Dish Network HDTV - Page 81

I think HBO on demand has been there for about as long as HBO Go was available. You have to be a subscriber for HBO but then you pretty much have everything thru your sat box you would have with HBO Go.

The more I think about it, it's probably whoever is doing the encoding for Dish. Over compressed HD video with low bitrates makes a smaller, easier to download file over the internet but usually riddled with artifacts. It's too bad. Hope this is addressed in the near future.

I got a envelope in the mail yesterday, titled something a long the lines of "A gift from us", "A special thanks", or "A reward for you".

I opened it and the first letter indicates a $5 programming fee increase for all the core packages and a $1 DVR service fee increase. Talk about tricking you

I really don't want my TV bill to increase. Darnit.

Wonder how expensive DISH and all the other providers will be in the future. Company's typically do not lower the prices, they increase.

I got it to, what a joke. I'm trying to figure out what it is they are doing to show the appreciation they say they have for us. Once again they are totally out of touch with their customers, another slap in the face to the longtime customers. How about a reasonable upgrade path to the Hopper. $199 in not reasonable. Uverse is looking better every day.

Just straight internet is looking better and better every day....ROKU

I just wish SciFi would stop producing show i like so I could cut the cord. I think if it wasn't for SciFi (and the lack of a HD DVR for over the air that isn't a POS) I could
do without cable or sat. TV.

I agree that the "thank you" with "special offers" was not a good way to announce price increases. The offers extended to me were the same ones I've been offered for the last 6 months. If I had been offered a free upgrade to the Hopper or the Hopper free for a year then I might have felt a little better. At this point I may see if they can offer anything or part ways. When I was with Charter I was offered new perks and promos every time my discounts expired.

I guess I did not read the offers part. I just know from years of experience that new hardware often means more charges and contracts. I have a ViP722 HD-DVR, so if they offered me an upgrade to a ViP922 or a Hopper they would probably make me sign a 2-year contract or have an extra $5? DVR fee because the DVRs are the top of the line and current hardware.

Yeah, the Syfy original movies can be so bad they are fun to watch and laugh at. Some make it to dvd, and then there's still those that haven't yet. Then there's Warehouse 13...and um...what else...Warehouse 13....and um....Warehouse 13. It'll probably get cancelled too after it returns and has its finale. (And they used to have good scifi shows when it called Friday Prime, Saturday Prime)I guess Continuum is alright. They cancel all the good scripted series like Alphas > Everything else can be seen cheaper and clutter free from Netflix, etc. The lowest I could go on Dish is Dish America plus the $7 dvr fee.

I mean for reality...I JUST GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!! lol

I don't even mind the contract part of it if I'm getting more for my money. If the price increase announced came along with the Hopper free, I'd be willing to commit to another 2 years.

I hate price increases as much as anyone... but I am always perplexed by the "they owe me something if they raise the price" mentality.

Why does Dish (or any company) owe you anything?

You owe them a monthly payment and in turn they owe you the package you pay for... that's it. Nobody on either side owes anything else. They can raise prices or drop channels, and you can leave when your contract is up. That's business.

I wonder if people make the same demands of all companies... Do you threaten to stop shopping at the grocery store if they don't give you free groceries? Do you threaten to stop eating at a restaurant if they don't give you free meals? Where does it end?

At the end of the day... Dish (or any company) offers a product/service for a price... you can agree to pay that price or go elsewhere. That's the whole discussion, isn't it?

Well said!

You make a good point. But it isn't that simple. Dish, especially, routinely does NOT give you the package you pay for. They often take away many of your subscribed channels for months, even years at a time. Oddly enough, this never results in a reduction in your subscription price. Dish has no problem taking your money and giving you less than you signed up for. And if you leave, as is suggested, it is you who's broken the contract and must pay them even more money.

I find this interesting in light of the commercials Dish has been running lately accusing Direct of price gouging...

That is indeed the discussion we are having You are witnessing the debate of whether it is now worth staying with Dish. When I started with Dish they were the clear price leader. Now it is nearly a horse a piece (and a savings to switch to someone else due to promotional discounts) and they do not offer any particular product or service that differentiates them from the competition. Win on price, lose on price.

Most companies make an effort to attract new customers and retain existing customers. I think it is fair, especially in today's economy, for a consumer to ask if the company can offer anything more to retain the customer's business. If not, the customer needs to be willing to walk away. If you were referring to my comments, I didn't mean to sound demanding. I've worked for over 15 years in sales and customer service, and I do not believe that making demands is an effective way to get what you want.
Edited by Nick_WI - 1/25/13 at 10:57pm

You make some very good points.

My particular sore spot is where they move channels out of your package into higher packages so that you'll have to upgrade service.


I do think that at some point, cable and satellite providers will price themselves out of the market. Then OTA will have a major revival.

I called today and was offered the Hopper at $10 more a month on top of the price increase, and they offered to waive the set up fee if I took the $7 protection plan for 4 months. Not a bad offer due to the normal price of set up but I declined. If they had offered the Hopper for no additional cost as they do for new customers I would have been willing to stay and sign another 2 year contract. I will keep looking for a comparable service at a cheaper price.

Darn, that is incredible. Just what I expected would happen if somebody was to upgrade to the current hardware. Too much money, I am fine with my ViP722's

I like this conversation, I agree with both parties (or sides of things.)

If you already have a DVR it is not $10 a month more. It is only $4 more. You already pay $6, as of January 17. The extra $4 covers whole house....

Oh OK. Thanks for clearing that up.

I think it is fine to *ask* for anything... it is the *expectation* I question. Why does Dish have to offer something to keep you?

I've gone over this before...

Customer A signs up and gets an incentive for doing so... After 2 years, Customer A says "give me more or I leave"...

Meanwhile, Customer B signs up and gets an incentive for doing so.

Customer A gets nothing, and goes to DirecTV for an incentive... After 2 years, Customer A says "give me more or I leave"...

Meanwhile, Customer B re-signs with Dish and asks for no incentive.

Customer A gets nothing from DirecTV either... so now what?

The customer who keeps asking for things, and switches to get them... is NOT worth retaining from a business perspective because you know two things about him:

1. Give him something now, he ups his demand next time and you will have to keep doing it to retain him each cycle.
2. Give him nothing, and he will eventually come back because he will make the same demand to the next company too.

It is worth the cost-of-acquisition to get a new customer who stays... if they stay after 2 years, you begin to make profit on that customer... if they leave? Then you broke even for your efforts... but it isn't worth further bribe. Either your service meets their needs or it doesn't. No point continuing the bribe/incentive program because you just keep pushing off your profit to a time that never comes because the customer learns he can demand stuff each time you give in.

So... you can ask... but don't expect... Expecting incentives to stay is unreasonable... asking is fine... but your decision to stay or not should be based on whether you get what you want at a reasonable price.

It is true for any person or business you might deal with.

Not entirely. There are lots of examples of providers not fulfilling their side of the agreement...as but one recent example, I signed a 2 year contract with Dish based on information available to me, ie that Big Ten Network is included in the 250 channel package. So, you can image my surprise when, on day 1 of said contract, that channel was actually not included and I needed to add the $9/month sports package to get it.

This was weeks ago, and the channel is still prominently listed as being included for new customers on their website today. It is not at all as simple as "you agree to a price for service", because companies intentionally obscure you from what your service actually is.

Bottom line, business (big business) is all about giving you as little as they can to fulfill what the said they would give you and extracting the most amount of money they can
from you and keep you satisfied.

I dont recall ever being asked when they started doing the $10 a month thing for Blockbuster and the channels that came with it. I just all of a sudden saw it and the bill went up. I even asked on the phone about why it was added without my permission. All they replied with was if I wanted to remove it, never got an answer to why it was added.

I had the same experience but the answer I got was that they were no longer charging for HD and
this new charge was the replacement. Now that the blockbusters near me have all closed and I
no longer have the option for store exchange and the fact it take forever to get new release the
Blockbuster package is all but useless.

Did you have the Platinum Package beforehand? If so, all they did was rename the Platinum package to Blockbuster at Home and add free single disc mailings to it.

I ranted about this, in this same thread probably 14 months ago. Same thing happened here. From what I remember, the $10 "Blockbuster package" was another name for the premium HD package. I did not like how they did that, and I rarely watched the extra 5+ HD channels so I cancelled the "Blockbutter package" aka "HD Platinum" - what ever they were calling it. Sort of a good outcome, in the end. Saved me $10 on my monthly bill (Of course, that $10 in savings went up again as the new increases came a long.)

It made me so mad that I got emails stating something a long the lines of "Thank you for signing up for Blockbuster on DISH." As I did not sign up for anything. I was never even asked, I was automatically signed up. (I was automatically signed up because the premium HD package I was subscribing to was reconfigured and came with the Blockbuster. )

Sorry if my posting is hard to understand. Ha

Edit: It took me 10 minutes to type that. bobby94928 covered it above. He is right.

I just got my bill yesterday and noticed it once again went up $5. I told my wife the last time they did this that Dish was gone. I'm not paying $100 a month for 250 crappy channels. 99% of what we watch is on broadcast so why pay $100 for 1% of TV that I could get online.

So we are looking at getting a Tivo for OTA recording and maybe using the built in Hulu-Plus for any cable channels we might miss. Anyone else done this?

I've also considered signing a 2 yr agreement with DirecTV for their Hopper. Looks like it would be under $60 for 2 years. By then maybe apple will have it's TV stuff in place.

Any thoughts?

I have done something very similar in the past with very good results. Tivo is too expensive IMO, but an HD Homerun tuner plus a PC running media center is a lot cheaper and works very well. I'm currently paying $50/month for cable for 2 years and using my own tuner for free on my PC. It's connected to my TV and uses a regular remote, so you can't even tell a computer is involved. Otherwise, switching providers every 2 years or dropping them altogether seems to be the only way to save any money. Sometimes you can get a break by threatening to cancel, but you need to be prepared if they call your bluff.

I think there is a thread in this forum about cord cutting with some good info, if you don't mind wading through all the insults.

Other than access to Blockbuster movies what do you loose if you cancel the BB package?