DirecTV leased equipment question

[lumis]

A friend of mine has had DirecTV for a few years now, he has receivers in 4 rooms, aside from his master bedroom he's being charged $5 a month per receiver, which totals $180/year. I told him he could buy the receivers (clean/new) on eBay for like $20/$25 shipped. He called DirecTV and they told him that the $5 charge was for just having the extra "lines", not the receivers, even though the charge shows up as "Leased Receiver, $4.99" on his bill.

Anyone know if DirecTV is just jerking him around? It almost seems like a good reason to go with cable, atleast they don't screw you on having it in multiple rooms.

[thecoalman]

Doesn't each receiver have a card? that's what your leasing. Been a while since I've had a dish but that's how it was. The receivers are useless without the cards.

It almost seems like a good reason to go with cable, atleast they don't screw you on having it in multiple rooms.

I think the same thing goes for the digital cable receivers??? I know the regular non-digital channels can be split and it varies by state what you can do with it. Here in Pennsylvania you can split the cable as much as you want within the same household. Our Norhtern Neighbors in New York would be breaking the law.

[Conquest10]

Yup, same for cable. Digital cable and HD receivers are $5 each a month.

[lumis]

Doesn't each receiver have a card? that's what your leasing. Been a while since I've had a dish but that's how it was. The receivers are useless without the cards.

The receivers available for purchse on eBay come with the cards. They're the complete sytems, brand new, legal, etc.

[lordsmurf]

No, the ones on eBay come with ice scrapers for your car. Those cards are 100% worthless, usually discontinued 1st-3rd series cards, not active 4th-5th. And even then, DirecTV WILL NOT re-activate cards, you get a new one for $20 or free (depends on situation). You pay for a signal per receiver. That's what $5 per extra off the main is for. Simple as that.

[vhelp]

hell.. directv gave me a hell of a hard time.

When I tried to re-activate my directv account (before I said, ".. .."
ta them, for the last time) they gave me the run-around business..

** Oh, we can't activate you unless we send you a new card - your card is old.
** Oh, didn't we tell you, there's a $25 service fee
** Oh, you have to wait 3 to 4 weeks for delivery - but we must have pmt up front.
** oh, then we have to charge you another service connection fee
** oh, oh, oh, oh, oh .. ..

They kept jerking my chain for two weeks, till I gave them the finger,
and went (analog cable) and *free* hdtv.

Now-a-days, they just keep calling me, and calling me, and calling me, and ..
for who knows what. Maybe to try and *sell* me a new card, that's what

-vhelp 3963

[lumis]

No, the ones on eBay come with ice scrapers for your car. Those cards are 100% worthless, usually discontinued 1st-3rd series cards, not active 4th-5th. And even then, DirecTV WILL NOT re-activate cards, you get a new one for $20 or free (depends on situation). You pay for a signal per receiver. That's what $5 per extra off the main is for. Simple as that.

No, the sytems being sold on eBay are new sytems, complete with sealed/wrapped P5 cards (latest generation).

I think this is just DirecTV's way of sticking it to people. My friend has probably spent $600 in lease fee's, when he could have just spent $75-$100 on new receivers/cards.

[lordsmurf]

You're missing the point. You're not paying for anything physical. You're paying a per-unit signal cost. Nothing is actually being rented.

The first unit costs whatever, usually $50-100 for the package. The others cost $5 each. It's a "discount" from paying $50-100 per box for getting the signal.

This has NOTHING to do with tangible goods. It's all about the signal. They charge you for each use of the signal. There is no free splitting to multiple rooms (at least not if each room has it's own receiver).

This is a big reason PIP (picture in picture) has died in recent years. Nobody has two cable/satellite receivers for one tv, as it would cost $5 per month for extra for the PIP.

Now then, talk to satellite companies about apartments. They charge like $20 per unit on a 16-box split. Once again, nothing to do with hardware, it's all about the signal.

Sure, you have to have the CAM (card) to get the signal, but those pieces of plastic cost nothing, and are not the basis of the charge.

Buy that new unit off eBay, and you'll be paying $5 per extra room still.

[Faustus]

You're missing the point. You're not paying for anything physical. You're paying a per-unit signal cost. Nothing is actually being rented.

The first unit costs whatever, usually $50-100 for the package. The others cost $5 each. It's a "discount" from paying $50-100 per box for getting the signal.

This has NOTHING to do with tangible goods. It's all about the signal. They charge you for each use of the signal. There is no free splitting to multiple rooms (at least not if each room has it's own receiver).

This is a big reason PIP (picture in picture) has died in recent years. Nobody has two cable/satellite receivers for one tv, as it would cost $5 per month for extra for the PIP.

Now then, talk to satellite companies about apartments. They charge like $20 per unit on a 16-box split. Once again, nothing to do with hardware, it's all about the signal.

Sure, you have to have the CAM (card) to get the signal, but those pieces of plastic cost nothing, and are not the basis of the charge.

Buy that new unit off eBay, and you'll be paying $5 per extra room still.

I'm just piping in to say. Correct. Doesn't matter if you have the card, they will not send the signal down to activate that card without info from the reciever and if they do that they will still be charging you $5/mo. If you don't pay it they will turn you off, then you will either have to pay or they will ask which ones you WANT on and you can pay for those.

[lumis]

Well, it's bullshit either way. I believe cable used to do this when they had their huge monopoly back in the 80's & early 90's.

I don't see why DirecTV should get away with it. The signal is there regardless, you're paying for the subscription, if you own legal & capable equipment (identical to their own atually) you shouldn't have to pay an additional $5 just for having an extra line.

If you were leasing equipment from them, I could totally understand the $5 charge.

Like I said, this is just how DirecTV is screwing people over.

[lordsmurf]

Pretty much, yeah.

Then again, it's a maintenance fee to keep up with several CAMs. Each one is separate, it's not like you're splitting a single analog cable feed.

[lumis]

I received a call from DirecTV todkay asking about my level of satisfaction with my service. I told them about the annoying "leased receiver fee", she transferred me, and I was given this explanation.

you dont own the receiver = $5 leased receiver fee
you do own the receiver = $5 "mirroring" fee

So basically, they're going to get that extra $5, no matter what.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

With Cable is like this (At least with Brighthouse in FL):

You pay for 1 Box of digital cable and you get free analog cable for as many tvs as you want in your house, each extra box of digital cable is $5 or $7, I don't remember exactly right now.

I have a Digital box for my room and an HD Digital box for the living room, and the analog cable for the kids room.

I find it cool the option to split the signal as many times as I want, it's a shame I don't have more rooms