Dish Network FlexTV Questions..

"Purchased receiver" and "Pay In Advance" account you will have to pay 2 months in advance and then after that one month in advance of start of next billing cycle/due date. Good luck with activation, with the DDDCs~ you are going to need it! Let us know how it goes.
 
So, when is Dish Now or it's replacement coming back? Just kidding, but I assume there has been no mention of bringing back something that requires less than a month prepaid. A week at a time would be perfect for me and our vacation home.
 
Anyone ever have a problem "restarting there account" after it has been dormant for a while(mine has been dormant for over a year.) I set up the receiver for FlexTV last October 2009, then after ordering programming for a month, I let it lapse and have not renewed it since.

I can still get into my account online, but have to call the 1-888 number in order to restart the account, which makes sense. I have a copy of the RCA report stating that FlexTV(prepaid) customers only pay the $5 restart fee, as opposed to the $20/$25 others pay. Unless that has changed, of course.

I figured to restart it for a month using a GDMP only on the phone, and wondered if anyone else has done it, and ran into any possible pitfalls with the CSR's not knowing anything about FlexTV, causing problems for the restart which I don't want to deal with.

So anyone with any insight will be greatly appreciated by me. Thanks in advance.
 
You can restart it online. I would do it that way.

You can? Everytime I LOGIN to my account and try that, it always goes to a page telling me to call the 1-888 number.

Have you had yours turned off for a long period of time, and then just went online and restarted it with a GDMP(green dot moneypak)?

If YES, then that would be great, but it appears I have to call them. I "hope" they did not F up my account when I first registered it. I made loud and clear it was a prepaid/flextv account.
 
If that doesn't work use online chat during a weekday afternoon and ask to be transfered to loyalty dept if the chat agent can't do what you want. Loyalty will probably waive any restart fee all together.


RCA has been updated

From:
DISH Network - Customer Agreements

http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/legal/RCA.pdf

Still same stuff about pre pay in advance customer.

Thanx R10fret, I will try that this afternoon with the chat service this afternoon by asking for a loyalty agent. Just tried to LOGIN to my account, and again after logging in, it said I could not restart my services online and had to call the 1-888 number. I wonder if they can "fix" my account using that chat so I can restart the account online now, and forever in the future just using a GDMP?
 
Well, the online Chat was a total DUD. Whomever, and wherever the hell they were, had no idea what the F I was talking about(typical). Said I had to buy new equipment to become a FlexTV customer, and also I wasn't allowed to restart my account online because of non-payment. These people are idiots! The whole point of PREPAID(the word has meaning) is that I "PAY FIRST" then get to watch what I "PAID FOR", and then when I don't want it anymore, I let it lapse and not pay at all, then the programming stops/shuts off. TA DA!!!! Friggin morons.

Anyway, I decided to take a chance and call the 1-888 number that kept showing up on my account page under restart, and got a guy named Tim. What a breath of fresh air! I started out(I was a little ticked after my dealings with the online chat nitwit) by asking Tim if he knew what FLEXTV and a prepaid account was. I explained the whole scenario too him that I was a Dish NOW! prepaid customer at first, but then switched over to FLEXTV last year when we were told that the DishNOW! program was ending, and had my account switched to the prepaid FLEXTV account setup.

Knew EXACTLY what I was talking about. Thank God! And just to make sure I gave him my name, and PIN Number for access to my account info, and he said that indeed, yes, it was set-up under the FLEXTV prepaid program. Whew! I got somebody who knows about it(I asked if there was anyway for me to contact him directly if I had a question, or to restart my account, and he said unfortunately it is luck if the draw. DAMN!).

Anyway, I asked him if it was possible for someone like me, who let there account lapse, which was well over a year ago, go online by accessing there account there, and retarting it using a GDMP. He said that as of now, the only way to restart your account for a prepaid customer, if you let it lapse, is by calling the 1-888 number that is given. He said they are trying to set it up to where customers of prepaid can just do it online, but it is not ready yet, and he had no idea when it will be.

For those of you who said that, yes, you can restart online with a FLEXTV prepaid account, do they have Social Security #'s from you, or a Credit Card # listed on your account? If the answer is YES, then I can see how you can do it online, and I can't. They don't have that info from me, and never will.

But, Tim said I can restart my account at anytime by calling that 1-888 number, which was nice to know.

He also gave me a piece of info which might be important to those of us here: ***AS OF FEBRUARY 2011, GDMP's(GREEN DOT MONEY PAKS) WILL NO LONGER BE ACCEPTED AS PAYMENT AT DISH. EITHER WITH PREPAID OR ANY OTHER SETUP. EITHER CASH/CHECK/CC, OR A DEBIT/PREPAID VISA CARD WILL BE ACCEPTED***

Using a prepaid VISA Debit card does not sound bad, and maybe it will open up the ability to start and stop online easier for someone like me.
 
Well, I finally got the thing up and running, although it was a bit of a headache. Trying to explain to the CSR's that you don't any money on a prepaid FLEXTV is near impossible, until you find someone who understands that when you let the account lapse(meaning not pay for the upcoming month) you wish to have the service terminated/cut off.

They(the CSR's) try to get you to pay what they think is an outstanding balance for that month you did pay for when you let it lapse the last time. Anyway, you finally get a CSR who knows what to do and how to do it, and it is really refreshing. I ordered the Everything pack($105.99 with tax/fees) for the heck of it, and prepaid for 2 months using a Grenn Dot MoneyPak(gave them $211.98), so it will run until January 15th of 2011, and then stop.

Hopefully all goes smoothly, and if/when I want to start it again, they will have my account available for me to do so online(for pre-paid FLEXTV accounts), which would make things alot easier for us prepaid customers.

Although it looks like as of February, 2011 the Green Dot Money Pak will no longer be able to be used to pay. One will have to get a Visa or Mastercard Debit card that can be loaded with cash, and used at their convinience.
 
this is kind of senseless for them to stop GDMP, and pay account in cash? GDMP is cash. Now they want us to pay in a moneymart or something similar, pay $5 fee everytime you go pay a bill. I buy maybe $400 worth of moneypak at a time for $4.65 and i can pay over 1 year of service with it, as well as other bills which is really convenient for me, as I dont have a credit card, hence the main reason why i came to flex account..
It seems dish is making it more difficult for their customers to be able to pay their bills and lose customers much faster..
 
Get a prepaid reloadable visa card. No difference in cost than GDMP, I think greendot even offers a visa.
 
this is kind of senseless for them to stop GDMP, and pay account in cash? GDMP is cash. Now they want us to pay in a moneymart or something similar, pay $5 fee everytime you go pay a bill. I buy maybe $400 worth of moneypak at a time for $4.65 and i can pay over 1 year of service with it, as well as other bills which is really convenient for me, as I dont have a credit card, hence the main reason why i came to flex account..
It seems dish is making it more difficult for their customers to be able to pay their bills and lose customers much faster..

I should make clear that this info came from a CSR, so I really have no evidence, pro or con, to back up what I said about the Greendot MoneyPak. To me it seems foolish as well to do away with it, and I hope they don't. But I guess we will have to take a wait and see attitude.
 
Hello,

I have an active pay as you go account with one SD receiver. May I buy another receiver that is HD and add it to the account only to receive SD programming? If so, who is selling these receivers? Checking the Dish site I can't find any information about the pay as you go service. Thanks, Gary
 
FlexTV Game

Hello,

I have an active pay as you go account with one SD receiver. May I buy another receiver that is HD and add it to the account only to receive SD programming? If so, who is selling these receivers? Checking the Dish site I can't find any information about the pay as you go service. Thanks, Gary
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FlexTV_Logo_v4.JPG.
I too have an active SD FlexTV account with America's Top 120 for $40./ mo.
A real pain to activate the old 3900 receiver, .... but the thing-ee works.
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OK, to upgrade to HD FlexTV seems useless only to watch SD.
You need to buy new stuff (including the new HD scoop to grab Turbo 8-PSK).
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Maybe the next upgrade step is to go with a 2-year sub ?
Then again, the 2-year sub package maybe not your style.
 
Please help me with Flex Tv.

Please help me with Flex Tv.
I called dishy 5 times nobody know what is going on there.They play smart try to sign me up for a contract.
One guy said to purchase new equipment from the retailer 140$.I have the equipment from dish now.Please somebody tell me what is going on.Thanks
 
FlexTV Sales Scam

Please help me with Flex Tv.
I called dishy 5 times nobody know what is going on there.They play smart try to sign me up for a contract.
One guy said to purchase new equipment from the retailer 140$.I have the equipment from dish now.Please somebody tell me what is going on.Thanks

Echostar_Uplink_WY_v10.jpg
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Took me a dozen layers of Dish sales people to activate my FlexTV acount.
Had an old DishNow 3900 receiver that is now functional with a FlexTV America Top 120 package.
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First, you will need the Purple Smart Card (they will FedEx it free) for your receiver.
Second, (with the new card installed) call a Dish "Executive Resolution Specalist" in Denver, CO direct.
720-514-8555 x71646 and they can open an account and activate you receiver while you are talking to them.
 
I have the purple card they told me this receiver has been associated with a previous account so what I don't have any balance.Do you have to pay any activation fee.It says 149 $ activation fee but I guess for the new receiver right.Thank you very much.
 
I have the purple card they told me this receiver has been associated with a previous account so what I don't have any balance.Do you have to pay any activation fee.It says 149 $ activation fee but I guess for the new receiver right.Thank you very much.

DVBz_Pirater_12K_100x100_.gif
Good, you have the Purple (nagra 3) smart card.
Dish FlexTV reps wanted to sell me the $149 equipment too, .... but that's if you want the HD channels.
I activated a FlexTV Standard Def (SD) receiver 6 weeks ago with no fees .
If you have a old DISH 500 setup, you should be able to open a new account.
The EchoStar technology was amazing when they "flash activated" my receiver via unknown Satellite data channel (at the speed of light) seconds after confirmation of my pre-paid payment.
 
Steelersrule paid how much???...

Been on this thread for close to 2 years (Pre-paid then Flex for our second place) and I believe Steelersrule's last email was he was making his receiver a door stop or something like that. Well he's back and with an Everything Pack at that. Just one question, did they waive the current $20 restart fee for you (not $5 anymore as of 2/10)? I keep mine on at our second place w/locals only for $10/month and turn it up if I'm there and want some more programming and it's only $5 to turn it back down to locals and you have a credit. Valuable information on here to get around a lot of the bs that Dish puts out through normal channels. But still the best deal around in the long run.

For those that need equipment, try craigslist if you are in a larger metro area. I bought a Dish 310 receiver a few weeks ago w/purple card for $10 to replace my older 3900 unit that just was too slow anymore. Get the full guide now and a lot faster scrolling around. Make sure to check the Receiver number (R0 #) and Smartcard number (S0 #) w/Dish to see if it can be activated. The guy I got it from just went to Dish HD and just wanted someone to have a nice unit that would use it. The unit I bought was "not" a Prepay/Flex unit, which makes a difference I think, so check with Dish first.
 
Been on this thread for close to 2 years (Pre-paid then Flex for our second place) and I believe Steelersrule's last email was he was making his receiver a door stop or something like that. Well he's back and with an Everything Pack at that. Just one question, did they waive the current $20 restart fee for you (not $5 anymore as of 2/10)? I keep mine on at our second place w/locals only for $10/month and turn it up if I'm there and want some more programming and it's only $5 to turn it back down to locals and you have a credit. Valuable information on here to get around a lot of the bs that Dish puts out through normal channels. But still the best deal around in the long run.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you jakesnakemd. I have not been in this forum for a while.

Anyway, they TOTALLY WAIVED the restart fee period. According to the CSR I spoke too in November, 2010, when I re-upped for 2 months prepaid(about to run out on 1/14/11), he said that the restart fee NO LONGER EXISTS. I can't remember if that was for prepaid customers only, or for everyone. But I never paid a fee at all. I thought it would be $5(this is for prepaid customers only according to the RCA), but the CSR said they dropped that fee, and it will no longer be applied to restarting customers. But like I said, I can't remember if that was prepaid people only, or everyone.

The biggest hurdle I had to leap, was the fact that a couple of the CSR's I got before I got one who "KNEW" what the hell FlexTV was, was the fact that they tried to get me to pay the previous unpaid balance I had on my account when I let it lapse last November 2009. This was only $11.65(Encore movie pack only). Just got it to make sure FlexTV had been setup properly on my DP301 from DishNOW!

Anyway, the two previsous CSR's I ran into before getting one who knew, wanted to charge me: $11.65 old balance+$105.99(Everything pack including taxes) to restart my service. I tried to explain to the the CSR's that I DID NOT OWE ANY BALANCE because I was a paid in advance FlexTV customer, and I just let the account lapse with no payment, so therefore my DP301 dropped the channels I was receiving. As a pay in advance customer, I let it lapse(no need to call and cancel, or am I wrong?), and then was attempting to restart it in November 2010, with a new channel lineup.

Unless I am wrong, which I don't think I was then or am now, that just letting it lapse shuts everything down until, you try to restart it. Hence forth the $5/restart fee we would have to pay(which appears to not exist anymore) whn we restart and PREPAY for the programming we want, and for how long. Hence the point of PREPAY. When you let iapse, you DON'T OWE the previous balance because you no longer wanted programming.

You prepay for the new programming, plus any taxes/fees you may also owe at the time of the restart, but the previous balance is NOT PART OF IT. Your account balance should be ZERO.

The third try I got a CSR who knew what FlexTV was, and how it worked. At least he said he did, and got rid of the old balance, and all I prepaid for was Amercia's everything pack for 2 months($211.98) with a GDMP.

And now I am going to let it lapse again on 1/14/11, and not reup untill maybe this year in November, 2011. Unless someone can tell me I did something wrong, and it would be better to just call and cancel.

But I did call about a week ago to make sure that my account was setup as a FlexTV account according to their computer records. They still have NO SS# or Credit Card# for me on my account, and the CSR assured me to just not pay and the programming will just shut off. And that when and if I restarted the account I would only owe the amount for the programming I wanted then plus taxes, and maybe new fees(if this changes by then).

So, that is my current experience with FlexTV. It worked, but it was a headache. I hope they get the online version of account right to where I can just go online, and restart using a GDMP or other prepaid VISA/etc... and restart a FlexTV account. But I think we may have to always(unless you gave them a CC# and your SS# which I am not willing) use the 1-888-number in order to restart a FlexTV account. Hopefully they will provide a new number which directly takes you to a CSR who knows EXACTLY what a FlexTV account is.