Dish pay as you go plan question

[Community Alumni]

I have been a satisfied long-time Dish customer for many years, but I pulled the plug on Dish a few months ago to take advantage of a smoking hot bundle deal offered by the local cable company for one year.

I'm thinking about signing up for the pay as you go Dish plan, but can't seem to find the "fine print" in the Dish website.

From what I understand, you prepay for 30 days, but I'm not sure if I were to use the service, let's say for only 10 days, if I can suspend service and use the remaining 20 days at a later time. Is this correct, or do I pay for 30 consecutive days, regardless if I don't use the service every day?

[Bill_Satellite]

DTV ending SD broadcast does not mean that domes will no longer be able to receive DTV programming. If what they are now broadcasting in SD they broadcast in HD from the same 101 satellite then the domes will still be able to receive it and will suddenly get their programming in HD via a dome just a Dish does. The problem has not spoken about what the future of the 101 orbital slot will be.

[DD716TED]

This has been an interesting thread given the fact that DTV is talking about terminating their SD service next year.. ( I have and use DTV).. My Carryout Winegard antenna is Dish capable so I might be forced to buy the Dish receiver and use Dish Pay as You Go next spring.. Directv has said nothing to me about losing SD service or their future plans for SD RVers yet????

[Bill_Satellite]

Right, never suspend! You end up paying $5(?)/month for service you don't want or need and you lose any time remaining on your 30 days.
Cancel the service. Also, do not setup auto pay if you only plan to use it occasionally. They will bill you when you didn't want service and then you have to fight to make it right. Cancel, cancel, cancel.

[rhagfo]

wa8yxm wrote:
As I understand it you can indeed suspend and re-start so if you are weekending for example you can use it for 3 or 4 days, suspend, use it againg later.

However there are limits as to how many times and how long they will suspend for

But it's been a long time since I said "TOO EXPENSIVE" and went to 100% OTA and happy am I that I did.

Never, Never Suspend!!!! Always CANCEL!
You then have I believe nine months to reactivate, no charge during that canceled time and you only pay for the days you used, silly to pay one months charge for a weekend or weeks worth of use.

[wa8yxm]

As I understand it you can indeed suspend and re-start so if you are weekending for example you can use it for 3 or 4 days, suspend, use it againg later.

However there are limits as to how many times and how long they will suspend for

But it's been a long time since I said "TOO EXPENSIVE" and went to 100% OTA and happy am I that I did.

[rk911]

ADAD437 wrote:
ok, i will weigh in. i use the pay as you go every winter, the biggest problem i have is finding someone at dish that understands the pay as you go rv account. you tell them to STOP your service and they credit you for time left. they will try to throw the SUSPEND service at you. do not fall into that trap because they charge you a monthly fee.

and if you have any special add-ons (such as HBO for $10 p/m) they will disappear if service is put on suspend. we just stop paying the bill when we get home. service stops and special discounts remain in place. we get one reminder email to pay the bill which we ignore. a day or two before we leave on the next trip I call DISH, pay the bill and service resumes. EZ.

[Ed_Gee]

One more thing not mentioned in this discussion.....you will get much better service and quicker service.....customer service reps who understand the Dish Pay as you Go service..... if you use chat rather than calling on the telephone.

[Community Alumni]

Thanks for the clarification. That works perfect for me.

[rhagfo]

gemsworld wrote:

rhagfo wrote:
We have the RV package, you need to own your Dish and reciever, then pay in advance for the first month. You call to activate use while you are out then call to CANCLE service when you return, NOT suspend or pause!! This way you only pay for the days used, you will need to pay for these the next time you wish to activate be it next week or two months down the road.
You can activate with the app or online, but as of a year ago needed to call to cancel. Once canceled you have I believe nine months to reactive.

WARNING if you pause or suspend you will pay a small monthly fee.

We have fulltimed for the last year so haven’t turned off for a year.

Need clarification. Since you're paying for a full month in advance and call to cancel service before the entire month is over, do you get a refund credited to your credit card, or is the unused amount kept in your account and credited when reactivating at a later time? I don't mind if they keep the money to be used at a later time since we go out regularly but never for 30 days at a time.

No refund, the credit is held by Dish, then next time you activate you will need to make up the difference for what you used the previous time. Example, if you went out for a weekend and activated for three days, then you would pay about 3/30’s of a months charge to bring you up to a full months per payment. Every time you activate you need to have a months prepayment credit with Dish.

The service is nice, you just need to be sure when stopping you tell them to cancle, and you own your equipment, it doesn’t seem to be fully understood by all in the call center. You will likely get an email asking you to come back, just the way it works.

[Community Alumni]

rhagfo wrote:
We have the RV package, you need to own your Dish and reciever, then pay in advance for the first month. You call to activate use while you are out then call to CANCLE service when you return, NOT suspend or pause!! This way you only pay for the days used, you will need to pay for these the next time you wish to activate be it next week or two months down the road.
You can activate with the app or online, but as of a year ago needed to call to cancel. Once canceled you have I believe nine months to reactive.

WARNING if you pause or suspend you will pay a small monthly fee.

We have fulltimed for the last year so haven’t turned off for a year.

Need clarification. Since you're paying for a full month in advance and call to cancel service before the entire month is over, do you get a refund credited to your credit card, or is the unused amount kept in your account and credited when reactivating at a later time? I don't mind if they keep the money to be used at a later time since we go out regularly but never for 30 days at a time.

[rhagfo]

We have the RV package, you need to own your Dish and reciever, then pay in advance for the first month. You call to activate use while you are out then call to CANCLE service when you return, NOT suspend or pause!! This way you only pay for the days used, you will need to pay for these the next time you wish to activate be it next week or two months down the road.
You can activate with the app or online, but as of a year ago needed to call to cancel. Once canceled you have I believe nine months to reactive.

WARNING if you pause or suspend you will pay a small monthly fee.

We have fulltimed for the last year so haven’t turned off for a year.

[ADAD437]

ok, i will weigh in. i use the pay as you go every winter, the biggest problem i have is finding someone at dish that understands the pay as you go rv account. you tell them to STOP your service and they credit you for time left. they will try to throw the SUSPEND service at you. do not fall into that trap because they charge you a monthly fee.

[Community Alumni]

Thanks for the info. The service would be for the RV, I have a VIP211 receiver with an external DVR and a Winegard portable dome antenna.

I thought I saw someone in this forum said they were able to turn the service on and off online and the unused number of days were saved. Of course, I may be wrong and that's why I'm asking.

[BB_TX]

Someone (or more than one) has posted before that they call Dish as soon as they return home and tell them to stop the service, and that they do receive credit for the remaining days left in that month. Seems you had to use the correct term; stop service, terminate service, suspend service, ?????? Don’t remember. Maybe they will respond. I have never tried it.