Hooking receivers up to phone line

[cycy2]

Does anyone else not have all their receivers hooked up to a phone line. I have 4 receivers and don't have any of them hooked up to a phone line.

In two of the rooms i dont even have phone jacks available. In the other two the jacks are on the other side of the room.

the reason i ask is because dish sent a letter saying i needed to hook them into my phone line. i know it is in the fine print that this is required but i have never had mine hooked up.

if they are starting to enforce that i guess i will be switching from dish. i have not been real happy anyway because of the continous delays with the superdish.

just curious how many people here had their receivers plugged into a phone jack.

[Matt Stevens]

I got a letter too.

[bud_do]

Nov 24 I will switch my land based phone to Verizon
Wireless; keeping the same number. Thus, I will cancel the land based phone service and have only wireless. Many will do this and I am surprised if E* will be able to enforce such an outdated regulation.

[Darkman]

E* will never enforce it (that is just my opinion)...

[cycy2]

i would be suprised if they enforce it. but i was suprised to get a letter in the mail after 5 years with them stating i had to hook my receivers up.

my bill is 94 dollars per month. if they decide they dont need my money and cancel my service then that is their right. not sure it makes good business sense but to each his own.

[Crazy 1]

There is alot of people switching to cell phones and cutting there land based phone. I guess E* is going to lose alot of subs then. Ah well, call D* they will be glad to take your money if E* don't want it. :lol:

[bobsupra]

The only reason I hooked mine up was for the caller ID option on screen. This way I can avoid calls from Verizon trying to sell me wireless.

[JohnH]

All 16 of my DBS receivers are supposedly connected to the phone line. Perhaps one of the connections popped out. They sent me a letter, also. I will be doing the phone tests this evening.

Be sure and read the entire letter carefully, as they say they may come after you for full subscription charges on each receiver.

[dtcarson]

All 16 of my DBS receivers are supposedly connected to the phone line. Perhaps one of the connections popped out. They sent me a letter, also. I will be doing the phone tests this evening.

Be sure and read the entire letter carefully, as they say they may come after you for full subscription charges on each receiver.

If the contract doesn't say 'you must have this hooked up to a phone line' [which I don't think mine did], they shouldn't be able to do this. Their options should be:
1. convince me to connect to a phone line [offer benefit/bonus]
2. coerce me [be mean about it, but I'll stand by my contract that I signed]
3. cancel me [since they're cancelling the contract, I shouldn't be held liable for any remaining costs]

Of course, it might come down to 'who has more money to spend on lawyers.'

We don't have a phone line either, we went with voice over IP on our broadband connection [neither of our cell providers give us a good signal at the new house] which doesn't work with DBS systems, as faras i can tell.

[Lee L]

Be sure and read the entire letter carefully, as they say they may come after you for full subscription charges on each receiver.


Looks like Charlie picked up this tactic from D*.

[Cyclone]

FYI: You can usually get a land line "Life line" Phone circuit for about $12/mo. You get charged like $.35 per outgoing call though, but its cheap.

[Matt Stevens]

I talked with my source inside E*. Apparently 40% of the customers with 4 or more receivers are actually doing the no no setup of receivers at multiple locations (homes). Example: 2 receivers at mom & dad's, with 3 receivers at their son's place two towns over.

They plan on enforcing this new policy.

[Lyle_JP]

I'm mad enough about the new PVR fees. One of my receivers is hooked to a phone line, but the other isn't and never will be. If I get a letter it will be the last straw with E*. DirecTV is looking better every day.

[greylar]

I talked with my source inside E*. Apparently 40% of the customers with 4 or more receivers are actually doing the no no setup of receivers at multiple locations (homes).


Does this mean that they will only enforce the phone line thing on accounts with 4 or more receivers? Hopefully those of use with 1,2 or 3 receivers will be ignored.

G

[Darkman]

All 16 of my DBS receivers are supposedly connected to the phone line. Perhaps one of the connections popped out. They sent me a letter, also. I will be doing the phone tests this evening.


hehe,

Have fun, John :hurah:

[Darkman]

I'm mad enough about the new PVR fees. One of my receivers is hooked to a phone line, but the other isn't and never will be. If I get a letter it will be the last straw with E*. DirecTV is looking better every day.

If you switch to DirecTV - better hope they will not start doing the same thing as Dish :rolleyes:

[Mike D-CO5]

This is most likely the future for both Dish and Directv customers. Directv is suing everyone under the sun over suspected hackers , do you really think that they won't do the same as Dish with the phone line connections. I think that stacking is more of a threat to the sat providers then hacking . It is much easier to stack an account then hack one. Think of all the additional revenue they might get from people who actually had to sub to the service vs getting it for 5.00 on someone else's account, like their relatives.

[cycy2]

good point mike.

but also think of the potential losses they will incur for making you plug into a phone jack. i know i am not going to move my living room around so the tv is close to the phone jack. nor will i run wire from one side of the room to the other. i am not going to jump through those hoops just to watch tv.

if they dont want the 94 dollars per month i give to them then i can just send it to the cable company. those guys love to tear down dishes anyway.

[espaeth]

What are you planning on switching to? D* has the same phone line connection requirement, and historically they have been more thorough about enforcing it than Dish. Somehow I think if you connected the receiver once and let it dial out it would keep Dish off your back for a few months.

It isn't exactly a customer friendly policy, but it's not the end of the world either. If you're making the effort to run RG-6 coax to all the receiver locations, it's not that much harder to run some Cat3 or Cat5 cable for a phone line at the same time. If you didn't have a phone line that would be a different story, but I would be willing to bet that less than 0.5% of E*'s subscriber base has to worry about this.

[xgrep]

if they dont want the 94 dollars per month i give to them then i can just send it to the cable company. those guys love to tear down dishes anyway.And the cable companies (or at least Comcast) are able to capture your PPV orders over the cable, so don't need the phone connection.

x

[Cyclone]

I should have a little fun. I have 3 phone lines here. I should hook my receivers up to separate lines. :D If they investigate them, they'll find the same address on both accounts.

[Jacob S]

I hope they do not enforce this on those that have 1-3 receivers because there are a lot of customers that have 2 or 3 receivers, especially considering the promotions for 2 and 3 receivers free and the cost of the hardware going down.

[Broadband Lab Rat]

Hmmm... I have 3 receivers... Right now 2 of them are in my motorhome, which is not parked at home.. Next week, me and the motorhome will be in Florida for 2 weeks. Later, we will be in Tennessee...

The phone line connection is going to be a bit of a problem for me... no doubt!

PS... I do have a motorhome exemption for Network Feeds... perhaps I'll not get a letter... I certainly can't connect a phone line to them anyway...