[William]

Customer service said it would be a $5 fee for the 622 and not on the 211 without a phone line. Or more correctly she said that duel tuner receivers have the extra $5 charge. What is the logic behind that?

 

[William]

And yet connecting a phone line would not prevent such sharing.

"Because they can."

So there is no logical or practical reason?

 

[William]

If you had two single tuner receivers you would be paying the $5 fee for that 2nd receiver no matter whether you connect to a phone or not....

I only have 1 TV (projector). So now what is the $5 for?

 

[William]

And even if you use the 622 just to connect to one TV... you still get the use of both tuners (technically 3 counting OTA)... which is the equivalent to if you had two single tuner DVRs.

Not saying I agree with all the fees, incidentally... just that I understand them and don't find them to be as cryptic as some folks do.

....but what is the relationship between 3 tunes and a phone line? You should either charge everyone the fee of no one. It seems like discrimination to me.:nono2:

 

[William]

Already explained in another post above... Also, keep in mind they are not charging you extra if you don't connect a phone line. They are giving you a $5 credit if you do connect. They always charge the $5 for the 2nd tuner in the dual-tuner receivers... they just credit you back $5 if you connect a phone line.

There is no $5 credit option available for single tuner receivers.

The real bottom line is that Dish sets up some rules for their service, and people either abide by them or not. Sometimes it costs you extra to disobey the rules, other times you get away with it .

Okay I'll try again. Why do they give you a $5 credit for having a phone line? What does hooking a phone line to your 622 receiver accomplish for Dish so that they "give" you $5?

Why do you imply that I'm "disobeying the rules" because I use a cell phone and exactly what rule am I disobeying and "getting away with".?

 

[William]

Did you read post #2?

Yes I did. So how does having a phone line prevent this?

 

[William]

Is your receiver connected to your cell phone?

Dish's terms of service REQUIRE that ALL receivers be connected to the SAME phone line. Technically speaking, they could disable all unconnected receivers if they felt like it. It's in their terms of service. They have made a business decision not to enforce that rule unless they suspect that the account is being used in a fraudulent manner. (The more unconnected receivers you have, the higher chance that your receivers are being used in a fraudulent manner and the more likely that you will be audited and have receivers disabled should you fail that audit.)

IF E* has not disabled your non-connected receivers consider it a gift.

There is no way to connect to a cell phone that I know of. Dish uses standard phone tones to dial that I believe aren't supported on cell phones. If you know of a way or device please post a link.

Also I'm only getting one receiver for one TV.

 

[William]

...Dish wants phone lines connected for a couple of reasons... One is for PPV. If you order via remote, this is the only way the receiver can connect to tell Dish you watched a PPV movie. If you never watch PPV, then this is not a problem.

The other reason, and really the big one... is because this is the only way Dish has of verifying that the receiver is physically where you told them it would be used. Because of people that abuse the process and obtain multiple receivers and use them at multiple households and "share" the cost... they have to police all of us...

Also according to Dish you can order PPV on-line or by phone.

So some users who have one receiver will use/sub lease/loan to other locations? You could still do the same using a phone connection by not connecting at the other location(s) and then re-connecting to the phone line when you got it back to your house. So again there is no added protection by requiring a phone line connection for a one receiver setup. Also you could do the same with single tuner receiver that doesn't have the extra fee. Again I'm only talking about a 1 receiver setup. I fully understand the need for a phone connection in a multi-receiver setup.

On a related note Dish should use the Ethernet port (what is it for or do?) to hook into your system to allow PPV and other features Internet based.

 

[William]

Well I just ordered on-line and it did not ask about a land line phone connection or have a place to enter that info. There was no charge listed at all. I will see what happens. Also it said my locals would be $5.99 but only charged $5.00. So how do I get then to charge me the correct amount for locals without risking the phone line charge?

 

[William]

There is no risk... if you do not connect the phone line to a Vip622... after a month or two when it has not called in you will start to see the $5 charge automatically on your bill and you will then have to connect a phone line and call Dish to have that charge removed again.

Then I guess I will have to e-mail them to death (or me) for a logical answer. I don't care about the money and would spend a $1000 to save $5 on principle.:eek2:

Edit: I just received an e-mail about installation and it contained this. It looks like all I have to do is ask the installer.

...Some receivers must be connected to a phone line. If you do not have access to a phone line ask the technician for another solution to avoid a surcharge....