Community Forums

wiredgeorge · 08-22-2018, 03:20 PM

I looked all over the Dish site and can't find a good explanation for the "Pay As You Go" plan which RVers will likely be using. Thinking about Dish sat TV. Can someone explain this plan? If I call Dish, I have heard others say that their customer support has a hard time with this explanation... want to be armed before falling into terminal confusion! tia

Warmrock · 08-22-2018, 03:48 PM

It is fairly simple. You pay for your services in advance, for a month at a time. When you no longer need it, just don’t pay the next bill. When you are ready to start again, pay for the next month. It is not prorated, it is for a month at a time.

The monthly package depends on your basic service and what add on packages you want.

With the MyDISH app, you can change your local channels depending where you land. It takes about 15 minutes to fully make the change. With this app, my need to call customer service has gone down to new thing.

Bigd9 · 08-22-2018, 04:20 PM

If you have Dish Network at home then you can add another receiver to your account for around $6 +_ per month.

Or if you want to go to pay as you go, for the top 120 channels, like we have, it will cost $79.99 per month.
https://www.dish.com/programming/pac...pay-as-you-go/

https://www.dish.com/outdoor-tv/satellite-tv-for-rv/

rk911 · 08-22-2018, 04:52 PM

- when you set up your account DO NOT allow automatic renewals and DO NOT enter your credit card or debit card number into your account settings. that will force DISH to send you a series of reminder e-mails to pay your bill for the next month's service. you'll start seeing those reminders roughly 10-days before your 30-day period is up.

- btw, YOUR 30-day clock starts ticking when you pre-pay your first month. the 30-days IS NOT a calendar month. as Warmrock stated...when you no longer want the service just don't pay the bill. you'll still get reminders to pay your bill AFTER the 30-days...just ignore them.

- when you want to re-start the service you'll need to call DISH and speak with an agent. when your service is not active you won't be able to log into your online account. and be sure to create an online account. it makes managing your account really EZ.

- some have posted that they can cancel their service prior to the end of 30-days and receive credit for the unused time. we've never tried that so don't know for sure.

- you may hear from others that you can "suspend" your account rather than simply not paying the bill (you have to speak to an agent to do suspend it). while you CAN do that there are some good reasons not to. first, it'll cost you a few $ each month and there is a limit to the number of months it can be suspended. at the end of that time your account will automatically be re-activated...whether you want it to or not. second, if you have any "special pricing deals" on your account such as HBO for $10 per month they will be eliminated during the account suspension. that doesn't happen if you simply stop paying the bill.

IMO, if you're not a fulltimer the DISH PAYG plan is THE way to go. good luck!

Bigd9 · 08-22-2018, 04:58 PM

If you have Dish Network at home then you can add another receiver to your account for around $6 +_ per month.

Or if you want to go to pay as you go, for the top 120 channels, like we have, it will cost $79.99 per month.
https://www.dish.com/programming/pac...pay-as-you-go/

https://www.dish.com/outdoor-tv/satellite-tv-for-rv/

wiredgeorge · 08-24-2018, 09:57 PM

We have DirecTV at home but they are going to kill SD service when they take down the bird that carries it in 2019. No point buying equipment and then finding out it won't work. Only dish out there that I have seen that does DirecTV and HD is a Winegard Traveller dish that costs almost $2000. The rest of the Winegard line up of dishes seems to be SD only. King is much the same in their offerings.

DHuse · 08-25-2018, 02:06 PM

$1,249.99 at Amazon right now.

ChileRick · 08-25-2018, 05:05 PM

..... I think, DISH has ACTUALLY been listening! This year (aside from installing a new box) the pay as you go, now known as Dish Outdoors has been much improved. You can even change locals on line, and Dish agents seem much more aware of the program.
That has been our experience..........

wiredgeorge · 08-27-2018, 08:36 PM

My wife called up today and install of Dish TV at the house is scheduled for Sept. 5. I decided to forgo the "pay as you go" deal and am going to buy a dish and receiver for the trailer. Will only want to hook up ONE TV. We almost never watch TV in the bedroom.

OK, advice time. I looked at dishes and there was mention of some being able to only acquire Dish east or Dish west birds. I live in Texas. Is there a sat dish that can see satellites in east and west orientation? Last issue is that most of the bundles have a Wally receiver and I see a lot of negative reviews; the Vip211 seems to fare much better. Does anyone have any advice regarding a receiver. I noted that remanuactured receivers often are not clear of their associated with some other owner. Don't want to spend a fortune but don't want to get stuck with a boat anchor! tia. wg

PbdBlue · 08-27-2018, 09:12 PM

I have both a 211z and a Wally. Both work equally well. If it were me I’d get the Wally. Smaller footprint, two tuner capability with the travler, rf remote, etc.

Bigd9 · 08-28-2018, 05:29 AM

If you have Dish at home, as I do, then you can purchase a receiver and Dish will charge a small monthly fee for the second receiver. We pay $7 per month.

For receivers, as Bdpblue said 221 (what I have been using for many years now) and the Wally.

Now for the Dish, I use the Winegard Pathway X2. It gets both east and west satellites. THe X2 is relatively easy to set up and you can move it around to get a clear spot to see the satellites that are 22,000 miles overhead. Just this past week we pulled into a campground nestled in a forest. I saw a small opening in the trees, checked my Sat App on my phone, figured out where the dish needed to be located, set it up and presto, I got 2 out of 3 "birds". If you plan to travel around this beautiful country of ours I recommend it.

In general, east birds are higher in the sky than the western birds, at least that's true in my neck of the woods.

The downside to the Winegard X2 is its size. Its big, and that size probably leads to its great success in finding and locking on the Sats.

wiredgeorge · 08-28-2018, 09:11 AM

Some of the larger dishes are likely to have higher signal strength as the amount of signal they bring in is related directly to the dish size but the size is also a downside when having to haul the dish around.

I think we will go with a Winegard P1000 Playmaker, ViP211K and get an external hard drive (2TB USB 2.0) from Best buy.

Any reason this combo won't be a good compromise from a function and cost standpoint? tia

firedoc · 08-28-2018, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Some of the larger dishes are likely to have higher signal strength as the amount of signal they bring in is related directly to the dish size but the size is also a downside when having to haul the dish around.

I think we will go with a Winegard P1000 Playmaker, ViP211K and get an external hard drive (2TB USB 2.0) from Best buy.

Any reason this combo won't be a good compromise from a function and cost standpoint? tia

The external HD for the 211k is stated to need it’s own power (plug). These are getting hard to find. The only one I could find was a Western Digital 4GB usb 3 drive which would not work with my 211k.

wiredgeorge · 08-28-2018, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firedoc

The external HD for the 211k is stated to need it’s own power (plug). These are getting hard to find. The only one I could find was a Western Digital 4GB usb 3 drive which would not work with my 211k.

I am thinking this hard drive should work:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Seagate-Bac...k/323401645378

I believe the USB 3.0 cable is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0