Well I just had this occur when I dropped my remote. I was told by the first person I talked to said that anything was covered under the protection plan even damage of if the dog ate it... IM SORRY TO INFORM, that is false. According to the protection plan represenative that I talked to informed me that DIRECTV's Protection Plan only covers stuff that is deemed within DIRECTV's reasonable control. Which needless to say I had to pay for the remote and was corrected by the protection plan rep. Plus the rep had mentioned that even if your verfying troubleshooting, or done it before you call. May just as well plan doing it again, because it doesn't matter how many times you do the troubleshooting on your own or with someone on the phone, make sure they are with the protection plan department, because even if you've done it they have 2 options. TO have you do it again or charge you for the service call. Which as a customer I understand they are tying to help us to resolve problems, but why do they have us doing the same steps over and over even though it never fixes the problem!!!