HD Free For Life Returns!

Why would someone not do autopay and paperless billing? I have for years; its great. First off I have it charged to a credit card that I pay off monthly and get 1% cash back on. So for my roughly $120 a month bill time 12 months I get about $14 cash back each year plus I do not have to buy close to $6 a year in stamps to mail the bill each month. I also never have to worry about late fees as the bill is just handled. Then what is my time worth. So to not do paperless billing with autopay you would be giving up about $14 a year in free cash, paying $6 a year for stamps, and paying another $10 a month for service for a total of around $140 a year. I guess some people just have a lot of time on their hands and really like writing checks and buying stamps.
Why?Because it is of no benefit to me,I offered to go that route and they still wouldn't give me HDFFL,and that was back when it was still available.So screw em,they can keep sending me a bill and I pay it online when I'm damn good and ready.
 
I have been saying this was going to happen, ever since they came out with that stupid HDF24. Only been a year and they realize the errors of their ways. And @Yespage if you think because it's free they can get away with it, they save the money in the fact that you have to have autopay(guaranteed payment), and paperless billing. The paperless billing can save a company millions a year.

In a long ago Charlie Chat, Charlie stated that return envelopes alone were costing him about $700,000 per year. I did some number crunching then (very simple) and it did make sense. I presumed a few cents per return envelope as his price (bulk rate), and multiplied by his then number of subs, and it came out about right. Also, all these companies have to hire a 3rd party to handle billing processing. That costs a lot of dough, too. No wonder the on-line services are all direct CC autopay and NO billing.
 
This is great for those that got in on free hd for 24. However I don't believe this going to help sales.
It's not about sale, but it will help keep churn down because subscribers hate to see a charge like "HD Fee" on their bills AT THE END OF THEIR COMMITMENT. They will get PO'd and leave Dish for anyone else just on principle. I'm glad to see someone at Dish came to their senses on this on. A separate HD Fee was just a plain STUPID idea. Yes, build into the cost. People prefer that method.
 
They have to balance the cost of keeping the customer vs. the cost of replacing the customer. If they raise the price to equal net profit 10% will they lose less or more than 10% of their customers.
 
OK, please help me understand this situation: I know a few people who are getting limited HD because Dish REQUIRED them to take all new HD equipment for the Dish Movers even though they did NOT subscribe to HD services. Can those people qualify for HD for Life on or before November 6th? So, those people have all the equipment and are capable of seeing all the HD's (full WA of 110, 119, and 129), but because they do not subscriber to HD services, Dish only provides LIL in HD and just a few other channels. Can these folks get HD for life?
Thanks.
 
"Existing customers who do not already subscribe to HD programming will not have it added to their account with this update."
I don't know about before the 6th, but the way I am reading it, yes once they upgrade to HD, they can pay $10 or ask for HDFFL, then enroll in AP and PB certainly after the 6th.

The $99 deal no longer available was good for those adverse to AP or PB especially if you remained with DISH.
 
All equipment is hd now. They lowered the advanced receiver fee but now charge for the 1st box. All new customers get hd regardless.

Used to be you could get a $10 month discount on the advanced receiver fee with auto pay & paperless billing for 24 months. Those with a standard hd box paid the $10 fee no discount available.

They aren't losing any money, they just cleverly done away with the term & hd is included now.

Dish could do something similar IMO.

Any new customer that signs up with Dish gets HD equipment. It's just that they still have a lot of SD equipment out there. I'm sure Direct still has SD equipment out there too.
 
Any new customer that signs up with Dish gets HD equipment. It's just that they still have a lot of SD equipment out there. I'm sure Direct still has SD equipment out there too.

I'd say they do..we're in a mpeg4 market so everything has been hd for some time.

Below is a quote from Harshness in another thread.

The TV fee showed up with the transition to HD only equipment.

There are no less than three classes of DIRECTV customers now:

Long-timers with optional separate HD, DVR and WHDS fees
Those beset with the $25 Advanced Receiver Fee
New customers with the $15 ARF and paying for the first TV
 
How much longer can they keep trying to charge for HD when all new tv's are HD and have been for a while now? If Dish Network was available back in the 50s and 60s I could see them charging extra for color.
 
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If Dish Network was available back in the 50s and 60s I could see them charging extra for color.
I could see that. They would have tried to charge a "Color TV Fee" until the early to mid '80s when about all the B&W only sets were about gone. Or, had Dish been around in the mid to late '80s when stereo came out, I am sure, if you wanted a stereo receiver, they would have had a "fee" for that too. Next we will have a 4K enabling fee, probably about $10 per month.
 
How much longer can they keep trying to charge for HD when all new tv's are HD and have been for a while now? If Dish Network was available back in the 50s and 60s I could see them charging extra for color.

Yes, but if Dish replaced everything with color enabled equipment, then you probably would have had people complaining about forcing color equipment on people who only had B&W tv's.
 
You can't be naive enough to think DISH wouldn't have been, isn't, and won't be charged for those things by the content providers..... Just like all the other carriers are and charge for one way or the other...
 
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You can't be naive enough to think DISH wouldn't have been, isn't, and won't be charged for those things by the content providers..... Just like all the other carriers are and charge for one way or the other...
Exactly...one should not forget the Disney SD/HD double-dip.
 
Glad to see Dish saw the error of thier ways, but just like chadt stated, even though there is no seperate fee for hd, we are still paying for it.

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How much longer can they keep trying to charge for HD when all new tv's are HD and have been for a while now?

Well in all fairness, it's NOT like E* is the ONLY provider to charge for HD...in my area, in which we have (only) 3 other TV providers (Comcast, U-verse & D*) ALL of them still charge for HD in some fashion.
While there are a couple ways to avoid it, (mostly on top pkgs w/Comcast & U-verse) most subs STILL end up paying for it...so at least we have 1 provider now, where it's relatively easy to avoid the fee.
 
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I recall when the phone companies used to charge you extra for a private line, touch tone dialing and you had to lease a phone from them too! HD is no longer cutting edge tech and with cable companies claiming they do not charge for it, at least Charter claims this, satellite will HAVE TO follow along.
 

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