What happens to equipment when you cancel DIRECTV?

What To Do With Equipment If You Cancel DIRECTV

Every time you decide to purchase the DIRECTV services, you get equipment that will enable you to access their satellite television channels and services. This equipment which may include satellite dish, receivers, remotes and cables are either leased by you or purchased for own use. Therefore, what occurs to all this equipment in case you cancel your DIRECTV service? Here is the breakdown of the process:

Leased Equipment

It is important to know that most of the equipment used by the company is leased rather than owned. This is true because DIRECTV retains possession of the equipment and you only get to use the equipment as you pay for services from the company. Common leased equipment includes:

• Satellite Dish: The dish that receives the satellite signal is most often rented from DIRECTV nearly in 99 percent of the cases. They want control over this piece of equipment that is so important to their operations.

• Receivers: DIRECTV receivers, DVRs, Genies, Clients, etc. are often considered to be leased products. Some may be owned, but leased is more prevalent, especially if the receiver is a specialty or an older model.

• Remotes: The remotes that you use to operate your receivers are also provided to you by DIRECTV on a rental basis.

• Cables/Wiring: Any coaxial cables, HDMI cables, ethernet cables or any other wiring that was installed by the DIRECTV technicians is owned by DIRECTV.

  But what if a customer decides to cancel service with leased equipment? DIRECTV will want all their equipment back. Technician will plan to visit your home shortly after disconnecting the service to pick any leased receivers, remotes, wiring and other equipments.

  You may be charged fees if any leased equipment is not returned, including:You may be charged fees if any leased equipment is not returned, including:

• Unreturned Equipment Fees: $135 for each leased receiver that you take up to $400 for each account

• Unreturned Dish Fees: The approximate amount to be incur is $150

  Technicians will normally dismantle satellite dishes that were mounted on your property. However, if the dish cannot be safely reached or removal would jeopardize any structure from which it was attached to, they may opt to just leave the equipment abandoned and deactivated. They would still be able to charge an unreturned equipment fee though.

  Owned Equipment

  While most DIRECTV equipment is leased, some specialty or older equipment may actually be owned by you, including:While most DIRECTV equipment is leased, some specialty or older equipment may actually be owned by you, including:

• Grandfathered Receivers: It is allowable to own certain older model DVRs, HD receivers, etc. , if you have kept the same account for many years and such devices are no longer sold to new customers.

• Specialty Equipment: Multi-room viewing equipment, external hard drives, AM21 OTA tuners, and other addons may have been bought out right from DIRECTV

• Customer-Provided Equipment: If you provided your own receiver, dish or other equipment bought elsewhere, then you would, of course, own this gear lock, stock and barrel.

  If you cancel service with DIRECTV but have owned equipment, then you do not have to return such property. The equipment is yours to do with it as you wish, either to keep, or to sell. However, DIRECTV will remove all equipment when a customer decides to discontinue the service.

  Deactivation makes DIRECTV receivers, DVRs, dishes and other hardware completely ineffective in terms of receiving their satellite signal. This reduces the chances of the former customers gaining access to the programming without paying for the services. But it also means your owned equipment has little functionality or value after cancelling service.

  The only exception that is allowed is the customer-provided equipment. If you installed the satellite dish or receiver independently from the provider, these should still be compatible with a different provider if setup correctly. Of course you would need to subscribe to a new pay TV service to access programming – this is the most obvious and straightforward point. However, it may be possible to reuse owned equipment instead of disposing of them as electronic waste once one cancels DIRECTV.

  What If I Want to Reactivate Service Later On?

  For instance, you decide to cancel your DIRECTV subscription after some time, but later on, you might change your mind. If you have chosen to reactivate service what happens?

  DIRECTV will always open its doors for customers who have changed their mind and decided to return. It is usually easy to reactivate an old account and does not take a lot of time. However, if you recover equipment that was disconnected in the first place, you may need to reinstall it.

  Technicians took all the leased equipment, you would probably require all new leased dishes, wiring, receivers, etc to start afresh. You should not be charged anything else apart from the normal activation fees and first month payment.

  Possessing some equipment would ease reactivation. For instance, if you had owned receivers, owned dishes or customer-provided equipment that could be retrieved after disconnection, their presence would reduce the installation costs when starting the service again.

  Just remember that equipment leased can never be relocated after cancelling with DIRECTV. It implies that the activation process is almost similar to the one that is followed when registering for the first time. However, they make the process as easy as pie to reactivate your account with their services as long as you do not own any property that came from them on lease.

  The Bottom Line

  Upon cancellation of the service, every leased equipment owned by the company has to be retrieved. These are installations such as satellite dishes, receivers, remotes and wiring. If you do not return these rented items, then charges may be levied on your account.

  Customer-provided dishes and some bought receivers may be considered as your properties. However, DIRECTV will disable this equipment if they are to cut your service as a subscriber of their services.

  The procedure for renewing after cancellation is simple. However, new equipment leases will probably be necessary, even if you once owned parts of your satellite configuration. Knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the handling of DIRECTV equipment when a customer cancels and rejoins can be beneficial in providing a positive customer experience.