Dish Network Prepaid Question

[jakesnakemd]

Question about used Green Dot Money Pack

I'm on my second GDMP card with no problems, but, since the balance on the cards will probably never work out to an exact amount of some type of programming, is there any way to get those small balances credited or refunded. From what I have seen with CVS pharmacy where I bought them, you can't add minutes to the card there and have to buy a new card. Also, is it correct that you have to purchase in cash and can't use a debit or credit card--CVS wants cash only. Thanks in advance. :up

 

[STEELERSRULE]

Re: DishNow!

My kids are currently in Albany, NY and looking for a "father's day gift" for me.

Can someone tell me which major retailers carry DishNow? (dp301/G3).
I know that the $40 cards are available at radio shack - but do they also sell the receiver/G3 package? I've googled it - but nothing seems to come up except for online satellite retailers.

Thank you.

I would stick with Saudon, who are out of Columbus, OH and advertise here. They only sell the DP301 with the G3 Smartcard already installed in the units(I believe).

I have never used them myself, but others have, and they have had no problems with them. Visit their website by clicking their banner at the top, and look up prepaid satellite system.

Radio Shack, and it's employees, will most likely have NO FRIGGIN IDEA about what you are talking about(Even a local satellite shop probably will have no idea, or they want the regular account. No money to be really made on a prepaid by them). Even though I "think" they still sell the systems, good luck finding an employee who knows how to find it/one. They will try to push selling a regular system setup since that is where money is made by them.

Earlier in this thread, I am not sure which page but early on, I give out teh SKU#'s that Radio Shack was using at the time too list this product. But that was about 2 years ago, so who knows if they are using the same SKU# within their system.

But I would go to www.sadoun.com , call them, and ask about it.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

I'm on my second GDMP card with no problems, but, since the balance on the cards will probably never work out to an exact amount of some type of programming, is there any way to get those small balances credited or refunded. From what I have seen with CVS pharmacy where I bought them, you can't add minutes to the card there and have to buy a new card. Also, is it correct that you have to purchase in cash and can't use a debit or credit card--CVS wants cash only. Thanks in advance. :up

No. AFAIK you can't get the pennies back, if there are any left on those GDMP's. I guess the only way to "maybe" get the full amount off is too use the "full amount of the moneypak" towards the ends of it's funds.

But even then there are still probably still money left on it. At $.43 cents/day, I believe that Cinemax/Starz/Showtime are probably the cheapest stuff you can get.

But if you have $.49 cents left on the card, then I would think you are SOL on that $.07 cents. Can't get a refund on that, they would probably say no.

This is how companies like these really rake in free cash. The left over pennies.

Also, you can ONLY use cash when purchasing one of these cards. It is turning REAL Money into ELECTRONIC Money. Can't use debit, or credit cards to buy one. It may be close to double dipping(using credit to get credit), which is illeagal. But I am no lawyer. But I do know cash is the only way to buy one of these GDMP's.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

Here are the SKU#'s I listed for Radio Shack about Dish NOW!/YA! prepaid equipment. They may have changed them, but I STILL THINK anyone would be better off buying the equipment from www.sadoun.com since all the equipment they have is up to date.

No chance on getting an OLD Phillips 3900 or DP301, and have to go through the nightmare(most of us here did, incuding myself, but mine was not even CLOSE to being as bad as others here) of doing the Smartcard switchout to G3.

But here they are from page#2, Post#24:

I got them last year(4/1/07), and unless they have changed, they should bring up the info on their(Radio Shack) computers:

1. Dish NOW!/YA! prepaid system: $99.99 SKU#(160-2843)
2. Dish NOW!/YA! prepaid Programming Card: $40.00 SKU#(160-0317)
3. Self Installation Kit: $19.99 SKU#(160-2845)

 

[STEELERSRULE]

bmp

 

[tkyoshi]

Yeah you can't use credit cause i guess it would be like getting an interest free cash advance. I don't see why debit wouldn't work since it is like cash but i guess it depends how knowledable the clerk is.

I have been using debit at Rite Aid, the key is since no credit you need to do it as a PIN based transaction. If you try credit/signature the system will reject it.

As for the 7 cents or whatever, in the big picture I don't mind. GDMP sure is saving me a lot of money to begin with (vs. $40 Dish NOW Card) anyway so if it's the cost of flexibility and cost savings I'm ok with that

 

[slickvguy]

Thanks for the replies.
Sure enough - they went to RS and the salespeople had no idea what my kids were talking about when they inquired about DishNow. lol. I think I'll use Sadoun.

re: GDMP: Is there any way to get one or and/or reload one electronically? The website doesn't say much about it. I understand that c/c's cant' be used, but what about using EFT or other "cash" methods?

 

[STEELERSRULE]

Thanks for the replies.
Sure enough - they went to RS and the salespeople had no idea what my kids were talking about when they inquired about DishNow. lol. I think I'll use Sadoun.

re: GDMP: Is there any way to get one or and/or reload one electronically? The website doesn't say much about it. I understand that c/c's cant' be used, but what about using EFT or other "cash" methods?

The GDMP's MUST be purchased at a local outlet(WalMart, Riteaid, Radio Shack). Can't go to the website, and reload there. Physical cash needs to be used. Maybe someday in the future they will make this possible, but just not now.

And you can't just reload an old one you previously purchased. I thought you might be able to, but you can't. After one is finshed, you must go out and get another one since according to the automated system, that PIN code # you give will register as EMPTY, according to their system, so a new one would be needed.

And GDMP's or the $40 Dish NOW! cards are the ONLY ways to replenish the Dish NOW! service. There are no other methods. Other than starting a regular/normal Dish account and paying a monthly bill and using GDMP's Credit Cards, Checks, etc... in order to pay for it.

 

[charged]

Hi guys,

I just learned about the DishNow service and despite all the possible issues I'm thinking I'd like to give it a try. I just read through the 20 pages here which was incredibly useful since I'm a complete newbie to this satellite TV thing, so thanks to all you guys that provided info.

I recently bought a house that had a directv satellite professionally installed and wired up. From looking at the Sadoun website it appears to be the "Directv AU9 Slimline" dish (forum software won't let me post the direct url) or possibly the previous version of that dish since the website says that is a new model and the one on my roof is most likely at least a year old.

Can I use that dish setup as-is with the DishNow service? If not what's the cheapest way to make it work or should I get the $99 DishNow package w/ the dish included? Obviously buying a $50 reciever and just hooking it up is preferable to paying $100 for the reciever and dish and climbing up on the roof!

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

 

[happy hopping]

HENSTS,

These are copied from another thread. There is an initial "big" charge for getting these packages:

There is a package called the "Welcome Pack" for $9.99. You can also get locals only for $9.99. Welcome pack can be combined with locals for $14.99 a month. This is only available as "free for all". $149.99 for 1 TV or 199.99 for 2 TV, no monthly credits are allowed for this promotion. I do not have a channel list for the Welcome Package, boss said he would email me one in the next day or so. He did say it was real similar to the family package, but with a few less channels. This package is something that was born in light of the digital transition, it is something that is not advertised on dish's website. There is no sales commissions with selling this package or very low. I would personally sell this package(for referrals), I do see a legitimate market for this type of programming. Call Dish or a retailer to find out more about this unadvertised package called the "Welcome Package".

$9.99 Welcome Pack (Without Locals)
$9.99 Locals Only
$14.99 Locals WITH Welcome Pack
$14.99 Family Pack (Without Locals) <after $5.00 Free For All Credit>
$19.99 Family Pack WITH Locals <after $5.00 Free For All Credit>

Want some movies for cheap to add in addition to this? Encore Package (True, Love, Mystery, Action, Westerns, Encore West) for $4.99 per month.

wait a min., if you go w/ the Dish Pre-Paid, you DO NOT get any local chnl.

So where's this $9.99 local only come from?

 

[vector]

After reading this thread I'm definitely headed down the path of prepaid. There's only 2 or 3 times a week I have time & desire to watch certain programs & prepaid looks to be a huge $$$ saver. A question I didn"t see in the thread:

Are certain state/federal taxes avoided by using prepaid?

Another words for peeps with contractual or month-to-month accounts do they get specific sat services taxes added to their monthly charge?

With GDMP only sales tax is paid when the money pack is bought unless your state doesn't have a sales tax.

Does dish use your zip code to deduct sat taxes from the money pack?

Thinking along the lines of a land line phone that has surcharges & added taxes. Thanks!

 

[STEELERSRULE]

wait a min., if you go w/ the Dish Pre-Paid, you DO NOT get any local chnl.

So where's this $9.99 local only come from?

No, NOT with the prepaid setup. There are NO lOCAL CHANNELS(abs/cbs/nbc/pbs/etc...), or LOCAL SPORTS NETWORKS(Fox sports networks, nesn, msg, yes, etc....)

Those posts should really have a thread of their own. Having them here in the prepaid thread does make it confusing to newbies.

That particular poster wanted to know the cheapest account available, other than prepaid, for a dish customer. Those posted charges are for a REGULAR DISH ACCOUNT ONLY. Meaning, you would have to setup a regular dish account(name, address, telephone #, Credit Card, Social Security #), BUY the equipment from dish(DP311, or maybe now only the 211 and 222 are the only things being made available, plus the dish itself which would run about $300 total), and then sign up to one of those cheaper subs.

He posted in this thread, but it has nothing to do with a prepaid account.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

After reading this thread I'm definitely headed down the path of prepaid. There's only 2 or 3 times a week I have time & desire to watch certain programs & prepaid looks to be a huge $$$ saver. A question I didn"t see in the thread:

Are certain state/federal taxes avoided by using prepaid?

Another words for peeps with contractual or month-to-month accounts do they get specific sat services taxes added to their monthly charge?

With GDMP only sales tax is paid when the money pack is bought unless your state doesn't have a sales tax.

Does dish use your zip code to deduct sat taxes from the money pack?

Thinking along the lines of a land line phone that has surcharges & added taxes. Thanks!

This would "probably" depend on which state you live in, so whatever zip code you give, would muster up any additional taxes from a certain state.

Within the automated system, it even says at one point of ordering programming(this is after you type in the GDMP #, and it is verified), the prompt says, "Certain state taxes may apply."

I don't know which states have taxes that would be added. I am here in Pennsylvania, and I have no idea if my GDMP is being taxed when I use it, I gotta be honest.

Maybe there is a list somewhere that tells you which states do, and don't.

If there are ones that do, it is probably very few(out of 50).

 

[Ozzy33]

Unfortunately it is beginning to look more and more like I might be totally screwed.

It appears my receiver is the plague to the automatic system, and I may be forced to go out and get a new receiver, which blows.

It is REALLY WEIRD. It is like I used up the amount of times I could buy programming or something from the automated system. All the reps I have spoken too tell me the same story. They tell me that in the system I have a legit receiver #, and GreenDot MoneyPak #, and then they try adding more programming. Same thing happens to them.

And since there is NO OTHER WAY to get programming(The reps use the same automated system, so there is no direct way for them to do it on their own), I am really F'D.

It is really strange. I really hope this does not happen to anyone else.

Any ideas on a course of action you think I could take to get this resolved through Dish?

I mean, if the receiver is a legit receiver in their system, then I maybe I could mail it to them, and they could mail me another one(I REALLY doubt this).

Looks like I am out another $50 on a new receiver. If I go that route I ma going to try and get the latest one I can(refurbished date I mean).

Hello. Well it appears I am having this problem now. I have two dish pre-paid receivers (both are dp 301's). I use the GDMP and both receivers have the G3 card. I can add days just fine to one receiver through the automated system but I get the "Automated system cannot process your request" after I enter the receiver number then I get transferred to customer service when I try to add days to the other one. They seem to have no clue what is wrong. Yesterday I was told they were forwarding my issue to IT and to try back in 24 hours. Today I called back and the service rep said it looked like nothing had been done, no notes indicating anything was escalated and that she would take care of it. Has this been happening to anyone else lately? I have been ordering service one or two days at a time since I bought my receivers in mid-May. I really liked this concept at first, but only being able to order more programming when their automated system decides to work is a real bummer.

 

[Hermitman]

Were both receivers up and running good and then that one receiver couldn't be used or has there always been a problem with that one receiver? If that one receiver has never worked, it may be it has never been properly authorized. If it has worked properly and then stopped, has there been any changes that may have caused problems. If the automated system keeps transferring you after you input the receiver number, that might mean the Dish Network computer doesn't recognize that receiver number as a valid and authorized receiver. Have the csr's verified that the receiver number is in the system. Have the csr's tried senting a re-authorization hit? Just need a little more info. Good luck.

 

[Ozzy33]

Were both receivers up and running good and then that one receiver couldn't be used or has there always been a problem with that one receiver? If that one receiver has never worked, it may be it has never been properly authorized. If it has worked properly and then stopped, has there been any changes that may have caused problems. If the automated system keeps transferring you after you input the receiver number, that might mean the Dish Network computer doesn't recognize that receiver number as a valid and authorized receiver. Have the csr's verified that the receiver number is in the system. Have the csr's tried senting a re-authorization hit? Just need a little more info. Good luck.

I was able to activate and receive programming just fine on both receivers up until a couple of days ago. Then the issue with one of them. I talked to three different csr's tonight and all verified the receiver number is in the system and authorized. Finally the last csr seemed to recognize the problem. I asked him to re-send the authorization signal; he said he would do that but he didn't think it would make a difference. He mentioned their automated system had been working much better since they started using the shell accounts but in the past couple of weeks they have had more issues with it. I checked 15 minutes ago and still no luck on the one receiver but added 1 day of Showtime to the other with success. Hopefully they will get this fixed soon, but after reading some of the posts here, I'm not really expecting much.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

I was able to activate and receive programming just fine on both receivers up until a couple of days ago. Then the issue with one of them. I talked to three different csr's tonight and all verified the receiver number is in the system and authorized. Finally the last csr seemed to recognize the problem. I asked him to re-send the authorization signal; he said he would do that but he didn't think it would make a difference. He mentioned their automated system had been working much better since they started using the shell accounts but in the past couple of weeks they have had more issues with it. I checked 15 minutes ago and still no luck on the one receiver but added 1 day of Showtime to the other with success. Hopefully they will get this fixed soon, but after reading some of the posts here, I'm not really expecting much.

With me I actually "gave up". My receiver(the SAME one I had a ton problems with) is working fine now. I even got the G3 Smartcard installed with some headaches, but not as much as others.

Anyway, in my situation, the problems began in late December, 2008. Same thing that is happenign too you, happened too me. Got the run around for a couple weeks, until I threw my arms up and said, "F This!", and totally removed the setup. Then I put it away for about 3-4 weeks(unplugged/unhooked/everything).

Then, I am not 100% sure, but there was either a fight on HBO that I wanted to watch, or something, so I decided to give it a shot, and hooked everything back up. I think this was February, 2009, but it could have been later, or a little earlier.

Lo and behold, the damn thing took everything without a hitch. This is before I went through the fiasco of exchanging the current smartcard to the new G3, but everything has worked just fine since that day.

The last time I ordered programming(this past weekend), I had "some" problems ordering. It would give me that; "Our automated system cannot process you request. Please hold....", after I typed in the receiver number.

But after a few tries(this was late at night on the East coast. Around 12:30am Saturday morning), it eventually did work. I was able to add programming. Soemtimes more than one option(HBO and AT250 for 1 day), and other times it would give me the run around, and I would have too call back a few times, until it let me pass the DREADED spot after entering in your receiver number.

I wish I could tell you it will be fine because I have no idea. I ripped my boDP301) out and everything, and then put it back too give it another shot, and for some reason it worked like a charm, as it had previously.

Definitely a BUG in their system, which they have no idea what causes it, or how too remove it.

Like a cold or the flu, just have to wait it out, sleep, and force fluids, I guess.

 

[Ozzy33]

Definitely a BUG in their system, which they have no idea what causes it, or how too remove it.

Like a cold or the flu, just have to wait it out, sleep, and force fluids, I guess.

I talked to a couple more csr's and a "supervisor" today regarding this issue. Both csr's tried to convince me that the automated system was just temporarily down and to try again later. After I asked the second csr to activate a day of HBO on my other pre-paid receiver suddenly the system "looked like it was going again, and let me take a closer look to see if I can tell what's wrong". Eventually when no explanations came i was forwarded to his supervisor. This guy was polite & professional and even leveled with me that it could take more than a week for my problem to reach the front of the IT queue and I might end up needing to have the receiver replaced.

So instead of forcing fluids I decided I would try to force this receiver back to dish via the good folks at the radio shack where i bought it. They let me swap it for another one after I explained the inability to activate programming. I just activated the new one and I'm back up & running. Hopefully the one I got tonight will not have the same issues.

 

[STEELERSRULE]

I talked to a couple more csr's and a "supervisor" today regarding this issue. Both csr's tried to convince me that the automated system was just temporarily down and to try again later. After I asked the second csr to activate a day of HBO on my other pre-paid receiver suddenly the system "looked like it was going again, and let me take a closer look to see if I can tell what's wrong". Eventually when no explanations came i was forwarded to his supervisor. This guy was polite & professional and even leveled with me that it could take more than a week for my problem to reach the front of the IT queue and I might end up needing to have the receiver replaced.

So instead of forcing fluids I decided I would try to force this receiver back to dish via the good folks at the radio shack where i bought it. They let me swap it for another one after I explained the inability to activate programming. I just activated the new one and I'm back up & running. Hopefully the one I got tonight will not have the same issues.

Good too hear that you at least were able to exchange it at radio Shack for another one with no problems.

And that, "Our system is down at the moment..." is really F'ING ANNOYING, but that is what the CSR runs to if they can't figure out what to do. I am sure it is in their training to do so.

 

[jakesnakemd]

Moving Prepaid to a new location...

I am finally going to take my prepaid receiver and tripod setup from Maryland to Myrtle Beach this weekend. I know everything works since I tested it here several weeks ago (with the tripod and Dishpro Plus LNB's). I am currently using it with my legacy Dish 500 in my yard, but will be using the tripod Dish Pro Plus again. Assuming I can get it aimed properly, which should be doable, do I need to respond to the prompt about "has anything changed with your system" on the automated system. Its activated and works fine so I don't see this being an issue other than the location change (new zip, new azimuth, etc). Anybody had this come up before. Don't want to mess with a good thing since I have had basically zero problems so far. Thanks.