Waiver request

[WakeBdr]

How do I go about requesting a waiver for locals? My parents don't subscribe to locals because the locals Dish provides to them are not the ones they want. They live in a small town between Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina. They are ~53 miles from Charleston and ~71 miles from Columbia. Dish provides the Columbia locals, but they would rather have the Charleston locals since they are closer to Charleston and also have another house in Charleston. From what I understand, they get the Columbia locals because the majority of the county they live in is closer to Columbia.

I searched the Dish site for the waiver request form, but I only found a page that returned a '404 Not Found' error.

First off, is a waiver request the right thing to do?

Secondly, can anyone point me to the waiver request form that works?

 

[ngriffin]

If they have another house in the Charleston market, their best option would be to change their service address to that home and leave the billing address at their primary residence. The service address is what determines the market you are placed in.

That said, in the future Dish may add significantly viewed out of market stations for that county. They are just starting to do this in a few markets, so I wouldn't hold your breath at this point. If that happened, your parents could always move their service address back, if the "home" lineup was more advantageous.

 

[WakeBdr]

If they have another house in the Charleston market, their best option would be to change their service address to that home and leave the billing address at their primary residence. The service address is what determines the market you are placed in.

Can they do that? What happens if they need a service call?

 

[MikeD-C05]

You can call a local installer that installed your Dish and they can work on it for you. OF course if you want to get Dish to do it , you will have to "move" back to your real home address as long as it takes for them to fix your dish.

 

[WakeBdr]

If they change their service address, will the locals automatically be switched or is there another step involved?

 

[j0nnyhb]

I just called Dish and talked to a rep about getting a waiver. Dish doesn't carry any of my locals, so I need ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX from some other location. They say it can take up to 30-45 days, and they don't tell you the result. If it goes through, you will all the sudden get the new channels (not the best way to inform you IMO).

 

[WakeBdr]

Well, that's not cool that they don't inform you. Since my parents don't subscribe to the locals, how will they ever know if their waiver was granted?

 

[j0nnyhb]

They would have to check the GUIDE, and see if those channels "show up". That is what they told me to do, keep checking back. Not good. There is another thread I started about "local channels" which has some good info.

 

[amoni]

When I first got Dish, my locals weren't up. I was told to get an off air antenna. My Dish installer was going to to add one but he couldn't get any decent signal except for a really fuzzy FOX. I had to write to each station, give them the signal numbers the installer provided and ask for the waiver. I had to keep up on them and even call a couple of times and ABC, CBS & NBC came through but Fox reused. They said they have a transmitter in town and I should get an "acceptable" signal through the antenna, which I don't.

Now the locals are up. I still have the NY & LA feeds and LOVE them ( I'm from NYC, so It seems like home). My locals are based two hours away and have no commercials or news for this area and are basically useless to me. But to get FOX I'd have to get them. This would require a SuperDish. Now my question to anyone who knows, If I get the SD and subscribe to my locals, will I lose my distants which I definitely do not want to do, especialy to just gain FOX.

 

[tracyt]

I still have the WEST coast feeds, that I got several years ago, before Houston had locals, which I have also now added too....

 

[SimpleSimon]

I just called Dish and talked to a rep about getting a waiver. ... They say it can take up to 30-45 days, and they don't tell you the result.

You can check the status of waiver requests via the website - on the rare times when it's running.

If I get the SD and subscribe to my locals, will I lose my distants

Yes - don't do it.