Losing HD Absolute. Any suggestions?

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getstuff4less said:
So you for the $5 off they advertise+ $5 MORE using the cookie trick? Before it gets outta hand. I'm the sick guy. I was shy before and being sick made me worse. I can prove what I'm saying (scar pic with thread, med report, chair, etc... ) I figured it might as well help me with med bills vs. a random nobody. Now I'm thinking to wait till 2/2. I still think we should get it in writing. I think this is a trick to get people off Absolute + they have an excuse to switch you. I seems everyone is lazy, so I will post a google spreadsheet we can edit. What zip gets $14 more off?

So you lied? Nice. My zip qualifies for the extra $14, 85014. I wouldn't suggested trying to lie about that to direct, though.
 
I came clean. If you were dying and had all my problems maybe you would not want to judged by people like you too. I don't want to get OT. I think I've helped enough. Just help a perfectly healthy soul...Seems like you might want to. Now let's get back to topic. Questions can be PMed to me.
 
It's done, just got off the phone with Dish. They reiterated the standard offers in the letter and worked their way down the script to cheaper and cheaper packages until they got to the $14.99/mo Please Please Please Don't Leave Poor Person Package. I politely declined all of them and let them know that I was disappointed that their "programming changes" are forcing me to either get less for my money or spend more for the same, and that I can no longer see the value in the new service offerings I'm being forced into.

So, that's that. D* install on the 27th, E* shut off on the 28th.
 
I am sure this has been said a number of times previously in this thread, but leaving E* for D* because you are upset of the bill is very counter productive. D* is on average about $10-$15/month more. Now if you are just going to leave after the 2 year contract and the discounts have gone away then you'll save money, but one reason for higher bills on both sides is all the customers that change back and forth every time there contract is up. D* & E* need at least 2 years to break even on a customer. I am going to change to Dish America, same price and I only loose 1 or 2 chans I sometimes watch. HD Absolute was a great package, but obviously one that wouldn't last forever. A left over from the very early days of HD.
 
It's done, just got off the phone with Dish. They reiterated the standard offers in the letter and worked their way down the script to cheaper and cheaper packages until they got to the $14.99/mo Please Please Please Don't Leave Poor Person Package. I politely declined all of them and let them know that I was disappointed that their "programming changes" are forcing me to either get less for my money or spend more for the same, and that I can no longer see the value in the new service offerings I'm being forced into.

So, that's that. D* install on the 27th, E* shut off on the 28th.

What pack? Dish America Bronze? I may do that just to keep E* for 1yr. I still think we should call their HD-Only programming bluff. Thing is now they have an excuse to switch us. So even though So-Cal doesn't get the $14 off the 2nd yr it still cost the same avg over 2yrs right or wrong? I mean $15 isn't bad for Platinum, Starz, and a TV Pack. Can you record two programs at the same time on D*? I need that in my room.
 
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I am sure this has been said a number of times previously in this thread, but leaving E* for D* because you are upset of the bill is very counter productive. D* is on average about $10-$15/month more. Now if you are just going to leave after the 2 year contract and the discounts have gone away then you'll save money, but one reason for higher bills on both sides is all the customers that change back and forth every time there contract is up. D* & E* need at least 2 years to break even on a customer. I am going to change to Dish America, same price and I only loose 1 or 2 chans I sometimes watch. HD Absolute was a great package, but obviously one that wouldn't last forever. A left over from the very early days of HD.

I'll agree that leaving E* for D* because your bill is being raised considerably is counterproductive when looked at in a vacuum. After all, without the promotional discounts from either side, to get the channels I want D* is about $5/mo more for me than E*. BUT, as of right now, for me, I think the Whole Home DVR setup is worth the extra $5/mo PLUS when comparing the E* retention offers to the promotional offers from D*, it's actually cheaper over a two year span for me to be with D*. It becomes a "no brainer" at that point. Got D* installed today. Only had a couple of hours to play with it. My HR24s I have none of the lag that people complain about (if anything, they're a bit more 'zippy' than my old vip722) and while there are some things I think I will miss about my old vip722, there are some things about this HR24 that I can tell I'm really going to like. A good trade off for sure. And the people that talk about the D* Cinema weren't kidding. As I search for things to repopulate my DVR, a lot of things I'm finding to download... moreso than I ever got from Dish On Demand. Oh, and while most of my watching this evening was on one channel (so take it as just a very limited sample), D*'s HD picture quality appears to be noticeably better. I read other people say it was slightly better and I figured I wouldn't be able to tell a difference but at least on one night's viewing, it's quite a step up.

I'm feeling good about my decision. But then again, I was looking for an excuse to make the jump anyway. Absolute was the only thing keeping me with E* and with that gone...
 
I am sure this has been said a number of times previously in this thread, but leaving E* for D* because you are upset of the bill is very counter productive. D* is on average about $10-$15/month more.
I'm certainly not going to lose sleep over it. These companies came up with the business model and I'm not going to feel bad for using it to my advantage. If after two years is up some other company is offering a better deal then I'm not gonna hesitate for a minute to switch again. Don't get me wrong, I was happy with Dish and probably would have stuck with them indefinitely if they didn't force my hand with a very significant price increase. I was more than willing to keep getting what I was getting for as long as they wanted to give it to me. Personally, I would have been fine with them leaving the Absolute package as it was at the very beginning and adding no channels to it at all - at least then the choice to stay with it or "upgrade" would have been mine to make. As it is now I have two years of TV at basically the same price I was paying before with MORE channels and a legitimate multi-room HD-DVR solution. Win-win.
HD Absolute was a great package, but obviously one that wouldn't last forever. A left over from the very early days of HD.
There are many different ways they could have handled this transition. I'm disappointed with the road they chose to take and frankly the offers they were making were quite a bit inferior to what I could get with another company. I don't have any loyalty or allegiance to one provider over another. He with the best deal wins.
 
What pack? Dish America Bronze?

The last package she offered for $14.99/mo was called the "Dish Welcome Package" I believe. Basically just your locals and 10-15 other channels. She offered to tell me what those "other channels" were but I cut her off and told her I wasn't interested.
 
My HR24s I have none of the lag that people complain
I'm feeling good about my decision. But then again, I was looking for an excuse to make the jump anyway. Absolute was the only thing keeping me with E* and with that gone...
HR24's don't have the lag it's the other models that do. If you were looking for reason to jump you got it. Hope it's good for you. Good Luck and I'm hoping that the E* guys are reading this and realizing that they are going to have to give many of us good deals to stay.
 
I am sure this has been said a number of times previously in this thread, but leaving E* for D* because you are upset of the bill is very counter productive. D* is on average about $10-$15/month more. Now if you are just going to leave after the 2 year contract and the discounts have gone away then you'll save money, but one reason for higher bills on both sides is all the customers that change back and forth every time there contract is up. D* & E* need at least 2 years to break even on a customer. I am going to change to Dish America, same price and I only loose 1 or 2 chans I sometimes watch. HD Absolute was a great package, but obviously one that wouldn't last forever. A left over from the very early days of HD.

I didn't leave Dish because I was upset about the bill -- I left because they took my package away. I will save about $300 over the next 2 years with Directv and it will cost me about $5/month more per month beginning in the third year. I didn't feel it was my responsibility to lead a revolution against the television service providers' policy of treating new customers like kings and existing customers like crap. Let them figure out that it is counter-productive to ignore (and lose) low-cost customers and pay the high price of attracting new customers. They're supposed to be the businessmen and yet this practice is common with cell phone contracts as well. If their practice is causing higher prices, then the customer has to play the game to recover these higher costs.

When it came down to it, Dish left me high and dry. It was then time for me to evaluate my next move in starting over. Directv had more features that were important to me at a lesser cost and that's why I made the move. Being upset had nothing to do with it. I was happy to have Absolute for 2 1/2 years, but now it's gone and it is time to move on.
 
. I didn't feel it was my responsibility to lead a revolution against the television service providers' policy of treating new customers like kings and existing customers like crap. Let them figure out that it is counter-productive to ignore (and lose) low-cost customers and pay the high price of attracting new customers.

Amen.

All I've been offered so far is the $10 discount, which for me, simply can't compete with the Choice Xtra offer through Costco in terms of cost and channel selection.

I think I'll hold off until early February to see if they sweeten their offer any. Otherwise, I'll bail and go with D*.
 
The Costco offer for year 2 with Choice extra is $76/month for me (removing the premium movie channels after the free preview). This is with two tv's, whole house DVR, etc.(see attachment) The first year the price is the same for what I'm paying now with Absolute HD. With the Costco $180 credit, the $5/month first year and the referral program $100, it averages out to about $12 more per month over 2 years. It's tempting, but not quite ready to switch (especially with all the DVR content I have stored on the EHD's).

Anyone know how to get the $14/month credit for the 2nd year from D*?

Directv offer.jpg
pencil.png
 
I think the best option is to wait till the last day to switch. I tried the other zip and didn't see the $14 / mo discount. Can someone take a screenshot? So no one is going to write dish? The cost is less if you have an access fee or DVR fees. Remember you get MRV with Direct. Dish included Bio, Science, Discovery kids and more in Dish Family. Now you need to get AT250 to get them.
 
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The funny thing is that the offer shows up right there on the right side of the window where I'm placing my order (see attachment), but you can't click on it and apparently can't do anything about it. It would be nice if it would just show up on a bill for the 2nd year, but I doubt it if it's not showing up on the pre-order screen.

EDIT: I called D* and they were able to do the $14/mo credit for year 2, but not the Costco order, so it's better for me because I'd rather have the price off my bill than $180 to use at costco. Net difference is only $12 loss after 24 months. The referral program worked as well on the call and the price per month seemed a bit better than online (plus they confirmed that locals SD & HD are available while the website said no for my area).

I've got till Feb 9th to decide, so we'll see what happens with Dish. Bottom line advice from me, call D* and get a price. If you can get the $29 credit/mo. first year, $14/mo second year, referral $100, and their best equipment - it looks like a good deal.

My change from Dish AbsoluteHD to Directv Choice Extra would be an average of + $7/month for the first 2 years (instead of the +$12 from the online offers).
 
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Just looked at my options w/ D*. OMG almost had a heart attack. 1st 3 month would be great at 50 per month. Then unless I drop all premiums would jump to 95. So drop Premiums and would stay at 50 per month for a year then it jumps to 84 per month. Sorry guys just isn't even close to worth it. Have to stay w/ E* or I would be really skewered. Was really thinking about changing but not at those prices. I would also have to pay for the 2nd HD DVR for 99 and OTA modules don't know how much they are. Sorry just not what I want to do. Just working part time now and that isn't what I want to do.
 
Just looked at my options w/ D*. OMG almost had a heart attack. 1st 3 month would be great at 50 per month. Then unless I drop all premiums would jump to 95. So drop Premiums and would stay at 50 per month for a year then it jumps to 84 per month. Sorry guys just isn't even close to worth it. Have to stay w/ E* or I would be really skewered. Was really thinking about changing but not at those prices. I would also have to pay for the 2nd HD DVR for 99 and OTA modules don't know how much they are. Sorry just not what I want to do. Just working part time now and that isn't what I want to do.

The point is you HAVE to get AT250 in order to get the Science and NatGeo channel, among others.
Did you put into account the $340 extra? I 'm still trying to figure out how to get the extra $14 off. Someone, please edit my spreadsheet and post any channels I missed and avg. price from D* in 2/yr, you count the GC as cash. I can't do all the work. E* $29.99-$34.99 is for one TV w/o DVR. I would compare apples to apples.
$359.88 1/yr ($5 Credit)
767.88
-280 Costco and referral
___________
$847.76/24=$35.32

If we can get the extra $14 off it would be sweet. No rush until the last day of the month to order.
 
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My problem with D* is similar.

I have 5 HDTV's, served by a 722k (one HDTV on TV1 and another HDTV in SD on TV2) and 3 211's all with EHD service.

To go to DirecTV with 2 HD DVR's, Whole Home DVR Service and 2 HD receivers, my monthly bill with Choice Plus is $55/ month for year 1($4 more than I now pay Dish) AND I must outlay $300 for the second HD DVR and the second HD receiver and in year 2 my bill jumps to $89/month, I just can't see that.

I'll let Dish transition me to AT200 on Feb 1 ($60-15=45+21=$66), then re-evaluate and probably drop to AT120+ after 1 year (50+21=$71).

So by staying with Dish I go from $30+21=$51/month to $66/month for 1 year then to $71/month, all cheaper than D*.
 
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The point is you HAVE to get AT250 in order to get the Science and NatGeo channel, among others.
Did you put into account the $340 extra? I 'm still trying to figure out how to get the extra $14 off. Someone, please edit my spreadsheet and post any channels I missed and avg. price from D* in 2/yr, you count the GC as cash. I can't do all the work. E* $29.99-$34.99 is for one TV w/o DVR. I would compare apples to apples.
$359.88 1/yr ($5 Credit)
767.88
-280 Costco and referral
___________
$847.76/24=$35.32

If we can get the extra $14 off it would be sweet. No rush until the last day of the month to order.

No such thing as Costco in this area. So that doesn't count. I'm pretty sure I will be switching to Latino Max and be able to get Nat Geo maybe not Science Ch but I can live w/o that 1 ch but not Nat Geo. Jim take a look at the programming in the Latino max pack it has like 95% of the AT250 for like 12 less.
 
My problem with D* is similar.

I have 5 HDTV's, served by a 722k (one HDTV on TV1 and another HDTV in SD on TV2) and 3 211's all with EHD service.

To go to DirecTV with 2 HD DVR's, Whole Home DVR Service and 2 HD receivers, my monthly bill with Choice Plus is $55/ month for year 1($4 more than I now pay Dish) AND I must outlay $300 for the second HD DVR and the second HD receiver and in year 2 my bill jumps to $89/month, I just can't see that.

I'll let Dish transition me to AT200 on Feb 1 ($60-15=45+21=$66), then re-evaluate and probably drop to AT120+ after 1 year (50+21=$71).

So by staying with Dish I go from $30+21=$51/month to $66/month for 1 year then to $71/month, all cheaper than D*.

Is the 2nd HD-DVR for space? I wonder if you can still stream HD to a TV with an SD box.
 

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