Canceling a leased receiver

[elephant98]

I have two receivers hooked up to my big screen tv (an HD DVR and a standard receiver), mostly so that I can use the split screen to watch football in the fall. In the past, once football season was over, I would drop the standard receiver from the account until the next football season began.

This was never an issue in the past because I used to own the standard receiver. But, all of my receivers are now leased. (I'm not complaining because DirecTv gave me a free install and equipment to the whole home DVR service -- a big deal for me since I have 7 receivers on the account, 5 of which were not compatible). I have been told that if I were to cancel the leased receiver that I would have to immediately ship it back to them. And, when football season began, I would have to pay $50 for another leased standard receiver as well as an activitation fee. So, when all is said and done, it appears that I am better off just keeping the leased receiver and paying $6/month, even though I won't use it much until fall, there being no money to saved by dropping/reactivating a receiver.

I'm not complaining, and it sounds like a reasonable result. I just want to make sure that I was given the correct answer by DirecTv customer service as I have found some of the people I have spoken to in the past misinformed.

 

[mdram]

sounds right

why not just move one of the other receivers into the main tv room for gameday

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

Search eBay for a "directv owned d12" call up as Joe shmo who found a box at a yard sale and wanted to see if the rid is owned or now. Confirm it, then do what you've been doing and return the leased box.

 

[elephant98]

Search eBay for a "directv owned d12" call up as Joe shmo who found a box at a yard sale and wanted to see if the rid is owned or now. Confirm it, then do what you've been doing and return the leased box.

Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't know that you could buy a previously owned receiver that is compatible with the new Whole Home service, now that DirecTv is going the leased route. I take it that I will have to find a receiver with an access card as well since I would have to return the access card with the leased receiver?

When my old Ultimate TV receiver died with my old setup, I bought a refurbished Ultimate TV off of ebay and was able to put my old access card in the refurbed unit. The DirecTv customer service guy gave me a little bit of grief about how I obtained the new unit (I said a friend gave it to me), but allowed me to do the swap. I haven't tried to activate an access card that didn't belong to me.

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

It may or may not work. I bought an r22 last year, owned. The card tht came with it worked for me, and I don't need to turn anything in if I shut the box off, but if you do need to get an access card, d* is only gonna charge u 20bucks, and then the card is yours. The one in your leased box will not work. (Unless you get a very friendly csr)

 

[elephant98]

It may or may not work. I bought an r22 last year, owned. The card tht came with it worked for me, and I don't need to turn anything in if I shut the box off, but if you do need to get an access card, d* is only gonna charge u 20bucks, and then the card is yours. The one in your leased box will not work. (Unless you get a very friendly csr)

According to DirecTv's website, the D10,D11 and D12 are not compatible with whole home service, but the R22 you were able to purchase is compatible. I'll check it out and thanks for the tip about checking out the RID to make sure it is owned. The last thing I want to do is activate another leased receiver. I hadn't thought about it, but activating a leased receiver would extend my contract by 2 years.

edit -- the D12 will work, but no multi-room viewing. That would actually work for me fine.

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

Ya I guess I missed the part about mrv. I thought you were looking for an SD box tht worked with swm. The d12 is the only SD box for swm.