BB@Home suggestion (drop disc option !)

[Hall]

Here's a suggestion for Dish and it could be purely optional for those who don't like it. If you don't like it, don't choose it...

Instead of having the bundled channels + discs mailed to us, give the option to separate them. My wife queued up discs a while ago and has pretty much forgotten about them. They still show up, of course, but no one cares. The newest Pirates of the Caribbean has been sitting on our kitchen table to 3+ weeks ! I actually cancelled the service last year and then lost the Epic channels, Sony's movie channel, etc, etc, which we do watch and enjoy. I almost immediately called back thinking they clicked an extra button and then found out (or remembered) that they're linked. I complained about this, and that we don't use the disc service anymore, and the rep offered a discount that I gladly took.

I guess on one hand, this is a way for Dish to "promote" (or force) the disc service on customers... Why not give us an option for say a discount if we don't want both ? I'd love it to be a $5 + $5 service but I don't see that happening. Give people a couple dollar discount instead maybe.

 

[Bobby]

Well, let's see.... I had the Platinum channels before and they cost me $10 a month. Dish bought out Blockbuster, changed the Platinum package name to Blockbuster @ Home and, for no extra charge, added one free disc at a time. The discs have been slowing down, as we all know, but the channels haven't changed at all. If the discs went away entirely I haven't lost a thing that I didn't have before. The only way you're going to see a split between the two is if, say, the charge for the service went up to $12 a month and you could get just the channels for $10 a month.... Then you'd probably see the discs die a quick death....

 

[gadgtfreek]

My thought has been that the 1 disc is just an added bonus, while not very reliable I think the streaming, disc and channels are worth $10.

My suggestion would be just to not put discs in your queue if you dont want to get them. Unless they want to drop the disc's from the deal and drop the price on the channels.

 

[garys]

If I could access what I view on disc as VOD, I would agree. But since we can't . . .

 

[Teehar]

Two options as the service is now.1.Don't put any discs in your queue.2.Try to get bb@home half off.I went with option number 2.

 

[jerryez]

Two options as the service is now.1.Don't put any discs in your queue.2.Try to get bb@home half off.I went with option number 2.

The half off probably only lasts 6 months. Dish never gives discounts forever.

 

[Hall]

Two options as the service is now.1.Don't put any discs in your queue.2.Try to get bb@home half off.I went with option number 2.

I ended up contacting Dish and the only thing they can offer is that same discount....

The half off probably only lasts 6 months. Dish never gives discounts forever.

I've gotten this same discount 1-2 times before but have let it lapse. When I check back with them though, they freely offer it.

 

[Tampa8]

Here's a suggestion for Dish and it could be purely optional for those who don't like it. If you don't like it, don't choose it...

Instead of having the bundled channels + discs mailed to us, give the option to separate them. My wife queued up discs a while ago and has pretty much forgotten about them. They still show up, of course, but no one cares. The newest Pirates of the Caribbean has been sitting on our kitchen table to 3+ weeks ! I actually cancelled the service last year and then lost the Epic channels, Sony's movie channel, etc, etc, which we do watch and enjoy. I almost immediately called back thinking they clicked an extra button and then found out (or remembered) that they're linked. I complained about this, and that we don't use the disc service anymore, and the rep offered a discount that I gladly took.

I guess on one hand, this is a way for Dish to "promote" (or force) the disc service on customers... Why not give us an option for say a discount if we don't want both ? I'd love it to be a $5 + $5 service but I don't see that happening. Give people a couple dollar discount instead maybe.

That is exactly why many of us keep drumming into posts that those channels were $10 before anything added. I'm betting you won't see a discount or any price drop if BB discs is dropped.

 

[mitchflorida]

I don't know what all the complaining is about. They have sent me the DVD on time, and I am getting the $5 a month intro offer. That is the biggest bargain out there.

 

[bhelms]

Two options as the service is now.1.Don't put any discs in your queue.2.Try to get bb@home half off.I went with option number 2.

The half off probably only lasts 6 months. Dish never gives discounts forever.

Correct. I dumped BB@H then missed some of the channels greatly. So I called to "complain" and got the half-price "deal" of $5, but it's only for 6 months. I guess I'll have to "rinse and repeat"...

 

[bhelms]

I don't know what all the complaining is about. They have sent me the DVD on time, and I am getting the $5 a month intro offer. That is the biggest bargain out there.

The "complaint" comes from the fact that some of us were getting Platinum with most of those channels for "free", grandfathered. That's one way to end a grandfathered perk - change it's name! I have never ordered disks by mail from any provider and probably never will, so as far as I'm concerned that part of the package is worthless...

 

[lparsons21]

While I only get discs on rare occasions since it seems all I want to get are on some sort of extended wait or high demand or some such, I keep the queue full of new releases and enjoy getting a surprise in the mail when one actually shows up.

If it weren't for the fact that the package is worth the $10/month without the discs at all, I wouldn't have it. And getting the 1/2 off deal is just gravy!
?

 

[Hall]

The "complaint" comes from the fact that some of us were getting Platinum with most of those channels for "free", grandfathered. That's one way to end a grandfathered perk - change it's name!

That seems to be how I remember it as well but quite a few people above are saying we were already paying $10/mo for the channels and the name change simply added the disc-by-mail option. I honestly don't recall....

 

[cosmo_kramer]

I don't know what all the complaining is about. They have sent me the DVD on time, and I am getting the $5 a month intro offer. That is the biggest bargain out there.

So you're the one?!?!

When the BB@Home offering started the response time for discs was great. I was getting 1-2 discs per week, depending on how quickly we could view them and that was even after my local BB closed. In the last 2-3 months though, the turnaround has been terrible. I had been averaging only 2 discs per month. Combining that with the fact that we determined we could live without the BB@Home package channels, that led to our decision to drop the package.

Instead, we opened a Netflix account (streaming only) using the free Roku provided by Dish and are enjoying getting caught up on many series we never got around to watching...

 

[mitchflorida]

how do I get a free Roku player from Dish?

 

[Nebugeater]

Go back in time to the AMC ( I beleive that was the one) dispute and that was the comp for complaing about access to the programing.

how do I get a free Roku player from Dish?