December 18th Dish Retailer Chat Recap

[rdinkel]

Currently paying $152.96 for this:
Addl Receiver Access Fee 7.00
Addl Receiver Access Fee 7.00
DISH Network DVR Service Fee 0.00
Leased Receiver Fee 7.00
Superstation Package KWGN 5.99
GoldHD with PlatinumHD 20.00
DISH Home Protection Plan (DHPP) 5.99
Digital Home Advantage America's Everything Pak with
Locals 99.98

Any idea what my increase will be?

[MikeD-C05]

I think that the marketing department at DISH is still rearranging packs and renaming them and renaming the receivers , and taking 98 cents off the dvr pack and combining it with the additional receiver fee to make two fees look like one new one at 12.00. All I can say is BRING ON ALA CARTE. I keep cutting down my programming packs and this year I eliminated a dvr off of my account. I guess next year I will have to drop down to one dvr . I said a while back that DISH needed to get back to basics and eliminate the extra fees. I also said they should Keep It Simple Stupid . They just keep on playing musical chairs with the programming pack names ,but they are still going up every year. Satellite tv will soon price themselves right out of business. IN recessionary times like we will be in for the next 2 - 3 years, It makes absolutely no sense to raise prices this much. I would like to see DISH take the bold move and eliminate charging extra for dvrs and GOD forbid stop charging extra for HD add ons. I see cutting one receiver from the phone line connection is their way of stopping excess fees, PLEASE! I am totaly disappointed in DISH this year with the new price increases. The only solace is that DIRECTV will soon go up on their prices as much if not more. BUT one thing that DIRECTV will not have is confusing programming names and higher fees than DISH. Directv is still charging one dvr fee per house hold and it is only 5.99. Additional receiver and lease fees are still just 4.99 like they were years ago. COME ON DISH you could of cut back the price of your fees a bit and been bold and offset this with a bold move like NO MORE DVR FEES if you have dvr advantage and maybe no more additional receiver fees if you have 3 receivers on your account. THINK outside of the box here Charlie! You are feeing your subs to death. I predict that the next quarter will bring even more churn for DISH. At this rate they will be down to 12 million subs by the end of next year.

[B_Kranski]

How about existing customers, will they finally be able to get the HD only packages for sure in Febuary? If not I am glad my contract is up then...between that and not having my locals in HD yet, and them not adding any viable new HD content even after making a big deal about being "up to 150" by years end and now raising the prices? 16%? Wow, did Bush become our new CEO at E*. Up next going out of buisness plan. Wow thank you E* you have made my Christmas.

[riffjim4069]

Maybe the price hikes, renaming of programming packs, and changing receiver names are part of EchoStar's strategy to increase sales of their new DTVPal DVR....

...it's too bad they forgot to calculate the number of unhappy customers terminating Dish Network service in the process.

It looks like the 622s I have sitting in the closet are going to stay there another year.

[Hall]

...so it would be impossible to release a recording of it without violating Dish Network TOS. (Not to mention copywrite laws)

Scott isn't a retailer so he's not bound to their TOS.

[Hall]

No doubt. But to get us to spend more, we will have the chance to switch to a Turbo pack.

You can get upgraded to a Turbo pack now but would have to go through the executive office to do it.

[digiblur]

They should change it where you only have DVR fees unless you don't have them hooked to the network or phone line. Basically...if you want a DVR then hook it up so we can get the viewing data off of it and there's no fees.

[theoak]

You can get upgraded to a Turbo pack now but would have to go through the executive office to do it.

Is the Gold DVR Advantage TurboHD package available now?

[catnap1972]

8 bucks a month extra and I see nothing additional from it? WTF?

[JonE]

Price increases, changing box names.....

I'm glad I switched to Apple TV+OTA+DVD's...so much simpler, cheaper and friendlier.

We just enjoyed Bugs Bunny episodes this morning. Season one of Bewitched for $20 from the Apple TV is going to be fun the rest of the year.

Sat TV and Cable programming is DEAD!

I maybe looking at the same route. I have the HD Absolute package which has everything short of the sports packages they offer in HD, plus the 4 premium package and the 722 DVR. This is gonna cost me a BUNDLE!!! I've been one of the bigger defenders of E* on these boards, but this insane!

My only question is how much of the Apple TV content is in HD?