking to a company that has no idea what they actually offer.........
rdmike
Explorer
Jan 26, 2017
newman fulltimer wrote:
When done you pay 5.00.00 and they put your acct on hold till you pay the next payment.And everything can be done online or by text

They try to get you to do this. To pay 5.00 for inactive months. I said no, and have never paid. Turn it back on when ready.
hogcard
Explorer
Jan 26, 2017
Ed_Gee wrote:
newman fulltimer wrote:
When done you pay 5.00.00 and they put your acct on hold till you pay the next payment.And everything can be done online or by text

DO NOT let them put your Pay as you go account on PAUSE. DO NOT ASK FOR PAUSE OR SYSPEND. When you are done using your Pay as you go monthly service you can either just let it lapse or call them and ask that it be terminated or cancelled. If terminated or cancelled, Dish WILL credit your account and the next time you start a 30 day Pay as you go session they should credit a pro-rated Amount from your previously unfinished 30 day period. This is what they have done for me and others. xCaveat - the customer service reps do tend to be totally ignorant on Pay as you go accounts....you may have to ask for a supervisor if you have difficulty with our telephone rep.

Perfect. This is exactly the explanation I needed. Is it a pain to restart? Do you retain your account number since you "terminated" the service? Do they get tired of seeing you constantly cancel and restart? Seems they would catch on to what you are doing, lol. Also is there a specific number or department you call since most of the reps are not RV savvy?
rk911
Explorer
Jan 26, 2017
lryrob9301 wrote:
rk911 wrote:
Ed_Gee wrote:
newman fulltimer wrote:
When done you pay 5.00.00 and they put your acct on hold till you pay the next payment.And everything can be done online or by text

DO NOT let them put your Pay as you go account on PAUSE. DO NOT ASK FOR PAUSE OR SYSPEND. When you are done using your Pay as you go monthly service you can either just let it lapse or call them and ask that it be terminated or cancelled. If terminated or cancelled, Dish WILL credit your account and the next time you start a 30 day Pay as you go session they should credit a pro-rated Amount from your previously unfinished 30 day period. This is what they have done for me and others. xCaveat - the customer service reps do tend to be totally ignorant on Pay as you go accounts....you may have to ask for a supervisor if you have difficulty with our telephone rep.

that's true, however, the special channel discounts will disappear and you may have a re-activation fee. if you just stop paying your bill the account will remain in force but inactive until such time as you pay the equivalent of one month.

Sorry but this is incorrect. The Pay-As-You-GO payment option operates exactly as Ed Gee described. You prepay for 30 days of service. You can CANCEL or DISCONNECT your service at any time and the remaining unused balance remains as a credit until you restart your service. I began using this plan over 8 years ago when PACE Communications helped develop this payment plan option for the RV industry in conjunction with DISH Network.

i'm not wrong...and neither is ed. re-read my reply and you'll see thst my first two words in response to ed were...that's true mean g ed is correct but with a caveat. if you cancel or disconnect you will lose any special channel discounts. and there may be re-connect charges when you start up again (depending on the CSR you get and policies in effect at that time.
lryrob9301
Explorer
Jan 26, 2017
rk911 wrote:
Ed_Gee wrote:
newman fulltimer wrote:
When done you pay 5.00.00 and they put your acct on hold till you pay the next payment.And everything can be done online or by text

DO NOT let them put your Pay as you go account on PAUSE. DO NOT ASK FOR PAUSE OR SYSPEND. When you are done using your Pay as you go monthly service you can either just let it lapse or call them and ask that it be terminated or cancelled. If terminated or cancelled, Dish WILL credit your account and the next time you start a 30 day Pay as you go session they should credit a pro-rated Amount from your previously unfinished 30 day period. This is what they have done for me and others. xCaveat - the customer service reps do tend to be totally ignorant on Pay as you go accounts....you may have to ask for a supervisor if you have difficulty with our telephone rep.

that's true, however, the special channel discounts will disappear and you may have a re-activation fee. if you just stop paying your bill the account will remain in force but inactive until such time as you pay the equivalent of one month.

Sorry but this is incorrect. The Pay-As-You-GO payment option operates exactly as Ed Gee described. You prepay for 30 days of service. You can CANCEL or DISCONNECT your service at any time and the remaining unused balance remains as a credit until you restart your service. I began using this plan over 8 years ago when PACE Communications helped develop this payment plan option for the RV industry in conjunction with DISH Network.
rk911
Explorer
Jan 26, 2017
Ed_Gee wrote:
newman fulltimer wrote:
When done you pay 5.00.00 and they put your acct on hold till you pay the next payment.And everything can be done online or by text

DO NOT let them put your Pay as you go account on PAUSE. DO NOT ASK FOR PAUSE OR SYSPEND. When you are done using your Pay as you go monthly service you can either just let it lapse or call them and ask that it be terminated or cancelled. If terminated or cancelled, Dish WILL credit your account and the next time you start a 30 day Pay as you go session they should credit a pro-rated Amount from your previously unfinished 30 day period. This is what they have done for me and others. xCaveat - the customer service reps do tend to be totally ignorant on Pay as you go accounts....you may have to ask for a supervisor if you have difficulty with our telephone rep.

that's true, however, the special channel discounts will disappear and you may have a re-activation fee. if you just stop paying your bill the account will remain in force but inactive until such time as you pay the equivalent of one month.
rk911
Explorer
Jan 26, 2017
newman fulltimer wrote:
When done you pay 5.00.00 and they put your acct on hold till you pay the next payment.And everything can be done online or by text

that's one way. the other way is to just don't pay the bill. the account will go dormant until you pay the equivalent of one month. if you put the account on hold you will lose whatever special channel discounts you might have. for example, we get HBO for $10 per month...that was a special they were running back in 2015. if we put the account on "hold" and pay the $5 per month that HBO discount disappears. by simply not paying the bill the HBO discount is preserved.
rk911
Explorer
Jan 26, 2017
hogcard wrote:
So I just bought a new class a and want to get it set up on Dish Pay as You go. I do not use Dish at home.

I was told the deal is that you pay a month in advance and you use it until that moth of time is used up. How does that work? I just called Dish and he said there was no policy in which you use it for a football weekend, then cut it off for 3 month for example and still have 27 days left. I read somewhere to expect the customer service person to explain it that way and you have to get past them, which I never could.

So from your experience, exactly how does it work? Can i truly shut it off after a couple of days of use and still have 28 days left of my prepaid 30 days to use at a later date? What do I need to do on my initial phone call to them and then what is the trick to really only use a little bit at a time?

we've had dish in our MH for about a year now. a few days before we take off I simply pay my bill for one-month. that activates my account. roughly 25-days later I get an e-mail stating that my bill is due. if I want to continue service for another 30-days I pay the bill. if I don't want to continue service I don't pay the bill. at the end of the original 30-day period the account goes dormant. simple. you don't need to call anyone to put the account to sleep, just don't pay the bill.

the minimum amount of time on the PAYG plan is 30-days. AFAIK you cannot pre-pay for 30-days, use it for 3-days, put the account to sleep and have 27-days "in a time bank". I asked about that when I set up the account and was told that was not possible.
full_mosey
Explorer
Jan 26, 2017
I'll post my experience since Jan 2014 when I purchased a 211k and Tailgater combo at the tent in Quartsite.

The service is prepaid monthly. You can stop and start your service at your convenience and only the days you use are deducted from your balance.

If you 'cancel' your service before your month is up, you will have a credit balance at Dish. We usually say "we are traveling in an RV and are currently in a location where we don't need the service".

When we next want the service, we call to 'activate'. At this time our credit balance is applied to the cost for another full month. E.g., if we want the $75 plan and have a $25 credit, we pay $50.

HTH;
John

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