Help! Service turned off because of lack of phone connection!

[rowemance]

Blueboar you really can't account stack a dual tuner unless your going to run coax from that 2nd tuner 3 miles or 1000 miles to your brother house.

But it is very easy to send your brother a 2nd receiver. I know one customer who had DTV in this house and his relative in Cuba has one of his boxes.

The big problem there are few bad apples that have to reck it for everyone just like the one person said about the guys he works with.

You get 4 guys 1 account and $120.00 programming and you each pay $30.00 so Dish gets $120.00 instead of the $480.00 there due.

I remember them saying at a show that Dishpro Plus system was going to be able to phone line and verify the other receivers with only one phone connection and your existing coax for your system. But thats still not available yet as far as I know.

This should really help with account stacking as do the Dual turner receivers it hard to put 2 dual tuners receivers in 4 houses.

 

[NightRyder]

Make all the excuses you want to for them, but this is THEIR problem not ours. Any business who treats their customers likes crooks just because they failed to implement reasonable technology to prevent a problem they have known about for years, deserves to be called on it.

I pay $5 a month each for 3 added receivers, I'll gladly go through the expense and hassle to run phone lines to all of them if they'll waive the fee, until then they can take their audits, inconsistent policies and enforcement of same, and stick it up their a**.


NightRyder

 

[rowemance]

NightRyder I here your excuses but where is your solution to verify that all your boxes are in your house.

If you know of some type of monitor that would solve this problem I and everyone else would love to here it.

One of the great things about Satellite TV is that you can take your box Camping or Hunting even your Golf Leagues BBQ like I did last week so we could watch the NFL at our year end cook out.

Its not like the box will not work unless your have it hooked up to your phone line at all times all they want to do is verify that your boxes are where they are suppose to be.

Guess what I pay $5.00 extra a month on my 3 extra receivers and mine are hook to phone jacks that I ran for those boxes so I wouldn't be audited.

 

[NightRyder]

I have no need or reason to make excuses, I'm the customer here.

The phone line requirement is archaic and E* should have abandoned it already.

As far as a solution, it's not my job, I don't work for them, but since you asked.....

Dish sends a code on initial activation that "marries" the receiver to the switch. The code will only activate the receiver for your switch ID. The receiver must see your unique switch ID to function. This solution could and should have been designed into the DP and up equipment. It certainly would have been a lot more effective then this idiocy they are currently imposing on their customers.




NightRyder

 

[rowemance]

Then I guess you never want to take your receiver to your camper or else where.

Nice idea but it would create more problem than it would solve there is a lot of equipment out there that is not dishpro compatible and it would all have to be replaced such as receivers, switches and LNBFs.

Also it an ID chip in the switch would be one more thing to go wrong.

I really don't see what the problem is in making a phone call and reading the ID number they send to your receiver.

 

[NightRyder]

Then I guess you never want to take your receiver to your camper or else where.

No, but then Dish doesn't want you to either, or maybe it's OK, or maybe it's not......Wait....What phase is the moon in?

Nice idea but it would create more problem than it would solve there is a lot of equipment out there that is not dishpro compatible and it would all have to be replaced such as receivers, switches and LNBFs.

It would have been a long term solution and could have stopped any new account sharing.

Also it an ID chip in the switch would be one more thing to go wrong.

Sorry, but that's a pretty weak argument. the things already have chips in them.

I really don't see what the problem is in making a phone call and reading the ID number they send to your receiver.

I'm not a criminal and I deeply resent being treated as one through a presumption of guilt. Finally, it's just a piss poor policy for a company to impose on its customers.


NightRyder

 

[rowemance]

No one has ever said you are a criminal.
No one has ever presume you guilty.

The policy of a phone line to your receiver has always been a requirement and I just don't see your argument. Its not like your receiver will not work if a phone line is not hooked up and that could be arranged very easily DTV used to do that.

They are not forcing you to have a phone line hooked up and are giving you another option if you don't and still keep your service.

And All of us honest paying customer you should made at the one that do steal and make this necessary.

I no I just love to waste time running extra phone lines I would be very happy never to run another phone line again.

 

[NightRyder]

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this.

I just hope E* eventually comes to its senses and uses technology to address this issue instead of outdated phone line requirements and poorly implemented customer audits.


NightRyder

 

[rowemance]

How About this IF the Cell phone companies would make a modular adapter so you could hook up you Dish box computer ect..

I would buy it the only reason I have a phone still is for DSL for my computer it is still the cheapest way to go.

I never use my home phone.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Dish sends a code on initial activation that "marries" the receiver to the switch. The code will only activate the receiver for your switch ID. The receiver must see your unique switch ID to function. This solution could and should have been designed into the DP and up equipment. It certainly would have been a lot more effective then this idiocy they are currently imposing on their customers.

Sorry, that type of thing would cause all sorts of problems. Think about swapping out switches due to failure or upgrade. BIG can of worms. Nice try, tho.

E* has been talking about using the power lines in the house so that all the boxes can "see" each other, and only one would need to dial in. Maybe it's been dropped, tho - as in maybe they figured out that apartment buildings share power transformers, and they couldn't stop the boxes from seeing each other across an electric meter.

If E* would spend half as much effort figuring out how to do things RIGHT as they do pissing off their customers, we'd all be a lot happier.

 

[RandallA]

"If E* would spend half as much effort figuring out how to do things RIGHT as they do pissing off their customers, we'd all be a lot happier."

Exactly. They should spend more time, effort and money in getting software that works on most of their receivers. Sigh!

 

[glenn z]

Sure, if I could convince my clients that the software I program for them is only for use in their New York office and if they want to use the same software in the Miami office they need to pay me double, I would love it! I would have more money for TV!

Isn't this called a "site license"? I think this is fairly common in the s/w business (at least with the situations I'm aware of).

 

[NightRyder]

If E* would spend half as much effort figuring out how to do things RIGHT as they do pissing off their customers, we'd all be a lot happier.

Amen!!

NightRyder

 

[NightRyder]

Sorry, that type of thing would cause all sorts of problems. Think about swapping out switches due to failure or upgrade. BIG can of worms. Nice try, tho.

Hmm....How about a separate "security" module that handles the authorization for all receivers? Maybe even have a GPS chip embedded in it, if you move it more than x number of feet from it's intial location it deactivates.


NightRyder

 

[Stargazer]

That is a great idea NightRyder. Eventually they will figure out a way. A true real solution is to have one box per home with an x number of tuners in it for all the rooms. One encryption module per household so that it has to remain there. The GPS thing would be great too but could get compromised and/or may be too expensive. Perhaps both techniques together would help in case someone figures out one thing.

 

[NightRyder]

That is a great idea NightRyder. Eventually they will figure out a way. A true real solution is to have one box per home with an x number of tuners in it for all the rooms. One encryption module per household so that it has to remain there. The GPS thing would be great too but could get compromised and/or may be too expensive. Perhaps both techniques together would help in case someone figures out one thing.

Thanks Stargazer. I really like the idea of a centralized "satellite server" with multiple tuner slots (plus expandable storage module for DVR ). I'm not sure how much cost GPS would add. It looks like the FCC GPS mandate for cell phones is driving up production, and prices are dropping fast. The chips are now under $10 in bulk

NightRyder

 

[ITK]

That is a great idea NightRyder. Eventually they will figure out a way. A true real solution is to have one box per home with an x number of tuners in it for all the rooms. One encryption module per household so that it has to remain there. The GPS thing would be great too but could get compromised and/or may be too expensive. Perhaps both techniques together would help in case someone figures out one thing.

Guy i worked with came back from CES last year and was talking about seeing somthing just like that. It sounds more like a PITA than anything. where are you going to locate it and then feed it out to the demarc? Not sure which provider had it D* or E*, i think it was D* as they were looking for something to compete with the xx2 series.

 

[rowemance]

Dish and Direct have both shown proto types of a 1 main box system and then extra boxes run off them.

AT CES in 2002 they showed the MOXI system and it won Best of Show.

The MOXI system was 1 box with a DVR and multi tuners and you could feed up to 3 extra boxes from this using just your AC outlets.

But there must have been a problem because they never came out with it would have saved a ton of $$$ on installs.

DTV showed something simular this year at CES to a media center but the same basic thing.

 

[BluEBoaR]

The 942 has the new 'COM PLUS' hardware in it, though I don't know if it's active yet. All new receiver models will employ this technology. Thier goal is to make it easier for the customers, which I fully admire. Using this technology, only one receiver needs to be plugged in to a phone line, and the rest of the receivers will be able to communicate using that one receiver. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Well I also went through this crap for a customer of mine just to see what it was all about. I'll tell you the audit department is about the rudest group of people at Dish.

To make a long story short, they audited this account several weeks ago. We passed the location ID test with flying colors, so right before they where susposed to turn it back on they put me on hold and said I needed phone lines connected up.

There where no phone lines in the whole house, so we hooked up all the phone lines, let the receivers call in overnight and called the audit department the next morning.

So I call them back the next day and ask again to re-activate the account because now we had phone lines connected. Then the CSR proceeds to say to me "How do we know you really hooked the phone lines" I responded and said "Gee, why don't check and see if they called in last night"

So from there, we did the location ID test again and passed it with flying colors again. Then this idiot makes me go back to the first receiver saying it didn't have the proper software. So I decide to get smart with the guy and read him the software version which was something like L187. Then he comes back to me and asks for the location ID again. I then said, what the hell does the software version have to do with location ID? The current software for the 721 is L187, this is what it says on the website and this is what is on the receiver. Then he proceeds to tell me that the phone line is needed to update the software. I then told him since when did receivers update software Via the phone line, and why don't you stop lying to me and re-activate my receivers before I get pist off and call someone I know at corporate which they are going to re-activate my account anyways without the games.

Needless to say the guy re-activated my stuff and backed off!