Dish Network Prepaid Question

[Zachstar]

Perhaps this title ought to be renamed and an edit placed on the first op?

You have no idea how devastated I was after reading through 16 pages and going to the last only to find I could not get in on this. I had it all planned out and was preparing to go to radio shack when I went to the last page and discovered the truth.

 

[Sadoun]

Zachstar,

The 2nd best thing is FLEXTV for you. No daily order though. Only month to month. But you get more programming options. Extra receivers for the house are only $5 per month. So there are some advantages.

I am just saying!

 

[Zachstar]

Zachstar,

The 2nd best thing is FLEXTV for you. No daily order though. Only month to month. But you get more programming options. Extra receivers for the house are only $5 per month. So there are some advantages.

I am just saying!

I have a topic about FlexTV started on this forum. If you could help answer the questions there it would really help ease ones transition to FlexTV.

 

[OneGigabyte]

I usually only use my dish now about once a month. This weekend I came home, unpacked, and then called Dish Now and used my green dot card to pay for two days of programming. Did the normal thing, all worked fine it seemed. I plugged in the receiver. When I got back, every channel displayed the notice that my smart card was not authorized to view the programming. What's up?

 

[STEELERSRULE]

I usually only use my dish now about once a month. This weekend I came home, unpacked, and then called Dish Now and used my green dot card to pay for two days of programming. Did the normal thing, all worked fine it seemed. I plugged in the receiver. When I got back, every channel displayed the notice that my smart card was not authorized to view the programming. What's up?

Wait, I am a little confused by your timeline.

Did you call into Dish NOW! first, and then connected up your receiver to Dish, and plugged it in?

If that is the case, that is why your order did not go through. NEVER order the programming unless your dish receiver is already connected to the Dish, is receiving good signal(always check the level on satelite 19, transponder 11 first), and is plugged in, at least. It does not have to be turned on(green light is on), but at least plugged in. Then order your programming.

If I am wrong about your timeline, I am sorry. I just ordered 1 day of programming late last night(AT250/HBO/Showtime/Cinemax/Starz), and everything just worked fine for me so there is nothing wrong at Dish's end.

 

[OneGigabyte]

Oh, ok. Well I had been doing is unplugging everything while I'm gone - frequently more then a week or so. When I get home I usually just call right away to order the programming - then when I get to it - plug everything back in (including the television and box). I've never had a problem before with plugging it back in then and having it update. I'll try again in a little and have everything already plugged in.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

Oh, ok. Well I had been doing is unplugging everything while I'm gone - frequently more then a week or so. When I get home I usually just call right away to order the programming - then when I get to it - plug everything back in (including the television and box). I've never had a problem before with plugging it back in then and having it update. I'll try again in a little and have everything already plugged in.

I may be wrong about my assumption, but I just think it is better to do everything in the reverse of what it was you were doing.

I would first connect everything up(I disconnect mine too when I am not using it. Disconnect the incoming cable and unplug the DP301), and then after making sure it receiving a signal, then I would order programming.

I remember when I first got this setup a couple of years ago, I ordered programming using the $40 card found at Radio Shack(only thing available at the time. GDMP's were not in use yet). I ordered like 40 days of programming even though I was only going to use it for 2-3 days.

Anyway, after disconnecting everything, and coming back 2-3 weeks later, I reconnected everything, and lo and behold I still had 3-4 days left of the previous programming I had ordered. Even though the setup was completely disconnected for 2-3 weeks, it still realized after hooking it up again, that I had 3-4 days left from the previous purchase, so go figure.

I may be wrong, but I just think it is better to connect first, make sure signal is good, then order programming.

And when your done, disconnect everything, unplug, and leave. Then reconnect when you return. But that is just me.

 

[OneGigabyte]

Well I followed the instructions, but it now says your card is not authorized to view this channel please select another - error 5. Well normally I can see some of the 15-20 channels like HSN and QVC - but this pops up for all channels. Guess theres a bigger issue. Called again to add more days and the system says I've got three days left of 250.

 

[gillham]

I had this problem after leaving my prepaid off for about a month. It seems like Dish sent some new stuff to the smart cards while I had it off and I lost the authorization for the always free stuff like shopping channels. I also didn't have any of the free previews. They showed up in the all sub guide, just said the smartcard didn't have authorization.

After I left the unit plugged in for about a week and had reset it a few times, removed and reinserted the smartcard it started working. I had tried ordering a day of Showtime I think and it never showed up, tried again a couple days later, same issue. Then ordered a day of HBO and by the next morning it had gotten authorized finally. I was also getting the free previews in addition to the shopping stuff.

So I think you need to just leave it plugged in for some time. Might try rebooting it once a day or something also. You can hold the power button in, or remove/insert the card. Or unplug for a few seconds. Or all of the above.

Once you start getting QVC for example, you should be working shortly. You could try adding a day of something different. I think HBO is a good choice as it is about 50 cents per day. I wouldn't just keep ordering the same thing if it isn't working, but trying a couple times, 2-3 days apart wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

[tkyoshi]

I had a similar problem since I don't use mine all the time, only when I want to watch a special channel.

Turns out after a couple months the Smartcard for some reason became deauthroized from their end. The rep was able to reprogram and attatch the card to the "shell account" and he added a few days from GDMP just to make sure it worked. Super rep which is very rare these days.

Not sure how willing they are to help these days now that it's officially kind of dead.

 

[Amiga]

Prepaid doorstop or what?

I've got an unactivated 301 prepaid box with the new purple Nagra 3 card. What the hell do we do with these units?

I'm sure DISH has a plan of attack to take care of us. Sadoun said he would check about the possibility of converting these units to postpaid, but I didn't see a response from him as of yet.

 

[teched]

I have had great success with Dish support for Pre-Paid. This included getting a receiver that hadn't been used since the card swap active and authorized again (it was insisting on the old smartcard).

I always take the approach when talking to the Dish Customer Representatives that I only want to watch tv and that I appreciate their help getting the box to work again.

Regarding the unactivated receiver - try activating it with a GDMP?

 

[daveh505@comcast.net]

Exact date Dish stops prepaid?

Can anyone tell me the exact date Dish plans on permenately stopping all prepaid dish subscriptions?
Will anything take its place.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

Can anyone tell me the exact date Dish plans on permenately stopping all prepaid dish subscriptions?
Will anything take its place.

Unfortunately, right now no one really "knows" anything. It is all hearsay and guesses.

"Supposedly" the Dish prepaid service ends this month(Sept. '09), but no one really knows because no date has been given.

Dish definitely stopped selling and activating new prepaid boxes back on August 1st, 2009, but no one knows if current customers with their "shell" accounts will either be granfathered in, or forced to go to the new prepaid plan called FlexTV.

FlexTV is NO WHERE NEAR the same service as he current prepaid setup. Sure, now you can buy a newer boDP322 for 2-rooms, or a HD222Vip ofr High Def), plus get your locals and/or local sports network, but ALL of the fees are now thrown in for starting and stopping, and you can ONLY pay by the month in advance, not the day like the current setup.

I WOULD NOT recommend the prepaid FlexTV plan under it's current setup as month to month is just not wrth it IMHO(plus all those additional fees).

You might as well just get a regular Dish account, or do something else.

 

[r10fret]

DishORGANIZATION network still has not directly informed us, the dishnow customers, via either an official statement on the webpage for prepaid, where ironically they actually continue to this day to actively and falsely promote dishnow service as a current offering, or via a recorded advisory on the prepaid phone number informing us of any changes.

If it really ends suddenly without any pre-information actually given to the customer I predict complete chaos and continued bad feelings due to the complete lack of information and dishCourtesy.

Sadly I get the impression that some in this forum seem to revel in the demise of dishnow and are actually happy that dishnow customers will be completely in the dark if it ends suddenly without official warning directly from dish. As if it was personally bothering them for dishnow to keep going. Us so called "deadbeat" prepaid folks arent prevy to reatiler chats and so we have no clue what information should actually instead be directed at dishnow customers and not retailers who could careless about u since they dont make a dime on us, we dont even get to see the charlie chats thanks to the inane stupidity and lack of a prepaid EPG flag on channel 101. I dont have a lot of faith in any former dishnow retailers either since they had less info regarding the prepaid G3 swap then some of us got by simply hounding the corporate offices for an answer.

My take is if everyone got real quiet about dishnow it might actually continue on for us a while longer while a real attempt is made to actually transition our receivers to regular or flex. However, as of this date dish has not even started such an attempt or worked out the techinical requirement of directing our smartcards and receivers to behave as regular dish cards/receivers without the days left pop ups.

Let the banning begin!

 

[Amiga]

Anyone try to activate new prepaid box after 8/1?

"Supposedly" the Dish prepaid service ends this month(Sept. '09), but no one really knows because no date has been given.

Dish definitely stopped selling and activating new prepaid boxes back on August 1st, 2009, but no one knows if current customers with their "shell" accounts will either be granfathered in, or forced to go to the new prepaid plan called FlexTV.

Has anyone actually tried to activate a new prepaid box after 8/1? Is there a post stating failure?

I've got one that might turn into a doorstop, but I hate to go out and buy a GDMP card and waste the money, even a mere $10.

 

[jeffmn]

Someone posted that Sept was going to be it.
But didn't say where they got the info from. And I don't know who it is, So?

It's all rumors as far as I'm concerned.

Way to keep us in the dark Dishnutwork

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

When you call an activate your next pre paid card you will be transfered to a CSR who explain to you whats going on.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

I've got one that might turn into a doorstop, but I hate to go out and buy a GDMP card and waste the money, even a mere $10.

With the GDMP's Amiga, I would not worry one bit. Even if you put the minimum amount on one($20), and paid the service fee($4.64 at WalMart), it would not be a problem for you.

GDMP has been GREAT, at least in my experiences, in refunding the entire amount of the card back to you, including the service charge.

So if you spent $24.64 on a card, and was never able to use any of it on your prepaid box, don't worry. Call 1-800-GREENDOT and they will refund you the full amount via check within 2-3 weeks.

I have done this twice with no headaches.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

When you call an activate your next pre paid card you will be transfered to a CSR who explain to you whats going on.

Not me Scott. Just ordered 1 day of Showtime and Starz last night, and never had to deal with a CSR at any point. Used a GDMP. No need for them. Automated service using touchtone pad was painless and quick.

Unless you are talking about people who are trying to activate a NEW prepaid DP301 for the first time. This is probably not allowed AFAIK.

But those of you who have had a box for a while, just keep doing it until they say you can't.

R10Fret,

I agree 100% with everything you said. Especially the part about regular dish customers/retailers actually reveling in the demise of prepaid in it's current form.

Scares them to death.