Activating receivers that previously had a balance

[Pepper]

Has anyone had any luck getting a receiver activated that previously had a balance or belonged to a delinquent account?

How long does it take for E* to either write-off the bad debt, or collect the "termination fee as liquidated damages" from the customer's credit card, and once the account doesn't exist anymore are its receivers free to activate?

Will it always be a doorstop or if you throw it in the back of the closet for a few months might it be usable when you find it again? What if it was a "lease" account?

There's a reason I'm asking this but I want to see if any others have similar experience before I say anything further.

 

[Van]

It wont get written off, its impossible for them to know wether or not you are the person who originaly had them and have done something like steal someones identity and are using that to activate the receivers. Best thing you can do is have the person who owned the receivers be responsible and pay theyre bill if they have the means to do so, otherwise you are the proud owner of one or more paperweights.

 

[n0qcu]

theyre

It's not theyre (actually spelled they're) = they ARE.
It's THEIR = it belongs to them - they own.

 

[KE4EST]

If you do get a receiver that has a balance owed and you want it added to your account, then you must pay that balance. If you pay someone elses balance then they will add it. If it is a nwer lease receiver someone is trying to sell or they left behind and you found it, nope they won't add it unless they have changed there policy.

 

[KE4EST]

its impossible for them to know wether or not you are the person who originaly had them

Impossible, believe me they would know if Pepper owned them. They do have a name, address, etc tied to the receiver numbers.

If they are stolen, 99.9% of people are going to report it right away, think about it, we do this for a living. People are addicted to TV more than an alcoholic.

 

[Stargazer]

I believe the retailers have an amnesty program that ends by the end of the year which will allow them to clear the balance from the receivers so that they can be used again.

 

[Pepper]

No hope at all then?

 

[Stargazer]

If you take it to a retailer for it to download all of the ppv's on the box then you may be able to get it cleared that way. He would have to send the information over to Dish Network and plug it into a phone line there at his place. They would send a confirmation email back to him telling him that it was cleared. That is how they done it last year.

 

[Van]

It's not theyre (actually spelled they're) = they ARE.
It's THEIR = it belongs to them - they own.

I do not profess to be a genius, nor do I claim to be a gramatical wizard and sometimes I fail to use spellcheck when I should.

Thaynk uwe four yoor koncyrn:neener

 

[Pepper]

OK, here's why I mentioned this. First, hoping it might help someone else who had this situation. Second, to see if anyone else had similar experience.

I have in my possession two receivers I got probably a year ago. One is a 522 bought at the Goodwill store. It was on an account of someone in this area and since at the time 522s were almost exclusively a DHA lease item, I thought it could never be activated. The second is a 311 bought cheap from an ebay seller in Philadelphia and at the time was also on an active account.

About once a month I would plug them in and go to the Dish Home customer service app to check the account status (this in itself is a security hole in Dish receivers, allowing anyone who has the receiver to get to customer information - they should at least use callerid to verify the request is coming from the customer's residence). Month after month went by with various charges and payments appearing, then some adjustments and a zero balance. Most recently the app would show the account as unknown. Now lo and behold, I was able successfully to get Dish to add them to my account with no trouble at all.

Bottom line, two receivers that at one time had outstanding account balances, now active without me having to pay them off or make any "special" arrangements. Is this a fluke or do they just like me for some reason? Maybe this is good news for you if you have one of the infamous doorstops that has been sitting around for a long time.

 

[Jordan420]

this may be a case of where the customer had them removed from their account but never released them.

I had 2 receivers that I owned removed from my account, there was no balance on them. I sold them and when one of the buyers tried to activate the receiver the CSR said there was a balance of $200+ on it.

Let me tell you the buyer was not happy. When I called E* it was explained to me that the receivers were removed from service but not released from my account, CSR released the receivers and the purchaser was able to activate it.

I hope I have used the words there & their in proper context. They're all in this post
Jordan

 

[Pepper]

I could be wrong but at least one sure looked like a delinquent account that was eventually charged off. Whatever, I'm not complaining.

 

[Stargazer]

You may have gotten very lucky. I did not know that you could access other people's accounts by hooking them up to a phoneline. Were those receivers not receiving programming if they were already active on an account and getting paid? I always thought they tracked who was dialing in, but maybe they do not do that on those receivers that are not active on an account.

 

[stevelite]

I had a similar experience. I brought a DP 311 on eBay. When I called for activation I was told that it had no balance, but the receiver was still assigned to current owner. I promptly notified the seller, and ask him to deassign from his name by calling DN so that I can activate .

 

[Pepper]

You may have gotten very lucky. I did not know that you could access other people's accounts by hooking them up to a phoneline. Were those receivers not receiving programming if they were already active on an account and getting paid? I always thought they tracked who was dialing in, but maybe they do not do that on those receivers that are not active on an account.

They may be tracking the callerid but they're sure as heck not using it for security purposes. In my experience any unlocked receiver can be connected to any phone line and if it is or was active the account info can be retrieved. And I was able to see the account in all states: active, cancelled, with cancellation charges, final payment/adjustment. Only after all that had happened and the account finally disappeared was I able to activate the receiver on my account.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I believe the retailers have an amnesty program that ends by the end of the year which will allow them to clear the balance from the receivers so that they can be used again.

Correct - it can ONLY be done by a retailer, and we aren't going to do it unless we know what's what - it's OUR butt on the line.

 

[Van]

No idea pepper, the account balance should have remained on the receivers until the balance had been paid. Its possible that the previous owners/customers may have paid off the balance on each account in order to restablish service or just take responsibility for theyr finances.

 

[Stargazer]

Dish Network does have collection agencies try to get that money so if they paid that off then perhaps thats how it got cleared.

 

[kb7oeb]

I bought an 811 on ebay and when I went to activate it they told me it was still on another account. Then they put me on hold for about 5 minutes and said it was now active on my account and oh BTW there is a $50 balance on the box. They didn't say anything about me paying it and 6 months later I haven't been billed.

 

[Stargazer]

You got extremely lucky. Someone made an error by activating it on your account. I didn't think the system would allow them to do that though until the balance was paid.