The purpose of this guide is to help honest buyers to do the right thing, so they do not get stuck with a directv receiver that can never be activated.

1.  Lot of people fail to read the fine print.
2.  People do not understand the lease that Directv
     started back in March 2006


This guide is mostly pertaining to the receivers that come from ebay. There are guides on here that pertain to the leasing model that directv began doing. I am mostly dealing with used Directv equipment to help people understand the concepts when buying used Directv equipment here on ebay.


Since there are so many directv receivers floating around on ebay. BE CAREFUL when bidding on the newer Directv Receivers and as well for the older Directv Tivo units.

As almost all the R15's are leased equipment from Directv and being sold on Ebay, the sellers are dishonest about them instead of confirming with directv they are owned. Lot of Directv Tivos are in collections.

I have already took the HOOK, LINE & SINKER on few of these receivers on ebay without doing the first, asking for the receiver RID, as i did the same thing for the older tivos as well.

Regardless of how a receiver is obtained, if it is a lease from Directv, you do not own it!!!  The sellers on ebay (dishonest sellers) do not have the right to sell leased Directv equipment.  Most of the sellers on ebay just try to make a profit off the deal in anyway they can.  Even if the sellers say the directv receiver is "SOLD AS-IS". Do the right thing. Check with directv the RID. Because it could be a lease.

ACCESS CARDS: I am putting some detail about the access card so people don't get screwed either.  Sellers may include the access with the receiver.  Once a card has been deactivated it cannot be reused. A new one must be purchased from Directv. Thats only if the receiver is owned and not in collections. NO IFS OR BUTS ABOUT access cards, once they are used and decommissioned they are good as ice scrapers!!!!! I highly recommend you buy your access cards from Directv not from ebay since they may have expired already.

I strongly advise people out there shopping to get a good used Directv DVR any brand or model or a standard newer receiver off of ebay, is to !!!!!!!!!!!!!"ALWAYS ASK FOR THE RECEIVER RID"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and check with directv to make sure the receiver is not a"leased" but "owned", before placing a bid on any newer directv receiver, D10, D11 R10, R15, R16 ETC. The price may sound right, but the sellers may be dishonest about the receiver of not saying if it is a "lease" or "owned" receiver in the description.  IF THE SELLER DOES NOT RESPOND BECAUSE HE OR SHE REFUSES TO GIVE THE RECEIVER RID, or just giving you the run about the receiver, turn them into ebay, stating the problem, they refuse to give you the RID number. I also highly recommend that you put them on your not so good list of honest sellers list. As I tried to ask for the receiver rid number from sellers on ebay, and few of them refuse to respond or give out the rid. 

Lot of the folks fail to do this and then later to find out they have this brand new receiver they got from ebay and cannot get it activated.

When confirmed with Directv with a receiver, ask to speak to the access card department, they have the final word on the receiver, the lower end department of directv people don't know their heads from their rear-ends!!

If directv tells you the receiver is a "lease", contact ebay about the issue and include the seller member and much detail as possible.

The more people that do this, it will get ebay's attention and maybe to start enforcing new rules for listing Directv used equipment.

And help ebay to be a safer trading place for buyers.

R stands for a recorder (DVR) in any directv receiver model number (R10, R15, R16)

D stands for a standard receiver (D10,D11)

Directv always will keep a record of all previously activated receivers on file. They will refuse to activate a receiver that is leased but deactivated on the previous directv customer's account.]

NOTE: The Directv R10 receivers out there some are still leased but most of them aren't since directv is doing away with them and using the r15 series now to replace the tivos.

Directv began rolling out new dvrs. R16 and the HD-DVR series.  As folks will be being looking for these on ebay soon. But the same concept here applies to those receivers as well

Following the advice that is in this guide will help you and other folks out there so they don't end up losing money in the deal.

If you find this guide useful please cast your vote on it, It will move up to the top of the list and help the community understand the facts about Directv used equipment on ebay.