Charlie speaks..... Finally!!!

[kb7oeb]

Remember that "I Like 9" promotion that Dish Network had for the middle package about 5-6 years ago? I experienced the most chargebacks from Dish Network from this. This was the first time I was told by my distributor I owed THEM money, over $1,000. I refused to pay them telling them they would have to wait until I added more customers to make it break even. I never had so many nonpays in my life.

I think Dish Network is not as good of a value as it used to be due to all the b.s. fees. It really adds up.

I think I signed up under that promo, if it was the same one you had to buy the equipment and got a rebate each month for a year. It was a sweet deal, I'm surprised that many walked from it.

[dishcomm]

The principle law of business is "Compete Or Die!"

That said, it would be foolish of Charlie to let Dish fall by the wayside in terms of keeping up with or surpassing the competition. Customers don't care for setbacks like birds not getting up in the air. They go with whoever has what they are looking for. The big push right now is HD and for the time being, DirecTV is out in front. Charlie doesn't have an option of just sticking it out with the current volume of HD content, he has to put up more or his business dies. The question is, when?

In the absence of getting those satellites up, there are some things he could possibly do to lend a temporary fix to the situation.

1. Looking for other birds for which he could lease transponder space.
2. Re-focus on quality of field operations. Increase install payments to retailers. Raise the pay and reduce installer churn at the DNSCs. Aggressive handling of service issues. Ramp up QCs.
3. Offer some exceptional upgrade offers to current customers. Many customers feel like they have been forgotten about in light of all the "new customer" promotions that don't apply to existing customers.
4. Any existing customer with a dual tuner who is paying the phone line fee, offer them free wireless phone jacks or a homeplug adapter for ViP receivers to get that fee off their account. Save a customer $10 on their bill and then DirecTV or Cable programming ends up being that much more expensive than Dish.
5. Increase compensation to dealers who have 'GREEN' staus. Those are the ones taking care of your subs. It also helps them resist the temptation to push more DirecTV by making Dish an even more profitable sale for them.

I realize these suggestions can be expensive, but we're talking a year or two at max and in the meantime the customer retention won't be hurt as much.

D* is killing us right now. We are slowing down on new connects and the HD stuff has dried up as well. Get this. The local D* HSP has contacted our office to seek help with their workload. That's how busy D* is. Big but coming....But D*'s pay rates are about 1/2 of what we get . For example I spoke to a supervisor from that HSP and he gave me the low down on what their techs get vs what we get for what is essentially less work.
If asked to do D* at their pay rates, I will decline.
you are correct E* needs to increase payments. We have been earning the same rate for at least the 4 years I have been installing/servicing Dish. Also with the D-1000 plus upgrades ,we get screwed on the pay. These upgrades are essentially new installs. They are not worth it. I try to do them though. About 90% of mine get done. But I know of techs that will NLOS them if the job is too involved. 4 hrs for 60 bucks doesn't butter the biscuit. But I like having one of the highest completion rates in the company ,so many times I bite the bullet and do them. I hate it, but it looks good to the upper echelons.
Upgrades..One of the biggest complaints form customers is they despise how new custs get all the goodies yet Dish wants to charge upgrade customers out the wazoo. However I do get churn new connnects from D* custs that were frustrated over having to purchase EQ that new D* custs get essentially free of charge. In either case this is bad business. Both E* and D* focus too much on signing up new customers. Existing custs sometimes feel left out.
If E* would wake up and dump that stupid phone line fee they would look like Super Bowl Champs. At least they could drp the fee to non land line customers who can somehow prove they do not have a land line in their home. I run into lots of cell phone only people who get real pissed off about having to pay a fee for something that is not their fault. My observation is, who the hell is Dish to tell me I have to pay more just because I don't use a land line in my home.

[Zero327]

Charlie is HEAVILY invested his company. Some people will never be content until he has 95% of his net-worth in the company.

Investing 35 hours a week isn't heavily investing... If he is vested in DISH, it definately isn't in anything involving the employees and I doubt the retailers.

[dishcomm]

They only pay $11.75 to their techs? Are they contractors or full time employees with benefits. how crappy... I am truly sorry you guys and gals that are techs. No wonder I have read the horror stories of drunk techs and techs that don't have a clue what they are doing coming out.

The pay varies by market. The starting rate for all techs regardless of experience is $11.75 /hr in the Charlotte,NC area. FSM's start at just $30k/year. That's peanuts. I interviewed with DNS for an FSM position, I turned it down after the money /hrs were announced. No thank you. 60-70 hrs per week for $600 a week. F U....I did the math... BTW I was making more than that avergaing about 30-35 hrs of work time per week. To be fair add about 10-12 hrs for driving time...no way was I going to put up with all that coroporate BS and with management crawling up my ass about why the wastebaskets in the office didn't get emptied. Yes ,it's true. A friend of mine was an FSM and got called on the carpet because he didn't empty the friggin waste baskets in the office. F U...I would have termnated my employement right there and told the guy to go fornicate himself. He left two weeks later. He now flips the bird (figuratively) at the DNS office while he passes by on his way to his job at AT&T...

[dishcomm]

He was referring to DISH's call centers not being able to handle the call volume. That wasn't directed at the retailers.

Correct. That is also the way I interpreted that statement

[iceondsom]

Investing 35 hours a week isn't heavily investing... If he is vested in DISH, it definately isn't in anything involving the employees and I doubt the retailers.

The discussion pertained to investing capital into his company. He has a huge sum invested in Echo. That's a fact.

[bff426]

I speak from the perspective of a current Dish Network and Comcast subscriber. Dish does not carry my local high definition channels, so the cable company is the only way (with my geography) to get the networks in high definition. I have been speaking with the customer service representatives from Dish on and off for the last year regarding local HD. Every time, I'm told that they will be adding, but they never do. The information on this thread regarding satellite launches is discouraging. It has help me make my decision to leave (contract was up in September).

I have watched DirecTV overtake EchoStar. I have wanted to stay, but Charlie's refusal to carry the Yes Network, the failure to add significant HD channels (sorry, VOOM doesn't cut it) and having to keep the cable company means I'm going to DirecTV. The final straw for me was when EchoStar added The Science Channel, National Geographic and Animal Planet in high definition, but I didn't get them. Apparently the high definition package that I pay for it doesn't include all cable high definition channels. I understand the premium channels, but not these.

As an aside, I get ESPN, TNT, TBS, UHD and Discovery Home Theater from both providers. The quality difference is startling. Comcast quality is much better than Dish. I recently had a Dish technician overs for some repairs. He started repeating the mantra about how satellite is better. I showed him the channels. It apparently was the first time he had seen them. Enough said.

As I said, I wish I didn't have to leave. I love the two tuner 622, and I've always found the customer service to be good. But HD is king, and right now and for the foreseeable future, DirecTV is the leader, by a lot.

[GregE]

I speak from the perspective of a current Dish Network and Comcast subscriber. Dish does not carry my local high definition channels, so the cable company is the only way (with my geography) to get the networks in high definition.

How about "moving"? I did that and now get the networks in HD from E* as well as my locals via OTA. I know you said you have geography problems but this would get you the networks, just not the locals.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-hd-...lp-moving.html

[TomT223]

The quality difference is startling. Comcast quality is much better than Dish.

Maybe in your neck of the woods but having just changed from Comcast cable to Dish, I can't believe how much better the Dish is. I haven't had the need to contact Dish's customer service yet but it cannot possibly be any worse then Comcast. That's the main reason I got out of it. I could tell you some nightmare stories about Comcast service but it would take to long.

[Zero327]

The discussion pertained to investing capital into his company. He has a huge sum invested in Echo. That's a fact.

No, what's fact is HIS huge some was divested from Echo... His money came out of the company. Don't confuse growth of the company with him putting money back in. Two seperate financial flows. Echo grows on its own due to the nature of the business. Putting in 1M ten years ago which has rolled into a 26.7B net worth isn't investing back in. It's Ceasar's Palace. The house always wins.