Dish Programming Changes (Effective August 1st)

**KAB** · 08-03-2009 07:10 AM

Originally Posted by shortspark

I've had Platinum for a couple years, paying ten bucks a month - and as of this morning, it is still showing on my account at $10 a month. I thought after Aug. 1 the charge would be removed.

You need to call.

**tasmithe** · 08-03-2009 07:49 AM

I called this morning after I switched over to Gold 250 with HD on Friday and the woman said today that I still had to pay for Platinum since I had it before despite the woman on Friday saying I didn't any more. I told this gal this morning that I would be switching to DirecTV immediately. She transferred me to retention and this person said no, I didn't have to continue to pay the additional $10 and fixed it without a problem.

Sometimes it pays to be persistent.

**shortspark** · 08-03-2009 08:42 AM

The notion that some people have to pay for Platinum and some don't is BS. What is the official policy and why is it not followed across the board. No one should have to call, it should be done automatically. If this is what Dish does as a matter of course I'm switching!

**MikeD-C05** · 08-03-2009 09:37 AM

DISH has allowed those who like certain discontinued packs to keep their programming packs as long as they don't change their programming. For instance HD absolute pack at 29.99, TURBO hd stand alone packs and the older dvr advantage pack. Now with the Stand alone Turbo hd packs and the classic packs with the turbo hd packs , you can bundle certain add ons at a cheaper cost. For instance with Turbo stand alone and Classic with Turbo hd packs you can count your the 250 bonus pack as a premium and HD metalic pack as a premium and you can count those towards premium bundling with the premium movie packs and save money. For instance I had gold hd , HBO and 250 bonus pack that were counted as 3 premiums so I only paid 31.00 for all 3, before I changed to HD + plat pack. With the new programming changes you can NOT count the hd pack or 250 bonus pack as a premium any longer if you change your programming . I now pay 15.99 for HBo and my bill went up by 4.99 by going with the new HD + plat pack. So DISH is allowing people who like their existing programming to keep it at the price that saves them some money on bundling discounts. Unfortunately in this case it means they will also keep the same price as before on the stand alone Plat. hd pack.

So IF DISH was to change everyone over to the new programming packs , there would be people who screamed that they lost their bundling discounts. Most subs didn't have the platinum stand alone hd pack anyway. I know I didn't unless it was free for 3 months. That is why they combined it with the HD pack so more people would actually watch it. Either way there would be people who screamed if they changed their programming packs and did away with the bundled discounts they had before. Besides I am sure that the main reason they bundled Plat pack with the HD pack was so that existing subs would want to sub to the new HD + plat pack and that would move them away from the older programming packs and they could make more money per sub. It worked in my case. I am paying now $4.99 more a month than I was before Saturday when I went with HD + Plat pack. So don't think DISH was giving us something free with the HD + Plat pack, because it took away any bundled discounts with HD and the top 250 bonus packs. They still will offer bundled discounts on Premium movie packs : Hbo/Starz/Showtime/Cinemax/Playboy. But not to defend DISH, but in this case they would of pissed off people no matter which way they did this change. But I agree it seems very tacky to keep charging the 10.00 for plat pack when it is now included with the hd pack.

**hperry** · 08-03-2009 09:56 AM

had DVRAdvantage 250 with HD and HD Plat. just chatted and got the $10 fee for HD Plat removed. always good to save $10/month! also noticed I could get 3 months HBO/showtime for free with autobill and paperless (both of which i already have). so i signed for that also. glad to see no 24 month commit was required. however, i will be moving in a month and it looks like i need to sign for 24 months to get the free dish mover...sucks...

**Laddyboy** · 08-03-2009 10:05 AM

Originally Posted by hperry

had DVRAdvantage 250 with HD and HD Plat. just chatted and got the $10 fee for HD Plat removed. always good to save $10/month! also noticed I could get 3 months HBO/showtime for free with autobill and paperless (both of which i already have). so i signed for that also. glad to see no 24 month commit was required. however, i will be moving in a month and it looks like i need to sign for 24 months to get the free dish mover...sucks...

Sign up for the $5.99 per month DHPP. Dishmover is free. After the move, drop DHPP.

**Foxbat** · 08-03-2009 10:13 AM

I did an on-line chat this morning to verify that my bill would be going down $10/mo for PlatinumHD. Rosy said she made a change to my account to do just that (free PlatinumHD) so I'll check on it tomorrow. I don't know that it will be added to this month's billing cycle, so I'm hoping I'll see an approximate $10 credit for August and no charge after that.

**hperry** · 08-03-2009 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by Laddyboy

Sign up for the $5.99 per month DHPP. Dishmover is free. After the move, drop DHPP.

oh man i love this forum. thanks! did that for a broken receiver about a year ago and i'll do it again for the move.

**Kirby Baker** · 08-03-2009 10:27 AM

Well I tried to do the online chat thing on Saturday night to get the new HD, and was informed that I needed a new dish. Wasnt happy, it was late, I was tired. So I tried again Sunday morning, and the tech support chat person added it, and this morning, it appears that everything was done correctly as I have this new activity since last billing:

08/02 08/02 GOLDHD 08/02 TO 09/04 -$11.00
08/02 08/02 HD & PLATINUM 08/02 TO 09/04 $11.00
07/31 07/31 PLATINUMHD 07/31 TO 09/04 -$11.61

Glad to have some savings, now maybe some more HD programming for the lower price too would just make life grand!

**nrholland** · 08-03-2009 10:38 AM

I think it's highway robbery to have to pay $18 more on my account just so I can continue to get Versus in HD by switching to a classic package.

I love Dish's programming and their dvrs. But I have no respect at all for Charlie Ergen and any of the other higher-ups in Dish who completely treated us Turbo customers like absolute CRAP!!!!!!!

One person told me once that he felt that Charlie Ergen should be in jail. I'm beginning to agree with him. If Directv had the same programming packages as Dish and I could get the same channels (including AAD) with Directv and they'd have the same quality equipment (instead of the junky receivers and dvrs they have) as Dish, I'd drop Charlie in a heartbeat and switch to Directv!!!!