Dish Receiver Lease Fee - Is it Back?

[metzmda]

Hey all,
I don't post very much, but I do read this board pretty much every day. By coming here, I've been made aware of deals that has saved me money. One of the items I learned was the fact that Dish stopped charging a receiver lease fee on the first receiver. I have a single 722 on my account, so I called and got them to remove that fee and haven't paid it for at least a year or more.

Last month I did the HD + Plantinum deal that I learned from SatelliteGuys. I just looked at my most current bill and saw that Dish has added back that receiver fee. I searched the Dish Network site, but I could not find anything specific as to whether or not the fee is waived on the first receiver.

Does anybody know whether Dish has changed the policy again? I want to have my facts before calling and complaining.
Mark...

 

[harshness]

There is no equipment fee for the primary receiver.

Is your ViP722 connected to a phone line or the Internet?

 

[Jim S.]

You're not supposed to have to connect a single dual-tuner receiver to the phone or internet as of last February, although I've seen some people claim that that's not true.

 

[harshness]

That is why I asked.

 

[KAB]

You're not supposed to have to connect a single dual-tuner receiver to the phone or internet as of last February, although I've seen some people claim that that's not true.

I don't think that is quite correct. I believe the primary receiver must be connected, but not the others. I had mine disconnected a few days while doing some remodeling and got dinged.

 

[Claude Greiner]

There was a time where they where charging customers the lease fee, and the last I heard was that they where dropping that fee for customers signed up after a certain date, but where not going to go back and drop that fee for the customers who where being charged.

Best thing to do is call and complain and see what they will do.

 

[jself1982]

You're not supposed to have to connect a single dual-tuner receiver to the phone or internet as of last February, although I've seen some people claim that that's not true.

Well, I will say that I got an audit from the Dish Network Audit Team on my 3 receivers last month. My 622 is connected to the internet and the 211 and 211k is not and never has been. I have never been charged a fee for not connecting a phone line or internet connection.

With this said, during my audit, the CSR said I had to connect the other 2 receivers to a phone line (which I don't have) or internet connection (which is not in either of the 2 rooms) so the CSR said he will put a charge on my account for each receiver not connected. I was pissed royally, especially since I had passed my audit. And sure as the world, there was 2 charges on my bill for not having 2 receivers connected.

And with that said, that is why both of those receivers have been deauthorized and I have downgraded to LOCALS ONLY package on my 622.

I have been a UVerse customer for a month now. While it has its flaws and I miss the Dish Network hardware, I won't miss being falsely charged for something not right. At this point, screw Dish and their Audit mess...no wonder customers are walking out the door to other companies. :rant:

 

[MikeD-C05]

Another sub gone because of the DISH AUDIT NAZIS. Wonder now how many of the subs that churned were caused by this department alone?

 

[KAB]

Another sub gone because of the DISH AUDIT NAZIS. Wonder now how many of the subs that churned were caused by this department alone?

He's not gone.

 

[Jim5506]

Single tuner receivers do not have to be connected to phone or ethernet.

Audit nazis ask for location id from the screen info, if you cannot provide that or it is incorrect, the receiver gets disabled.

It has nothing to do with phone or ethernet connection.

Me thinks some one got caught fudging.

 

[Jim S.]

Well, I will say that I got an audit from the Dish Network Audit Team on my 3 receivers last month. My 622 is connected to the internet and the 211 and 211k is not and never has been. I have never been charged a fee for not connecting a phone line or internet connection.

Well in theory, you should have been. That's not what I'm talking about.

What I'm talking about is the fact that they used to require you to have your dual-tuner receiver connected even if it was the ONLY receiver you had. This is, of course, mind-bogglingly stupid since the two tuners cannot be in two different residences. But that's the mess that Dish's billing software was in.

Last February, when they renamed the receivers and changed the package prices, they were supposed to have removed that requirement. Of course, I said at the time that given what a mess their billing software was in, making more than one change at a time was bound to lead to an even bigger mess. If you still need to have your sole receiver connected if it's a dual-tuner, then my prediction was true. (And this was even before the failure to authorize the last two batches of national HD additions for everyone, or the Platinum fiasco.)

Dish needs to fire every single employee they have and start fresh. There are obviously some severely defective people making important decisions.

 

[metzmda]

Well, I asked the question because I was just wondering if anyone else has started seeing the leasing fee return. I do have my receiver connected to both the phone and internet. I guess I will complain to Dish again about it.

 

[MikeD-C05]

He's not gone.

Forgive me; he dropped all programming EXCEPT locals. DISH still lost money from this sub, all unnecessarily.

 

[jself1982]

He's not gone.

LOL, no not yet...

The only reason why I kept locals only is because I have the LA HD locals through AAD and was under the impression to keep them I would have to downgrade to the lowest package available which I was informed would be "LOCALS ONLY".

And, unfortunately, if I don't like this UVerse--I may be forced to go back to Dish Network. If I do like this UVerse and can actually get used to the channel lineup and guides and menus, etc., then I will eventually cancel Dish completely.

I have never felt so wronged by a company like Dish Network, even Charter Communications didn't do this stupidness when I had them years ago, and Charter is just the devil to me--at best!

 

[banjodude]

I did a Dishin'-It-Up upgrade a few months ago, and replaced 2 owned receivers with leased 211k's. Since then I've had to call several times because 2 lease charges instead of one were showing up on my bill.

Each time the CSR said that wasn't right, and set up a credit, but the problem keeps coming up. On the last call I was told the credit should stay in place for at least a year.

I have annual billing for my main package -- for some reason some of the billing operations seem to have a problem with that.