Dish Pay-As-You-Go Experience

[Larry N.]

In order to hopefully help someone else avoid some problems, this post is to briefly detail my experiences yesterday with the Dish Network pay as you go setup experience. Keep in mind that this is my first experience with any form of satellite TV.

Camping World had a sale on the Winegard Carryout antenna and the Dish ViP211k receiver, so that's what I picked up yesterday for pay as you go, wanting to be able to turn service on and off as we wish. Turns out that you can pay in advance for 30 days -- in my case, service (until I pay again), is good until Feb 10.  There is an extra one-time $99 "activation" fee for HD (good for life, they say). Soon I'll get a USB hard disk and pay another (one time) $40 fee to activate DVR capabilities.

So I got it home, unboxed everything, set up the Carryout dome in my back yard (it comes with a 50 foot power cable and a 50 foot coax "signal" cable) on the tripod I got for it (also on sale), put the receiver in the Bounder, plugged everything together. and powered it all up. I got the Acquiring Satellites message, but then got a No Reception message after a bit. After trying again, it seemed to acquire the satellites, but complained the receiver wasn't activated. So I called the number on the brochure for this service, which turned out to be (apparently) a Winegard guy who took the order (got him after a 20+ minute wait on the phone). That process went smoothly, with him patiently explaining all kinds of things, a few of which I already knew from reading manuals.

When he started the activation, the box showed a message that said activation was in process and not to touch the receiver until that screen went away. The guy told me it would be about 20-25 minutes. So far so good. But an hour later that screen was still there. So I called tech support.

The first (tech) took me through a few procedures (power cycle, certain menus), then passed me off to an "advanced tech" who seemed to know a little more, putting me on the Point Antenna page and running some self tests) -- still no service -- so since it was getting late, decided to call it a day, and told her I'd call back today if it still didn't work. Note that this "advanced tech" apparently never understood that this was a mobile installation, and kept referring to the tech who'd been on site, having trouble understanding that I did the install myself, and none of their people had been around. She also also kept trying to tell me that my azimuth and elevation on the Point page were off a bit (obviously not understanding an "automatic dome," in spite of my attempted explanation).

Anyway, after supper I went back out, disconnected everything, and started over on the connection and setup procedures. This time, since activation had apparently been completed in spite of the screen messages, setup got me into downloading the program guide, and after that everything worked fine. This morning everything was still working fine.

Note that the Dish folks did attempt to be helpful, and were generally pleasant to work with, though the "advanced tech" was a tad impatient, and seemed to be skeptical that anyone not trained by them could do much (my impression, not her words). I never did find out why the Activation screen hung around so long.

I hope this experience can help someone else avoid a pitfall or two.

 

[Howard R]

Thanks for the info Larry .... we have been toying with doing the same, except I already have the dish on top of the mh.

Was also wondering why I couldn't basically do the reverse of most folks and using a separate dish for the house just move the receiver into the house when we are here?  That way I'm not locked into a 2 year commitment either.

Howard

 

[Just Lou]

Larry, thanks for the info and insight.  I plan to do about the same as you, come April.

If you have any other relevant experiences in the meantime, please pass them on.

 

[gwcowgill]

Done the same thing but after I stoped the service, I got a letter from dish network that they were sending me a postage prepaid box to ship my receiver back in. Called Dish Network and after 3 attempts got a customer service rep that knew what she was doing and explained to her that I had bought my rec from Camping World and had activated it as a "Pay as You Go" service. She said oh, you own your receiver which I again explained it was in a MH and only activated when  I am travelling. She then told me that the customer service person put in in the system as a leased receiver. She changed the activation to the proper setup noting that I own my receiver.

 

[Norm Nice Guy]

I guess I'm doing the opposite of everyone else. When I purchased my new to me MH, it had an automatic Dish HD antenna which I thought about using as a Pay As You Go system but decided that I could save quite a few dollars if I got rid of my stick home cable and replaced it with Dish. Now when I get ready to go on the road, I move one of the receivers to the MH and leave the other one active in the stick home. Seems to work pretty well for me.

 

[Larry N.]

There are lots of folks doing that, Norm. This is my first experience with satellite, and is a nice way to evaluate how it'll pan out compared to the cable I have now, in addition to only having to pay for the service when I want it -- that is I eliminate paying for service during the multi--month periods when the Bounder just sits at home. Plus, there's no two year contract.

Also, this pay as you go thing from Dish is fairly new.

 

[Wizard46]

We have an leased HD DVR receiver in the stick house that we use all the time. Have another 311 receiver in the motorhome that we own. I can suspend and reactivate service on the 311 any time and as many times as I want. Any time I activate, I am charged for a months service minimum.

 

[Ernie n Tara]

I just upgraded my Dish to HD. I did both the initial setup and the setup for the new Receiver (I bought my HD Rx from Dish).
In the process I learned that Dish has a Motor Home group of tech's that is very knowledgeable and helpful. Just ASK to be transferred to it when you first get in touch with them; many (most?) of their representatives are not even aware that the group exists.
Hope this helps,
Ernie

 

[Flytyer2]

So sorry about your problems.  I initiated a Dish account, setting up a Tailgater and companion receiver, i.e. the whole works, just this afternoon, it is my first Dish account.  After plugging in the receiver, I called Dish, got a young man from Mexico on the phone, and he was extremely helpful.  I signed up for Dish America, their basic High Definition (HD) package, and didn't have to pay anything for HD, am receiving my local channels,and don't have to pay anything for adding my own external USB based hard drive to the receiver for recording programs.  My monthly bill, pay-as-you-go will be less than $40.  Though I've only had it a few hours, I really like it, and found Dish to be far more helpful than Directv which I have in our stick house.  Any discussions with Directv have been painful at best.

 

[Larry N.]

I just upgraded my Dish to HD. I did both the initial setup and the setup for the new Receiver (I bought my HD Rx from Dish).
In the process I learned that Dish has a Motor Home group of tech's that is very knowledgeable and helpful. Just ASK to be transferred to it when you first get in touch with them; many (most?) of their representatives are not even aware that the group exists.
Hope this helps,
Ernie

Thanks for the info, Ernie -- I'll keep that in mind next time I need assistance. They certainly didn't make that known in any venue I've seen, so I'll put a note with my Dish papers.

Flytyer2, the Tailgater is a bit different package -- one I thought about, but all the info I found indicated that the antenna could only be used with that specific receiver, vs. the more general Carryout that I got which is useful with any service except Direct HD. It even has a second  connection port that can be used with a second receiver, should we elect to do that.

 

[Wizard46]

Thought I might toss this in, just this morning I got up and got my coffee, turned on the TV for the news and nothing happened. TV came on but no picture, HD DVR receiver was out, power would not come on.

Finished coffee and called 800-333-dish. Nice young lady came on the phone, asked the obvious questions, transferred me to a more indepth tech and she asked two questions then told me that she would send out a new unit today, won't arrive until Monday but that OK. Went out to the motorhome, got my trusty old 311, brought in in, hooked it up and all's well.

Can't pause or record but can live with that until Monday.

Always had really good service experience with Dish Network.

 

[Larry N.]

An update: Went to Costco to look at USB hard drives to use for making the ViP211 into a DVR. The only 500GB or 1TB drives they had used USB power, while the dish info said the drive used must have its own power, so I bought a 2TB drive with its own wall wart, plugged it in and connected it to the ViP211.

When I turned on the receiver, it said it had detected a USB hard drive and gave me the phone number to call for activation. I called the number, went through the phone menus and wound up with an automated activation process, at which point the receiver said it needed to format the drive, and asked if I wanted it to proceed or to skip it for now. So I told it to go ahead.

So after the drive formatting, then aquiring signal, then downloading the program guide, it was over half an hour later. But it finally was done, and I was able to set up a number of recordings for the next couple of days, then punched the record button and it asked if I wanted to record the current show, so I gave it the OK. A minute or so later I hit the STOP button, the recording stopped, and I played it back -- exactly as it should have worked.

So I now have a 1TB (as near as I can tell) DVR -- I didn't find any capacity indications, but I didn't spend much time at it, either. The Dish web site says that for DVR you need a USB drive with a minimum of 50GB and max of 1 TB capacity, but when it formatted the 2MB drive it was happy, so I presume it formatted it as a 1 TB drive. When I find out more, I'll add to this.  Meanwhile, I have to say that, so far, I am pleased with the experience.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

 

[HTX]

I started with DISH on my boat,  the previous slip tenant had left the Dish on the dock so I ordered the service.  After a year or two with it I decided to drop my cable  at home and go DISH at both locations.  Added one receiver thru DISH and they installed the dish at my house  for free.  I also changed my primary address to my house.  A year or so later I needed tech support at the boat the phone tech said it would require a service call but it was free and someone would be out to my house in a day.  When i told him the service issue was on my boat, my original address, the service call was no longer free.  The phone tech suggested and did change my primary address back to my boat.  They came out fixed the problem no charge.  I now have one account with a receiver on the boat and two dual receivers, one at my house one on the RV where live and work M-F. 

I can't say enough about the quality of their support group, simply the best.

 

[Flytyer2]

Hooked up a USB external hard drive (non powered) and it works great with my setup. So far so good with Dish.

 

[Larry N.]

Another update: I went out to the Bounder this morning, turned on the box and the TV, and sure enough, there were several recordings, including one in HD, just as I'd set them up. The screen showed there was still 196 hours of HD program space remaining, or 787 hours of SD program space. Wow! So DW and I sat and watched parts of them for a bit, also helping her to learn the user interface differences (better than Comcast, in many respects).

So all in all we're pleased with what we've seen so far. We'll certainly know a lot more of how we like it after our trip to Quartzsite, which is coming up later this week.

 

[FrankNichols]

Roughly what is the up front cost to do this? It looks like about $400???

 

[Larry N.]

Depends on what you get, Frank. The $400 might be close for the manual dish. I got the Carryout portable dome (automatic antenna alignment), which was on sale for $649; the ViP211k Dish receiver, on sale for $135; and a tripod mount for the Carryout, on sale for $65. Then there was the one time $99 fee for HD (for life) activation and the one time $40 fee for activating the DVR function, plus $139 for the hard drive (at Costco).

So it was $849 (plus tax) for the hardware.

 

[appsol]

The Tailgater and 211k combo cost $458 from Dishstore online, a bit more if you buy it from Dish directly.  If you have no plans to use the portable dish with another provider, or need to feed more than a single tuner then the Tailgater works well.  The other costs for activation, external hd, etc. are the same no matter what hardware you use.  We've had Dish at home for over 10 years, and bought the Tailgater when it first came out to replace a manual point dish, and have been very satisfied with performance.

 

[Uncle Doug]

I had an extra Dish network receiver added to my home system when the service was installed with the plan to use an extra dish when on the road with our travel trailer. The installer even sold me an extra dish and 50 foot of cable. I pick up a tripod cheap at a yard sale.

So now come the hard part. How difficult is it to manually align the dish or is certain tools required? I have read over the setup a couple of times.

 

[jje1960]

I had an extra Dish network receiver added to my home system when the service was installed with the plan to use an extra dish when on the road with our travel trailer. The installer even sold me an extra dish and 50 foot of cable. I pick up a tripod cheap at a yard sale.

So now come the hard part. How difficult is it to manually align the dish or is certain tools required? I have read over the setup a couple of times.

When using our tripod, I always used one of these, very easy to use.  Still have it in the trailer in case we don't have clear view with the dome on the unit.