Problems with Directv

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

kjsigp

New member
Joined
May 6, 2013
Posts
1
Location
Kalama WA
We are having problems with Directv, Surprise Surprise, Surprise.  When we signed up in January of this year, we were told we would receive a tripod and dish.  Since then we have tried several times to receive it and have been told Directv doesn't provide one.  We have to go to Weingard or King Controls at our cost to receive one.  (Can you say Bait and Switch).  Without proof i.e. recorded phone call they will not honor their verbal promise.  Now we want to travel in our travel trailer and take a receiver from our home along.  WRONG.  That is against the law and we have to sign up for a mobile account, which I assume will be at additional cost.  Our home account can be suspended 4 times a year for 30 days or more as can our RV account.  What about weekend outings?  We would have to do without, or pay full freight all year long.  Cost 50-75 per month for choice plus?

Has anyone had these problems and found solutions?

Thanks,
Jay
 
I'm confused. When you signed up, what was it for? Your house or the RV. DirecTV sends a local tech out to install your dish and receiver for your house. They don't provide a dish or a receiver for your motorhome. Winegard does, and acts as the seller of the DirecTV service as well. You buy your own dish and receiver through Winegard or other mobile satellite company.

We have done both, without issues. Recently, after our two years was over on the DirecTV for the motorhome, we cancelled the account. We switched to DirecTV at home at our new address. We can now just take the receiver from my office at home and put it in the motorhome. No need to be on and off, because we will either be home or traveling with the same DirecTV account.

Stan
 
When we signed up in January of this year, we were told we would receive a tripod and dish.

Told by who? DTV installers are independent contractors, and some will sell a dish/tripod, but you can do better, probably on your own with ebay or Craig's list. I am confused, also. Why would you need two accounts? We simply have a couple of extra receivers that stay in the rv, along with a rooftop dish, and a backup tripod and dish in case we are in trees. DTV probably does not care which ones we are using. When we are in the motorhome, we use those receivers, when in the stick and brick, we use the ones there. We have been doing this since 2007 with no issues.
 
As long as you did not get one of the multi room systems there is no reason you cannot take your receivers with you.  There are many places that sell dish assemblies.  Satellite osasis for one offers great service.  They will set you up with everything you might need in one package.  There are hundreds maybe thousands of people who travel with their Directv systems every day.  Now the only reason you might want a seperate system is if you travel out of your local spot beam area.  Which is generally 150-200 mile redius of your permanent address.  We have been farther than that with no problem, but you could loose the locals closer too depending on location.
 
Jay,
Let me see if I can give you a brief overview.  Sorry to hear that you thought you would get a tripod and did not but it's unlikely you will get one now as that would never be any part of a home installation.  I can also tell you that the "mobile" setup that DirecTV sometimes provides to an RV is not a tripod and you likely would not have wanted it anyway.
Now, you have receivers and they will work fine in your home and in your RV.  You don't need a separate account you just need either a dish on a tripod that you must learn to point yourself or one of the automatic roof mounted or portable antennas.  Once you have the correct antenna for the RV you just take one of the receivers, put it in the RV and make the necessary connections.  You will now be able to watch whatever you get at home in your RV.  The only exception to that is if you plan to travel a long way from home.  Your local Networks (NBC, etc.) are spot beamed and that signal only exists within a few hundred miles of that city.  Should you drive too far from home you will lose all Network programming.  However, if this is only going to be for a short period of time you very likely will be able to use your roof mounted over-the-air TV antenna to pick up the Networks and use your satellite for all of the rest.
If you were going out on the road for many months you can sign up for Distant Network Services (DNS) and you would be able to receive the Network programming from either NY or LA based upon you service address.  This is where the satellite folks get confused about needing 2 separate accounts.  If you needed to have receivers in your home still watching local Networks at the same time that you were out on the road with your RV and wanted DNS then you would need 2 separate accounts.  However, most people don't have anyone at home when they are on the road so all receivers can be setup to receive locals or setup to receive DNS all under one account.
Hope this helps.
 
kjsigp said:
We are having problems with Directv, Surprise Surprise, Surprise.  When we signed up in January of this year, we were told we would receive a tripod and dish.  Since then we have tried several times to receive it and have been told Directv doesn't provide one.  We have to go to Weingard or King Controls at our cost to receive one.  (Can you say Bait and Switch).  Without proof i.e. recorded phone call they will not honor their verbal promise.  Now we want to travel in our travel trailer and take a receiver from our home along.  WRONG.  That is against the law and we have to sign up for a mobile account, which I assume will be at additional cost.  Our home account can be suspended 4 times a year for 30 days or more as can our RV account.  What about weekend outings?  We would have to do without, or pay full freight all year long.  Cost 50-75 per month for choice plus?

Jay,
I am now going through the same thing.  When I signed up for Directv this past January through Costco, it was specifically so that we would have tv while moving and when we got to where we are going while we live in our RV.  (We are not full-timers.)  And then hook it up at our new home.  We had the installer come out and put a dish on our house.  He gave my husband the coupling to attach the dish to a tripod (which my hubby would make) and told us that if he had a smaller dish, he would have given it to us but he didn't have one in the truck.

I called Directv and same as you they said the installer was proabably an independent (his truck said Directv and so did his badge and shirt) installer.  They said they don't do that and they wanted to refer me to Winegard or King or whatever.  Your comment mirrored mine almost to the T!  I was so mad at Directv.  They had me go through the moving department, customer service and then to the RV department.  No one could give me a clear answer.  I was so confused. My hubby was going to take the dish off the house and we would use that....but after reading more up on that...it's probably not the best idea.

So I've done some research online and read some of the threads here on the boards.  I know that on my Weekend Warrior, the cable hook-up might not necessarily work.  We might have to do a round-de-round cable work up.  I did find on Installer Oasis dot com that they had kits at a reasonable price.  And the dish would be ours to use anytime we took out the Weekend Warrior.  Anyone reading this:  Any reviews on Installer Oasis?  Are they reputable? 

I'm beginning to wonder.....if Directv wants to start charging me for my equipment, i.e. receiver, dish, remote, that it appears that Installer Oasis sell all kinds of equipment that you would pay for and it would be yours. That's another subject that I'm looking into.

Any info from the regs would be helpful.

Robin
 
P.S.  We are going to take our receiver and use it in the trailer.  They said that was ok.  We just have to buy our own dish.  We have an HR34-700 Genie.  We have HD at home but will have standard on a little bitty tv in the trailer...but it's a great little tv with a DVD and the movies look great!
 
Direct TV is a satellite service - the direct sales and installation are done by independent local resellers who are licensed by DTV to sell and install. Yeah, it says DTV on the sign out front and on the truck, but it's still an independent reseller. I don't think DTV will provide any new installation parts or services direct to a subscriber for free - you have to work through a local reseller, who gets compensated via his commission on the service agreement.

You can buy a tripod and dish relatively inexpensively online, or just get a used dish from somebody who no longer uses the service. There are thousands of them around. You will probably need to buy the portable tripod, though, if that's what you want. Also a "marriage saver", the signal strength tuning gadget that makes set-up easier.  Ebay is one cheap source, but there are plenty of satellite gadget outlets online. Here is one:
http://www.newegg.com/Satellite-TV-Accessories/SubCategory/ID-497
 

Forum statistics

Threads
131,749
Posts
1,384,220
Members
137,520
Latest member
jeep3501
Back
Top Bottom