One Account, Service at Two Residences

[Chase99]

Hello. New poster here.

Is it possible to have one account with service at two separate domiciles?

I have a home in the Washington, DC suburbs and another in the mountains of West Virginia. I split nearly equal time bewteen the two. In DC I have FiOS TV service and in WV I have DirecTV. I'm an avid baseball and football fan and subscribe to the NFL Sunday Ticket and Extra Innings packages in WV. I've been thinking about dropping FiOS in DC to get DirecTV but before I sign up for a new account in DC I wanted to know if it is possible to just install a dish at my home in DC and bring my receiver from WV. Actually, I would be traveling with my receiver back and forth between residences whenever I travel from one place to the other. My thought here is that since I can only be at one place or the other I wouldn't be doing anything illegal. It's sort of software packages such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat professional where a user is authorized to install it ona desktop and a laptop under the premise that one cannot use both at the same time.

Is it possible to do this with DirecTV without violating any policies or laws?

Thanks,

Chase

[MikeR7]

Hello. New poster here.

Is it possible to have one account with service at two separate domiciles?

I have a home in the Washington, DC suburbs and another in the mountains of West Virginia. I split nearly equal time bewteen the two. In DC I have FiOS TV service and in WV I have DirecTV. I'm an avid baseball and football fan and subscribe to the NFL Sunday Ticket and Extra Innings packages in WV. I've been thinking about dropping FiOS in DC to get DirecTV but before I sign up for a new account in DC I wanted to know if it is possible to just install a dish at my home in DC and bring my receiver from WV. Actually, I would be traveling with my receiver back and forth between residences whenever I travel from one place to the other. My thought here is that since I can only be at one place or the other I wouldn't be doing anything illegal. It's sort of software packages such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat professional where a user is authorized to install it ona desktop and a laptop under the premise that one cannot use both at the same time.

Is it possible to do this with DirecTV without violating any policies or laws?

Thanks,

Chase

If you are using the service at one place at a time, you can have one account. You should call every time you move the receiver and tell them where it is located.

[Grentz]

Technically it works just fine to move the receiver.

Technically for national channels, you can connect your receiver to any properly aimed directv dish and get your service as it is the same signal.

Locals are harder though as they are sent on spot beams that only certain areas can pickup. So potentially if you were outside of the spotbeam where your account is registered for locals, you would not receive the local channels as the dish cannot see the spot beam.


Now on the Legal side of things, you should call everytime you go back and forth.

[Chase99]

Thank you folks. Another question.

Is it possible to buy/lease another receiver for my house in DC instead of traveling back and forth with one receiver?

[lucky13]

Thank you folks. Another question.

Is it possible to buy/lease another receiver for my house in DC instead of traveling back and forth with one receiver?

Sure, but they'd be on the same account, so there would be the same spotbeam problem mentioned above.

There's a small monthly mirroring charge in addition to the cost of the new receiver.

[Chase99]

Thank you.

I'm not as concerned with the spot beam issue as I can get my locals via off air antenna.

[Mertzen]

Is it possible to do this with DirecTV without violating any

Nope. Your service address is the only place where you can have your IRDs.

You agree to provide true and accurate information about the location of your receivers. If we detect that any receiver is not regularly connected to a land-based telephone line, we may investigate and, if it is determined that the receiver is not at the location identified on your account, we may disconnect the receiver or charge you the full programming subscription price for the receiver.

[Chase99]

I had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy.

Thanks Mertzen.

[MIAMI1683]

Yes you can pay to have a dish installed on your other home. Then move your IRD's back and forth. You just need to report your address when you do it. That's all. I had 2 homes for a long time. Left IRD's at the vacation house. I just told D* when I went. They were ok with it. That was way before lease fees and all though. They actually installed the dish on my second home for me.

[totoros]

i think you can lease another unit for your other place and get the service mirrored on that account.

[spartanstew]

Nope. Your service address is the only place where you can have your IRDs.

You agree to provide true and accurate information about the location of your receivers. If we detect that any receiver is not regularly connected to a land-based telephone line, we may investigate and, if it is determined that the receiver is not at the location identified on your account, we may disconnect the receiver or charge you the full programming subscription price for the receiver.

Actually, that doesn't say he can't do it. If he notifies them when he travels to each location he will be satisfying the first sentence. And, if both addresses are on his account, he satisfies the rest of the paragraph too (assuming he has a phone line at each, even though that's not enforced anymore).

[bigpuma]

I had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy.

Thanks Mertzen.

Actually it is easy, sure it may violate the actual TOS but if you are only in one place at a time I would say you are ok with the spirit of the rule. Also if you call and tell them you are moving each time you go back and forth you would be ok as far as the TOS.

[papa_azteca]

Hello. New poster here.

Is it possible to have one account with service at two separate domiciles?

I have a home in the Washington, DC suburbs and another in the mountains of West Virginia. I split nearly equal time bewteen the two. In DC I have FiOS TV service and in WV I have DirecTV. I'm an avid baseball and football fan and subscribe to the NFL Sunday Ticket and Extra Innings packages in WV. I've been thinking about dropping FiOS in DC to get DirecTV but before I sign up for a new account in DC I wanted to know if it is possible to just install a dish at my home in DC and bring my receiver from WV. Actually, I would be traveling with my receiver back and forth between residences whenever I travel from one place to the other. My thought here is that since I can only be at one place or the other I wouldn't be doing anything illegal. It's sort of software packages such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat professional where a user is authorized to install it ona desktop and a laptop under the premise that one cannot use both at the same time.

Is it possible to do this with DirecTV without violating any policies or laws?

Thanks,

Chase

It depends how many receivers you have to know how easy this is. My sister just went through this as she bought a second home in Montana. She only has one receiver. This is how it was explained to her and how the call went.

When she called in and stated that she wanted DIRECTV at her summer home and she was transferred to the moving department. They set it up for the installation (dish and everything) to be installed in the second home. They also upgraded her to an HD DVR for free and offered her NFL ST promo going on now. She had to agree to the commitment of 2 years. Then she was told that since it was only 1 receiver (although they asked if she wanted to have the original installed in a different room but she only needs to the one so she denied) she just had to bring it to her when she returns to Austin and call in and change the address on the account. She was told that if she didn’t then she wouldn’t get the correct locals and RSNs and it may impact the NFL games that are blacked out. That was it.

The only problem she ran into was that apparently they changed the address to the Montana address too soon because she lost Austin locals. She called and this was explained to her. It didn’t impact her that much because she was leaving in less than a week so she just did without them.

I’ll run the second cable in her Austin home while she is gone.

I don’t know how it would have been if she had asked for two separate receivers. She owns the standard receiver she has but the HD DVR is leased. I know that she shouldn’t have two receivers at two different addresses active at the same time. But if she suspends the leased receiver doesn’t she have to send it back? I don’t know if I answered the OP’s question but I know it is possible to have 2 homes and carry the receiver to each location.

[HDTVFreak07]

I have two Directv services at separate locations on one account without a problem. I have two HR20-100's and 2 H20-(600?). One HR20 and one H20 at the cottage and one each at home. When I close the cottage for the season, I simply bring back home the HR20, leaving it active and suspend the H20 that is at the cottage for the season. It's real easy. I think I used the movers plan so that the slimline may be installed at the second location.

[mgtr]

Well, there are many ways to skin a cat. I have two residences, far apart, and two separate accounts -- one in my name, and one in my wife's name. Only one account is active at a time. I move no equipment between the two. When I leave one place, I suspend that account and activate the other. So, every month I get two bills, one for, say $100, and the other for $0.
I have had absolutely no problems doing this, except I sometimes have to explain the procedure to the CSR. To complicate matters, I have two recievers in my motorhome, and they have to always be associated with the active account. So, before they send one account "nighty night" they have to change the association of the motorhome receivers to the other account.
I have done this for 4-5 years, and it has worked well. Plus, my Florida account, only active in the winter, has the March Madness package, and D* always remembers to activate it.

[CJTE]

Nope. Your service address is the only place where you can have your IRDs.

You agree to provide true and accurate information about the location of your receivers. If we detect that any receiver is not regularly connected to a land-based telephone line, we may investigate and, if it is determined that the receiver is not at the location identified on your account, we may disconnect the receiver or charge you the full programming subscription price for the receiver.

DirecTV offers services for Vacation Homes, as well as RVs, Semi's, etc etc etc.

So while the policy may say that the receiver has to be at the location of the service address, thats a CYA kinda thing.
If you call in to DirecTV and tell them you'd like to have an alternate service location, they'll transfer you to Retentions, who'll go through and ask you questions about how you're going to be using your service, then they can determine wether you need another account.

The biggest items are
1) You can only have 1 active address at a time (you cant have your DC receiver and home receiver active at the same time)
2) The receivers at the secondary property should be OWNed (so they can be turned on/off at will)

There are some other conditions, I just dont remember them.

[IcedOmega13]

I've had this question before, when asking a csr was the rundown.

The address must match the location of all recv on account. for multiple homes in use one at a time all recv must remain active (unless owned) or otherwise must be returned. You cannot have multiple homes active on one account at the same time. The csr's suggestion was to buy the equipment at the owned prices from them so one could deactivate without returning them to D* and flip address accordingly.

[IcedOmega13]

DirecTV offers services for Vacation Homes, as well as RVs, Semi's, etc etc etc.

So while the policy may say that the receiver has to be at the location of the service address, thats a CYA kinda thing.
If you call in to DirecTV and tell them you'd like to have an alternate service location, they'll transfer you to Retentions, who'll go through and ask you questions about how you're going to be using your service, then they can determine wether you need another account.

The biggest items are
1) You can only have 1 active address at a time (you cant have your DC receiver and home receiver active at the same time)
2) The receivers at the secondary property should be OWNed (so they can be turned on/off at will)

There are some other conditions, I just dont remember them.


or what he said ^:eek2:

[Blitz68]

Is it possible to buy/lease another receiver for my house in DC instead of traveling back and forth with one receiver?

Technically you are supposed to move the equipment back and forth. You could always tell them that is what you are doing but you would technically be violating the Terms and Conditions of the contract.

[sore_bluto]

Mertzen is wrong. You can use one account to service two addresses provided you stay within the Terms of Service. Under your circumstances, that would be calling DIRECTV every time you move from one location to another, regardless of weather you are carrying receivers back and forth or not. What constitutes the violation is actively using receivers at both addresses at the same time. What you want to do is what anyone with a vacation or mobile home does all the time. It will cost you a little more per month if you elect for extra receivers versus moving them as you will pay the lease fee even when you are not using them.

[spartanstew]

Mertzen is wrong.


As was pointed out by all 11 previous posts.

[BruceS]

I bought a second receiver for my second residence.

When I called in to schedule installation, I fully expected to have to create a seperate account and pay full charges, but the extra receiver was just added to my current account.

In my case, both residences are in the same zip code so this may have had an effect on what was available.

[JLucPicard]

In my case, both residences are in the same zip code so this may have had an effect on what was available.
That would have an effect on the programming your reciever can pick up (likely the same in both places as far as locals and RSN and such), but it is still against the TOS to have them in use in both places at the same time. (Which you already may be fully aware of).

[curt8403]

:mad: Mertzen is wrong.

As was pointed out by all 11 previous posts.

sounds like Harsh.

shame to have to say that any one is wrong.

Does not make for happy feelings/:mad: :mad: :nono: :nono2:

[kingofdmv]

Well, I know it does work because I was doing it for about a month back in June. I was just separated, called DTV to change addresses and only brought one receiver with me as that was all I'd be using. Kept the other receiver at home for my wife to watch until she got her own service. Who knows, it could still be working if she didn't go back to Time Warner.

[grizzly]

Actually I just had an experience with this. You can have two account numbers tied with one account. I'm getting an apartment in a MDU building closer to work and keeping the place I'm at now too.

They only have an MH1 system and the first receiver is free. When I talked to the MDU they wanted to transfer my account, which I didn't want to do. I called retention and they were stumped, but then said that they knew what to do. I ended up talking to someone in direct sales. I don't know if this will help you but they asked me how I wanted to handle it...either mirror my main account programming or do it separately. I told them mirroring would be fine and they told me I could bring one of my deactivated HR10s since the MFH1 won't do the MPEG-4 channels and neither would the HR10, so that would work.

It's worth a try. It was actually easy, although they did want a SS# and did a $25 authorization on a CC# to make sure I was me...

I'll see if it's as easy as they said when I get my next bill :)

Kevin

[rkjg24]

The receivers have to be owned in order to have 2 residences on one account. Otherwise, it's mirroring fraud. Also, both receivers cannot be on at the same time.

[grizzly]

The receivers have to be owned in order to have 2 residences on one account. Otherwise, it's mirroring fraud. Also, both receivers cannot be on at the same time.

I do own them, but again, how can it be fraud if I explained the situation to them and they've set it up this way?

I explained that I would have a separate residence during the week, which had an MDU, and that I record stuff on my DVRs and watch later at the primary residence and that it wouldn't work well to shut off programming there and hopscotch back and forth.

Considering that I'd be getting most of the programming free as well as the first receiver under the MDU umbrella, you would think this wouldn't be an issue.

I've always been honest with directv and all they had to say was, we can't do that.

I just didn't want my regular account transferred since the MDU doesn't have the same programming available since they are an MFH1 system and I'll only get the equivalent of the 3LNB dish pre-D10.


Kevin