odie1234 wrote:



For service with the dish you are pretty much on your own. You have to find a dealer willing to work on it (sometimes difficult when traveling) or do it yourself. Mobile techs typically do not want to work on them and especially do not want to mess with running cables or other set up issues. Once I asked at campground office and they sent me to one of their workers who knew a lot about working on them and helped me. Once the dish is working then you can get help from Direct on program issues, etc.

Kiwi_too wrote:

I have the Pay-As-You-Go deal.

I called the number at Winegard/Dishnetwork three times. Each time I was required to leave a message. The first time I thought it would be like many (maybe most) other type services, "leave a message and you might never hear from them." I was surprised to get a call within 2 hours after each call. The rep took the time to explain the service and answer my questions.

When I made the decision to go with the service, I knew I needed to have the system install complete, prior to calling the Dish 4 My RV number, 877-435-0181, provided by the Winegard. Once the Dish and receiver were installed and connected to my TV, I called Dish 4 My RV. I was on hold all of 90 seconds (+/- 5. The sales/service rep helped me set up the account and spent time making sure I understood the service start, stop, how to call or use the web to pay and manage my account. He verified that my system was ready and took my Sim and Receiver numbers. Within 60 seconds my reveiver went from "...not authorized." to "...being authorized. Took about 20 minutes on the phone. After hanging up, it took 20=30 minutes for the satellite and receiver programming. Satellite was ready to use. Love it.

BTW, the sales rep said that Dish does not charge the $40 for DVR capability. He said all I have to do is plug in my HD to the ViP211K. He was wrong. HD for life is still $99 one time fee. I have only had the connection for a short while and have not tested the DVR. Will do so this or next weekend. I am starting with at least a 500GB HD to ensure I have plenty of space.

Seems that customer service has gotten more knowledgeable since I start the inquiries.

When asked to outline the specific steps I took I answered.

For the Pay As You Go service, you need to do this.

1. Install a Dish Network compatible satellite dish and the VIP211K receiver.
2. Go to DishForMyRV Programming to select your viewing plan. You don't select it on line. You need this when you go to step 3.
3. Once that is installed, you call Dish 4 My RV number, 877-435-0181. They will ask for a 4 digit pin. Tell them if you want HD for life, $99 one time setup fee. Have paper and pen ready. They will give you an account number and customer service numbers.
4. Credit card, there could be other methods of payment, like debit card.
5. Once authorized/activated/connected you can go online to DishNetwork.com and click "REGISTER" in the upper-right corner of the screen. With your 4 digit pin and account number, you can register and update your account info. You can also pay your bill online to continue or activate service. You can also call Customer Service.
6. About 30 minutes after you are authorized, you will have sat. TV to watch.

You get a monthly notice of bill. Pay and you keep receiving. Ignore and it will ignore you for the same amount of time.

Have had Dish now for a few months. We went to Custer, SD. Called the customer service number and changed my service (not billing) address to the CG we were staying in and got the local channels within minutes. The dish tracked and locked within minutes as well. We have the Winegard Dish SK-1000 installed but I have heard good things about the Carryout.

Minimum service you get and pay for is 1 month whether you use it for the entire monthly billing period or turn it on the last day of the billing period. Costs nothing to turn on or off. We save money in the months we do not use it. We will pay nothing during the winter months.

We are very happy.

jcgc50 wrote:

Appreciate the detailed post as I have been looking into this as well. It is my understanding that in order to use the DVR feature you have to run two coax cables from the antenna to the receiver. Is that correct?

Also, would this require a dish with more than one LNB? We had been looking at the Carryout automatic version but it has one LNB.

Kiwi_too wrote:



Jim,

Glad to pass on the info.

The Carryout only has 1 LNB and 2 coax out. The Winegard Website states that it supports SD & HD. Others on here have the Carryout and the Pay-As-You-Go plan, and are reporting good results.

The Pay-As-You_Go plan touts the use of the ViP211K receiver, only. It seems that with multiple phone calls and whining, some may have gotten the plan on a different receiver. The ViP211K receiver has only 1 tuner. This obviates the second coax requirement as you cannot watch one channel while recording another. You can get multiple of the ViP211K for a second room. The ViP211K receiver also does NOT have an internal hard drive for DVR. You pay a one time fee of $40 to have the programming, which allows you to attach an external hard drive. Once plugged in, the HD is formatted by the system, so make sure you don't have any good data on it. I have not tried to use this on any other system, after being formatted by Dish Network.

jcgc50 wrote:



Aside from that, with the system as you describe can you pause and rewind live tv?

cpaulsen wrote:

We have Dish at home....gota spare dish for free.....have to extra receivers(we switched to HD) a tripod for 20.00 bucks. Takes about 5 minutes to set up at a campground.