I currently subscribe to Digital Cable from Time Warner with one digital cable box. I have 4 more TV's that I want to connect. My question is, can I buy 4 Scientific Atlanta 2100's off of ebay for my other TV's instead of getting the boxes from Time Warner and paying lease fees for them? I would think this would be legal since I would be still paying for digital cable service and one box.
More Than One Digital Cable Box
- Thread starter UAL123
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 5
- Views 3K
No. They authorize the boxes and they won't work unless you get them from your local TW office. I tried to do the same thing with a cisco cable modem and they wouldn't allow it. they want the extra lease fee's I'm afraid. who know's though, you could call your local TW office and see but I'm pretty sure it's a no go.
It may be 100% legal for you to try this but it's their system and they do NOT have to allow the boxes access. Don't waste your money.... I've never heard of any cableco in the US that allows it.
the problems is in buying these boxes off Ebay, most of them (not all) are boxes that was not returned to the cable operator. they are then considered stolen and another provider will not authorize any box that could have been taken from another provider or even have a balance left on it. then again some could be from a bad employee that is trying to make a quick buck.
If the seller is from Canada though, they do allow customers do buy set-tops so they certainly can sell them later. Again though, nothing says a US-based cableco has to allow the box on their system.
Yes, we allow our customers to purchase thier own equipment, but we discourage it due to the fact that if something goes wrong with it, we won't support it since it is customer owned. that said, it is better just to pay the additional monthy fee per box so that we will fully support it. as for buying them from ebay, some may be stolen or non returns and will not work as they are flagged in the time warner system as lost equipment.
