Phone line charge? Avoidable?

[hillsmi]

Is there a legal way of avoiding the $5.00 per month, per receiver Dish Network connection charge in the event that you can't or DON'T want to have your receiver connected to the phone line?

Does anyone know the REAL reason that Dish requires the phone line connection, other than to order PPV?

Can anyone expand on this phone line connection rationale, and if anyone is NOT connected, are you being charged? If not, why not, or what reason was Dish given that they are using to not charge you?

Thanks,

Bob

 

[papalittle]

I think it is a ploy by dish to get people to order more PPV's and another way to get $5.00 more out of you. They say it is to prevent account stacking but people who stack em will just pay the $5.00 anyways and still stack accounts.

 

[garys]

The contract for having Dish is specific as far as what location the receiver/s are in, the phone line lets them know where they are. There may be some legal way to get out of paying the fee. But think of all the money one person would pay to find out what that may be. Person would probably wind up pay several hundreds more than just paying the fee. There should be some kind of arguement for those who don't have a land line, but for those who just don't want to? That is not any kind of arguement in my book.

 

[srs913]

There is no legal way out of paying the fee, the contract you signed states that no phone line enables them to charge you $5.00, so legally speaking, dish has won that battle, if you don't believe me, read the fine print in the contract that was left with you when you had dish installed.

 

[Coolnate32]

There is no legal way out of paying the fee, the contract you signed states that no phone line enables them to charge you $5.00, so legally speaking, dish has won that battle, if you don't believe me, read the fine print in the contract that was left with you when you had dish installed.

what if you didn't sign a contract?

 

[Zero327]

Regardless of contract status, payment of phone line fees is required.

 

[n0qcu]

Regardless of contract status, payment of phone line fees is required.

Only if you have/get a dual tuner receiver. If you stick with single tuner receivers there is NO fee for not connecting a phone line.

 

[webbydude]

My whole issue with the phone connection charge is a basic one. Why doesn't Dish just advertise the monthly price WITHOUT the phone connected. Explain to the customer, "hey...if you DO plug your phoneline in, you'll receive a $5/month discount". The word "penalty" is what pisses a lot of people off. If they feel they can get a discount, great; but if not, no big deal since it's only a "discount" they're losing out on.

 

[garys]

I've always liked this of people in general.

 

[rcdallas]

My whole issue with the phone connection charge is a basic one. Why doesn't Dish just advertise the monthly price WITHOUT the phone connected. Explain to the customer, "hey...if you DO plug your phoneline in, you'll receive a $5/month discount". The word "penalty" is what pisses a lot of people off. If they feel they can get a discount, great; but if not, no big deal since it's only a "discount" they're losing out on.

This I could not agree more with. I hear from people all the time, I'm so sick of cable the fees you pay..... they advertise free dvr upgrade free 4 room installs...... but don't include the phone line nor the DVR fee / DVR.

In reality alot of people are trying to cut back on budget issues and switch to the lower advertised price..

Straight up be honest and tell people UP FRONT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Pepper]

Part of the rationale is that if the line's already plugged in you're more likely to impulsively buy a PPV than if you have to go to the trouble of plugging it in each time.

Since it's impossible to account-stack a single box with two outputs, the reason for charging the penalty only for those boxes is a mystery. It's the other ones they should be penalizing.

 

[Hall]

what if you didn't sign a contract?

Please explain

 

[Jordan420]

Since it's impossible to account-stack a single box with two outputs, the reason for charging the penalty only for those boxes is a mystery. It's the other ones they should be penalizing.

Excellent point, the only reason I can come up with, is that it is another way to get $5 from people.

I'm sure most people do not have a phone jack next to their TV & most people do not want a 25 foot telephone cord run across the room.

And as more people are going to cell phone only it is an underhanded way to collect money from subs, just like PVR's suddenly changed to DVR's & subs started being charged $5 unless they were at the top tier programing.

 

[webbydude]

Excellent point, the only reason I can come up with, is that it is another way to get $5 from people.

I'm sure most people do not have a phone jack next to their TV & most people do not want a 25 foot telephone cord run across the room.

And as more people are going to cell phone only it is an underhanded way to collect money from subs, just like PVR's suddenly changed to DVR's & subs started being charged $5 unless they were at the top tier programing.

All very valid.

To which I need to reiterated; Dish really does need to change it's policy on dual-tuners. Simply explain to the customers what the price is WITHOUT a phoneline, and then explain that there is a discount if the customer chooses to connect the receiver to a phoneline. It's all a matter of psychology.

 

[dishcomm]

Is there a legal way of avoiding the $5.00 per month, per receiver Dish Network connection charge in the event that you can't or DON'T want to have your receiver connected to the phone line?

Does anyone know the REAL reason that Dish requires the phone line connection, other than to order PPV?

Can anyone expand on this phone line connection rationale, and if anyone is NOT connected, are you being charged? If not, why not, or what reason was Dish given that they are using to not charge you?

Thanks,

Bob

Legal?..Are you willing to spend money on an attorney to find out?..
Otherwise ,the answer is no..I have had several customers get furious over the fee..They scream at the CSR and they get nowhere...
The phone connection story....dish uses this as a trade off..They lease you a dual tuner box..Essentially two recievers in one conatiner.....They waive the addl outlet fee BUT only if you connect to a land based phone line...Why?.. Because Dish believes if a customer has the ability to order a PPV event by pushing a few buttons on the remote they will be more inclined to do so..Hence the tradeoff..

 

[dishcomm]

My whole issue with the phone connection charge is a basic one. Why doesn't Dish just advertise the monthly price WITHOUT the phone connected. Explain to the customer, "hey...if you DO plug your phoneline in, you'll receive a $5/month discount". The word "penalty" is what pisses a lot of people off. If they feel they can get a discount, great; but if not, no big deal since it's only a "discount" they're losing out on.

what looks better to a person looking at an ad...39.99 per month or 44.99 per month? That's why the phone line charge is assumed to be waived...I t looks better in the advertisement...Next time you get one of those D* or E* mailers and count how many times the word "free" appears on the ad...I hate it...People are so stupid sometimes..Any consumer worth their salt will look over any pitch form stem to stern....But they don't..I have had people tell me they are getting service witha DVR to 2 tvs and a 322 to tv's for 19.99 per month...It's just amazing how little people will research.....

 

[skyviewmark]

The dual tuner was one of the best items to come out of Dish. The phone line thing is a nuisance but livable. As someone already said it's a mystery as to why they require it on duals and not singles. Real tough to stack a dual tuner so although that is what they claim, most people who do this stuff for a living have to scratch their head and wonder. I live and work in a very lightning prone area and the last thing I want is a phone line plugged in. Most lightning around here seems to attack the phone systems so therefore we loose a larger share of duals that are plugged in to the phone.

I believe the phone line is used for something else. Yes it makes it easier to order pay per view. But I am a conspiracy theorist who looks at the phone line as more of a big brother thing. And when the receiver phones home who knows exactly what it is telling Dish about my viewing habits. Follow the money..

 

[Jared Twomey]

. As someone already said it's a mystery as to why they require it on duals and not singles.

they don't have anything they can offer as an incentive with the single tuners. They really want them plugged in, and installers are supposed to make sure they are connected, but they have nothing to offer to keep them plugged in...

this is weird, the post that i posted at 6am this morning has the wrong time on it and keeps getting bumped down... odd

 

[Peter Parker]

It sia ll aprt of the standard agreement. Whether you literally signed a piece of paper---and even whether you knew you were agreeing to it---are largely irrrelevant.

 

[Coolnate32]

Please explain

if you have the month to month plan