who does DISH consider a "new" customer?  

Can't give them a cell number so don't try, it must be a landline that you hook your RCVRs to.

Come on now! You already know the answer to this question! You sound like your trying to get justifications/ideas for trying to defraud Dish Network from the forum members here. It's quite obvious that a new customer does NOT include wives or kids or dogs who live in the same house as the current or recent customer who lives in the same house! Luckily, Dish has a pretty good system in place to catch those who are trying to pull stuff like you want to in place! Otherwise we would all be paying MUCH more for our programming and equipment to compensate for fraud comitted on them!

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STL,

As I understand it: I don't think their service plans are related to just an individual. Rather, the concept I think is to provide programming to a household...hence their rules. Dish is willing to subsidize the initial hardware so as to compete with cable or DirecTV. They get their their foot in the door and then sell/get subsequent programming subscriptions. Some call it the Gillette model.

The conundrum of course is how does Dish keep their older customers satisfied. They have to give newbies a break just to get them while the older ones demand breaks for being loyal customers. And, unfortunately, the hardware is fairly expensive to make. There appears to be no good answer.

My wife subscribed without problem in a similar case.

dmitriy,
Interesting... Same last name; same address, same phone number?

That's not true..DISH has certain criteria that must be met to be considered a "new" customer. I believe part of that includes checking the name, address, phone number, etc. to see if service has been established either at a particular residence or to a certain individual.

Now I don't completely understand exactly how they determine eligibility, but I do know (as do you) that what you are asking clearly violates their agreement. You may disagree with their policy, but it's their ball and if you want to play the game you must play by their rules.

As I see it you have three choices:

1. Continue with DISH and try to get the best available deal if you want to upgrade your service/equipment
2. Drop DISH and get yourself a new customer deal with DirecTV or cable
3. Cheat - find a way around DISH's policy

You may not like 1 & 2, but at least you can look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day...

As a DTV subscriber, I can understand the original post.
Yes you could :

1. Subcribe under you MIDDLE NAME
2. Use your wife or any other family member's name
3. Use your FAX phone number

The point is WHY? Is it really worth it? I have been getting the East and West channels (Remember Primetime 24) for years. I was tempted to "re-subscribe" as a new customer. As an "old" subscriber, I was grandfathered with authorization to receive the distant channels. As a new subsciber, I would only be eligible for my local channels.

The deals given to "new" subscribers is done to give them
an opportunity to acquire service at a discount. The hope is that they will get "hooked" and bring in additional customers. The DBS companies are banking on the revenue stream monthly programming, PPV, NFL package, etc).

The honest thing to do is call and explain your situation to them. Meaning, don't tell them you are considering switching service if you really are not. It's your call. I'm not getting into morals or stealing ,etc here. One could make an argument that as long as you are actually PAYING for service, what differrence does it make who's name it is in?

As I have mentioned in previous posts, when I moved last year, I resubscribed as a new customer last fall. I moved to a new location (new address,phone,fax,and receivers and dish) and received the benefit of the free install offer.
What I lost in the process is my distant network feeds.
Consider the programming I lost is not that great and can be seen via an OTA antenna anyway, I did not lose much!

Fact of the matter, If someone wants to steal from you, an alarm or door lock will only slow them down. A determined thief will get what he/she wants. I'm not calling you a thief,just making a point. If someone wants to benefit from the "new" subscriber deal, they will and can find a way.

Yes it seems the new subscribers get the goodies, but the old subscribers will hopefeully benefit LATER as more subscriber should result in higher revenue. This should lead to better programming and even cheaper programming.

Like I said, call Dish and ask about any upgrade specials they are having. I bvelieve they have a customer retention department or representative.

Demonizing Dish doesn't make it right.

Sure, I envy new customer deals that come out after I already made mine, but I live with it - why should Dish be responsible for keeping you stocked with toys?

The only solution to this is rental plans. I think that the Sat. companies should provide rental options for their equipment (with the understanding that if you got a used piece of equipment you wouldn't complain so long as it worked). That would make the toys more affordable and also allow for flexibility when the next best thing comes around.

-Mike

I don't have any problems comprehending what I read.

You came on originally asking people to give you some insight into how you could use your wifes name (and cell phone number) to make it appear as if you were a new customer. People told you that it was basically wrong to do.

So when you saw that you couldn't trick Dish into getting you free (or heavilly discounted equipment) you decide that perhaps the best option would be to cancel and purchase a set top box (and then mentioning that the picture quality with Dish was bad anyway).

-Mike

In other words, you want to cheat, and are too chickenskit to admit it to yourself.

And I bet you call yourself religious, too.

...and with that, this thread is closed.

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