Can't put contract on "vacation"?

[Rukes]

I started off with D*. My dish was on the roof, and the apartment complex was re-doing the roof for a bit over a month, so I had to have them remove the dish while I was under contract, and put my service on "vacation" for a little over a month.

I got cable in the meantime, but fed up with lack of TiVo support and not enough HD (I would rather have more HD than Sports), I decided when the roof was done to switch to E*. I was much much happier, so I just left my D* in extended vacation, so by the time it was up, I only had to pay around $90 to get out of contract.

This weekend has been a bit interesting...some hoodlum decided to get into the apartment complex, go onto the roof which set off the alarm, damage people's skylights and disconnect all satellite dishes. Immediately, armed cops came and arrested the guy, but now I am without satellite! The homeowners association is paying for any repairs, but I can't schedule my own yet since I don't know if the dish is still up there or not yet.

Anyway, I called up E* to let them know and see if I could suspend my service until I actually had service, but they were telling me that if I am under contract, they can't put it on vacation like D* does, the best they can do is just lower the pack to Home Family and make me pay a smaller amount!

Was this person right? Or did they not know what was going on? It sounded like they were reading directly from a prompt, so it seems it is E*'s policy to force people under contract to pay for service they aren't getting.

This is hopefully only going to be for a week, so it's not like a full month like earlier, but I still would like to at least suspend my service in the meantime...anyone have any suggestions?

 

[MikeD-C05]

IF you are on commitment with DISH then they are right, you can not pause your account and you would have to drop programming to the lowest pack. Without commitment you can pause it for upto 6 months . If you have two accounts , one at your main home & one at your vacation home , you can pause the vacation home while at your main and vice a versa , indefinately without charges , but then again only if you aren't in a commitment with them.

With Directv it is different. I was told today that I could pause my account for up to 9 months and it would count towards my year commitment.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

This is the reason my parents have DirecTV. They spend the summer months in rural Wisconsin and need satellite, and the winters near Las Vegas. DirecTV lets them put their contract on hold for 6 months out of the year and then resume it with no fees or extra charges.

 

[bderouen]

It may be worth an email to 'ceo@echostar.com' and ask them. I've not had to deal with that dept myself, but I've read here where a lot of people with somewhat unusual circumstances have been able to get somewhere with them.

Good luck!

 

[Zero327]

It may be worth an email to 'ceo@echostar.com' and ask them. I've not had to deal with that dept myself, but I've read here where a lot of people with somewhat unusual circumstances have been able to get somewhere with them.

Good luck!

Can try, but they're not allowed to do that either. Still, if someone was dumb enough to do it that being said, I'd love to know.

 

[Jim5506]

I have read posts by people who are under a committment suspending their service for $5 per month, it just extends the contract by the time that it is suspended.

However if you had it installed by a local dealer, instead of Dish, that dealer will be back-charged for the account, and loose money on the account - not a good thing.