Even though the first DBS system I installed was my Dad's DSS, I don't have a lot of experience with the current DirecTV, so please be kind with me here...
My father passed away last year, and his house and vacation cottage both had DirecTV. When his house sold, we pulled out the RCA DirecTV receiver (a smaller unit than the RCA DSS receiver at the cottage) but left the triple LNB dish on the roof. I called DirecTV to explain the situation and cancelled the home DirecTV account, which was separate from the vacation account. We ended up cancelling the vacation account later in the year. The vacation house account had been active for 12 years as Dad had me install the DSS system in June of 1996.
Fast-forward to this year, and my family wanted to reactivate the DirecTV for the vacation house. Evidently, my niece's husband (who does DirecTV installs for a living) ended up on the phone for over an hour because both of the receivers (the original RCA DSS unit from 1996) and the newer RCA receiver from this century are no longer able to be activated by mere mortals. As a result, the "vacation home" is now considered a "business" as commercial accounts are the only accounts that can activate the older receivers. So, this account's monthly bill is over $100!!!
I must say at this point that I'm going by what my niece's husband has told me, so I though I would check on SatelliteGuys to make sure this is all on the up-and-up. If this is true, we would definately want to cancel the commercial account and get new receivers, but since this is basically a summer place, it doesn't make sense to get saddled with a minimum programming commitment.
Also, I also have to wonder: if DirecTV had a plan to eliminate old receivers and put new receivers in their cusotmers' hands, why wasn't my father offered a deal to swap out his equipment? He usually came to me with all of his AV and computer needs, and I don't recall him ever mentioning that DirecTV had sent him anything about this.
My father passed away last year, and his house and vacation cottage both had DirecTV. When his house sold, we pulled out the RCA DirecTV receiver (a smaller unit than the RCA DSS receiver at the cottage) but left the triple LNB dish on the roof. I called DirecTV to explain the situation and cancelled the home DirecTV account, which was separate from the vacation account. We ended up cancelling the vacation account later in the year. The vacation house account had been active for 12 years as Dad had me install the DSS system in June of 1996.
Fast-forward to this year, and my family wanted to reactivate the DirecTV for the vacation house. Evidently, my niece's husband (who does DirecTV installs for a living) ended up on the phone for over an hour because both of the receivers (the original RCA DSS unit from 1996) and the newer RCA receiver from this century are no longer able to be activated by mere mortals. As a result, the "vacation home" is now considered a "business" as commercial accounts are the only accounts that can activate the older receivers. So, this account's monthly bill is over $100!!!
I must say at this point that I'm going by what my niece's husband has told me, so I though I would check on SatelliteGuys to make sure this is all on the up-and-up. If this is true, we would definately want to cancel the commercial account and get new receivers, but since this is basically a summer place, it doesn't make sense to get saddled with a minimum programming commitment.
Also, I also have to wonder: if DirecTV had a plan to eliminate old receivers and put new receivers in their cusotmers' hands, why wasn't my father offered a deal to swap out his equipment? He usually came to me with all of his AV and computer needs, and I don't recall him ever mentioning that DirecTV had sent him anything about this.
for a plastic 18" single LNB dish and one RCA IRD with double RCA outputs , those were the days. My install was done by a guy who installed the BIG C-band dishes, mine was his first DirecTV install.
