possible misinformed CSR?

[david_gilbert]

my stepdad has a house here and one a couple hours away. he was on teh phone with a CSR changing his package and asked about if a phone line had to be connected or not. he told the CSR he setup a spare dish at his other house an dleaves one of his unused RX there to watch when he is up there. they told him it was perfectly fine to never hook up a phone line and it was NOT against TOS to have service at a 2nd home!

now i know that you don't have to have a phone hooked up, but DTV scripts pretty much mean they say you do. but i was under the impression that they could never tell someone it was acceptable to have service for an extra reciever but use it permanently at a second home? so was this just an uninformed CSR or has policy changed now for vacation/2nd homes?

 

[Jimbo]

my stepdad has a house here and one a couple hours away. he was on teh phone with a CSR changing his package and asked about if a phone line had to be connected or not. he told the CSR he setup a spare dish at his other house an dleaves one of his unused RX there to watch when he is up there. they told him it was perfectly fine to never hook up a phone line and it was NOT against TOS to have service at a 2nd home!

now i know that you don't have to have a phone hooked up, but DTV scripts pretty much mean they say you do. but i was under the impression that they could never tell someone it was acceptable to have service for an extra reciever but use it permanently at a second home? so was this just an uninformed CSR or has policy changed now for vacation/2nd homes?

Its a Grey area ......
Depends who your talking to .... maybe StoneCold can give you the exact rule.

I have always told people that if they are paying for it and don't call D* to do the work they should be fine.

Friends were told that thier lake house was fine as well.

 

[fleetfarmer]

OMG.The title is pretty funny.

No matter what the exact rule is it will vary from CSR to CSR.

The fact that your dad said he uses it when he goes there meant he's really only using one or the other.

No matter what the exact rule is I don't see anything wrong with having one at a cabin, vacation home etc.. whether it's 30 minutes away from your primary home or 3 days away.

 

[DodgerKing]

I had issues receiving one my local channels at our second home 300 miles away. I called Direct and told them exactly what was going on, including telling them that I am currently at my second home. The CSR not only said it was fine he reset my DVR from his computer so I can get that one local channel that was not coming in.

Not only did he say it was OK, he even help fix a problem so I can get it outside of my permanent residence.

 

[Jimbo]

I had issues receiving one my local channels at our second home 300 miles away. I called Direct and told them exactly what was going on, including telling them that I am currently at my second home. The CSR not only said it was fine he reset my DVR from his computer so I can get that one local channel that was not coming in.

Not only did he say it was OK, he even help fix a problem so I can get it outside of my permanent residence.

When he turned on the the second set of locals, did he also turn OFF the 1st home ?

 

[DodgerKing]

When he turned on the the second set of locals, did he also turn OFF the 1st home ?

No. It is the same set of locals. The LA spot beam has about a 400 mile diameter.

 

[PMKS]

A co-worker gave one of his receivers to his son to use at college, he told me that he told a CSR about this and was told that it was ok, wow.....

 

[stonecold]

The rule is vauge unfornately and why it leads to the general mis infomration.

Generally speaking we want to take the recievers with you but the rules are grey... The general jist of the rule is that sercie cant be active in 2 homes at once so we forwn if you at the fishing cabin and the wife still at home .

 

[harshness]

The online Customer Agreement and Lease Addendum make it abundantly clear that multiple locations are not allowed.

Your mileage will almost certainly vary, but it will do you little good to proclaim to DIRECTV that you're using the account from multiple locations.

 

[Kheldar]

Technically, having one account with receivers at 2 separate homes is a violation of the Customer Agreement. But, just like I like to say about the speed limit, "it's only illegal if you get caught".

Here is the relevant section from the Customer Agreement for those that care:

Section 1(f):

Phone Connections. For optimal performance of your Receiving Equipment, including ordering with your remote control or receiving certain Services, each of your receivers must be directly connected to the same land-based telephone line. If you add Service on additional TVs, you may purchase a separate subscription for each additional TV, or, if all your receivers are continuously connected to the same land-based telephone line, we can "mirror" programming to your additional TVs and charge you only the fee amount described in Section 2. You agree to provide true and accurate information about the location of your receivers. If we detect that any receiver is not regularly connected to a land-based telephone line, we may investigate and, if it is determined that the receiver is not at the location identified on your account, we may disconnect the receiver or charge you the full programming subscription price for the receiver.

That section is quite clear: if your receivers aren't connected to the same land-based phone line, DirecTV can charge you full subscription price for each receiver, instead of only paying the mirroring/lease fee for additional recievers.

Since "land-based phone line" means the old POTS* lines, it isn't possible to have the same phone number at 2 different locations. Therefore, this phone line rule excludes having multiple locations on the same account.

It is well known, though, that DirecTV doesn't actively enforce the phone line requirement anymore, and typically only uses it to bust the big fraudsters.

In my many years as a DirecTV employee, I only heard of a few times where people were busted for having multiple homes on the same account, and those were usually the idiots that were reselling service to their neighbors and had lots of receivers on their account.



* For those that don't know, "POTS" = "Plain Old Telephone Service", i.e. not cell service, satellite phone, VOIP, etc, just your plain old boring basic dial tone phone service.

 

[DodgerKing]

The rule is vauge unfornately and why it leads to the general mis infomration.

Generally speaking we want to take the recievers with you but the rules are grey... The general jist of the rule is that sercie cant be active in 2 homes at once so we forwn if you at the fishing cabin and the wife still at home .

But if both are at the fishing cabin and nobody is at home at the same time, then it is ok?

 

[DodgerKing]

The online Customer Agreement and Lease Addendum make it abundantly clear that multiple locations are not allowed.

Your mileage will almost certainly vary, but it will do you little good to proclaim to DIRECTV that you're using the account from multiple locations.

What is the difference between that and traveling in a motorhome?

 

[stonecold]

But if both are at the fishing cabin and nobody is at home at the same time, then it is ok?

yes from the general interupetation of policy.

 

[Mr Tony]

It is well known, though, that DirecTV doesn't actively enforce the phone line requirement anymore, and typically only uses it to bust the big fraudsters.

Heck when I got D* the tech called into D* and added special note "customer is cell phone only"

 

[Mr Tony]

What is the difference between that and traveling in a motorhome?

I thought technically there is a RV waiver that gives you NY & LA locals on that receiver only that is designated as a "RV" setup

 

[Jimbo]

I thought technically there is a RV waiver that gives you NY & LA locals on that receiver only that is designated as a "RV" setup

Yes, that is true, they DO have a RV waiver form so you can get NY/LA across the US.

 

[david_gilbert]

thanks, that clears it up some.

 

[Mr Tony]

Yes, that is true, they DO have a RV waiver form so you can get NY/LA across the US.

I'll have to tell my aunt that then. She got D* in November (after the motorhome was put in storage) and wanted to make sure they could get network programming while out and about with the motorhome

 

[harshness]

I thought technically there is a RV waiver that gives you NY & LA locals on that receiver only that is designated as a "RV" setup

That is what the rules say. If you have an RV waiver, you are required to have a second account for your permanent residence.

Here's the details: http://www.directv.com/learn/pdf/DNS_Vehicles_Aff.pdf

Read the parts about what you CANNOT subscribe to carefully as they may be a show stopper for sports and movie fans.

 

[stonecold]

Yeah that the problem with rv waivers now. use to be able to have rv on the same account with ny/la locals on now they need a 2nd account.