Question about required phone line connection...

I've been doing a lot of research on E* while waiting for Feb 1st to roll around so I can sign up. Recently I've read that they require you have a working phone line connected to your receiver. And that if you don't you will be charged an additional monthly fee and subject to audits. :confused: Can anyone shed light on if this is true? If true why and what is the monthly fee involved? One would think they could use their satellites for anything they get over a phone line. I found nothing about this on their site except that they use the phone line for pay per view, which can also be done online.

I ask this because I don't (and never will again) have a land line. You'd think a large company would recognize that with the advent of VOIP, video conferencing and cell phones that lots of people are ditching the standard telephone. IMO land lines are obsolete and way overpriced for the service. To require it of your customer is pretty ridiculous.

I have had E* for over six years have the only time I ever hooked up a telephone line to the receiver is when I ordered a Pay-Per-View movie. I disconnected the line right after the order went through and have never had a problem. I really don't under stand why they are so addiment about the phone line... :eek:

I've been doing a lot of research on E* while waiting for Feb 1st to roll around so I can sign up. Recently I've read that they require you have a working phone line connected to your receiver. And that if you don't you will be charged an additional monthly fee and subject to audits. :confused: Can anyone shed light on if this is true? If true why and what is the monthly fee involved? One would think they could use their satellites for anything they get over a phone line. I found nothing about this on their site except that they use the phone line for pay per view, which can also be done online.

I ask this because I don't (and never will again) have a land line. You'd think a large company would recognize that with the advent of VOIP, video conferencing and cell phones that lots of people are ditching the standard telephone. IMO land lines are obsolete and way overpriced for the service. To require it of your customer is pretty ridiculous.
I never heard anything about a monthly fee.. I thought it only costs $1 more to order pay per views via internet or phone (and I now have a digital phone hookup and used that connection to totally update my new 211 on start-up) and free using the remote control is all I ever heard about..
Also, the phone line hook up for upgrades to your receiver seem to be necessary to be received.
Anyone else on this??
:confused:

:confused: My mom was watching one of the movie channels the other night -Starz or Encore-we subscribe to all the movie channels.This was about 1 am ...all of a sudden it said to press Yes or No if you want to download the channel and that you would be charged if you did download it. DOWNLOAD THE CHANNEL??? So my mom turned the tv off.
Have any of you ever experienced this?

I ask this because I don't (and never will again) have a land line. You'd think a large company would recognize that with the advent of VOIP, video conferencing and cell phones that lots of people are ditching the standard telephone. IMO land lines are obsolete and way overpriced for the service. To require it of your customer is pretty ridiculous.

Actually, I've read some VOIP mfrs. added remote access which would enable that capability. As well as others, who have jerry-rigged some fix.

However, since Dish can apparently do a handshake with your receiver via satellite, I am not sure why the phone connection is necessary.
In fact, if you've noticed, they have more interactive screen buttons now so you can order things by just hitting 'Select'. Or does that only work through phone lines?
I rarely order PPV anyway, unless it's a freebie. I have enough Netflix rentals to keep me going.

Never had a phone line hooked up. The only time I did was when I cancelled Dish and cleared out the PPV movies.

I'm liking what I hear. So far no one has mentioned an extra monthly fee. And even if there are it sounds like if I don't tell them I don't have phone line hooked up it won't make a difference. I will rarely be ordering pay per view so the extra $1 for ordering online isn't a big deal there.

However, since Dish can apparently do a handshake with your receiver via satellite, I am not sure why the phone connection is necessary.

It is DISH's way of knowing that households that have multiple recievers indeed keep all of those recievers at the same location. They verify that all the recievers dial in from the same phone number to prevent people sharing accounts. i.e. installing one of the recievers to a friend or relatives house and splitting the costs. IIRC this is called account stacking.

There is no handshaking via satelllite. Its a one way link. They can send stuff to your reciever, and even address it individually, but your reciever can not talk back to E* over the satellite.

Apparently DISH will make random phone calls to customers and demand they read location IDs from their recievers info screen if they haven't phoned home in some amount of time. If the customer won't do it, the account is shut down. It seems they only do this on accounts with more than three receivers (so far).

Jeff

Jeffdb27 - That's good info, thank you. It seems this is how someone would fail the audits I've read about on the Internet. And that was going to be my next question.

I will only have two receivers so I pray I won't be audited. I was reading on another forum last night that these auditors are nasty people :eek: they make wemon cry :( and they tell you that your poor because you don't have a regular phone :confused:. Horrible way to treat you customers. But more HD is worth it I suppose.

Rule # 1 - Anything a Dish CSR tells you may not be remotely true

Please keep that in mind when you eventually become a Dish customer - why do the rest of us put up with it? Well, so far, subjectively, Dish has the best HD offerings

I have been with E* for years, and have never ever had a phone line hooked up...mostly because my lines and receivers are in totally different locations. (I have two boxes) - the last time I got a new box -the 921 - the installer said he had to call and activate it - and have both of us verify to the CSR that I did not want a phone line connected to the box. It has never been required for activation, in my experience. To my knowledge, I have never been charged any fee for refusing to hook up my phone line. - I have never had anyone from Dish call and ask for my ids off the cards...I wouldn't care if they did, that's no big deal to me. - I did however, give an old box to my neighbor, after I called Dish to ask how to go about it....then my neighbor called to activate on his account - They activated the box - except they started charging me instead of him! -

Which leads to rule #2 - Always double check any changes you make to your service - and check your bill afterwards

Hope this helps, and if you decide to go with Dish, you can expect a few bumps in the road, but in the end, you may find the positives outweigh the negatives - I keep going back and forth on that one

CM

It is DISH's way of knowing that households that have multiple recievers indeed keep all of those recievers at the same location. They verify that all the recievers dial in from the same phone number to prevent people sharing accounts. i.e. installing one of the recievers to a friend or relatives house and splitting the costs. IIRC this is called account stacking.

There is no handshaking via satelllite. Its a one way link. They can send stuff to your reciever, and even address it individually, but your reciever can not talk back to E* over the satellite.

Apparently DISH will make random phone calls to customers and demand they read location IDs from their recievers info screen if they haven't phoned home in some amount of time. If the customer won't do it, the account is shut down. It seems they only do this on accounts with more than three receivers (so far).

Jeff

What if I have two separate phone lines in my house and each receiver is hooked up to each line? Do I need to tell them both phone numbers?

What if I have two separate phone lines in my house and each receiver is hooked up to each line? Do I need to tell them both phone numbers?
They require all the recievers to be hooked up to the same phone line.

I should say, I have three recievers and they aren't hooked up to a phone line. So far, I haven't been audited.

Jeff

My 211's are working GREAT with no phone line connection.Explain THAT ! I'm getting all my channels.
Dish network technical told me on the phone that having a phone line to receive MPEG4 is not neccesary. :hithere:

There is no handshaking via satelllite. Its a one way link. They can send stuff to your reciever, and even address it individually, but your reciever can not talk back to E* over the satellite.




Jeff

That makes sense. The only thing I do like about the phone connection is the visual Caller ID on the screen.

I spoke to a Dish tech who told me I don't have to have a phone line connected to my 211 receiver unless I want to order a pay-per-view movie and also having the phone line connected helps update my 211.You can connect one 211 receiver to a phone line and it will "talk to" the other 211 receiver and update it too-I own two 211's- that is not connected to a phone line ..and the 211 that IS connected to a phone line will communicate and update the other 211 receiver.
And also you won't be audited by Dish Network if you have one phone Line connected to one of your receivers.

Okay, I've installed over 250 Dish systems. About nine out of ten customers opted not to have the phone line connected on single tuners. Most don't care about the PPV convenience.
The phone connection must be made on dual tuners to avoid the extra box fee of $5, it it's not phone connected.

Actually, the phone connection does talk to Dish! You select to view a PPV via remote, it will charge your account.

NO, Nada, None updates come down via a phone connection.
All software updates, just as your guide, come down via satellite.
None of my three receivers are phone connected, but my s/w updates are all current. Dish does advise that s/w updates are applied quicker if the receiver is turned off at night. (My 811 has been ON 24/7 for months, yet my s/w is current.) I will connect a land-line when I upgrade to a 622.

IMHO, I believe the phone connection is for marketing purposes ONLY.
It makes it much more convenient and cheaper to order PPV.
Phone connection for audit purposes is another story!!

fred