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Home Away From Home Program

207K views 306 replies 94 participants last post by  dosgringos 
#1 ·
Not too long ago there was an announcement that Shaw Direct had canceled their Home Away From Home program, posted on Digital Home at http://www.digitalhome.ca/content/view/3559/279/. HAFH, explained below, would henceforth only be available to customers already on the program.

I recently asked Contact Us at Shaw what the program was all about, and the legalities of receiving Shaw in the U.S., and got this reply today:

"Home Away From Home is a program offered to our customers who are looking to stay connected to Shaw Direct (previously Starchoice) year round. The purpose of the program is to ship a second dish and self install kit (if necessary) to a 2nd residence within Canada so that customers can continue to enjoy Shaw Direct programming while on vacation (at the cottage, RV, etc.) You can have both your primary residence and vacation residence all under one account. One account = one bill.

HAFH is NOT to be used for watching programming at two locations simultaneously. You are responsible for ensuring us that the programming is being watched at one address at a time, not both.

$99 plus tax one time charge to cover the cost of the dish. $13.99 shipping fee for dish. Receivers purchased at regular Cash and Carry price . Thank you for choosing Shaw Direct.
Raj, Shaw Direct"
 
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#7 ·
Bell still has their program. However, with Bell you have to tell them which receivers are at the home and which ones are at the cabin. If you go to the cabin, you have to call them and they will then turn off receivers at the house and turn on the receivers at the cabin. When you are back at home you have to call them again to turn on the house receivers and turn off the cabin ones.
 
#8 ·
I stand corrected, Bell modified it's program after the cable companies whined to the CRTC. In a manner of speaking Bell also expects you to only watch tv at one location at any given time. In the real world, RVers with kids take satellite tv with them camping. If their kids stay at home does that make you or them thieves for the family watching tv at 2 different locations? Should the person who's name is on the account pay a fine and/or go to jail for it? At what point did rules on watching tv become stupid? Inquiring minds want to know. :)
 
#9 ·
most people are not quite so honest when it comes to tv. i'm often finding on a service call that not all the receivers listed on the account are present and accounted for. somehow i don't believe them when they say the other 2 receivers are in the rv when they only have 1 at home.
i wouldn't blame the satellite providers for their policies though. it's the networks like tsn and discovery that want to be paid for every pair of eyes watching their show. they are willing to make a concession for the family who wants to have several receivers in the same house and allow 5 or 6 boxes activated on one account as long as they are all in the same house. what you often find though are people taking a receiver from home and hooking it up in their business's waiting room or giving a receiver to a relative, or putting a receiver in their rental property. they will tell their son to get a job to pay his way through university but when it comes to tv they are only too happy to give it away for free.
 
#10 ·
I think the mindset here goes back to the 70s, when the cable companies (at least in Ontario) charged for every extra outlet in the house. Even before that, Bell would charge extra for more than two 'phone outlets, IIRC. Eventually it became law that a minimum number of 'phone and cable outlets were required as part of every residential construction permit; Radio Shack sold all the parts you needed for phone and cable connections.

Cable companies didn't use STBs so you could plug in a TV/TVs anywhere in your house.
Cable installers were told flat out by many customers: "You can cut the tip off that outlet, but I'll just hook it up again after you leave." The opposition eventually caved in.

Today, the cable companies benefit over the sat companies because--by sheer force of logistics--we can't run a cable from our houses to our cottages. But back in the day, they also made a lot of money renting/selling set-top converter boxes, before TVs included them. And so with the onset of satellite feeds, there's a mental block against the morality, or lack thereof, of paying once and taking it everywhere. Let's not even talk about the music business... .
 
#11 ·
there's a few legitimate applications that would get thrown out if they were to apply the "only one location active at a time rule" and that's where the guy who works away from home takes a receiver with him. i often see people living in the rv for 6 months while they work in the oilpatch or do some seasonal work while the rest of the family is on the other side of the country.
 
#12 ·
Don't want to start an argument here.
But technically that is not a legitimate use.
For about $20 total per month, a guy in the oil patch temporarily, can have the basic satellite in the trailer. That would be the least of expenses incurred.
But hey let's not argue I'm just making a point.
 
#13 ·
And he would be deprived of experiencing the same stuff that his family is getting!

BTW I bought my receivers off craigslist from a guy who was taking them to Cabo when his "clients" cancelled their new condo purchases there. When I activated them, the CSR was surprised that they were new receivers never activated before.
 
#15 ·
Interesting. I have DSL for my Internet access, and I can take my modem anywhere, plug it in, and ... using my own account... get Internet access. Not tied to the phone number, house address, anything. In fact, I can use two modems at two different addresses, and be logged in to the same provider at the same time from both places.

One would think that, particularly with User ID requirements and passwords, this would not be allowed, but they don't seem to care. So theoretically, I'm paying for one account but able to use it elsewhere at the same time. It's aggravating that I can use a cell phone wireless account from anywhere, but not my home account for Shaw.

If I buy a second cell phone, and have it assigned the same phone number, then could I use both phones at the same time to log on? Since I'm paying for the second cell phone as a receiver, does the same concept apply to a Shaw Direct box as a receiver?
 
#16 ·
I believe the whole issue had to do with broadcasters getting shortchanged on possible revenue by not getting money from extra subscriptions where they thought they should. You don't have that issue with cell phones and internet.

I didn't think that they let you assign the same number to two phones unless something has changed.
 
#18 ·
Which is an outdated idea in this increasingly mobile culture. Both satellite companies had no problem with cottage accounts until the cable monopolies started whining. It's not dishonest or immoral to take one of your STBs with you when you go camping nor should it be deemed as such. There is a difference between account splitting and having a secondary residence where the same family members are the primary users in both residences. There is something to be said about fair and reasonable usage.
 
#19 ·
Can anyone confirm if this program is currently available?

Its cottage season again, and I'd like to take one of our receivers to the cottage with us, and although I know I can simply buy another dish and hook it up myself, I'd prefer to get the dish installed at the cottage professionally, as it might be tricky due to all the trees.
 
#20 ·
Well I currently have the Home away from Home set up. I did the installation work but my cabin address is registered with SD so they know about it. I guess it could be Grandfathered though, but I haven't heard anything about the program going away.
 
#21 ·
The HAFH program is still alive and well, though I don't think it's being widely advertised. It's a good deal. I recently paid $99.00 CAD and received the 75E dish needed for HD, and better reception in the rain, for my place in Mexico. A local satellite guy had us up and running in no time. You will need to speak to a different department (than those that answer the phones) to order the HAFH program.
 
#22 ·
Home away from home program

I have Saw at my home and at a secondary residence in ski country.Will I also be able to have it installed at my summer cabin or will I have to remove the dish at the chalet? Shaw did the Ski Chalet installation for free. Do they not do this anymore at secondary residences?
Also, why can't long-time customers afford themselves of Shaw's offer of $299 on refurbished PVR's, like the new customers ca?
 
#25 ·
You will have to buy a dish for your summer cabin. Then buy a receiver. Both on craigslist. When you have it all hooked up, call Shaw D to activate it.

Dealing with Best Buy is a separate issue.

If you try to get Shaw to do the install, just tell them that the chalet is no longer yours. What they really care about is how many receivers you have on your account.
 
#26 ·
I have Saw at my home and at a secondary residence in ski country.Will I also be able to have it installed at my summer cabin or will I have to remove the dish at the chalet? Shaw did the Ski Chalet installation for free. Do they not do this anymore at secondary residences?
They charge $99. to install at another location. You also have to fax them some proof of ownership of the property...A utility or tax bill for example.
They seem to be a little bit confused aboout which "crews" work in the various regions, so in my case I had to actually find a local installer, get their crew number and call SD to tell them the crew number that would do it.

Now hopefully the installer will be able to get a "look" at the satellites through all our trees.:(
 
#27 ·
Have Winter Home in Fort Myers Fl and here in Ont

We have a winter home in Fort Myers and we take our PVR down there with us when we drive down and bring it back home. We bought a HD dish from SD a couple of years ago and one of the chaps in our park installed it. Not very difficult. There are always chaps around willing to help. We called the tech dept of SD.....on the 800 number and they helped us thru the installation. We don't have anyone living in our home here in Ontario when we are in Fl ..and when we come home for Christmas we have another HD receiver to watch tv with.
 
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