Interesting article on the future of pay TV

They speak of those who don't know about Comedy Central or can live without ESPN. The fact is that most of us have forgotten Comedy Central (and most of the other Viacom channels) because they've forsaken their mission and couldn't give a tinker's damn about ESPN and how finely divided they've taken a little programming and spread it out over five or six channels.

Bring back Wide World of Sports!

We need less garbage programming on less channels and that's what the content producers needs to learn so that the customers and the content distributors can go on about their business. If they don't change the way things work, it will go away faster than anyone imagined.
 
That doesn't surprise me actually even though you wouldn't know by the way people complain about their bills.

Well I called yesterday to "complain about my bill" and got $20.00 off for 6 months=$120.00 and Free Showtime/Cinemax/Starz on all my 3 accounts with DISH. They also said call back in 6 months and well work another deal. I had wanted HBO for True Blood's final season next month ,but they don't provide that deal. With the $20.00 off deal for 6 months , I would be able to sub to HBO for Free. So I went online and added Hbo then went back and hit cancel and they offered me online Hbo for $14.00 a month for 6 months. BINGO!! I decided to try for Blockbuster and did the same thing , add then cancel and they offered me $5.00 blockbuster for 6 months. Rather than keep my top 200 programming , I decided to drop down to top 120 without the sports rsn and now I am saving about $15.00 a month and I'm getting all the premium channels for FREE this summer. :popcorn

So I guess calling to complain about how high my bill has gone up didn't seem to hurt ,that and having almost 18 years with DISH and 3 accounts in my name. So like my old Nigerian Captain at the Prison I retired from used to say: " They can only ride you if you bend over, so don't bend over.";)
 
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Well I called yesterday to "complain about my bill" and got $20.00 off for 6 months=$120.00 and Free Showtime/Cinemax/Starz on all my 3 accounts with DISH. They also said call back in 6 months and well work another deal. I had wanted HBO for True Blood's final season next month ,but they provide that deal. With the $20.00 off deal for 6 months , I would be able to sub to HBO for Free. So I went online and added Hbo then went back and hit cancel and they offered me online Hbo for $14.00 a month for 6 months. BINGO!! I decided to try for Blockbuster and did the same thing , add then cancel and they offered me $5.00 blockbuster for 6 months. Rather than keep my top 200 programming , I decided to drop down to top 120 without the sports rsn and now I am saving about $15.00 a month and I'm getting all the premium channels for FREE this summer. :popcorn

So I guess calling to complain about how high my bill has gone up didn't seem to hurt ,that and having almost 18 years with DISH and 3 accounts in my name. So like my old Nigerian Captain at the Prison I retired from used to say: " They can only ride you if you bend over, so don't bend over.";)


I'm not saying it doesn't hurt, I'm just saying the grass isn't greener with other providers.
 
I'm not saying it doesn't hurt, I'm just saying the grass isn't greener with other providers.

Well on that one I do agree. DISH is still the cheapest of providers out of all of them. You can get temporary deals as a new sub with other providers but they don't last, and their receivers aren't as good as DISH's. No one beats the hopper in my area.
 
I wonder if I called and complained about my $76 bill being too high would I get any kind of discounts. :)
 
The longer you are with DISH the more likely they will give you a little something for your troubles.
More than a few have teased the bear and the bear walked away.

The new rule of thumb is don't threaten to cancel unless you're fully prepared to walk away.
 
More than a few have teased the bear and the bear walked away.

The new rule of thumb is don't threaten to cancel unless you're fully prepared to walk away.


It's all in how you handle the situation when you call Dish. If you go in barking orders and threatening to leave if you don't get a discount then be prepared to have your service shut down.
 
Ask for retention and give it a try. The longer you are with DISH the more likely they will give you a little something for your troubles.

Or simply cancel service on a date in the future (i.e. when your current paid up to date is) and see what they do. They will probably call you... If all else fails you can call and cancel the cancellation...
 
When I called I asked to talk to the retention department and told the guy that my service was getting to expensive with price and equipment fee increases this year. He said back that I had been with DISH going on 18 years this coming anniversary date. I said yes and I had three DISH accounts. He sounded a little surprised and asked me did I want discounts on all 3 of my accounts? I said just two of them since my third account for my aunt is only the Welcome pack + Encore pack. So he said okay and then said let me see what I can do . When he came back on the line he offered me $20.00 off for 6 months on my two accounts for me and my mom and dad. I said good start, can I get an Free HBO or 1/2 price Hbo? He said NO there wasn't any promos on that service this year, but I can give you 3 free months of Showtime/Starz/Cinemax on both accounts. I said Cool! He then said ok good , and when the 6 months are up you can call back and we can see what we can do then. I was nice and pleasant and didn't demand anything. I thanked him for helping me out and said I would call back in November. I then went online and dropped down to Top 120 without the sports rsn. I saved another $15.00 a month and then added both Hbo and Blockbuster and then cancelled both and got them both for less : Hbo for $14.00 for 6 months and BB for $5.00 for 6 months. I am now paying $16.00 less a month than before( because I added HBo and BB ) and I have ALL the premium packs for most of the summer.

You can talk to your satellite company and get discounts and promos and it never hurts to ask. I have done this in the past many times before.
 
Well on that one I do agree. DISH is still the cheapest of providers out of all of them. You can get temporary deals as a new sub with other providers but they don't last, and their receivers aren't as good as DISH's. No one beats the hopper in my area.

I don't know about that. I just signed up with Comcast for a deal that no other provider in my area (which includes D*, E*, U-Verse and WOW) can touch. I'm getting the HD Preferred Triple play for 12 months, with no contract, "out the door" for $110.49. This includes their Digital Preferred tier (similar to AT250) with HBO, Starz, Encore, On Demand and Streampix (internet streaming service), 105/20 internet and phone. They provide a HD receiver at no charge plus they're paying me $5 ($2.50 each) :eek: to use two of their cable cards for my two Tivo's. I am paying $8 for their wireless gateway and a $1.50 fee for local stations, but no outlet fees. And for months 13-24 it goes up $25 (probably a little more because of taxes). And since there is no contract, if they try to screw me, then I can drop them at any time.

I never thought that I would ever sign up with Comcast, but this was just too good a deal to pass up. If I was still with Dish, I would be paying more than that for just tv for a comparable package (unless I played CSR roulette) on top of paying for internet and phone with another provider. I'm basically getting internet/phone service for free, so you can see why Comcast actually slightly gained customers.
 
I don't know about that. I just signed up with Comcast for a deal that no other provider in my area (which includes D*, E*, U-Verse and WOW) can touch. I'm getting the HD Preferred Triple play for 12 months, with no contract, "out the door" for $110.49. This includes their Digital Preferred tier (similar to AT250) with HBO, Starz, Encore, On Demand and Streampix (internet streaming service), 105/20 internet and phone. They provide a HD receiver at no charge plus they're paying me $5 ($2.50 each) :eek: to use two of their cable cards for my two Tivo's. I am paying $8 for their wireless gateway and a $1.50 fee for local stations, but no outlet fees. And for months 13-24 it goes up $25 (probably a little more because of taxes). And since there is no contract, if they try to screw me, then I can drop them at any time.

I never thought that I would ever sign up with Comcast, but this was just too good a deal to pass up. If I was still with Dish, I would be paying more than that for just tv for a comparable package (unless I played CSR roulette) on top of paying for internet and phone with another provider. I'm basically getting internet/phone service for free, so you can see why Comcast actually slightly gained customers.

Let us know what happens when your deal runs out. I would be surprised if they allowed you to continue the discounts after the first year.
 
Let us know what happens when your deal runs out. I would be surprised if they allowed you to continue the discounts after the first year.

Like I already mentioned, my rate goes up $25 for months 13 - 24. And like I also mentioned, since I have no contract, I'll leave if they try to screw me. I'm not afraid to change providers or even drop pay-tv if I have to. Hell, we've only had cable/satellite for the last four years. Before that we were ota (using a Panasonic DVD-recorder w/TVGOS as a dvr), and Netflix (streaming and 3-dvd out plan).
 
I'd have to get paid every month to switch to cable. I'm the type of person that is willing to pay for the type of service and features I want. No other provider is going to match the two Hopper and two Joey setup that I have now. In a few weeks I'll have the Wireless Joey in my home which will make my setup even more ideal.

If all I cared about was money then I'd just go with my antenna and the internet.
 

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