Loaction ID?
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The location ID is a string that changes every couple of minutes. When you tell them the number after navigating the menus it confirms to whomever calls that the receiver in question is in your home and not at some other location (vacation home, boat, RV or someone else's home or business).
People who get these calls typically don't have their receivers connected to a land line (as is required in the Customer Agreement) and have more than a couple receivers.
People who get these calls typically don't have their receivers connected to a land line (as is required in the Customer Agreement) and have more than a couple receivers.
When I had Dish, I was told by the installer that I only needed to hook to a phone line if I wanted to order PPV (which I don't do). I did however plug in Ethernet, which was Internet connected through my broadband connection. A few times when I moved my room around (which takes a day or two to move furniture, dust, etc.) I would get threatening messages on the screen when I hooked it up that it couldn't phone home and that I may be hit with a $5 charge (I never was). It said it needed to be connected to PHONE or ETHERNET. So I believe Ethernet is an acceptable alternative. A lot of people do not have landlines these days.
I was never audited but if I was alienated like that I would have basically told them to screw off. I don't answer to them, they answer to me. I mean really, I have heard they call you and give you only a few minutes to give them the location ID. Well, there would be several ways to dodge this if they were to call you. "This is my cell phone, I am not home." "You called my landline, but I forward my phone to my cell phone when I am gone and I am gone." "The power is out, try back later." "I am rearranging my entertainment center and everything is disconnected." "They are painting my house/roof and the cables are disconnected."
I cannot understand how anybody with half a brain wouldn't come up with one of these answers on the fly. If a business calls and says, "This is so and so with Dish, are you home?" I am not going to answer "yes," even if I am home. It is none of their business where I am and this would just totally make me mad. How do people actually get caught by the audit team? They must be really stupid and basically say, "You've got me, my second receiver is at my uncle's house, we split the bill." I mean really, what a waste of Dish Network resources. They have these commercials now saying they charge less than DirecTV for the same channels. OK, well, that is debatable and if they didn't waste time with this "audit team" they would have less overhead and could charge less!
What happens when they do catch somebody? They cancel their account. The customer moves on to cable or DirecTV. Do they honestly think they are going to catch a person splitting service with a relative or friend and the customer is going to 'do right' and buy two separate accounts? I think the person would more than likely change to another provider. So Dish would lose business, not gain more. They are just making people mad.
I understand that it is their policy that you have to have your boxes in one location, but I'm sorry, if I owned TWO homes, I too would put a box at each home. It isn't as if I am in both locations at the same time watching TV. What difference does it make if I close up a winter home and summer in the north and use one receiver or vice versa. The opposite house sits empty during the other months. A person has enough to deal with by putting their phone and other things on hold, winterizing a summer home, etc. I wouldn't waste time calling them for an address change or buying the same service at both locations.
Having that said, it sounds like a disturbingly fun job, being a Dish Network auditor. You could call and freak people out and get them all worked out for some sick self satisfaction. You could high five the guy in the next cubicle and say, "I got another one, that is five this week." Maybe they even have a white board like the auto dealerships, showing a count of catches similar to a salesman at the car dealership and their number of sales. Maybe they even hold contests or get bonuses for the most catches. Sounds like a fun job in a sick twisted way. If they are anything like a shady bill collector, they probably really enjoy busting people and causing pain in a stranger's life. Good job Dish!
For two homes that are never occupied at the same time, they can be on the same account. You just need to transfer the service addy back and forth. You can have receivers at two locations but you have to activate and deactivate the receivers as necessary. As for stalling the audit team, you only get a couple of chances and then they deactivate the receivers anyway.
What if you never answer the phone. I mean, I don't answer my business phone or my personal phone if the number is an area code I don't recognize or says private, restricted, 00000, etc. I get too many solicitation calls on my business phone is the main reason for this. That is why I have voicemail. They can leave a message, which these solicitors never do. Does the audit team leave a message only giving you a few days to call back before deactivating your equipment?
If you knew it was them, you could just bring the receiver back over from Uncle Bob's house, hook it up, call them back, give them the IDs and pass. Or call them back on your land line with Bob on the cell phone and have him read you the numbers to give the Dish rep on the phone. You'd say, "hold on, I don't have a phone in the bedroom, I'll write down the number and come right back." You'd get the number from Uncle bob over the cell phone and trick the rep. I mean come on. There are a million and one work arounds for the true thieves and just a lot of angry honest customers.
What good comes of it? I mean honestly. Bad guys always have their plan. I'll bet good honest people are "caught" more often than the bad guys, just by not calling them back in time or sounding suspicious when they are just unaware of why they are being called.
As a business owner, dealing with all types of people, I get inside the head of many viewpoints. I consider myself leaning honest when it comes to things like this. I mean, I would connect two of my own homes for my own use but I wouldn't split a bill with my neighbor for a service. But for somebody that plays 100% by the book, they are not looking inside the head of the crooked, and are more apt to sound suspicious and get confused during an "audit."
It is like the gun issue. If they took away our right to have guns, the 100% honest people would turn theirs in and follow the law. Then there are the people that would keep their existing guns for protection, and just keep their mouth shut, buying no more ammo or buying blackmarket guns (I fall into this catergory). The CRIMINALS that are going to use these guns for crime, wouldn't hesitate to find these guns on the black market, get a gun, and commit their crime. So, taking guns away from people is really only taking guns away from good people. The bad guys aren't going to stop getting guns and using guns in crimes.
This whole audit thing just seems stupid to me. The real theives will find a way around it like everything else in life.
we do have 4 receivers, and only 1 is connected to phone, no phone jacks any place close to the others, and the wireless jacks have to much static. But there would be noway for Dish to know if one was not in my house since since it would pull off the same satellite. and what about people who use one for RV (we do in the summer). Dish sells packages just for that. But I was able to give the all for Location Id's in one call which was what they told me was required, you can;t do 2 then call back you have to do all your receivers in 1 call.
Exactly. I'm always amazed by people who feel the need to answer a phone whenever it rings. (Especially those morons with their cell phones in restaurants and other public places.) I never answer my phone unless I know who it is, AND it's someone I want to talk to at that moment.
What I truly find amazing is people who *69 numbers they don't recognize. Why would somebody take the time to call someone they didn't know? WTF is wrong with people?
Yes they left a message a few days ago, I beileve it said i had 7 days to call back, when they called a few days later I answered it. The message just said It was important I return the call to avoid disruption of service, not why they wanted me to call
oh.... sneaky I see... they think they are sneaky. When you think down to it, why would a company ever call you and say your service will be disrupted if you don't call back in 7 days, as long as your bill is current. They wouldn't... that right there is suspicious if you think about it. But most would panic and feel they better call in. That is what they are hoping for, "oh, we'll catch them off guard."
Waste of money, the audit team is. Fun job though if you have an aggressive personality and enjoy ruining other people's days because of your own bitterness towards life.
Good solution nowadays - tough economy, you know.
You are right.... it is a tough economy and if a customer splits a bill with his Uncle Bob and has a Dish receiver in two locations across town, it isn't all that different than the credit card companies upping your interest rate unless you opt out and close the card (which is happening to everybody, even with the best credit) or lowering your interest rate to $100 over your balance, which cuts your available credit on paper and raises your overall debt, lowering your credit rating. What about grocery chains cutting the size of yogurts by 1/3 and removing the plastic lid in favor of just an aluminum pull off lid, and then keeping the price the same. Hello Publix, you know what you are doing! What about Pepsi, who used to have various deals of 3/$10, 4/$12,etc, on a 12 pack of cans. Suddenly they are trying to trick you into thinking you are getting a deal with 5/$10 or 5/$11 deals. Only problem, they have reduced the packaging to 8 cans of pepsi, a 1/3 reduction. Then you have Coca-Cola, who every other week had sales on 12 packs. While they didn't deceptively change the size from 12 to 8 like Pepsi and then advertise as if you were getting a deal (wow, $5/10 on Pepsi products honey, pull into Walgreens). No, Coca-Cola has been stingier than ever with their sales. While the regular price on a 12 pack has now exceeded $5 in many stores, I remember when the regular price was $3.89 or less just 1 year ago, and that if the product wasn't on sale one week, I could stock up on Diet Coke (which I drink a ton of) the next week. You could count on a sale someplace, if not most stores, every other week, switching off with the Pepsi sales. My grocery chain, Publix, would often have deals like, buy 4/$10, get 1 free. I'd stock up. There was literally a 3 month stretch where they went without sales from like Jan-March this year. Obviously they are trying to help their profit in slow economic times, but you are killing us out here. We are living in this economy too! If I suck it up and switch to the generic brand diet cola, I'm not switching back!
Everything has gone up and the sales have dried up. I used to pay $1.00 for 15 live crickets for my lizards, now I pay $1.29 for 15. A 29% increase overnight. This is happening everywhere, while salaries remain the same (if you still have a job).
Maybe the Dish audit team should try a REVERSAL of their audit program, where they will leave you alone for the next 12 months and not try to nab you cheating them. They need a good layoff at Dish and what better department to let go! My God, you are right, this would be a good solution in these tough times. I am not saying it is good to cheat or steal, only that I understand why people are trying to pull this off. It is no different than the increase in petty theft, burglary, robberies, etc. People are striking back too.
Cost of living is going way up, while many people have no job. As a business owner in a service industry, I generally raise my rates every year or every other year. I didn't even consider raising my rates this past January. That would be ridiculous. In fact, I have been sending out much bigger coupons than I ever have, which hurts me. So I've scaled back my income predictions and the actual income has been surprisingly good in this economy. But what if I went after my customers and drained them of every last penny I could the way these other companies have? No wonder these people are fighting back with theft!
The companies, banks, and government we consumers deal with everyday need to understand economics start with us. If we aren't spending, or are pinched so hard we cannot spend, you the company will see your profits go down. Treat us right and it will benefit you in the long run. You don't squeeze us for everything we have and expect to maintain your profits. It doesn't work that way. Maybe temporarily, but not for long. So now we are getting ads by companies like Home Depot on TV saying they are cutting prices. WELL HELLO! I had a Home Depot card for years and wouldn't think twice paying for bug spray or weedkiller that was way over priced to begin with. They have been screwing consumers for years with overpriced goods and then they turn around and play good guy. Their prices are edging back a little closer to where they should have been anyway, back in the good economy. It is companies like that that helped ignite the credit card problem we have had in this nation. They helped break the system, it is the least they can do to fix it by lowering their prices.
Sorry about the rant.
I understand you, but my pitch was about positive aspect forcing by Dish a cut of your subscription fee to minimum by reducing number of boxes, ie monetary benefit for the customer.
I have 4 recievers and had my landline disconnected 3 months ago.....called Dish and they did remove the 5.00 fees on the recievers, as long as I have Dish, for not having the phone line connected.
If the Audit team calls me, it will be my cell, which is the number on the account now, I will say if you deactivate my recievers just close my account too.....I will just go to Directv where they have a vacation home policy that lets you have 1 reciever at two other vacation/summer homes connected all the time.....
I live in Ohio, I have a lake home in Tenn., a buddy of mine lives in PA., I pay him 120.00/ year(he pays 60.00 but I was happy to pay this instead of 45.00/month for 7 months it used to be activated in my name) for the same service he has at home with Directv.I save 195.00 and have service all year...which includes the STARZ pak etc..... WHY does DISH not want revenue like this going to them??????????????? I would gladly pay 10.00 a month for a dish reciever at this location......AGAIN, I ask WHY IS DISH SO STUPID!!!
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If I had a nickel for every time someone asked that.AGAIN, I ask WHY IS DISH SO STUPID!!!
