Can we sign up for Dish without a contract?

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pr92

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Apr 29, 2011
19
24
Buffalo, NY
The economy is hitting us pretty hard right now, and that $90 FiOS bill looks like one of the easiest things to cut back on. I could probably live with OTA alone, but my grandmother really wants Fox News and my brother really wants Nickelodeon. My parents and I have been looking at the Family Pack and it seems good for the short term, but I was wondering if there is a way to sign up for it now but not be under contract for 2 years. We would want to have 3 TVs hooked up, one HD DVR and 2 SD non-DVRs. Reason I ask is the lack of MSG for the Sabres games, but that's another discussion for another time.

Thanks.
 
pr92 said:
The economy is hitting us pretty hard right now, and that $90 FiOS bill looks like one of the easiest things to cut back on. I could probably live with OTA alone, but my grandmother really wants Fox News and my brother really wants Nickelodeon. My parents and I have been looking at the Family Pack and it seems good for the short term, but I was wondering if there is a way to sign up for it now but not be under contract for 2 years. We would want to have 3 TVs hooked up, one HD DVR and 2 SD non-DVRs. Reason I ask is the lack of MSG for the Sabres games, but that's another discussion for another time.

Thanks.
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Sure, just buy the receivers you need outright, and all the equipment you need, (dishes, switches, cabling, connectors, etc, etc) and do the install yourself. Then, you won't be under a contract. That's kind of costly, (prob. $500+ if you are starting from scratch) AND you need to be capable of doing it all and maintaining it yourself.

However, if you think about it a little, it's really better to be under the contract and let them subsidize the cost. The time you are under contract will pass by very fast, and before you know it you'll be out of it again.
 
Does that 90 dollars include your phone and high speed internet?

if so.. that's a pretty good deal already.. with phones being 25 dollars via internet (VOIP) ... internet being 25 (cheapest which may not work well enough for you) to 60 dollars (comcast charges more to customers that don't have their TV services) and then even the more basic packages of Dish come in near 50 bucks for 3 sets..

You might want to decide to keep internet, drop TV to use OTA, and then look for online options for other TV things... (hulu plus, netflix, etc..)
 
If money is tight I would not do any non contract promotions. Especially if you multiple receivers. You'll have to pay an activation fee and receiver fees upfront. You could be spending up $250 just to sign up. If you sign a 24 month commitment everything is free and if you cancel before the contract is up it will still be cheaper than what you would've paid for no contract.
 
Sign up for Dish. Get a 722k and a 211k with an EHD. The 722k has a $6/mo. DVR fee and the 211k is $7/mo. You have to pay a one time fee 0f $40 to turn the 211k with EHD into a DVR but it's a pretty good deal. If you don't want the 211k you can get a 612 but it has a $10/mo. fee.
 
Scherrman said:
If money is tight I would not do any non contract promotions. Especially if you multiple receivers. You'll have to pay an activation fee and receiver fees upfront. You could be spending up $250 just to sign up. If you sign a 24 month commitment everything is free and if you cancel before the contract is up it will still be cheaper than what you would've paid for no contract.
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no activation fees if you buy the equipment.
 
I've never had a contract with Dish. But then again, I've never had more than one receiver on the account at a time either.

It's gonna be hard to keep the bill down regardless of what provider you use (with or without a contract) if you must have 3 receivers.

If you wanna own the equipment & have no contract, you could get three 211Ks. That's $330 right there. Now a one time $40 to activate EHD on the account, which will cover all 3 receivers for the single fee. Next you need a dish, let's say $60 for that. That's $430, and you haven't bought your cables yet.

Now whether you own the boxes or not, you're gonna get charged $7 per month each ($14) on the last 2 receivers. Lease, own... doesn't matter, you're gonna have to pay it.

It's really hard to "beat the system" where multiple receivers are involved. I've always done the "cheap" thing. But I only have one receiver that's distributed through out the house. If we wanna watch 2 different Dish channels at the same time, we can't. We just have to deal with it (and we usually live through it :)).

The best way to get your bill down IMO, is to cut down on the number of receivers.

Cheers
 
Two words Google Voice! it's free all you need is a standard computer headset with mike.
TG2 said:
Does that 90 dollars include your phone and high speed internet?

if so.. that's a pretty good deal already.. with phones being 25 dollars via internet (VOIP) ... internet being 25 (cheapest which may not work well enough for you) to 60 dollars (comcast charges more to customers that don't have their TV services) and then even the more basic packages of Dish come in near 50 bucks for 3 sets..

You might want to decide to keep internet, drop TV to use OTA, and then look for online options for other TV things... (hulu plus, netflix, etc..)
Click to expand...
 
cashcobra said:
Two words Google Voice! it's free all you need is a standard computer headset with mike.
Click to expand...
"EEEEEENT.. Sorry Hans wrong answer!" ... ;) actually you also need internet access. Without internet, you'd need a phone (cell?) to check the google messages or have the google number forwarded .. so you're still neeeding to pay at least 20 bucks a month or more...
 
Yeah, we really should cancel the landline, it's another ~$30, but old people don't like change. :rolleyes:

The idea of reducing the number of recievers did make me think. We currently have 4 FiOS STBs, and I had planned to just put an antenna on my TV. I guess I could do that for another one as well. That would bring the dish cost down to 25.99 for the first year, under contract. (DishFAMILY + 722 - $5 Promo Credit) That's really not bad.

Hmm.
 
pr92 said:
Yeah, we really should cancel the landline, it's another ~$30, but old people don't like change. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
30 .... lucky its that low.. for us with basic+ was 45, and then another 15 for unlimited "local-longdistance" or "regional" as the phone companies want to label it.. and then on top of that we had long distance (low cost only because we didn't call long distance that often)

But as to the other side of that ... I would keep my land line in a heart beat if they would've reduced the cost to under 10 bucks a month (or less ... figure I pay 24.95 for VOIP, 10 for a land line for all those backup situations or for highly important calls, 34.95 for the combo would be awesome.. but no)...

Nothing beats a *good* land line for phone service.. I've had VOIP for better than 8 years, and have never been happy with sound quality and dropped calls or anything else that comes with VOIP. But the phone companies never attempted to keep pace with technology and in the end base their over priced fee off one thing ... physical land line ... as if that makes up for the rest of the stuff they DONT do (voicemail to email conversion, extended call blocking lists, access to features via internet)
 
pr92 said:
Yeah, we really should cancel the landline, it's another ~$30, but old people don't like change. :rolleyes:

The idea of reducing the number of recievers did make me think. We currently have 4 FiOS STBs, and I had planned to just put an antenna on my TV. I guess I could do that for another one as well. That would bring the dish cost down to 25.99 for the first year, under contract. (DishFAMILY + 722 - $5 Promo Credit) That's really not bad.

Hmm.
Click to expand...
Just to be clear, this scenario would also include a $6.00 monthly DVR fee and the only HD would be locals, if available.
 
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