When is dTV (& dish) going to stop the phone line nonsense?

[cruiserparts]

I got rid of my landline and I never want it back. I am thinking of getting either dish or dtv. All I want is one reciever (with dvr) and that's it. What is up with this stupid land line requirement? Dish told me I needed to have one or else they would charge me a 5.00 month aditional fee (something about some dual tunner mumbo jumbo). That's 60.00 a year for nothing.

And I read through the dtv agreement and they require that their recievers are always plugged into a landline.

Note to dish and dtv - people who have gone to all cell phones are the type who are not going to pay additional charges to a tv company b/c they don't have land based phone lines.

So, it looks like I call the cable company.......

 

[GeorgeLV]

So, it looks like I call the cable company.......

Which is just bringing in a different kind of landline.

 

[charper1]

I have 5 receivers and only 2 are on a phone line because those buy PPV; den and master bedroom. 3 have NEVER been on a phone line. I have had 2 Sony 1st generation receivers since fall 1996. No additional charges because of no phone lines here.

 

[aeneas3]

yeah we didnt have any hooked up for 5 months...didnt do anything bad and no one ever knew...
u could do a few things...
u could do the install urself and dial in from a friends place. i think that would work. just do it once...then never again

 

[scotsmanron]

I'm confused. How can "no one know" or "no additional charges" happen since you have to have the receiver card activated?

 

[charper1]

Because they do not 100% require phones lines. That is the point we are trying to make. Same old standard mirror $4.99 charge, no additional charges.

 

[scotsmanron]

Oh, got you. That's the way I'm doing it as well. Just a misunderstanding of vocabulary!!!

 

[charper1]

Cool, I think the 1st poster is a bit uninformed, spouting off 9yr old info to bait us, or really got a dullard of a CSR. 1st post and sone way radical comments IMHO.

 

[scotsmanron]

Maybe the CSR. I got one when I got my H20 that ABSOLUTLY insisted that I MUST have a phone line. Ok, sure, whatever, just get me the receivers, I told him.

 

[CPanther95]

When I had NFL ST, D* regularly shut down my STBs that had no phone line attached. Eventually I ran lines to them to avoid the PITA of calling to get reconnected.

 

[aec4]

I've had NFL ST for years, and I am not ever putting a phone line into one of my receivers. I've never done it, and I have no plans of ever doing it.

 

[cruiserparts]

Cool, I think the 1st poster is a bit uninformed, spouting off 9yr old info to bait us, or really got a dullard of a CSR. 1st post and sone way radical comments IMHO.

Actually, I'm not spouting 9 year old info to bait anybody (at least not knowlingly). Again, all I want is one reciever w/dvr (I know that sounds crazy, but really I only want one tv), and I can see no reason to pay extra money becasue I won't have a phone line to plug into the reciever. The "dullard of a CSR" I got actually was about 5 CSR's that kept telling me different things, often things that directly (and unquestionably) contradicted notes left by previous CSR's in my file. I won't go into it here, but because of people telling me incorrect info and not disclosing things, I had a Dish installer standing in my living room with a freshely installed system who removed it within 3 minutes. Why? Because the CSR people starting telling me things and dumping on charges (example: at the last minute the CSR insisted that instead of a phone charge of 4.99 month for not having a phone line, there was now a "lease charge" of about 5.00 month - that was not disclosed previously. And oddly, no other dish recievers had a "lease charge"???). The crazy thing is that the installer called and verfied everything (equipment, cost, monthly costs, everything) the CSR's told me before he did anything, and he was even miffed when they said to uninsall the equipment because dish had not disclosed things to me.

So now I have a stalk of a dish on my house, and some fresh holes in the roof.

Reading through the directtv agreement, it seems to indicate that a phone line must be connected.

again, i don't know if it matters but I only want 1tv w/dvr. Dish kept saying that if I couldn't have that because they wanted to give me a dual tuner........... or pay them some trumped up fee for not having a home phone??

regardless, if anybody knows if direttv is going to eliminate the phone line requirement, please let me know.

I amy not know much about this, but I do know that I want to understand the terms of service with anybody I sign on with. Seems reasonable to me.

 

[jdk]

Dish does have an extra "no phone line" fee for some of its receivers.

DirecTV has no such charge, and while they'll tell you a phone line is required, _no one_ has ever reported a problem with receiving standard programming or DVR service* from DirecTV.

Now, as CPanther alluded to above - some people have had issues with Sunday Ticket and multiple receivers and no phone line - many have not.

* Note that the Tivo-powered DirecTV DVRs absolutely require one, and only one initial phone call on a land line to have the Tivo service activated. This one phone call can be done at a neighbor or relative's house. Once that's completed, you'll get a daily nag screen to have the Tivo call in, but there's no loss of funcitonality or penalty for actually never calling in again. Also note that the new, non-Tivo powered DVR, the R15 never requires a phone connection to get working.

2nd Note: If you don't plug in a phone line, you also shouldn't order PPV from the remote control. If you do, eventually you may loose programming. Simply order any PPVs for free on the internet.

 

[cruiserparts]

* Note that the Tivo-powered DirecTV DVRs absolutely require one, and only one initial phone call on a land line to have the Tivo service activated. This one phone call can be done at a neighbor or relative's house. Once that's completed, you'll get a daily nag screen to have the Tivo call in, but there's no loss of funcitonality or penalty for actually never calling in again. Also note that the new, non-Tivo powered DVR, the R15 never requires a phone connection to get working.

2nd Note: If you don't plug in a phone line, you also shouldn't order PPV from the remote control. If you do, eventually you may loose programming. Simply order any PPVs for free on the internet.

Thanks for the post. So I guess what your saying is that it is possible to use a variety of receivers to get direct tv programming without needing a phone line or paying an additional "fee". The R15 will serve a single tv, provide dvr, and not require a phone line. Hmmm. Do you think it is worthwhile, as a new customer, to just get the equipment from direct tv or buy my own (I have a nice dish "stalk" on my roof that dish left so hook up might not be very difficult). I need to read up on this "lease only program" that is forthcoming from direct tv. I really don't want to repeat my dish experience (actually every csr that I spoke to at dish was very good, except for the first one. he is the one that started the whole mess).

 

[cruiserparts]

Dish does have an extra "no phone line" fee for some of its receivers.

DirecTV has no * Note that the Tivo-powered DirecTV DVRs absolutely require one, and only one initial phone call on a land line to have the Tivo service activated. This one phone call can be done at a neighbor or relative's house. Once that's completed, you'll get a daily nag screen to have the Tivo call in, but there's no loss of funcitonality or penalty for actually never calling in again. Also note that the new, non-Tivo powered DVR, the R15 never requires a phone connection to get working.
.

will either the R51 or the Hughes DVR80 have a problem if I only have a one tv system? Aren't they "dual tunners"

 

[DRSForLife]

The main reason for the phone line for standard ird's is so your AC can report any PPV orders you placed through you remote control The reason for the phone line for DVR's is becz your DVR makes a daily call to TiVo to update its information for the day such as guide date and any software updates TiVo might have. The new R15's do not require a phone line because the daily info updates are done though the satellite. I know, some sports subs and RSN's require the phone line because it helps them track customers/viewers in a specific market for research.

 

[kevlard1]

will either the R51 or the Hughes DVR80 have a problem if I only have a one tv system? Aren't they "dual tunners"

They are dual tuners so that you can watch one channel while recording another. The DVR box is still for just one tv.

 

[VIPERS-PIT]

The phone lines are to stop hackers. I have 9 recievers and only 5 have phone lines(2 are at the 5th wheel). The kids dont need to be ordering PPV on the others!

 

[woodybeetle]

simple solution, have them install the recievers, then let them plug it into the house line, done, it does not say it has to be an active line, tell D on the phone that you are a cell customer and they will not send a recall signal, nuf said

 

[HCI]

Even if you are going to order PPV it is best done online. That way you can have the viewing on multiple TV's.