I remember back in the 2013, When i has the VIP 211, The HUB channel is not available, other customer with the VIP 211 has the same problem, After I upgrade the equipment, All channel are available. May be the combination of the particular package plus the equipment have a effect in the channel line up.?
I was about to start a thread about this very issue, before I stumbled across this one. I have an even weirder issue, though.
I have two Dish accounts, and my sister also has Dish. All three accounts have Welcome Pack with no additional add-ons except the DVR fee and the OH State Surcharge and Ohio sales tax for the accounts in Ohio. One of my accounts is in California. That account does not have a DVR fee, but it does have HD Free For Life, which doesn't really add anything to Welcome Pack. My account in Ohio is receiving HLN on channel 202 (SD feed only), but neither of the other accounts receive this channel. However, my account in California receives TNT on channel 138 (SD feed only), which is not on either of the other accounts.
The receiver that is getting HLN is a leased ViP722k hooked up to Eastern Arc (61.5/72.7/77) plus a second dish aimed at 129 for Columbus, Ohio locals. The receiver that is getting TNT is a purchased ViP211k hooked up to Western Arc (110/119/129) with Los Angeles locals. My sister is not receiving either channel, and she has a purchased 512 hooked up to Western Arc (110/119/129) with Cleveland, Ohio locals. Both of my accounts have Auto Pay and Paperless Billing, but my sister does not, if that makes a difference.
One other difference is that during the Turner dispute back in October, I complained to Dish about losing Boomerang, and I got credits on both of my accounts. My sister did not complain, and she did not get any credits. Could this be a determining factor in deciding which subscribers get which channels? Does Dish ever "test market" channels to individual subscribers or entire markets before rolling them out to every subscriber with that package?
I know that Dish sometimes adds national channels to local packages as "replacement" channels during a dispute. However, I am not aware of any dispute affecting either of my markets (Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio). Also, the channel usually used as a substitute is WGN America, which I am not receiving.
During the Turner dispute, I noticed that we were receiving the "replacement" channels for CNN and TCM, even though those channels were not previously included in Welcome Pack (and they still aren't included). Of course, those channels were in free preview for everyone, and we already had MSNBC in Welcome Pack. However, we did temporarily get the HD feed of MSNBC on both channels 209 and 200, along with the "Turner removed this channel" message in the guide, which made it look like we had lost CNN.
On the account that is now getting HLN, I had temporarily upgraded to Smart Pack, and I complained about losing Fox News during that dispute to get even more credits. When I downgraded back to Welcome Pack, I lost HLN along with the other Smart Pack channels. It did not show up again until a few weeks after that. Like the Thread Starter, I had also assumed that HLN had been added to Welcome Pack until I asked my sister and found out that she is not getting HLN. This was back in the middle of February. I assume that I started receiving TNT at the same time, but I was not in the Los Angeles area at the time, so I did not find out about that until this month.
I do not mind getting additional channels, but it would have been nice if Dish had asked which channels I wanted instead of adding them at random. As a side note, I am not aware of any other package on Dish (or any other provider) that includes TBS without also including TNT, so I feel that TNT would be a good addition to Welcome Pack. I just wonder when the rest of the Welcome Pack subscribers will start receiving TNT and HLN.
I guess my main questions are as follows:
Are other Welcome Pack subscribers (especially those who complained during the Turner dispute) now receiving TNT and/or HLN (or any other additional channels owned by Turner that were not previously included in Welcome Pack)?
Is this some kind of glitch that only affects certain receiver models connected to certain satellites?
I would like to nail down which channels are supposed to be included in Welcome Pack so I can tell if my sister is being ripped off by not receiving HLN or TNT, or if she needs an equipment upgrade in order to start receiving those channels. I know somebody will probably post a link to a page on the Dish website that tells what channels are included in Welcome Pack, but what is listed on the website and what you actually get can be two very different things. So, I would like to hear from other Welcome Pack subscribers regarding which channels you are actually receiving, and what equipment you are using, in order to try to determine a pattern as to which subscribers receive which channels.
Thank you in advance for any assistance you may be able to provide.
