Does anyone have a definitive word on whether the primary receiver on a Dish account is charged a Lease Fee / Receiver Fee? Dish CS told me a bit ago that the $7/mo. Lease Fee for my primary receiver (722) is legit - but I never paid this fee before when my primary receiver was a 508 / 721 / 522.
Dish's own website contradicts itself on this. Here is what is stated in the offer details for the Classic Packages:
DISH Network - 1.888.825.2557
But on the fees and disclosures page no mention is made whether the primary receiver pays this fee:
DISH Network - Customer Service - 1.888.825.2557
Note that I am talking about Classic pricing, not DDA pricing.
I was being charged $7 for a 622, only receiver on the acct; got it July of 2006, figgered I had paid enough. Couldn't get csr's to waive the fee so I sent an email to the ceo address. Dish sent me a replacement 622, I sent the existing one back.
Yeah, if money wasn't so tight I would have upgraded to a 722, for the extra recording capacity, but just couldn't swing the $75 at this time. I thought it was kinda cheesy to have to go thru the trouble of swapping the receivers out (plus costing Dish the shipping charges both ways) but I guess that's the only way they could keep their books straight. Here's my email correspondence with them.
I didn't have to agree to a commitment (am not under contract at this time)
This is the ceo reply:
Subject: RE: 622 lease fee
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 09:02:55 -0700
From:
xxxxx@Dishnetwork.com
To:
xxxxxxx@hotmail.com
Dear Mr. xxxxxxx
Thank you for your email and bringing your concern to our attention.
You upgraded to your current HD-DVR receiver at a time when all upgraded receivers were assessed a leased receiver fee regardless if they were the only receiver on the account or not. I have requested to have our back office promotion team make an exception to waive the leased receiver fee but that request has been denied. I have been advised that the fee is a valid fee and cannot be waived. The only way for us to have the fee waived permanently would be to have the receiver replaced under our current upgrade procedures. I would be willing to replace the receiver at no cost to you with the same model. We would be able to ship you a replacement receiver that would not be assessed the leased receiver fee. Please let me know if this is an acceptable resolution for you and confirm the shipping address that you would like the replacement receiver shipped to. We thank you for your patience in this matter and DISH Network appreciates your business.
I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you and please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.
Thanks,
Gregory xxxxxx
DISH Network L.L.C.
Executive Communications
Phone:
xxxxxxxl@dishnetwork.com
This was my original email to ceo:
From: xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 10:09 PM
To: CEO
Subject: 622 lease fee
Hello, my acct # is xxxxxxxxx; have a leased 622 receiver, only rec on the acct. I've been paying the lease fee (and also paid the $199 upgrade fee for the 622) since around July 2006, can you help me by not charging the lease fee from now on? I think this is a reasonable request.
Regards, xxxxxx
PS: I asked for this lease fee removal from the live chat the other day, the cs rep wasn't able to help me, said I should call the Dish main #; I've had language/communication issues when talking to the overseas csr's in the past.