[orion7144]

I currently have purchased 3 HR21 that were placed on my roomates account about 7 months ago. I have purchased a house and am having DTV installed this week. Yes I am getting a new HD DVR and a regular HD box. I need at least 4 rooms though so I was going to keep 2 of the HR21's and let my buddy keep the other. I have been told from over 10 times calling that yes, no, and maybe. I can not get a straight answer. The boxes were purchased from Ebay as new.

Is there anything I can do to make sure they do not generate a return?

 

[DishCSR]

I currently have purchased 3 HR21 that were placed on my roomates account about 7 months ago. I have purchased a house and am having DTV installed this week. Yes I am getting a new HD DVR and a regular HD box. I need at least 4 rooms though so I was going to keep 2 of the HR21's and let my buddy keep the other. I have been told from over 10 times calling that yes, no, and maybe. I can not get a straight answer. The boxes were purchased from Ebay as new.

Is there anything I can do to make sure they do not generate a return?

unless you paid around 800.00 for each of them, they are not owned, they are leased and therefore non-transferable, your roomate will have to keep them with him on his account....

 

[Michael D'Angelo]

Actually the owned price is not $499 and it has been that way for a long time.

The other part is correct. The units are leased and you can not transfer them from one account to another. Your buddy will either need to keep them activated on his account or he needs to return them to DIRECTV if he does not want to use them.

 

[rudeney]

This is probably my biggest argument against D*’s leasing model with high up-front costs. I understand that the OP (or actually his roommate) signed a contract and it’s legal and perfectly within D* rights to do it this way, but as a “reasonable person”, I say it makes no sense at all. It seems to me that in this situation, everyone wins if D* allows the OP’s roommate to transfer two receivers. D* won’t have to pay for return shipping and “refurbishment” of the receivers and they are getting a new subscriber with a whole new account and keeping an old subscriber. As much as I love D*’s product, if I were in this situation, Dish or cable would have two new customers.

 

[CJTE]

You need to cancel what you have going and do it correctly.

Call DirecTV, tell the front-line CSR that you're moving out and need to split up your account, if they get confused, ask to be transferred to Customer Retentions (as that is the dept. that handles account mergers/seperations).
Customer retentions will be able to split your DVR's to a new account and can usually offer a new customer/winback deal.

Otherwise, you'll lose your HDDVRs to the 'lease curse'

 

[TigersFanJJ]

It depends on who you talk to. Two weeks ago, I was able to get a csr to transfer one to a customer's account that previously was on her sister's account. The csr transferred card and all (really surprised me).

 

[wesmills]

This is probably my biggest argument against D*'s leasing model with high up-front costs.

True, but DirecTV's probably trying to prevent "selling" (how do you sell a leased item? you don't, but I digress) these boxes on the Big E. That way, DirecTV still gets a working box back (or non-working that they have to fix) and can then turnaround and resell it for $199 or whatever the going rate might be. Plus, it's less paperwork. If they have a blanket policy of "all deactivated receivers must be returned and cannot be activated on anyone else's account" then they don't get into the hysteria and confusion bound to happen when a box has moved accounts two or three times. The policy gets them the most return on $$$$ with the least having to accommodate niche situations.

 

[crashHD]

Call DTV. Hope for a good CSR. Tell 'em the story. Hope for an exception.

I'm not gonna bet on it, but you got nothing to loose by trying.

 

[eakes]

Try opening a new account at the present address and transfer the desired boxes to that account. Once established, change the address on that account.

 

[BattleZone]

This is probably my biggest argument against D*'s leasing model with high up-front costs.

The point of the lease model is that you have much LOWER up-front costs.

The alternative would be that everyone would have to come up with $500 per HD-DVR UP-FRONT. Then, they would be owned, and could be transferred at will. Instead, these HD-DVRs were leased at a considerable discount (60% off), assuming that the full $199 was paid for each.

Ask the folks who paid $1000 for their HR10-250 if they don't prefer the lease model...

 

[CJTE]

It depends on who you talk to. Two weeks ago, I was able to get a csr to transfer one to a customer's account that previously was on her sister's account. The csr transferred card and all (really surprised me).

If it was a leased box, then the original sister is going to have to pay the NRF.

Oh, and believe it or not, DirecTV is hammering down more and more, preventing CSRs from doing this kind of stuff unless they are in the Access Card Team (or otherwise authorized).

 

[orion7144]

Well after a nice email and a prompt call back the two receivers are not shown as leased anymore on old account and once disconnected they will send me two new access cards (for $40 that I am not complaining about). Now I just have t worry how the installer will look at this and if he will run the extra two lines or shoot even worse if he installs the regular LNB and not the SWM. Oh well can't ask for everything.

 

[rudeney]

The point of the lease model is that you have much LOWER up-front costs.

The alternative would be that everyone would have to come up with $500 per HD-DVR UP-FRONT. Then, they would be owned, and could be transferred at will. Instead, these HD-DVRs were leased at a considerable discount (60% off), assuming that the full $199 was paid for each.

Ask the folks who paid $1000 for their HR10-250 if they don't prefer the lease model...

Actually, I was thinking more in terms of the way cable does things. Instead of charging up-front fees, they charge more per month to lease the equipment of higher capabilities. In our area, they charge about $5/mo for a standard receiver, $10 for an SD-DVR or HD non-DVR, and $15 for an HD-DVR. If the equipment fails, you can carry it into a service center and have it swapped, no charge. If they come out with "something better", you can do the same no-fee swap. While in the long run (say over two years), you'll pay more for the cable equipment than comparable D* equipment, but in the short run (say in situations like this thread) you'll save.

Even in the days when D* equipment was owned, yes, it did cost more than today's lease fees, but it also had "residual" value on the secondary market.

 

[TigersFanJJ]

If it was a leased box, then the original sister is going to have to pay the NRF.

Oh, and believe it or not, DirecTV is hammering down more and more, preventing CSRs from doing this kind of stuff unless they are in the Access Card Team (or otherwise authorized).

I have no idea if the sister will get a NRF, but wouldn't be surprised.

I believe Directv is easing up a little on reactivating old cards. At least for installers, anyway. I do know that the csr double-checked with her manager before going through the process.