I used online chat, and after I convinced the CSR I did have a Dish 500 (he assumed that since i only have SA*, EuroNews, & Free PI Pack that i only had a Dish 300 pointed at 61.5) - he was able to immediately set me up with Cinemax. However, he added paperless billing without asking, but I knew from this thread that it was part of the deal so it's fine with me.
He also said that since I had "no basic package" (even though I have SA*) that I would have to drop EuroNews to add Cinemax. I said as long as I would no longer be billed for EuroNews (since I don't watch it much anyway) that was fine. But why can't I have multiple a la carte services? And SA* is a basic package. I sure hope no access fee magically shows up. I will keep an eye on the online bill.
I would also like to know, my account says I have the 1 year Cinemax promo. Will this auto renew? Will it work until 2009? 2010?
(FWIW, I guess my post is useful as confirmation that you do not need to subscribe to any minimum programming to get this deal, since I only had SA*, EuroNews, and Free PI Pack.)
My Cinemax channels were activated immediately. 5 minutes or less from when the CSR declared he was done.