Satellite Dish question.

[jkbrea]

I looked into the pay as you go method. It's fine if you full time but you pay for a full month even if you only use it for a weekend.

My friend said I could use his extra reciever. It's Direct TV. If I have a Dishnet dish, will it work or does it have to be Direct TV?

[2oldman]

If you do try this, plan on doing your homework in your driveway. 'Extra' receiver might be a problem in that it may have to be reauthorized, or, may not have a card at all. You can do that online, but you'll need your friend's online access.

This may be way more bother than it's worth.

[_tpc_]

The pay as you go billing is very strange. First I did not know that you could "stop" in the middle of a month. So for last year, we would just activate a "month" and then it is supposed to turn off automatically at the end of the month. However, when they bill it, it bills for the following month, until it sees you didn't use it and it "catches up" and removes the month you didn't use.

In the meantime, you get bills for these months you didn't use and then the past due bills when you don't pay them. Like I said, eventually it catches up and they remove them but I did kind of find it a real pita to deal with.

I'll have to look into this turning it off on the website thing and back on, since at most we might use it for a solid week, followed by a couple weeks of not using it, etc.

[webslave]

I use Pay As You Go. When you cancel your service, your service is credited with a per diem dollar amount for what ever time is left from your month. I currently have a $9.36 credit on my account that will be applied when I restart service this fall at the start of our winter sojourn. If I start in the middle of the month, I pay a prorated fee, less my account credit, and at the end of the month, I'll pay for the next whole month. If I cancel my service before the month is up, I get the balance as a credit.

PAYG is probably fairly lucrative for Dish. They have to keep X number of telephone techs online and that really is their only stake in our utilization. No equipment to keep track of, no antennas to install or repair and billing, for them, is a lot simpler. I "heard" that it was evidently lucrative enough that they ran all of their techs through a special RV training program. I used to use their online chat to avoid some of the misunderstandings, but, that involves more steps to get anything done. Lately, I just call and have only had one foul up...and that was because the guy got distracted and mistyped the zipcode for my new location to get the locals...that could happen no matter the contact method.

It is my understanding that a Direct TV receiver will only work with a DTV signal. The antenna, whether manual or automatic, must also match as the LNB frequencies are specific to each service. Aside from different satellites being used, their frequencies are also different. I don't know for sure if even the angle of the LNBs are different in relation to the disk surface...I suspect so, since their are different dishes for each service and I don't recall ever seeing conversion kits. Maybe someone a lot more knowledgeable than myself will chime in.

[Dutch_12078]

jkbrea wrote:

It's my friends direct tv receiver. We're going on a few fishing trips and he doesn't have a portable dish. I can get one buts it's dishnet. I just wanted to know if it would work.

We need to know which DTV receiver your friend has, and which Dish dish you have in order to determine the compatibility. A Dish 300 single LNB dish for instance, will work with DTV SD only model receivers as I recall, but I don't know the specific models. I understand none of the Dish dishes will work with DTV's HD receivers.

[cjoseph]

rollexx wrote:

cjoseph wrote:
Dish pay as you go can be turned off by the day.

You pay for one month and get 30 days. So, you could make that one-month fee last all year. It is much easier to do on-line than calling customer service. To take advantage of this, you have to own your own dish and receiver, and they have to be Dish compatible.

If already a Dish customer at home, it is only $7 per month to activate an extra receiver that you own.

It's true that it's $7 per month for extra receiver if you are already a customer but unless they have changed it, and their web site hasn't changed, if you pay month to month it's for one month. If you want to turn off you just don't pay next invoice. No way to turn on and off during the month to "save" days.
Also if you do use your friends receiver you will have to take it back from time to time to have it download updates.

This is from the Dish pay as you go web site:

Enjoy HD TV wherever you may roam with no multi-year contract and without changing your home provider. Simply pay for only the months you use with no commitment. You can restart your service whenever you wish.

The key words are "restart your service whenever you wish". If you call and stop service, you will show a credit. They will pro-rate your monthly fee. If you used 10 days, you will have a balance to your account for the equivalent of 20 days. When you restart, the same thing happens. If you used up your 20 days, your dish should stop. Sometimes, it doesn't and you get a few freebies. At this point, you will have to pay for another month and the clock starts again.

Now, this is how it worked a little more than a year ago. If Dish has changed, they need to change their web site. Don't ask me why they do it. It cannot be profitable. It probably costs them more for one customer service call to do it, because the front line reps don't know the RV world.

They had so many complaints from RVers about CS Rep not knowing what to do, so DISH now has a direct line for RV support.

(800) 970-7959

Call it and ask them. They should give you the straight scoop.

[jkbrea]

rollexx wrote:

cjoseph wrote:
Dish pay as you go can be turned off by the day.

You pay for one month and get 30 days. So, you could make that one-month fee last all year. It is much easier to do on-line than calling customer service. To take advantage of this, you have to own your own dish and receiver, and they have to be Dish compatible.

If already a Dish customer at home, it is only $7 per month to activate an extra receiver that you own.

It's true that it's $7 per month for extra receiver if you are already a customer but unless they have changed it, and their web site hasn't changed, if you pay month to month it's for one month. If you want to turn off you just don't pay next invoice. No way to turn on and off during the month to "save" days.
Also if you do use your friends receiver you will have to take it back from time to time to have it download updates.

It's my friends direct tv receiver. We're going on a few fishing trips and he doesn't have a portable dish. I can get one buts it's dishnet. I just wanted to know if it would work.

[rollexx]

cjoseph wrote:
Dish pay as you go can be turned off by the day.

You pay for one month and get 30 days. So, you could make that one-month fee last all year. It is much easier to do on-line than calling customer service. To take advantage of this, you have to own your own dish and receiver, and they have to be Dish compatible.

If already a Dish customer at home, it is only $7 per month to activate an extra receiver that you own.

It's true that it's $7 per month for extra receiver if you are already a customer but unless they have changed it, and their web site hasn't changed, if you pay month to month it's for one month. If you want to turn off you just don't pay next invoice. No way to turn on and off during the month to "save" days.
Also if you do use your friends receiver you will have to take it back from time to time to have it download updates.

[cjoseph]

Dish pay as you go can be turned off by the day.

You pay for one month and get 30 days. So, you could make that one-month fee last all year. It is much easier to do on-line than calling customer service. To take advantage of this, you have to own your own dish and receiver, and they have to be Dish compatible.

If already a Dish customer at home, it is only $7 per month to activate an extra receiver that you own.

[phxchica]

It depends on what kind of dish you have---some can be used with Direct, Dish or Bell, others can only be used with one specific company. What do you have? If you have Dish or Direct at home you simply have to get a box for your RV or bring a box from home. If not (have cable like me) you have to suck it up and pay for the whole month or do without. Of course you know it is fraud to simply try and use your friend's account....

[Valkyriebush]

Its only 7 bucks a month for dish to turn on my pathway X2 211 receiver when we leave. Turning off the 322 receiver in the house, minus 7 bucks. not worth quibbling over prorating by the day. Dish must be dish. Take your dish receiver in the house with you as long as you have the proper antenna.