Call from the Audit Department.... what's next?

[Van]

Im going to be cancelling in the next day or so it looks like but I will remain on the boards and look at going FTA in 6 months or so.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

There is NO WAY you have 8 TVs connected all with digital cable for lees than you could with dish.

Sure he could.

 

[Caeboy]

I have a question about, why people think Dish requiring 2 accounts for a Vacation home and Main home is wrong? If you have phone survice at both places do you expect to be charged only once? How about trash service?

If you are at your vacation house you would not be using you home phone. If your out at your vacation house you would not be using your tash service at home either. But nobody expects to be able to have the same phone service and trash service at 2 different addresses.

Why should dish be any different?

Everybody here is very willing to say Hackers are wrong but what is the difference between hacking and having one dish account for a main house and a vacation house?

Just a Thought and a test of your principles.

It is easy for me to through these stones I only have one TV and one receiver. And with 4 young kids and a stay at home wife I will not be buying vacation property any time soon!

 

[NightRyder]

I have a question about, why people think Dish requiring 2 accounts for a Vacation home and Main home is wrong? If you have phone survice at both places do you expect to be charged only once? How about trash service?

If you are at your vacation house you would not be using you home phone. If your out at your vacation house you would not be using your tash service at home either. But nobody expects to be able to have the same phone service and trash service at 2 different addresses.

Why should dish be any different?

Everybody here is very willing to say Hackers are wrong but what is the difference between hacking and having one dish account for a main house and a vacation house?

Just a Thought and a test of your principles.

It is easy for me to through these stones I only have one TV and one receiver. And with 4 young kids and a stay at home wife I will not be buying vacation property any time soon!

To me it depends on whether the subscriber takes one of their home receivers with them, or if the the vacation home has a receiver there all the time. In the first case I see no reason the subscriber should have to have a separate account, in the later I can see Dish's point. The biggest problem I have with all this is that Dish is totally inconsistent in their policy. Installer's and CSR's may tell a customer one thing but the Audit Nazis enforce something else.


NightRyder

 

[Van]

No diference between my taking one of the four landline phones from my house to the vacation home and if I took one of my four receivers to the vacation home, its the same thing really. I do agrea that the audit team's atitude towards dish customers needs to be looked at but I have to wonder just how bad the customers that they deal with are when they call up to audit an account.

Another thing Im also wondering is if the audit department isnt actually a seperate company that dish has contracted to do these audits.

 

[NightRyder]

No diference between my taking one of the four landline phones from my house to the vacation home and if I took one of my four receivers to the vacation home, its the same thing really.

I politely disagree. In your phone analogy the phone company still has to provide and maintain a physical line to my vacation home, that involves an on going expense directly related to that physical location. If I purchase, install and maintain my own dish, cabling etc and am a paying subscriber, there is no financial outlay Dish needs to recover specifically related to that location. As long as I don't leave my receiver there, I don't see a problem.


NightRyder

 

[n0qcu]

No diference between my taking one of the four landline phones from my house to the vacation home and if I took one of my four receivers to the vacation home, its the same thing really.

That should really be cell phones.

 

[Van]

Cell phones are designed for mobility, landlines are not, neither are satellite tv systems though they can be used in rv's and campers, and taken to a vacation home. But if it were to be ok to take a receiver anywhere you wanted to and not pay the cost of a second account then there wouldnt be any problem with my say leasing 4 311's, take them to 4 peoples homes and put them in with little more investment than say $200 altogether and then charge them full price minus $5 a month and recoupe the financial cost in a month if I have america's everything pack on the account. No I dont agrea that there should not be any charge because good intentions aside dish network does not know what plans a customer has for the receivers if they leave the installation address.

 

[Slamminc11]

I politely disagree. In your phone analogy the phone company still has to provide and maintain a physical line to my vacation home, that involves an on going expense directly related to that physical location. If I purchase, install and maintain my own dish, cabling etc and am a paying subscriber, there is no financial outlay Dish needs to recover specifically related to that location. As long as I don't leave my receiver there, I don't see a problem.


NightRyder

the problem is with the contract that Dish signs with the channels they provide. those contract do not permit transmitting the signal to two different places without two different accounts. Hence Dish pushing the second account for vacation homes.
Don't like it, argue with HBO, ESPN, CNN, etc, etc. They are the ones putting it in the contracts.

 

[NightRyder]

the problem is with the contract that Dish signs with the channels they provide. those contract do not permit transmitting the signal to two different places without two different accounts. Hence Dish pushing the second account for vacation homes.
Don't like it, argue with HBO, ESPN, CNN, etc, etc. They are the ones putting it in the contracts.

Those contracts are Dish's problem, not mine. When I signed with Dish I was told by more than one rep that it was OK to use one of my receivers in a MH on a temporary basis, Charlie even told a caller the same on a chat, so if I want to take a receiver with me camping, I will. If Dish wants to stop me they'll have to pry their wallet open and invest in some real technology, but with E* love of half-assed solutions, I don't see that happening any time soon.


NightRyder

 

[Slamminc11]

Those contracts are Dish's problem, not mine. When I signed with Dish I was told by more than one rep that it was OK to use one of my receivers in a MH on a temporary basis, Charlie even told a caller the same on a chat, so if I want to take a receiver with me camping, I will. If Dish wants to stop me they'll have to pry their wallet open and invest in some real technology, but with E* love of half-assed solutions, I don't see that happening any time soon.


NightRyder

so in your world rules don't/can't/won't change?
I'll give you that when you signed up, yeah it probably was okay or at least no big deal. When Charlie said it, it probably was okay or not that big of a deal. But in the last year or so (or however long it's been), the rule has changed. Like it or hate it, that is part of the deal with Dish now. Rules have been known to change. Can have distants, now can't have distants. Can't have more than one HD receiver upgraded, now can have more than one HD receiver upgraded.

 

[SaltiDawg]

To me it depends on whether the subscriber takes one of their home receivers with them, or if the the vacation home has a receiver there all the time. In the first case I see no reason the subscriber should have to have a separate account, in the later I can see Dish's point. ...

And if God forbid the vacation home is in a different DMA from the subscribed home, Dish had better switch the locals over to correspond for the weekend.
Gimme a break.

 

[NightRyder]

so in your world rules don't/can't/won't change?
I'll give you that when you signed up, yeah it probably was okay or at least no big deal. When Charlie said it, it probably was okay or not that big of a deal. But in the last year or so (or however long it's been), the rule has changed. Like it or hate it, that is part of the deal with Dish now. Rules have been known to change. Can have distants, now can't have distants. Can't have more than one HD receiver upgraded, now can have more than one HD receiver upgraded.

Rules are only effective if a. the people subject to them find them reasonable and b. they are enforceable. This ones fails on both counts.

Plus:

I've never received any written notice from Dish of a policy change, so it must not be that impotent to them. Until they contact me and tell me otherwise I'll continue pack my receiver and take it on trips because otherwise it might get stolen!


NightRyder

 

[Slamminc11]

Rules are only effective if a. the people subject to them find them reasonable and b. they are enforceable. This ones fails on both counts.

Plus:

I've never received any written notice from Dish of a policy change, so it must not be that impotent to them. Until they contact me and tell me otherwise I'll continue pack my receiver and take it on trips because otherwise it might get stolen!


NightRyder

WOW, I'm not even going to touch this one!

 

[Kagato]

Dish is getting into the ever changing contract terms business, just like credit card companies. The problem for Dish is that is few lawyers think the contract they toss at the back of the manual is actually binding to anyone. In order to bind someone over the phone the CSRs would have to read a bunch of stuff, and store a recorded affirmative (think about switching long distance phone companies).

Does this mean Dish can't disconnect people for what ever reason they want? In most states, the answer is probally no. But it might keep dish from being able to enforce length of service commitments.

At any rate there is a certain tipping point where Dish will aquire the same ire the Cable companies got when they paid pizza delivery people money to spot those who dared split cable to an extra bedroom. If they keep it up they might just get slapped with the same kind of regulations the Cable companies got slapped with in the 90s.

 

[rcwilcox]

I have a question about, why people think Dish requiring 2 accounts for a Vacation home and Main home is wrong? If you have phone survice at both places do you expect to be charged only once?

Well I had a vaction home and I took my receiver and my cell phone (a better analogy than a land line) with me. I did not pay a second service fee for either one. Now if you leave the recevier there that is different.

 

[Slamminc11]

I have a question about, why people think Dish requiring 2 accounts for a Vacation home and Main home is wrong? If you have phone survice at both places do you expect to be charged only once?

Well I had a vaction home and I took my receiver and my cell phone (a better analogy than a land line) with me. I did not pay a second service fee for either one. Now if you leave the recevier there that is different.

Umm, yeah, no it's not, and apperantly you didn't read back but we went down this road already. Let me recap for ya.
Cell phone=mobile, was designed that way for that specific purpose. Satellite receiver was not. Yes you can do it, but that is not what it was designed for nor does it automatically give you the right to do it. Direct and Dish did not come along to make watching tv mobile, it came along to give you a better product and a better option than cable. It's a simple concept really, two locations, two accounts. Doesn't matter if you own them both of them or if you own one and your girlfriend, boyfriend, significant other, "roommate", live-in partner, actual roommate, or whomever owns the other. If you put up a Dish to receive a signal at one location and you put up a Dish to receive a signal at another (be it the same dish you carry with you or a different one), then you get to have two accounts no matter what you do with the receivers. Was it always this way, no. But in the last year Dish decided that this was going to be the rule.

 

[Stargazer]

They have mobile hardware such as those domes you put on a vehicle roof that tracks the satellite while you are driving down the road. JetBlue has this for DirecTv service. Satellite radio is mobile. PocketDish is mobile.

 

[ronjohn]

Umm, yeah, no it's not, and apperantly you didn't read back but we went down this road already. Let me recap for ya.
Cell phone=mobile, was designed that way for that specific purpose. Satellite receiver was not. Yes you can do it, but that is not what it was designed for nor does it automatically give you the right to do it. Direct and Dish did not come along to make watching tv mobile, it came along to give you a better product and a better option than cable. It's a simple concept really, two locations, two accounts. Doesn't matter if you own them both of them or if you own one and your girlfriend, boyfriend, significant other, "roommate", live-in partner, actual roommate, or whomever owns the other. If you put up a Dish to receive a signal at one location and you put up a Dish to receive a signal at another (be it the same dish you carry with you or a different one), then you get to have two accounts no matter what you do with the receivers. Was it always this way, no. But in the last year Dish decided that this was going to be the rule.

Why are we argueing about Dish not allowing a receiver to be taken on a weekend expidition? If a receiver is carried, by you and your family, from your main house to your weekend house for the weekend, then back to your main house for the week, there is no way an audit would catch that. By the time your family is back at home to get a call from the Audit Dept, the receiver will be back and you will pass. Anyone who complains about not being able to carry their receiver with them must be complaining about not being able to leave a receiver at the other place.

The Audit Dept however does do crazy things. Why should I have to read numbers from a receiver that is not active? IT MAY BE IN A STORAGE SHED. Why am I going to go to a storage shed and get an inactive receiver and then disconnect a current receiver to power up and read numbers from an INACTIVE receiver? If I get a call from the Audit Dept. I will read numbers from all current receivers. If they want inactives, I will just cancel for the hastle. Also, I AM A CUSTOMER, THEY SHOULD BE CURTEOUS. There is absolutley no reason for them to be rude to me. I have done nothing wrong.

 

[Dishpro500]

My 2 cents on this issue. The rules have changed in the past year or so. Weather or not it has been properly communicated to Dish customers this is now the case.

Now, I don't really blame Dish on this one because I believe what prompted this change of policy is the DAM account stacker's. This practice has become ramped in the last year or so. Where I work many pepole talk about doing this to save money while I get screwed because I play by the rules. I use to take my 301 to the cottage but now with the threat of an audit and having one of my receivers shut down I don't bother. I don't need the hassle. Both are plugged into the same phone line at the same house.