I have a Dish HD dvr but am not getting HD programming, so they tack on a ~$8 monthly fee for this (enabling fee?). I negotiated the deal and charges very carefully with their salespeople, including the lack of HD but this was tacked on later. I feel like I have cause to request its removal and a refund.
Fyi, there is various HD programming on it, I just don't have their HD option or package. I'm just not willing to pay $20 for HD for standard channels that are mostly junk anyway -- most shows I do want in HD are available OTA.
What do you folks think?
It should have been a known quantity going in... The reason they charge it is two-fold:
1. They can.
2. They wanted to limit folks getting HD receivers without subscribing to HD content. After all, why would you get an HD receiver if you weren't going to watch HD?
The receiver does decode OTA HD... but you have other choices to get that much cheaper... so Dish figures you shouldn't get their receiver without wanting HD.
All that said... I would swear I read somewhere that Dish was going to stop having that "enabling" fee... but maybe it was only for new customers or something?
Okay. No, I've been a customer for about 2 years now. Do you think I can demand my roughly 24 x 8 = $192 dollars back?
They're also charging for the DVR "service", etc. It's all very strange and counterintuitive. Why don't they just rent you a given box for a given rate and use its features, since that directly addresses the company's need to recoup the box cost and the customer in understanding the cost structure? The way they're doing it leaves the profit and loss up to the success of these tactics, which is a dubious business strategy.
Okay. No, I've been a customer for about 2 years now. Do you think I can demand my roughly 24 x 8 = $192 dollars back?
You can certainly demand it, but if they gave it back it'd be surprising.
I wouldn't expect "back pay" either... but if you're nice, you might be able to get them to waive it. I wish I could find where I remember reading about them doing away with it... OR maybe I'm remembering something said on a Charlie Chat?
Thanks for your thoughts guys. Hopefully they will get rid of it. Honestly, it's about time for HD to be standard now anyway. HDTV has been around for nearly a decade, and all TVs sold are HD.