Phone line needed?

[Frank Solich]

Do I need a phone line connected to any of my receivers in an 811 two 301 setup?

 

[retiredTech]

usually the only reason to "have" a phone line connected is to order PPV

however, if you have more than one receiver you are supposed to have the phone lines connected (it seems they don't enforce this though)

 

[dbdsac]

A couple of months ago I was reading posts from people receiving nasty-grams from Dish for not keeping their receivers tied to phone lines. It seems these posts have stopped lately. I don't know what the resolution was.

 

[KyDave]

A couple of months ago I was reading posts from people receiving nasty-grams from Dish for not keeping their receivers tied to phone lines.

I think those were only going to subs with 5 or more receivers.

I have had a 4000 model without phone connection (because the modem in it wasn't working) for about 3 years without any problem.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Well I got the letter and I now have no land line phone. Switched to T-mobile cell phone account and there is no way to plug into a phone line. Still have all 5 receivers on my account. Told the guy at Dish that I was turning off my land line and would be switching to a cell phone and he said there was really not anything that Dish could do about the phone line connection requirement.

 

[Stargazer]

The only thing they can do is tick the customer off by shutting the additional receivers off on the account or charging the customer the full price for each receiver. There would be several complaints going to attorney general if that were to happen.

 

[mikew]

There would be several complaints going to attorney general if that were to happen.

Regardless of what's verbally promised, the written contract specifies that a phone line is a requirement for the service. If they wanted to play hard ball, there is nothing the AG can or will do.

 

[Tampa8]

There would be several complaints going to attorney general if that were to happen.

How do you say that? It is clearly a requirement to have a phone hooked up. It can be a pain, but it is possible unless you are using only a cell phone. I actually think the contract could be read to imply you must have a phone line that can be hooked to all the receivers and using only a cell phone breaks the contract.

" DISH Network will charge you a reduced monthly fee (Additional Receiver Authorization Fee) for each additional receiver added to your account. This option is only available if your initial DISH Network receiver and all additional receiver(s) are located at the same residence and are continuously connected to the same telephone line. "

 

[MikeD-C05]

Why does Dish and Directv both allow you to buy pay per views for a dollar more over the website if they don't expect some customers to not have a phone line connection? Their tv commercials even say If you can't keep a phone line connected then you can use the web site to order your pay per views. You would have to assume that this is not a new problem and that a lot of customers must not have a phone line connected. That 's why they allow for this over the website.

It's cool when you do order over the website all your receivers get the pay per view. It will show up as one receiver for the 3.99 price followed by the other 4 receivers for 00 price and of course a 1.00 fee for doing it over the internet.

 

[Tampa8]

Why does Dish and Directv both allow you to buy pay per views for a dollar more over the website if they don't expect some customers to not have a phone line connection? Their tv commercials even say If you can't keep a phone line connected then you can use the web site to order your pay per views. You would have to assume that this is not a new problem and that a lot of customers must not have a phone line connected. That 's why they allow for this over the website.

It's cool when you do order over the website all your receivers get the pay per view. It will show up as one receiver for the 3.99 price followed by the other 4 receivers for 00 price and of course a 1.00 fee for doing it over the internet.

I guess you could read that as it applies if you have only one receiver and it is not hooked up (which would be ok) then you can still order by phone or website. There is no question, Dish does fully enforce this and I really do believe the vast majority of people are not sharing accounts and use the boxes for themselves. Also Dish could probably prevent ordering by phone or website if you had more than one receiver if they wanted to, or could certainly only let one receiver get the PPV for the $3.99. I was unaware all receivers get the PPV when you order it.

 

[James Long]

Why does Dish and Directv both allow you to buy pay per views for a dollar more over the website if they don't expect some customers to not have a phone line connection?

1) Greed - They WANT people to connect the phone line, but they certainly are not going to let that stand in the way of making money on PPV.
2) RV and other exceptions - Again, why turn down money from subscribers just because they have no phone line installed?

The policy on the 322 and 522 would seem to be a sign of things to come. Connect a phone line and the second room is free on those two receivers. Don't connect a phone line and you pay $5 more per month. While I do not expect E* or D* will throw away the millions of "$5 per extra receiver" fees they already charge, I suspect that as this 'no phone line' problem becomes a more serious issue we will see $5 if connected, $10 if no phone line connected.

Look at the new $200 fee for DHP subs who don't give out their SSN. E* is perfectly capable of fining their customers for not staying in line with their rules, no matter how strange their rules may be.

JL

 

[MikeD-C05]

If keeping your receivers connected to a phone line would save the additional receiver fee then I could see it worth doing. This would be cool if they did this. They would get full compliance on this one from most customers if they did that.

I still don't know why they need to add an additional fee to the 322 and 522 for not keeping it connected to a phone line. It's not like you can share a dbs receiver with a friend when the box is in your house and the second tuner is in the same box. Well maybe in trailer parks, the houses are really close together and the new uhf remote does do 200 ft.

Either way if Dish wants to prevent stacking then they better come up with another way than the phone connection. Many people are doing away with their land lines in favor of cell phones. I did away with my land line this month and do not have any of my receivers connected to any phone lines. The future is coming fast with all these technological changes and Dish and Direct better come up with some new technology to address this.

 

[Stargazer]

Just because people would complain to the Attorney General it would not mean that anything could be done about it, but if enough people complained then they may still look into it seeing that there is a problem. Yes, I do know it states in the contract that all receivers must be connected to a phone line but that cannot always be done especially when you do not have a landline phone but only a cell phone, if that.

 

[James Long]

Yes, I do know it states in the contract that all receivers must be connected to a phone line but that cannot always be done especially when you do not have a landline phone but only a cell phone, if that.

DBS providers do not have to sell to people without land lines.

If you can find anywhere in the FCC rules or the law that says they must sell to people without a landline, feel free to point it out.

I believe it is a bad business decision to eliminate those without land line phones from your potential customer base, but it isn't against the law. I do expect a penalty fee (as discussed in my last post in this thread) to be applied to additional receivers without phone lines if the issue continues to be seen as a problem.

JL