I purchased a Hopper 3 off Ebay recently and just installed it. It works fine and just needs authorazation (hit). I was told that the receiver was previously authorized to a different account and as a result they would not add it to my account. I currently have a 722 that I bought off ebay many years ago and prior to that a 512 and some others. I have never had any problem getting them authorized. I have always owned my equipment and never had a contract. In 16 years with Dish there has never been an issue like this. What is going on here?
Trouble Authorizing Hopper 3 Receiver Purchased on Ebay
- Thread starter W6k
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 27
- Views 2K
You bought a Hopper that someone else was selling but never owned. It was a leased receiver. Before buying receivers, you should always get the Receiver Number and call Dish to see if it;s free to activate on a different acount
You got screwed. If you've been with Dish and no plans of leaving what's a contract going to hurt? You can get them to give you a free hopper2 or argue enough and get a free hopper3 and can usually get a better price via credits for 12 or 24 months if you do a contract.
Are you sure? He wrote:
Now it could be a leased receiver, or it could just be that the H3 was still on somebody else's account as stated. My owned 722 is like that; it still shows up under my equipment even though it has been de-authorized for years. I think the solution is for W6k to contact his seller and ask him to remove it from his account.
Crossing my fingers!
Last edited:
Very valid point. I have a ton of receivers that are on my account but not active.
Send me the receiver ID and your account number in a DM and I can look into it and give you more detail.
That's it. As long as it was purchased and not leased... that should fix it.
A couple of years ago I bought a used 4k Joey that showed up (from the dish help folks) as being owned, and activated. When I reached back to the eBay seller, they put me in contact with who the registered owner was, which turned out to be a wholesaler type company. They would not remove the activation, and i believe to this day are charging someone for the service (and paying Dish). They do not question that I legitimately purchased the receiver, they don’t seem interested in correcting the issue either.
And this is my 2 cents but the way it should be done is that they should punish the person in DISH's database it was tied to and not the person who brought it to DISH because if you think of it the business way, DISH activates the receiver that was presented to them and assuming it was already tied to an account already, all they are doing is removing access to the person who registered it to before and then now adding it to another account. DISH then also collects because they will still charge for that box being connected, one way or another as a access fee since you pay that whether you lease or own the receiver and assuming this was a new customer, the programming whether contracted or not. And ofcourse DISH also saves without having to provide hardware to the person in question. The only scenario where DISH would not activate the box should be if the box was reported as stolen in the database, and at that point, DISH would report it to the authorities instead and the authorities would go after whoever provided the receiver to the person who called to activate as it shouldn't be too hard to prove who it came from with communications in writing unless it was done verbally. In the case here since it was bought from EBay, I am sure EBay has policies to protect the buyer where the buyer can get EBay to step in to get a refund in full because of the issue and they will even provide a free return shipping label to return the item to the seller as a result since the buyer basically got something that can't even be used that was not their own fault.
I agree with you.
In my case the eBay seller I purchased the Joey refunded my money and not bother sending it back.
That's good since you didn't suffer any financial loss but instead gain a free toy and also learned a lesson of what to do in the future before buying a receiver from Ebay or elsewhere to know it will work for sure. Glad it atleast had a happy ending in your case.
If it turns out to be a leased receiver then what the seller did is fraudulent and should be reported to the seller's local police department.
Also, I see no benefit in purchasing a Dish receiver unless you have exhausted all attempts to persuade them to give you a Hopper 3.
Also, I see no benefit in purchasing a Dish receiver unless you have exhausted all attempts to persuade them to give you a Hopper 3.
Not sure if this is correct or not but not sure if the local, county or state law enforcement can even do anything as they usually can only enforce laws of their level of government and higher including state laws of the state. When it's a issue like this, it's considered a federal offense and one would actually need to contact the FBI instead if it did not involve the USPS in either shipping the product or delivering the money but if the USPS is involved, then one should also contact the US Postal Inspection Service, where both the FBI and USPIS would be enforcing federal laws and not state level or lower laws.
I also never understood why people would buy equipment for a pay tv service when that equipment will have a long time before you can even recoup your investment assuming it costs money to lease and you also run the risk of the pay tv company going under and you will have nothing except a expensive paper weight. It's different if you were buying equipment that would work without involving a specific service provider like a good example would be someone makes a DVR or receiver which will work on any satellite provider as all you do is insert some card from the provider so if you didn't like company A or it went under, all you have to do is get service from another provider and put their card in similar to how cell phones work with SIM cards provided that the equipment supports everything that all the providers need.
But more to the point…..
I am one of those that has always purchased and installed all my own equipment. What do I get out of doing this, control.
I don’t have to waste time arguing with Dish about what kind of installation/configuration to be installed (within the bounds of what actually works). Also, I’m very particular on how an installation is done; where the dish is located, how the cables are ran, how much damage may or may not be done to the house by the installation, how the receiver is connected to the AV equipment, etc. etc. And it’s unfair of me to expect an installer (who is on the clock) to adhere to all my fussy restrictions and requirements. Hence, it’s encumbent on me to do that work myself instead.
Now, with that control comes costs, both literally and figuratively. There is the expense of course. However, this isn’t thought of as a short term whim but rather a loner term investment. I have presumably done all of my research ahead of time for what I deem as the best viable option, and I’m willing to invest in that option.
I’ve also had to become knowledgeable in the details of installation configurations (of which this site is invaluable), dish pointing, trouble shooting, etc. etc. And if something is wrong, I’m on the hook to fix it, nobody else. All of that does take extra time and effort.
Lastly, I enjoy the technical journey of learning all of this and having the satisfaction of a technical job well done.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying what you said is wrong. Rather, what I do is a style choice, and for me the benefits out-way the negatives.
Is what I do right for everyone, obviously not. Most folks aren’t inclined or don’t care about such details. But the very existence of this board I think proves there are more like me than just a rarefied few.
So to suggest that there is no benefit to owning ignores the fact that different people have different values, and those values may not be the same as yours.
I used to own rental property; when the renters moved out they left a DirectV DVR and receivers in the house.
They had no interest in paying for shipping, or even asking us to send back to DirectV. I presume they are leased, but don’t know what DirectV’s policy on leased equipment is? If I sold it on eBay, I’d sell “As-is” for parts as one never knows when someone needs a drive or a power supply or a panel, etc. But a lot of people selling leased receivers on eBay probably don’t know the difference between leased and owned equipment.
They had no interest in paying for shipping, or even asking us to send back to DirectV. I presume they are leased, but don’t know what DirectV’s policy on leased equipment is? If I sold it on eBay, I’d sell “As-is” for parts as one never knows when someone needs a drive or a power supply or a panel, etc. But a lot of people selling leased receivers on eBay probably don’t know the difference between leased and owned equipment.
Last edited:
RTCDude - I agree with you on everything as far as the rewarding benefits go but I just won't be putting the money in it for that experience since all DISH had to do was similar to cable companies, provide a self-install kit as well as all hardware so they do not have to send the tech out and you do everything on your own where they will provide all the parts except the labor which is what the customer provides, and at the same time, you will gain the rewarding experience and then when it comes to troubleshooting, forums like these will help because even the person who leased equipment from DISH won't get free troubleshooting either or a tech as it will either cost you in the protection plan or at a per visit cost if you don't want to do it yourself. So you would still get the control. The only difference between cable and satellite is with cable, the truck rolls are free provided the issue is on the outside up to the demarcation point similar to the telephone company but with satellite, it would be hard to determine where the actual problem is like if it was between the DISH and the satellite signal or if it's after the DISH going into the customer premises. So being both someone curious and a Astrophysicist, I would even be doing things in a higher level of detail than you would like putting things under a microscope for lack of better term which is why if I were wiring, I would be really picky about even the wiring. I will not use what DISH or even Cable TV providers use as those companies do not use the best products either. I would first be using the RG11 version of the Belden 1694A. Why? Because these are the same cables used by the broadcasters and elsewhere and also exceed the specs of the cables everyone else uses as these are higher performing in specs being SDI (Serial Digital Cable) that can handle 6GB/sec among other things. Yes, it might be overkill but I will know it will deliver 100% and I may or may not use compression connectors because those too are considered more to save on costs for the pay tv companies as I will use Canare FP-C71A RG-11 connectors which actually it's own pin that is crimped over the bare center conductor as seen below so it will not be the bare center conductor of the wire that directly is inserted into female F connectors:
The other reason is because this is true 75 Ohm impedance for both the cable and the wire while the other wires might be sold as 75 Ohm, it may or may not be as tight in the specs. So when I originally commented, I was not talking about anything other than the set top box itself as obviously you can even have your own customized dish that can be made with titanium if you wanted to and even have a better LNB than what DISH has in distribution if you wanted to or even mount the DISH 1,000 feet above.
The other reason is because this is true 75 Ohm impedance for both the cable and the wire while the other wires might be sold as 75 Ohm, it may or may not be as tight in the specs. So when I originally commented, I was not talking about anything other than the set top box itself as obviously you can even have your own customized dish that can be made with titanium if you wanted to and even have a better LNB than what DISH has in distribution if you wanted to or even mount the DISH 1,000 feet above.
Last edited:
I agree with most of what you said except spending more money on higher spec cabling. That's no different than using 91+ octane gasoline on a vehicle designed to run on 87. It doesn't increase performance and is a waste of money. Companies put a lot into r&d to know what works and what doesn't. There's a whole list of approved equipment that will give you 100% reliable service. Even using the canare connectors, imo would reduce performance because power is being sent down the wire (for the main receiver) and you're reducing it's conductivity. Probably an extremely small amount but it would never be as good as direct contact with the copper. But as far as self installing goes I completely understand. It's done your way and in most cases probably better than the tech would of done because unfortunately there's probably more techs out there that do sloppy work than there are that do clean work like myself and hipkat.
It's more of a thing where you have to try it to see because remember the approved equipment list might mean it needs to meet the minimum of the specs needed but remember, this is personal spending and not talking about spending from the business level since it's obvious for techs and even DISH, they would want to pay the lowest they can to meet the specs needed since it's about the bottom line. There is a reason the Canare connectors are rated high and heavily used as you may look at it as reducing connectivity but how often does your bare conductor actually contact everything that is 360 degrees as there will be parts of the conductor that will not touch anything but in this case, the crimped pin will have 100% coverage of the conductor itself, atleast on the inside. I forgot all the details of why using the pin is better as far as the signal quality goes but it could also be the materials used in the connector as Blue Jeans Cable would not be using the Canare connector if they were not good. Some sellers of Canare would show this:
"Most F connectors on the market utilize a coaxial cable's solid inner conductor as the plug's center contact pin. This design can cause near and long term problems from center conductor nicks, bending, dielectric migration, metal fatigue and contact corrosion. Furthermore, this type of commonly installed F connector may also produce signal degradation, outages, poor picture quality, RF leakage problems and most importantly - an expensive service call.
To meet the growing demands of advanced Digital Broadband equipment, Canare has developed the world's first precision, highly reliable 75 ohm F Connector. Electromechanically stable (nickel over brass body, high quality tapped threads, extra wide torque nut, gold crimp pin, extra long crimp sleeve), our FP-C is quick to install using the same Canare strip & crimp tools as our standard 75 ohm BNC and RCA plugs.
Canare true 75 ohm F Connectors are impedance matched with excellent Return Loss characteristics and can easily handle future "Smart House" RF broadband multimedia networks to 1 GHz and beyond. Will mate with SCTE approved standard F receptacles."
and these are not new as they have existed for 23+ years since even what was said above was probably written 23+ years ago so there is a reason that people are still buying and using them but until one has used them, it's hard to say one way or another.
It could also because the tolerance in the specs is more tight among other things since it's no different that like if a connector is corroded, techs will generally just use elbow grease while others will use something like cramolin red or cramolin blue to deoxidize and remove the corrosion which is hard to explain until one actually used it as it does improve conductivity as well. Caig laboratories sells the same stuff as DeOxit. So maybe the better way to look at the investment is while both the approved list will work now, you have to look at it should there be problems a few years down the road so while the former might be cheaper, maybe spending that extra money might result in it being problem free. So there is no such thing as a 100% but 99.9% and maybe in reality, the extra money just adds more 9's after the decimal so you will get closer to 100% but ofcourse it depends how much one is willing to pay to be closer and it should be reasonable so maybe I should have said if the cost was only slightly more since it's obvious a bad idea to spend 5x to be better but if it was 5%-10%, it might be worth it and using 91+ octane in a vehicle to run on 87 is different because once it's burned, it's burned but in this case, your wire is still there so in the future, should the specs change and the wires still can handle the spec for whatever you need it for which could be satellite, cable or anything else for that matter, you can use the same wires without having to buy new wires again which at the end might actually cost more in total.
After thinking about it for a bit, this is what is shown on Markertek:
If you really think about it, it does increase the surface area because if you look at the pin, remember the pin would need to be bigger than the diameter of the copper conductor so basically pin is inside the female F connector, it will be a more tighter fit because it will be bigger in diameter than without the pin.
But this is what Blue Jeans Cable actually says about the cables and the connector:
Ever since the advent of cable television, coaxial RF ("radio frequency") television cables have been an essential part of most home video installations. However, today, rather than carrying analog signals which top out at a few hundred megahertz, RF cables are typically asked to do much more. In CATV systems, these cables typically now carry high-bandwidth digital cable content and broadband cable internet. In satellite TV applications, these cables often carry high-frequency digital signals from LNBs placed well away from the satellite receiver. For these sorts of requirements, a precision-engineered cable with low capacitance and tight impedance stability is the best way to make sure that the signal gets through every time, whether in the professional environment or in the home.
The typical F-connector for RF coax is designed more for quick installation in the field, for the cable TV installer, than for durability and reliability. Most F-connectors just pass the center conductor of the coax through the connector body, resulting in a less-than-dependable, corrosion-prone contact, often the cause of loss and intermittency. Conventional F-connectors are often only weakly attached to the coax braid, for a poor completion of the cable shield and a contact which is prone to vary in quality as the cable is handled, and can even be weakened by the mere act of screwing the connector into the jack. We use our favorite F-connector, the Canare FP-series, on our RF cables. These connectors use a gold-plated center pin for a firm, straight and corrosion-proof contact with the jack, and have a solid, nickel-plated brass body with deep, well-machined threads that ensure a connection which is both mechanically and electrically sound. The connector body is tightly crimped all around the circumference of the braid, to complete the shielding from cable tip to cable tip.
So anyways, I think the real reason for that route is yes, the other equipment might meet the specs but when it comes to electrical current or RF, you want to have as much of the original signal as possible on the output and obviously with all cables, there will always be a signal loss from the input to the output so if one delivered 98% of the original signal and the other delivers only 94% of the signal, it will still be different as far as performance is concerned and may mean the difference between a stable signal or not.
Last edited:
As it turns out the Hopper was a demo owned by a Dish dealership.I dontknow why he wanted to sell it but it was very inexpensive and included the remote. The problem was solved by the shop owner calling Dish and removing it from his inventory. It is now activated and working well.
Glad you had a good ending and it's working for you.
Similar threads
Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)
Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 132) Show all
- W6k
- strikes2k
- lgb0250
- engineercarl
- wa6rht
- David M
- RTCDude
- Russ8594
- DialgaChampion
- NJeanA
- njack11
- nelson61
- gmitchell
- bobc469
- dishrich
- cns2782
- Dell00iss
- dsimmon9
- bnewt
- jimgoe
- JSheridan
- cpdretired
- dhunter113
- KaptainRandom
- PrunePicker
- rvvaquero
- Tony S
- Mister Coke
- Jim5506
- HipKat
- Elsguy
- jaspcarr
- ae4ac
- TheKrell
- n0qcu
- Miner
- tallfence
- RobMeyer1
- worstman1
- FLEABttn
- JimC
- Bobby
- tjboston5676
- Cold Irons
- thomasjk
- catamount
- That American Girl
- sailhome
- charlesrshell
- Almighty1
- Mr Tony
- jannah
- pamajestic
- Keith Brannen
- Tecmo SB Guy
- jackson85
- Conway
- HIFI
- dweber
- Bruce
- dishdude
