DISH activation and support question

[Will Hansen]

Camping World has a special where you get the Wally receiver free with antenna purchase. I opted for the Winegard DISH Playmaker and just installed. Now I need to activate and I see Camping World, Winegard, and DISH Network all have their own activation phone numbers. And the various pieces of hard copy instructions seem to be trying to influence me. My BS detector needle is pegged.

Does this choice of who to activate my account through influence where my future support calls get routed?  I figure I’ll be calling to change location a lot as we roam around and I want that to be painless. I could care less which entity gets ‘credit’; I don’t want to inject some extra support layer because the wrong one of these 3 entities ‘owns’ my account.

Who to call?

Thanks for any light you can shed!
-Will

[Jerry Carr]

Will it should make no change in support, your direct line is to dish and they are great I have been using them for about 8 months on the pay as you go.

[David T. Richelderfer]

We have been using DISH both at our house and on the coach; on the coach for almost six years.  The Dish number I call for everything is 800-333-3474.  I always get a computer answering machine and the first query is communicating using Espanol or English.  BTW, Espanol is the default.  I would have thought English should be the default!  Anyways, when I call DISH to change locals, the process is ALMOST always one less than five-minute call.  The pain is going through the several computer-answering choices and caller verification.  Occasionally, I will have to call a second or even third time to successfully get the locals changed.

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

May be a stupid question but... why do you need to call Dish/DTV to change locations? Is it to get "local" stations from back home or? We (DTV users) just run our OTA antenna up and pull in the locals for network shows and local news then switch back to the DTV input for their stations.
Steve

[David T. Richelderfer]

We like to watch and record the evening series TV shows like NCIS (all three), MacGuyver, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, etc.  And getting them OTA does not go through the DISH receiver and, therefore, does not allow for recording them.  Plus, it's a PITA to switch the controls between OTA and the DISH satellite.

Also, I manage my IRA on a daily basis and like to watch Squawk Box on CNBC; and Bartiromo, Varney, Cavuto, etc., on FOX.  I am usually on the computer with the TV on from before 6 am to at least 9 am every weekday... unless I have an early Tee Time.  Incidentally, I do try to watch some CNN and MSNBC to get a balanced political perspective.  But it seems lately all CNN and MSNBC want to talk about is Stormy Daniels.  If I want to hear what's going on in China on trade, North Korea on nuclear weapons, and, like today, the Federal Judge lambasting the Mueller attorneys, then I am relegated to watching FOX.  This viewing is not generally available on OTA channels.

[Lee Welbanks]

With the Dish phone app you can update your locals without ever calling them, works sweet, no harm no foul, easy take 5 min's.

[Doug Allman]

OK, Lee, what app for dish are you referring to? We need to get that app for sure.

[Fred Cook]

Beware that if you call dish to change to local channels while on a trip... you will lose your regional sports channel. In my case FOX Sports Midwest. I never change out... that way I can watch Cardinal baseball games anywhere in the country while traveling. For this reason, I use the digital antenna to pull in local stuff and it works well. Also... all I pay is an additional $10 a month to my residential Dish TV bill to add a reciever to the Beaver.

[LaMonte Monnell]

With the Dish phone app you can update your locals without ever calling them, works sweet, no harm no foul, easy take 5 min's.

I'd like to know about that app too Lee! When I call them sometimes its a lengthy process to change zip for locals.

[Stan Simpson]

With the Dish phone app you can update your locals without ever calling them, works sweet, no harm no foul, easy take 5 min's.

I'd like to know about that app too Lee! When I call them sometimes its a lengthy process to change zip for locals.

There are several apps in the App Store regarding "dish". Since all satellite receivers have a "dish", the real DISH Network app is hard to discern. I would also like to know the name of the app, please.

[Joel Ashley]

My guess would be the Dish Anywhere app, Stan, but otherwise the MyDish app... both are genuine Dish Network utilities.

[Will Hansen]

Thanks all!  I’ll activate directly with DISH and get the MyDish app which looks like the way to go for managing our account, including location.
-Will

[Lee Welbanks]

The MyDish app is the way to go, so much easier than calling.

[Will Hansen]

For the record, and to cap this topic, I activated our Wally receiver today and learned a few useful bits... I ended up calling 800-970-9623 which turned out to be DISH Outdoor, apparently a division of DISH Network that focuses on mobile/RV customers and their pay-as-you-go plan which is exactly what I wanted. DW and I decided to start off with their cheapest plan (Flex Pack for $34.99/mo) since we didn’t yet know what reception would be like at our current location where we will be spending the summer. Pleasant surprise #2 is that there was only $.03 tax and no other fees or charges so our monthly cost is $35.02! Process was friendly, painless and quick.  Good job DISH.

I then installed the MyDISH app on my phone and iPad and explored a bit to see that I could change info about our account and billing via the app but the app punts you over to the MyDish.com website for changes to channel packages. No big deal. All worked as well as I could hope for. And Sat reception is great which was pleasant surprise #3 since we are north of Seattle with a line of tall trees a couple hundred feet to the south of us.

Thanks once again to the forum. Hoping to put names with faces this summer in Bend.

See ya down the road!

-Will