Activating old receiver - can it be done?

[sdsherer]

My old Sony Sat-A2 is pre-receiver-ID. I want to use it on my Mom's D* system as an added receiver. I had been a loyal D* customer for many years, as has the Mom. All I want to do is activate the receiver so that it gets as many channels as it can. I don't care about "the new technology"; I just want it to do what it can, while it can

They say that as of July, 2010, they won't activate any receiver without a receiver ID on to a "new" account. "New" account meaning new to that receiver. Which is to say that since the receiver was under my account name and I would need to sign up again (with contract, blah, blah, blah) for them to reactivate the old receiver. That tells me that an old receiver CAN be reactivated; it's just a company policy that says they won't re-activate it under a different account.

I know I could just have them send out a new box and add it to Mom's account. At what cost, I don't know. Would that start a new contract term.....I don't know.

I'm trying to do the simplest of things.....add a receiver that they don't have to provide or install, that I don't have to add to the landfill, and pay them $5/month. Free money.

It's more of a principal thing.....I have a perfectly good piece of equipment that will have no effect on the performance of their system if activated. Just let me use it.

Anyone have any thoughts on this or how I can make this work? Thanks for letting me rant.

 

[Mr Tony]

even if you own the receiver there is still a $6 additional receiver fee (use to be $5)

You will be charged $20 for a new access card which is required. But you should still be able to activate it.....depending on the dish setup it may not be compatible

 

[sdsherer]

They wouldn't even start the process (I was talking to the access card people); they said that since there is no receiver-id they won't reactivate to a different account. I'm fine with the additional receiver fee, as well as the new access card charge. How can I get them to let me do it? Or who else should I talk to?

 

[cave1376]

D* needs a receiver ID to marry the receiver and access card together. Back when no receiver ID was required, D* would activate the card only. By activating the card only, it could be moved from one receiver to another. If you had two or three receivers, you wouldn't have to pay for each additional receiver because the card would work in all the receivers. Now, if you try to swap cards, you will get a message informing you you have inserted the wrong access card.

Sent from my HTC EVO using SatelliteGuys

 

[Jimbo]

D* needs a receiver ID to marry the receiver and access card together. Back when no receiver ID was required, D* would activate the card only. By activating the card only, it could be moved from one receiver to another. If you had two or three receivers, you wouldn't have to pay for each additional receiver because the card would work in all the receivers. Now, if you try to swap cards, you will get a message informing you you have inserted the wrong access card.

Sent from my HTC EVO using SatelliteGuys

How far back was that ?

You've gotten a insert valid Access card message for at least 12 years now.
You've never been able to just swap AC's around to different boxes that I know of. (without D* activating it)