Service Fee

Rent? I’ve never heard of a rental fee for a DIRECTV receiver. You must be reading your bill incorrectly. All receivers are leased and DIRECTV provided them to the customer free of charge with the two year contract.

Yes, everyone NOT on the protection plan for DIRECTV is paying the standard $99 service call fee for issues regarding service like aligning a dish, troubleshooting an error code, replacing wiring, dish relocation, etc.

@Hempinfool 

DirecTV does not rent their boxes. Technically the Genie (HR44) is 'leased', but there is no monthly cost for that. Any lease cost is one-time when you ordered the box.

As the box is owned by DirecTV, if they have to warranty replace it there is just a $19.95 delivery charge.

A service call is $99 because everything else (cabling, multiswitch, receiving dish, etc.) you own. So sending a tech out is not free. The $99 is the normal cost as  listed in the Terms of Service.

Re-read your bill and see exactly what it says for that "$40" as you are misunderstanding something.

You do pay for the receiver services (DVR, etc.) which cover the account, but that certainly would not add up to $40.

@Hempinfool 

Did you clear up what you're actually paying on the bill? If that $40 or other charges still do not make sense, post back with the details of each line item (exact name and cost) and we can help make sense of it.

I really appreciate the help.

In fact, they called me 30 minutes later and sent me a new box and all is well.

Here are the two lines I was referring to and it's $20, not $40!

Advanced Receiver-HD 09/03 - 10/02, Monthly $10

Advanced Receiver-DVR 09/03 - 10/02, Monthly $10

I pay for the package $124.99 and I have to pay $20 to have their box to view it.

To me, that's $20 rent for the box. 

Again, I do appreciate your time in this forum.

@Hempinfool 

Ok so $20, not $40 as stated in your original post. That amount was closer to what I was expecting, confirmed by the line items. The charges you see are services for the account, not a per box charge of any kind (and certainly not a rental).

$10 HD

$10 DVR

$3 Whole Home DVR.

Those services cover the entire account. It is not charged per box. Whether you have 1, 2, or 10 that can use the service, you only pay it once.

If you had more than 1 TV, you would pay $7 for each additional authorized TV on the service. That is charged regardless of what model box (Genie, Client, HDDVR, SDDVR, non-DVR) or even if it has no box at all (RVU Client/DirecTV Ready TV) as it is mirroring your services to each TV.

A service charge that is for the entire account (not per box) is not a rental charge. Even if you owned all your boxes (back when that was available), the monthly cost would be the same.

Juniper

Well, you make it sound better than what I had in my mind.

I try not to be a worrisome customer of DTV but they never have charged me before but I do not call very often.

At least someone may read this post and better understand those charges.

Have a great day!

Glad I was able to help. Those receiver services do cause some confusion, especially when someone has experience with a different carrier that does have a monthly rental (or similar) charge. I know of one provider that increases the charge per box depending on what features it has. DirecTV keeps it simple by having service for the account, and then a mirroring/per TV fee as needed.

As for the original question, since we own everything but the boxes, then yes we all pay for a service call. If you pay monthly for the equipment protection plan, it covers that cost but as you pay more in the long run, I don't find it a good value. Admittedly, the cost of service calls did essentially double a few years ago. Though if they are sending a tech back out within 90 days of install/repair, then the cost is normally waived as they are covering the work they just did.

I may not be able to change how everything is setup, but I am glad I can help make sense of it. If nothing else, others can make the right decisions for themselves by having the accurate information without any required up-spin that an employee would have to position it as.