I was Deactivated

[N4ST]

A little after lunch today (July 14) all Sky Angel channels disappeared from my SA receiver. Just 3ABN and the Dishnet PPV and info channels remained. I called Dishnet (already suspecting the answer) and they said they had received a deactivation order for my "lifetime" account from Sky Angel and then helpfully gave me the 800 number to call.

So, I called Sky Angel and of course got the story that because I didn't return the letter from last March they "assumed" I was no longer an active customer. So they had me check signal strengths on a couple of transponders and then put in the activation order with Dishnet (sans the four new channels). Said I should be up again in 24-hours.

I'm sure my deactivation had nothing to do with my posting the comment yesterday about the deteriorating audio quality on Angel One.

 

[srs913]

The Lord can giveth and the Lord can taketh away!

 

[iafirebuff]

The Lord can giveth and the Lord can taketh away![/Q

LORD CHARLIE!

 

[srs913]

Alright, heres the truth about how to get your signal back. Take your receiver and disconnect it from the TV. Proceed to take it out side. Place it in the middle of the lawn. Go to your garage and get sledge hammer. Take hammer and proceed to smack receiver in the middle 10 times, not to hard you don't want to break it. Now heres the important next step, proceed to tie power cord to back of station wagon and drag the receiver down a dirt road for exactly 3.2 miles at 55 mph, any more then this will cause damage. Once 3.2 miles is met, slam on breaks allowing receiver to slam into rear bumper, this reactivates the receiver. Now go home and reconnect receiver to tv. Enjoy

 

[jbmiller]

Alright, heres the truth about how to get your signal back. Take your receiver and disconnect it from the TV. Proceed to take it out side. Place it in the middle of the lawn. Go to your garage and get sledge hammer. Take hammer and proceed to smack receiver in the middle 10 times, not to hard you don't want to break it. Now heres the important next step, proceed to tie power cord to back of station wagon and drag the receiver down a dirt road for exactly 3.2 miles at 55 mph, any more then this will cause damage. Once 3.2 miles is met, slam on breaks allowing receiver to slam into rear bumper, this reactivates the receiver. Now go home and reconnect receiver to tv. Enjoy

i love space. i like the nasa tv channel. i now have a fta nasa tv system.
why pay
if you have a spare 18" dish they make good bird baths

recycled bird bath on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
god bless
john

 

[N4ST]

Rampant senility.

 

[catkoko]

Bogus

they know many of us are "active" In fact anyone who has the new smart card had to call, give receiver # and reactivate. some of us had to do it several times until they got it right then they sent yet another new card to activate all over again! haven't decided yet if this is incompetence or harassment.

also how is this fair as some people are actually paying them $4.99 extra for the channels. I know some even prepaid for a year! that might be how long it will take them to turn us all off and then ON again

 

[N4ST]

Yeah, I had the four "new" channels up until the moment I was deactivated. When I called to get re-activated they offered me the new channels which I declined. That's not why I have Sky Angel. (Besides I get them on DirecTV anyway).

 

[TheKrell]

also how is this fair as some people are actually paying them $4.99 extra for the channels. I know some even prepaid for a year!

I prepaid for a year (actually 14 months with promo) for my mother; she hasn't been cut off yet. I thought Sky Angel was only cutting off lifetime subscribers.

 

[rcwilcox]

sa

Well they deactivated me too and of course they are closed on Sunday so have to wait until Monday to call then Tuesday or so to get turned on, Yuk! I know I did not return the card but hey I am a lifer so what if I am not watching send it out anyway I paid for it.

 

[mwgiii]

They deactivated me also.<br />
<br />
I'm a lifer who never sent in the letter for the new channesl.<br />
<br />
I called and spoke with a polite woman who tried to sell me the new channels. I politely declined and told her I subscribed to Dish also, so paying for the new channels was worthless to me.<br />
<br />
She said she understood and would reactivate my receivers.<br />
<br />
She checked my address and receiver info to update SA's records.<br />
<br />
She called Dish and Dish turned them on while I was on hold. <br />
<br />
No more waiting a couple of days for Dish to reactivate, at least for me.

 

[rcwilcox]

Well I called and I have to wait. What I don't understand is how they managed to turn off all four of my receivers without knowing the receiver and smart card numbers on any of them but they need all those numbers to turn them back on?

 

[sansha]

good point

 

[lumpkin666]

Well I called and I have to wait. What I don't understand is how they managed to turn off all four of my receivers without knowing the receiver and smart card numbers on any of them but they need all those numbers to turn them back on?

They probably have a list of all receiver/smartcard numbers (possibly dish provided them) for all of their customers and the simply don't know which one belongs to who. So they turn off a group of them at a time (not all at once, so that they can spread out their support calls)

 

[N4ST]

They probably have a list of all receiver/smartcard numbers (possibly dish provided them) for all of their customers and the simply don't know which one belongs to who. So they turn off a group of them at a time (not all at once, so that they can spread out their support calls)

I believe this very well could be the case. They turned mine on again after a couple of days, but they also turned on the "4 new channels" which I had declined. Now it will be interesting to see if I get a bill for them.

 

[rcwilcox]

They probably have a list of all receiver/smartcard numbers (possibly dish provided them) for all of their customers and the simply don't know which one belongs to who. So they turn off a group of them at a time (not all at once, so that they can spread out their support calls)

Maybe but my numbers are all over the map and I have one 301 2-508's and a 721 and all went down at once which says they did it by name as they did not even have my current phone number.

 

[lumpkin666]

Maybe but my numbers are all over the map and I have one 301 2-508's and a 721 and all went down at once which says they did it by name as they did not even have my current phone number.

Sounds about right, if they got the list from Dish, as it would have been a list of receivers "by subscriber"

 

[rcwilcox]

day and a half still waiting. Checked on our churches one receiver and it has been deactivated too. You would have thought they could have left the church ones on.

 

[catkoko]

call again

I would call them again, ask for a supervisor if necessary. i have had them periodically turn off my receiver for no reason as I am lifetime. Sometimes they would turn it back on immediately , other times I had to repeatedly call. One time it took a week of calls with SA blaming dish and dish blaming SA

 

[rcwilcox]

Well I am back on after a second call. Dish had put a hold on thee reactivation because of a "tech order". I guess it was because I had a receiver swapped out a few weeks ago or something. Anyhow it came up automatically and killed the process. Another call form SA and Dish fixed it somehow.

Second item. I found the letter that said to return the form and it was clear that if you did not return the form you would loose the secular 4 and although you could argue that happened (lost all including the 4) most people would have interpreted the form the same way I did. Don't return the form and you will loose the 4 not all of them. I think SA pays something to Dish for every sub and they wanted to cut costs so they shut off all non-form-returning subs in hopes that some would not ask to be turned back on.