Anyone else familiar with this?

My GFs last ex left his at their place when he moved out.

They are the new and current models they use, he left them about a year ago, checked online and they are still using the same models currently.

The DVR receiver sells used for around $300.

The HD receiver sells for around $180....the one you can have in the other room that plays off the main one like in the commercials.


Anyway, looking online, it seems that if there is an balance owned on the account that the receivers are linked to, it's basically worthless?

The receivers/DVDR are linked to the account through an RID# on the back.

So, if a balance is owed from the account that used these, they can't be sold for a profit when you owe DirecTV $, which is very smart on their part.

Is there any value or way to sell these if money is owed on the account?

Some are selling for way cheaper than others, and appear to be the same thing, perhaps they can be hacked etc to where the RID doesn't matter?

4/14/2012 8:27:23 PM

If there is still a contract in place ($ owed), then they are property of DirecTV, not you or your GF.

Pay the account off, then sell them and pocket the difference. Or return them to DirecTV.

4/14/2012 8:32:45 PM

She says he signed a two year lease agreement, moved out on like month 5 and left them. Not sure if he is responsible for the entire 2 years, or just the $400 cancellation fee or what. I mean, if only $100 is owed on the account, are you just allowed to pay that and then keep the receivers even if they are worth more?

Basically, my main goal is I don't want to sell these to someone on eBay and end up fucking them over.

4/14/2012 8:35:52 PM

I let my friend keep my DirecTV account for a year because the contract had already been fulfilled and I didn't want the service anymore so he used my free Mover's Advantage to get a few promotions.

A couple of months later I canceled the account and signed him up for service the same day. (Promotion surfing, Sunday Ticket etc etc). I still had to ship them back all the equipment. I took my happy ass time with it and eventually they billed me 150 bucks until I finally shipped it back and then reversed the charges.

I think if the account is in good standing then you can pay 20 bucks to get a new access card programmed from directv and then pay whatever the fee is for an additional receiver. I don't know if at that point the ex-bf is no longer responsible for the equipment or what though.

We have an HD-DVR and 3 HD receivers in the closet from a similiar situation and it's just been too much of a hassle to try and do anything with them.

4/14/2012 8:57:28 PM

I called them a bit ago, and they are saying he owes for two months, $16Oish...the two months before I guess they realized he wasn''t going to pay, plus the $400 cancellation fee. They offered me the chance to pay ALL THAT and I could basically "legally" sell them and they would be free to work for whoever bought them.

FUCK. THAT.

I can only net about $400-500 selling both of them in a best case scenario on eBay, and thats before fees on eBay AND Paypal. Which will run around $100.

I asked them if there was any sort of "reward" for basically mailing their equipment back to them, not trying to be a jew about that, but I have these perfect condition almost new receivers that it appears I can do nothing with which to me seems absolutely ridiculous.

They told me I was more than welcome to send them back to them, but I would get nothing for my efforts, not even shipping.

I told the guy to to "fuck off" in a nice way.

I'm not paying to send you your shit for you to in turn make money off of.

Hell, I'd be willing to send them back if they sent me a box with a prepaid label.

But, DirecTV seems willing to just right off these boxes as a loss, than to just pay $20 shipping for them which I assume is what it might cost to mail them back if that.

Hell, they didn't even want to come to take the dish off the house when we called them about that saying "Oh we only use new hardware on every install"

How in the fuck do these guys make $?

4/14/2012 10:53:10 PM

Actual hardware cost is no where near those market costs/value and they make bank from selling the service. The value is high since the devices aren't sold to the mass markets, using proprietary equipment.

Once you have the infrastructure setup, satellite is actually fairly cheap to operate than cable since they have a much larger infrastructure to obtain a similar sized target market.

4/15/2012 9:08:46 AM

i'll test the boxes at my house to see if they're on "clean" accounts. if they are. I'll buy 1 or 2. I made the mistake of buying one from an account out for collection and it's worthless to me. directv told me to add a box to my account that was made any kind of recently, i'd be locked into a 2 year contract as they're all considered "leased" units now.

4/15/2012 10:10:54 AM

Quote :

"I asked them if there was any sort of "reward" for basically mailing their equipment back to them, not trying to be a jew about that, but I have these perfect condition almost new receivers that it appears I can do nothing with which to me seems absolutely ridiculous."

Not that hard to try when it seems to come pretty natural to you. You going to sell the used condoms he use to bang your girlfriend with as well??

4/15/2012 9:54:06 PM