D* uses every trick in the book...

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Hey Jerry,
It hit a 52 week low today at 13.80 But I think it's ok. You see my neighbor just moved and he had to sign up for another year so I expect once that hits his account tomorrow the stock should just plain jump!!!!!

By the way Jerry...I noticed that Echostar (dish) and Comcrap (comcrap)
also have recorded 52 week lows in the last 3 days. Look at the dividends lately?
 
This should be called Dave TV employees defense post. A lot of defenders of Dave in here. I had Directv since the beginning but have switched to cable about 1 year ago, due to the cost of the equipment etc... The picture quality for Dave was much better but with cable no up front equipment cost. Hook up fees waived etc.. and I get a HD DVR without having to pay for it. My cable company, Charter, is going all digital in the next few weeks so I expect the picture to be as good as Dave's. I can't believe the customer service of Dave not installing a free dish to a long time customer. Their arrogance is amazing.

Hey Iceberg, how about them Wisconsin Badgers!
 
Ummm that is the point Joewee, they are willing to. Just thought I would throw that in there mainly because I am a Penn State Alum (1982). Go Nittany Lions!
 
Joewee said:
This should be called Dave TV employees defense post. A lot of defenders of Dave in here. I had Directv since the beginning but have switched to cable about 1 year ago, due to the cost of the equipment etc... The picture quality for Dave was much better but with cable no up front equipment cost. Hook up fees waived etc.. and I get a HD DVR without having to pay for it. My cable company, Charter, is going all digital in the next few weeks so I expect the picture to be as good as Dave's. I can't believe the customer service of Dave not installing a free dish to a long time customer. Their arrogance is amazing.

Hey Iceberg, how about them Wisconsin Badgers!

The very large marjority of people who are D* customers rarely upgrade their equipment. Most that do upgrade equipment do so during the upgrade specials at a very reduced cost. I guarantee you that what people pay to "rent" cable boxes every month ends up costing them more for equipment they NEVER own than this very large majority of D* customers.

I don't work for D*. I've been a customer for a very long time. I have my original Sony SAT receiver, an SD RCA receiver & a Hughes Tivo receiver. Let's say my cable company rental was $10 a month. I've been a D* customer for 9 years. So $120 * 9 is several times more than I have paid for my equipement. I'm just now upgrading to HD equipement & I will still be under that number & own my equipment.
 
I installed myself and saved me the headache

I recently moved from Pennsylania to Missouri. I installed my own dish. The wiring was already there from the previous owner. He had dish network. I removed his dish, put my 3LNB dish on, pointed at the right location, asked my wife to give me signal strength. Watched all my programs and a week later called DirecTV and gave my change of address. No mess, no fuss. I don't have contracts and I pay just $12.00/month to DirecTV for just the HBO package. Nothing else. If I were to ask DirecTV to do anything for me, they will make me get contracts, total choice Bullsh!t, etc. So, I keep away from them. I just want my HBO. I have had DirecTV since 1997 and have never involved them in any installation job.
 
jawilljr said:
That is the wrong analogy... IMHO who is supposed to be taking the risk... the company or the customer? IMHO it is the company that should be taking all of the risk, not the customer. If they want to keep me then they have to offer a service that I want... not force me into a commitment... especially when I am forced to spend money upfront to get D*. Now if I was leasing the equipment like an apartment that would be different.

Jerry
I can't believe this post is 3 pages long. You have their service already. Do you want the service at your new location or not. If yes, pay $99, do it yourself or commit for a year. Those are the terms. What "risk" are you taking as the customer? If you don't like the terms, then don't do it.
 
mikew said:
I can't believe this post is 3 pages long. You have their service already. Do you want the service at your new location or not. If yes, pay $99, do it yourself or commit for a year. Those are the terms. What "risk" are you taking as the customer? If you don't like the terms, then don't do it.

Exactly - your choice, and at least they give you a $99 option. I bought 2 of the first 2000 units shipped and paid full price because they didn't have a seperate receiver option available. I paid $99 IIRC just for the "self-instalation kit" which consisted of some coax and a compass. They have since transitioned to offering low/no cost options in return for a commitment as an additional option - it's an option you do not need to take.
 
Joewee said:
This should be called Dave TV employees defense post. A lot of defenders of Dave in here. I had Directv since the beginning but have switched to cable about 1 year ago, due to the cost of the equipment etc... The picture quality for Dave was much better but with cable no up front equipment cost. Hook up fees waived etc.. and I get a HD DVR without having to pay for it. My cable company, Charter, is going all digital in the next few weeks so I expect the picture to be as good as Dave's. I can't believe the customer service of Dave not installing a free dish to a long time customer. Their arrogance is amazing.

It's very simple. Cable does not pay their installers jack sh*t. They do a half ass job as fast as they possibly can to make money. A satellite tech makes anywhere from $90-$130 on a four outlet install. With that kind of money that D* has to put into an install, asking for $99 or a 1yr commitment is very reasonable. Cable techs will make around $30-$50 for a job of equal work. Cable charges a sh*t load of money for their service, but doesnt pay their people very well.

The arrogant ones are the people that what everything for free.
 
Texanmutt said:
It's very simple. Cable does not pay their installers jack sh*t. They do a half ass job as fast as they possibly can to make money. A satellite tech makes anywhere from $90-$130 on a four outlet install. With that kind of money that D* has to put into an install, asking for $99 or a 1yr commitment is very reasonable. Cable techs will make around $30-$50 for a job of equal work. Cable charges a sh*t load of money for their service, but doesnt pay their people very well.

The arrogant ones are the people that what everything for free.
This is all well and good... AND I agree, you should have to pay for the install or take the commitment.

However, if installation is such an expense, why, if you have an existing system, and want to upgrade one of your boxes to a DVR, do they INSIST on sending an installer instead of just sending me the darn unit? Wouldn't just sending the unit save them a lot of money? I can easily screw in a few pieces of coax.
 
Texanmutt said:
It's very simple. Cable does not pay their installers jack sh*t. They do a half ass job as fast as they possibly can to make money. A satellite tech makes anywhere from $90-$130 on a four outlet install. With that kind of money that D* has to put into an install, asking for $99 or a 1yr commitment is very reasonable. Cable techs will make around $30-$50 for a job of equal work. Cable charges a sh*t load of money for their service, but doesnt pay their people very well.

The arrogant ones are the people that what everything for free.

Boy this stuff really bothers you doesn't it ?
 
aec4 said:
This is all well and good... AND I agree, you should have to pay for the install or take the commitment.

However, if installation is such an expense, why, if you have an existing system, and want to upgrade one of your boxes to a DVR, do they INSIST on sending an installer instead of just sending me the darn unit? Wouldn't just sending the unit save them a lot of money? I can easily screw in a few pieces of coax.
Well, if you have three or four receivers and order a DVR, you're possibly going to need to upgrade your multiswitch. Would you rather pay $49 and have a 2x8 (or 4x8) powered multiswitch included in the installation cost or have to go out and buy your own?
 
aec4 said:
However, if installation is such an expense, why, if you have an existing system, and want to upgrade one of your boxes to a DVR, do they INSIST on sending an installer instead of just sending me the darn unit? Wouldn't just sending the unit save them a lot of money? I can easily screw in a few pieces of coax.

You'd be suprised at the number of people who cant hook up a vcr themselves.
 
Texanmutt said:
You'd be suprised at the number of people who cant hook up a vcr themselves.

Don't even ask me how often I show people where the power switch is......
 
lets see here. after the nightmare i had upgrading to d*'s hd service, i went to cable for my hd. i have better pq, my locals in hd, more channels in hd and i'm only paying a couple of dollars more.

oh, i didn't pay any activation fee either. it's six to one, half a dozen the other. and since i know people at the cable company, my problems are rectified immediately.

don't get me wrong, i like directv alot. my account is still active. but, truthfully, i think their service has gotten worse. in the meanwhile, i'm betting my cable company's upgrade to all digital service will happen before directv straightens out there m-peg4 upgrade.
 
Newshawk said:
Well, if you have three or four receivers and order a DVR, you're possibly going to need to upgrade your multiswitch. Would you rather pay $49 and have a 2x8 (or 4x8) powered multiswitch included in the installation cost or have to go out and buy your own?
That's a different story though. If I already have the switch, OR if I do not need it, they still require the installation. D* Broke 3 of my old Hughes boxes 1 month ago, and when I got them to agree to give me 3 D10's for free, they wanted to send an installer here to install them. They insisted. I talked to the manager 3 levels up and told him that if an installer was required, then I am calling digital cable tomorrow. Amazingly, they sent the boxes without an installer.

The last time I let an installer in my house, he put his hands ALL over my walls, leaving marks in the family room that required repainting the walls. He claimed he didn't do it even though I watched him do it and as soon as he put the hands on the wall, I asked if he wouldn't, and the mark was right where his hands were. When I called D*, they told me I should have bought better paint.

Therefore, an installer is not allowed from this point forward to set foot in my house.
 
Texanmutt said:
It's very simple. Cable does not pay their installers jack sh*t. They do a half ass job as fast as they possibly can to make money. A satellite tech makes anywhere from $90-$130 on a four outlet install. With that kind of money that D* has to put into an install, asking for $99 or a 1yr commitment is very reasonable. Cable techs will make around $30-$50 for a job of equal work. Cable charges a sh*t load of money for their service, but doesnt pay their people very well.

The arrogant ones are the people that what everything for free.

Cost and charge are unrelated. The cost is what it is. The charge is a decision that the marketing folks decide the market will bear. If they think they can get away with a charge or commitment, they'll try it. If the competitition does not charge or require a committment, they still may try to get it, but, if there is nothing else to differentiate their service, they won't be very successfull.
 
Don't feel to bad about the $99.00 charge, my girlfriend has moved twice in the last three years, she has Cox cable, high speed internet and Cox phone. To get her "free" cable on all her T.Vs - as COX advertises would have cost her about $240.00 the first move (5 additional outlets -2 were wallfishes) the second move would have been about $260 ( 4 additional outlets and 2 phone lines) did she get it for free - well of course but it did take me a total of about 8 hours but hey Cox "gave" her the amp.
 
wobbie said:
Don't feel to bad about the $99.00 charge, my girlfriend has moved twice in the last three years, she has Cox cable, high speed internet and Cox phone. To get her "free" cable on all her T.Vs - as COX advertises would have cost her about $240.00 the first move (5 additional outlets -2 were wallfishes) the second move would have been about $260 ( 4 additional outlets and 2 phone lines) did she get it for free - well of course but it did take me a total of about 8 hours but hey Cox "gave" her the amp.

That sounds about right. Time warner here charges people $45 installation w/ one outlet (wow how close that is to a $50 "activation fee"), $18.81 just to hook up additional exsisting outlets, $28.95 for wall fishes (plus the outlet fee) and $48.95 a month for crapy ass analog service.

So for a 4 outlet cable install you pay-

Installation $45
3 a/o (@18.81) $56.43
for the grand total of $101.43

Wow cable is great !! :rolleyes:
 
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