Question about current E* cust wanting to updrade to HDTV

[fenwah]

Question about current E* cust wanting to upgrade to HDTV

I now have two TVs in my house that are both HD-Ready. I am currently on the America's 120 plan with the 522 DVR receiver (enables you to use two TVs on one receiver). I have the SuperDish dish as well...which is HDTV compliant. I am not on any sort of contract...pay month-to-month.

My question to you is this...does Dish Network charge you for the new receiver(s)? If so, how much? On their web site, it says the 921 is $549 and the 811 is $399! Would they really charge me almost $1K to upgrade to the HDTV package?

If that's the case, VOOM or even...aw crap I hate saying this...Time Warner Cable would be a better choice.

Is there a lease package deal? Right now I'm paying $39.99 + $5 for the DVR. I don't own the equipment...just lease it. I would be much more inclined to lease the equipment than buy it since technology is changing so quickly.


Please let me know what you had to pay for when you upgraded from a non-HD Dish plan to the HD plan.

Thanks for your time.

 

[chevyN8]

Give them a call, the 811 is available on lease. You may be able to get it without any upfront cost(or very little). The 921 will cost you though. I was a previous customer and got the 811 cost free and 6 months of the HD pack for free.

 

[fenwah]

I wanted to get an idea of what deals some other people received before I give them a call. I don't want to get 'burned' on a bad deal.

 

[NightRyder]

Not everyone qualifies for the same deals so YMMV.



NightRyder

 

[boba]

If you have been a customer for less than 1 year you shouldn't qualify for any upgrades. At the time you started your lease you had the option of getting upto 4 tuners 2 of which could be HDTV if you didn't exercise your options correctly I believe you have to be a customer for 1yr. before any upgrades are available. As others have suggested call DISH they are the ones who will have the answer you are looking for!

 

[pfef98]

Call DISH, because I have only been a customer for 6 months, but I bought my HDTV after I signed up and recently decided to get an 811. Through ceo@dishnetwork.com I am getting an 811 added to my account for no upfront cost, $5 a month fee for the box and HD Pack for $5 a month for 12 months.

--Matt

 

[fenwah]

Call DISH, because I have only been a customer for 6 months, but I bought my HDTV after I signed up and recently decided to get an 811. Through ceo@dishnetwork.com I am getting an 811 added to my account for no upfront cost, $5 a month fee for the box and HD Pack for $5 a month for 12 months.

--Matt

I might do that. I just called customer service. They said it would cost me $99 for each 811 receiver. If I have more than one receiver than it 2nd, 3rd, etc would cost me $5/ month for each of them. I asked about the 921 DVR. That was going to cost me a whopping $550!!

Question for you though. Do you just have the one Dish receiver in your house? If that's the case, they should not be charging you $5/month for the one receiver...only $5 for each receiver over one on your account.

I'm torn on what to do. I have this nice 34" Toshiba widescreen in my family room and a Dell 17" LCD HDTV in my bedroom. I've considered keeping my 522 DVR and put it in the bedroom. Unfortunately, the two receivers don't link up...so I will have to watch all recorded shows in the bedroom. The bedroom also won't be HD...but that isn't a concern to me.

I might give them an email. Cable is looking better right now since there are no upfront costs for the receivers. I need to talk it over with the wife.

I refuse to pay $500 for a HD DVR receiver though. My guess is that I can live without it for 6-12 months. The prices will begin to fall. I can then get rid of my 522 DVR in the bedroom, place the 811 HD receiver in the bedroom and then get a 921 (or whatever else they have by then) for the family room. That's probably the most logical way to tackle this. I probably will present this way to my wife. Hopefully she'll understand. We have grown to love the DVR...no doubt about that.

 

[pfef98]

I have an 811 and a 322. 811 is in the living room with my samsung hdtv, with a $5 a month charge. My 322 is in the bedroom driving my bedroom tv and the 2nd tuner is backfeeding to all the other rooms, it's my 'original' receiver and there is no monthly charge associated with that one.

--Matt

 

[NightRyder]

I refuse to pay $500 for a HD DVR receiver though. My guess is that I can live without it for 6-12 months. The prices will begin to fall. I can then get rid of my 522 DVR in the bedroom, place the 811 HD receiver in the bedroom and then get a 921 (or whatever else they have by then) for the family room. That's probably the most logical way to tackle this. I probably will present this way to my wife. Hopefully she'll understand. We have grown to love the DVR...no doubt about that.

Your going to have to wait longer than 6-12 months for a price much cheaper than that. I expect the 942 to be in the $400 - $600 range. Dish will probably have a HD-DVR for lease at some point but I bet it will be at least double the monthly fee of the current SD DVR's.

My first Beta VCR cost more in 1979 than they are asking for the 921 and the 921 is currently half the cost it was just three months ago. Different strokes and all but I see nothing outrageous or shocking about the 921 price.


NightRyder

 

[fenwah]

Your going to have to wait longer than 6-12 months for a price much cheaper than that. I expect the 942 to be in the $400 - $600 range. Dish will probably have a HD-DVR for lease at some point but I bet it will be at least double the monthly fee of the current SD DVR's.

My first Beta VCR cost more in 1979 than they are asking for the 921 and the 921 is currently half the cost it was just three months ago. Different strokes and all but I see nothing outrageous or shocking about the 921 price.


NightRyder

I must disagree. Cable companies are giving these HD DVRs away for free (well, a $5 monthly charge). E* will have to follow suit one of these days. It's all about competition. E* is definately not the HD leader...they have a lot to do to catch up. If they want to retain their customer base, they will do what is necessary to retain that customer base. I don't forsee E* giving the HD DVR away for free. I see them charging $250 or so in the next six months...which is much more reasonable than the $550 now. My guess is that they will have another HD DVR out by then with all HDMI components. That will drive the price down even more for the 921.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Well, lessee. D* is still charging $1000 for their HD DVR, E* just dropped the 921 from $1000 to $550.

You're NOT going to see $250 purchase price for a VERY long time. the hardware cost of these boxes is around double that.

 

[lblampman]

Please let me know what you had to pay for when you upgraded from a non-HD Dish plan to the HD plan.

Thanks for your time.

Fenwah,

I have (and had) a 501 DVR; I've been with DISH for a while. I called DISH a couple of weeks ago hoping to find they were doing something with the 921 for current customers but no joy there. I told them it was really about getting HD; I could live with the 501 for the DVR part since my wife uses it the most and it's all SD. The CSR immediately offered me the 811 at no charge other than paying for the HD programming (they gave me 1/2 off the normal $9.95 price for a year) and the $5/mo extra receiver fee. There was a $50 installation fee which I considered quite fair since they had to run another line down from the antenna. The CSR sounded like she was reading from a que card or such so I doubt this was something she did on the fly; when I was transferred to the 'confirmation' desk the verbiage was the same. They made it clear I was to return the 811 when/if I terminated service and that it is not mine to keep (not a problem for me since I'm not paying for it!).

I really don't know how they decide what customer gets what offer but you might try again (doubtful you'd get the same CSR) and see if what they gave me is doable (if it works for your needs that is!).

 

[fenwah]

My wife said she would declare war on me if I got a HDTV receiver without the DVR. I refuse to pay $500 for a HD DVR receiver for so little channels. Also the DVR receiver doesn't have the HDMI output that I want as well. I plan on holding off for the time being. My guess is that I'll check prices again before football season starts in 2005.

 

[who_the]

Frustrated new E* customer

I just got off the phone with E* and am pretty pissed. I'm mad because I made a mistake and didn't order the HD equipment (811) when I started my service. If I had, I'd be sitting pretty now. As it is, Dish wants to charge me $500 to purchase an 811, something I have no interest in doing.

I'm also pissed because I thought they might have been able to accomodate me, seeing as though I just started.

Fat chance!

 

[SimpleSimon]

I just got off the phone with E* and am pretty pissed. I'm mad because I made a mistake and didn't order the HD equipment (811) when I started my service. If I had, I'd be sitting pretty now. As it is, Dish wants to charge me $500 to purchase an 811, something I have no interest in doing.

I'm also pissed because I thought they might have been able to accomodate me, seeing as though I just started.

Fat chance!

ceo@dishnetwork.com can probably help.

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm in the same mess, sort of.

I've been a happy 721 with AT120 pack user for the last 3 years. I purchased that receiver outright because I was a previous customer. By the way, I use it as a two room receiver by splitting the output and using an additional UHF remote in the bedroom. I know, it's the same content, but my wife and I both move between rooms together and we get to watch DVR material in either location from the same source.


Now that I'm addicted to the 721 timeshift I MUST have it if I upgrade to HD. For me, that means a 921 plus add the crappy HD pack ($10) and DVR fee ($5). Either that, or switch to Cablevision as they just came out with a two tuner HD DVR for only $10 a month. The only rub there is it forces me to rent an additional remote and buy an IR/UHF repeater system. It's probably still better than the Dish solution though.

Bobby