December 18th Dish Retailer Chat Recap

[memo90061]

"I sometimes connect the DVR to the internet. Does it have to be connected all the time so they wont charge 5 dollars?"

Memo,

Yes, your receiver needs to be connected to the phone line or Internet to avoid that $5.00 fee. Beginning Feb. 1st you will not be charged that fee since you only have one receiver.

You will not see any change to your bill if you leave it the way it is. If you do switch to Turbo HD Silver and Dish Latino bonus pack, you will get charged $12.00 for the receiver + the Protection plan in addition to the $53.98 for the packages. You will save around $7.00 if you change your package.

Thanks for your reply.

I can't believe they charge for the receiver! That's too much. I thought I would have saved at least 10 dollars! I might think about Turbo HD bronze then. :/ I'll have to wait what channels it has.

[Foxbat]

My $50 DVR Advantage will go up $8.00/mo. The only thing that makes it bearable is that I've been frozen at that rate since 2007. So the increase works out to $4/mo/yr.

I will probably push to get one of the Turbo HD packages now, and drop the DHPP, to keep a our TV budget at livable level. There aren't too many "Classic" stations I watch now except for Speed and Comedy Central. If Dish brings them on-board next year, it's buh-bye to the SD package.

Oh, and Dish? Expect a call from Intel about the "Solo" and "Duo" designations on your new receiver names: You left out "Core". Or, you could always use the Starbucks naming model for programming and go with Tall, Grande, and Vente. Wouldn't you want to watch Turbo Vente HD on your Turbo Core Turbo Duo Turbo Espresso (w/Turbo Latte EHD Feature)?

Please.

[satjay]

Turbo HD is going UP

Turbo HD Bronze is going up $5 a month
Turbo HD Silver is going up $7 a month
Turbo HD Gold i s going up $10 a month

There is NO CHANGE in the HD add on package which remains at $10 a month extra.

AT 100 going up $2
AT 200 going up $3
AT 250 going up $3
Americas Everything Pack going up $3



Just so I clearly understand...as someone who was thinking about moving to dish...If I go on the dish website and price out the 250 package and gold HD, I can also add about 13.00 a month to that?? I just want to make sure I am reading these posts right

If thats so, without knowing what the directv increase will be that kind of takes dish out of the whole "Value" concept??

[wh5916]

I am astonished that the execs at both Dish and DirecTV can be so out of touch that they think that they will be able to raise prices and make them stick when the FED has just reduced interest to nearly 0 to ward off DEFLATION.

Sure lots of industries may try to raise prices for essentially the same product/service. And some may even succeed if their product/service is a necessity. But contrary to popular belief on this forum, satellite TV is a "nice to have" as compared to food, shelter, medical services, etc.

Talon Dancer

A voice of reason compared to someone who went by the name "DTVGal" on another forum a couple of years ago, whose sole mission was to justify DirecTV's latest round of price hikes. She seemed incensed that anyone dared question or object to the rate increase, since services such as health care increased on an annual basis as well. My response to her was similar, albeit a bit less cordial.

My current package is Dish Family and the Starz movie pack. Apparently no price hikes with either for the coming year, so I'll stay with satellite TV for awhile longer. Television isn't as important to me as it used to be, so I can't justify spending even $45.00 or more each month.

[Hall]

Dish is just implementing the "pop" business strategy of the past few years. When revenue drops, instead of lowering prices to sell more, raise them to sell less at a higher rate and hopefully with an increase in revenue. Just look at beer or Pepsi/Coke. U.S. gallon consumption has been falling for both for several years, so what has been the response from the vendor, keep raising the price to recapture that lost revenue.

And it works too... People say they'll leave Dish (or Directv or their cableco) only to discover that the others do the same thing, so they gain nothing in the end. It's funny when there's a Dish price increase posted here and a few bail out and go to Directv. Then what happens ? Directv announces a price increase too !! Hah

Pepsi/Coke or any similar product get away with the same tactic. People likely say "I'm gonna stop drinking 'x' or not drink as much", but they don't. They continue to drink the same and pay the higher cost.

[mrschwarz]

I'm wondering if my charge is going up. I'm a pretty smart guy, but the new names and old names appear to change all the time for the express purpose of confusing someone into paying more than is required.

According to my bill, I have the 'Digital Home Advantage America's Everything Pack with Locals'. I have no idea what my price increase, if any will be in February, but I'll call to adjust what I have if it goes up. I'm pretty much beyond the limit of what I am willing to pay for TV.

As far as renaming the receivers, changing names from a model number to these long descriptive names seems like another attempt at confusion. I wonder if they will make the receivers wider so they can actually fit their new, clever names on the front.

[Scott Greczkowski]

MrSchwarz I believe your bill would be going up $3.

[TalonDancer]

Personally, I believe that E* and others are banking on the report that more folks are staying at home with their entertainment dollars, opting for livingroom entertainment rather than a night on the town. If this is the case, I think the market guru's will be sorely disappointed.

Where Dish targeted its highest rate increases seems to support your thinking -- the TurboHD stand alone packages. Maybe Dish believes that their customers who own HDTVs are more likely to justify the increase by staying home more. Or simply have more disposable income for in home entertainment.

OTOH Dish is giving up a competitive advantage, by making it less attractive to DirecTV HDTV subs to switch while making NETFLIX and alternate video sources more attractive.

In any case, if in home entertainment becomes the hot ticket in 2009, you can bet that there will be lots of competition for Dish in quality, quantity and price. Bring it on!

Talon Dancer

[RandallA]

how come the latin packages prices are going down

Maybe because they removed GolTV from these packages. Just guessing.

[cincyguy2k4]

After some serious thinking and some sleep I think Dish is ramping up the HD price and within 2 years we wont have an HD pack anymore. It will just be programming. They will have all the same channels in both packs and the classic and HD packs will merge into the Americas Top packages again.