What's YOUR tipping point?

[tomyo10]

the reason I chose E* over D* was because Dish had my locals. I think that's what the majority of people do. In my town, you see many more E* than D* because of that fact. I ask the D* owners why they chose Direct over Dish and almost 100% of them says it's because of the NFL ticket.

So to brush off people saying you are SOL if you can't get locals OTA, well that's just wrong.

 

[Poke]

Yeah all depends on what you want and they will vary from person to person..

 

[theoak]

The wife really likes the 722.

I also have 3 more months left of free Ultimate HD. With that being said, once my free months are over, I may pay the prorated cancellation and jump ship.

It depends too on what deals are going on at the time ... I am hoping that come 3 months, Dish will have SciFi HD. If they have that, Dish is a keeper. It would be nice however to get my local HD via Dish; however, I do get them great OTA so that is not a show stopper for me.

With DTV having 200 local markets by the end of the year, it is hard to compete with that ...

 

[kennya]

The bad thing about the whole deal is that E* keeps adding Local HD channels, and wasting bandwidth. These channels are broadcasted locally over the air, and if you happen to live in a whole or out of range, than I think you should be SOL.

Opinions are like @ssholes, everyone has one. There are more people than you think that cannot receive their locals OTA and would much rather have them then nationals. Sure, I would like to have a few of the national HD's, but since I live in a HOLE, as you put it, I would much rather have my locals in HD first.

 

[Jeff Blank]

My tipping point is CSNBA HD being added. I'd also like to see Speed HD and FXHD. The others (CNNHD, NICKHD, WGNHD, HBO2HD, etc.) are just icing on the cake. Based on everything I've read here and the other DBS boards, the chance my wish list gets fulfilled are slim to none, so I will prabably defect to Direct TV when my current contract ends in August. It will be hard to go after 10 years, but if the other guy has what you want, the decisions seems pretty simple now.

 

[ScoBuck]

From what I read and sense, if Charlie would just SAY WHEN and WHAT subs can expect it would lower the heat tremendously. That is what I don't understand.

 

[kennya]

From what I read and sense, if Charlie would just SAY WHEN and WHAT subs can expect it would lower the heat tremendously. That is what I don't understand.

Agreed.

 

[nlk10010]

Yeah all depends on what you want and they will vary from person to person..

Exactly.

For ME, my options are Cablevision (LI), which doesn't have the channel selection (I mean, they don't even have BBCA) and FIOS, which has a worse channel lineup than CV. I would like the additional HD channels and Dish has nowhere, in no form indicated it will be adding national HD until possibly by the end of this year. That's too long for me to wait.

Tipping point: finding a competent local installer who can mount the Slimiline to my chimney. I'm out of contract, have four coax lines coming into the house, everything's ready for D* except for the sat dish. As soon as I find that installer, I'm gone.

I don't claim D* is better than E*, just different. For me it makes sense to switch, for others not.

 

[skyviewmark]

I have no tipping point. I have both..

But my problem is with Dish's communications.. For two years while DirecTV lagged behind due to lack of Satellite space, they kept their customers from leaving by telling people what was going to happen. They were upfront that they needed the new sats in place and people pretty much knew when they were going to get launched.. They put DirecTV 10 in place and they delivered on the promise quickly and are still delivering as of this morning...

All I wish for is someone at Dish to come out and tell me what the deal is.. If it's space say so, and tell us when they will have space.. All we ask is a little information.. With the right info many might decide to hang in there.

And locals are very important to those that don't have them.. So they have to keep doing those too..

 

[KE4EST]

I will stay with Dish for now, I don't care for Directs Equipment.

 

[mattopia]

For those with the HD only pak... I can't help but feel that you will be screwed at some point.

When it gets to the point where there almost as many HD as non-HD, Charlie will realize that he is loosing a ton of money because people are choosing the HD pack over their other packages.

OR, there will be a point where new channels or other channels are moved into other tiers. Hopefully you will all be grandfathered in. But, don't expect a good thing to last forever.

 

[2D Bob]

If the wife can't get USA-HD and I can't get Sci-Fi-HD by summer we'll start counting down to our August end-of-contract deadline.

When that date arrives and Charlie is still saying "soon". we'll go to Direct.

 

[Grandpa J]

I do not know E* business model or costs. But with the costs of new sats and delays getting them up plus loss of high spending subs I would think it might be better to give "deals" to subs with MPEG2 boxes to change to MPEG4 boxes and go all MPEG4 asap. Yes there is a large cost to Dish for this change but what does the new sats and yearly loss of leaving subs revenue is the trade-off too bad?
If as noted in an other thread E* is trying to be the low spending subs sat provider, then more national HD channels and as many of those channels as D* has or will have is a long way off.

 

[Volitar Prime]

I just called Dish and found out that I'm still under a contract for a few months and that it will cost me $240 to get out of it. I'm still considering changing. I guess I'll have to make up my mind by the end of the afternoon.

At least when told that the reason I'm considering leaving Dish was the lack of HD the CSR didn't try to concince me that Dish was the HD leader.

 

[ncted]

And FiOS, heck I can only dream about that ever making it to my area. BellSouth still barely understands what DSL is

Move to Durham, it is coming SOON! :haha

Ted

 

[RandallA]

"I just called Dish and found out that I'm still under a contract for a few months and that it will cost me $240 to get out of it. "

But the cancellation fee is pro rated so why are they saying $240 to cancel? With an 18 months commitment, the cancellation fee was $13.33 per month left in the contract.

Actually it doesn't surprise me that the CSR told you that, I called this morning and she said I was NOT under contract. I just signed up for a new 2 yrs. contract back in Feb to switch to DVR advantage.

 

[ncted]

I have no tipping point. I have both..

But my problem is with Dish's communications.. For two years while DirecTV lagged behind due to lack of Satellite space, they kept their customers from leaving by telling people what was going to happen. They were upfront that they needed the new sats in place and people pretty much knew when they were going to get launched.. They put DirecTV 10 in place and they delivered on the promise quickly and are still delivering as of this morning...

All I wish for is someone at Dish to come out and tell me what the deal is.. If it's space say so, and tell us when they will have space.. All we ask is a little information.. With the right info many might decide to hang in there.

And locals are very important to those that don't have them.. So they have to keep doing those too..

I'd rather silence that being lied to the way I was with D*.

"Here, buy this HD Tivo, it is the future!"

...8 Months Later...

"Umm, yeah... You're gonna have to spend $299 to upgrade to the HR20 to get any new HD, and...oh, yeah...it sucks, but we'll get the problems ironed out in a couple of years, don't worry."

I understand E* did similar things, but I haven't experienced that yet, maybe SOON?

Ted

 

[Islandguy43]

I have no tipping point. I have both..

But my problem is with Dish's communications.. For two years while DirecTV lagged behind due to lack of Satellite space, they kept their customers from leaving by telling people what was going to happen. They were upfront that they needed the new sats in place and people pretty much knew when they were going to get launched.. They put DirecTV 10 in place and they delivered on the promise quickly and are still delivering as of this morning...

All I wish for is someone at Dish to come out and tell me what the deal is.. If it's space say so, and tell us when they will have space.. All we ask is a little information.. With the right info many might decide to hang in there.

And locals are very important to those that don't have them.. So they have to keep doing those too..

Perhaps the problem with E* is that they have been putting their foot in their own mouth too many times and that is why they don't say anything now. i.e., promising the Buffalo DMA LIL's in 2006 and here it is 2008 and all we are is a blue dot on the "soon" map that could be Buffalo, Rochester or Erie PA

 

[cebbigh]

After over 10 years of Dish my tipping point came and passed when my frustrations with the 129 satellite plus lack of progress in negotiating KCPQ-HD (Seahawks station and the only LIL that I could not get OTA consistently) met on a collision course with DTV surpassing Dish in quantity and quality of HD offerings.

I don't see much reason for anyone without a line of sight to 61.5 to stay with dish if they really care about HD (at least for the next year or so).

 

[AT&TDishman]

I'm curious, just how do you see satellite companies falling behind the cable companies in February 2009?

As has been reported on this site the FCC or whatever federal agency has ruled that satellite companies do not have to offer all available HD channels come February 2009 and if they do they can offer them in SD until 2012-2013 to catch up with cable companies which just have to throw the switch on HD channels to their HD customers. Here is the link: http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/130003-fcc-issues-carry-one-carry-all-hd-rules.html