Installation in a "commercial" setting HELP!

[mjs61084]

At little bit of background....I moved out of an apartment where I had my own Dish satellite and my new apartment is "Dish wired," however the rates the apartment community charges is astronomical compared to Dish rates. Basically they set you up and the installer comes out hooks a box up in your apartment and it's billed to your monthly rent payment. I had Dish out here when I moved and there isn't a line of sight so I'm stuck with paying these insane rates through the community.

The ridiculous part of all of it is they are charging $10 a month for HD (which is free at Dish) and they are charging $7.00 per standard receiver, $9.00 for a standard DVR receiver, and $7.00 for a DVR fee per month for each. After research, it seems that the complex has what they call QAM/MDU environment where I'm required to have a q-box.

My question is, if a friend lets me add a box to their account and I purchase a q-box, is it as simple as plugging the box and q-box in and receiving the signal? I know this isn't the 100% honest way to go about this and I did try to get Dish out here and was unable to, but I think it's ridiculous that Dish would even allow a community to do something like this when the rates are seriously inflated compared to their normal rates. Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[TheKrell]

Well, adding a box to somebody else's account is 100% against the Dish TOS. Whether or not you could buy a QAM/MDU receiver and add it to your own account, I have no idea.

 

[nsafreak]

Nope, it can't happen. What you're referring to is a Q-Box and two of them are needed for dual tuner receivers. Basically it's a rectangular box that goes in between the coax from the wall to the receiver. Boxes in commercial enviroments are activated pretty much the same way a normal consumer account is activated. So the installer or whomever manages the account for the apartment complex has to call in and have the receiver(s) added to the commercial account and activated. Typically they also do not have the cable from the apartment connected to the headend unit until the installer installs the new receiver(s) to prevent just what you're thinking of doing.

 

[boba]

The box has to be authorized and DISH won't do it. Guess what MDU you have to go through??? Maybe you can live with internet instead of DISH.

 

[mjs61084]

Hmm....thanks for the replies. Maybe I can team up and split the bill with someone at the complex?? It seems that the signal is active in my unit, it just needs unscrambled and a box added. So if someone at the complex has the complex install in their second bedroom, then they can give me the box. I know it makes me look horrible, but really it should be against Dish's policy to allow an installer of a community to charge for things that Dish would not normally charge for. I was completely ok with paying for Dish service, but its ridiculous to have a 30% increase for the same exact thing I would get at Dish as a customer outside of the apartment.

 

[boba]

Hmm....thanks for the replies. Maybe I can team up and split the bill with someone at the complex?? It seems that the signal is active in my unit, it just needs unscrambled and a box added. So if someone at the complex has the complex install in their second bedroom, then they can give me the box. I know it makes me look horrible, but really it should be against Dish's policy to allow an installer of a community to charge for things that Dish would not normally charge for. I was completely ok with paying for Dish service, but its ridiculous to have a 30% increase for the same exact thing I would get at Dish as a customer outside of the apartment.

The MDU is DISH's customer you are the MDU's customer. You are paying the markup to keep the MDU in business, didn't you check on costs before you moved to that complex?