Locals with Direct but not Dish??

[tafische]

Helping a buddy of mine decide on Dish or Direct. He lives on the edge of a county, but his "postal city" is in the next county.

Anyway - he called Direct - they asked for his zip, then his county - they said YEP...based on your county no problem - you can get locals.

Called DISH - only asked for ZIP. they said NOPE.....asked why Dish couldnt and Direct could -- they gave some story about spot beams (which was made up) ....but a neighbor a mile down the road with a postal city in the actual county is getting them....

I looked on a DMA map and it looks like they are county based...if this is the case he should be eligable....looks like DISH's system is not smart enough to know this...

Any way to make Dish understand this or his he just out of luck?

[James Long]

Legally it depends on the COUNTY where the subscriber lives. 5 miles down the road when you are less than 5 miles from the county line can make the difference.

E* currently has SD locals in 164 markets. Many of those markets also have D* locals, some markets have D* and not E*. Looks like you found one that D* added before E*.

http://charts.dbstalk.com/dbs_comp.htm has a list of all of the markets that E* and D* currently carry.

The E* CSR may have been referring to the lack of space on the spotbeam to carry the second market. They know they are county based. Some of D*'s markets are limited because their spots do not cover the entire targeted market.

JL

[tafische]

Well...he is 5 miles down the road in the county that should be able to get locals.

I know spot beams work here because they are being offered just down the road where the zip changes.

Direct says - no problem - you can have them.

Dish never asked about the county and said he couldnt. Basically it seems they are going ONLY by the zip and not the county he lives in.

[James Long]

What is the zip where HE is? What is the zip where the other house can get locals?

JL

[tafische]

He lives in 38356 (Medon - Hardeman County) - which covers three or four counties. Right down the road is 38381 (Toone)

THX

[James Long]

Yep ... he got caught by a big zip code.
38381 is entirely within Hardeman County (Memphis TN locals)
38356 is split between Hardeman, Madison and Chester Counties (Jackson TN locals officially in Madison and Chester Counties). If E* did offer locals in the Jackson market it would be three channels (ABC 7, PBS 11 and UPN 16). The "center" of the Zip Code is in Madison County, which is probably why E* is leaning that way and calling it a Madison County Zip Code. Memphis would give him the full list of stations.

D*'s address broker is doing better - asking what county the address is in.

I assume that your friend raised the county issue, requested a supervisor and all the usual customer service tricks? You can also email ceo@dishnetwork.com and explain the problem.

JL

[dsanbo]

I learned the "Zip Code" rule the hard way a long time ago....
If I use my MAILING Zip....I can get LIL....If I use my PHYSICAL town's Zip...I can't...less than 2 miles apart!!!:( Frustrating, to say the least!!!

[tsmacro]

Hmmm.....seems to me you might be able to get around this if you use an address from the county he lives in as his "physical address" in other words where he'll have his system intalled and then use his mailing address as just that. After all there are plenty of people who have different mailing addresses.