Dish Equipment, Rental & Ownership... and fees.

[Zebraitis]

Hi.

Well, as a lifetime techie, this one caught me off-guard:

EQUIPMENT $15.00 ................... But it's not "equipment", it's "service" ??? (and isn't service "programming" packages?)

WHAT: I am trying to keep my DISH fees as low as possible. I saw a $15.00 monthly fee for my Hopper 3 receiver, thought that I could eliminate that by buying my own Hopper 3 for $100. (I only have ONE Hopper 3. No Joey's or anything else)

Did that, and then found out that even if I have my own receiver, the $15.00 "equipment" fee remains, as it's their way of providing the service, and it's the service for which I am paying.

(I tried to discuss how this was equivalent to the cable modem rental of Internet service... but they state that their definition and billing of the service is different.)

Worse, I was told that there is no reduced fee if it was customer owened. $15.00 is $15.00, and that's it.

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Is that right? Is there someone from DISH that can verify that there is no reduced or eliminated fee?

Is there some sort of magic words that I need to say to have a customer service agent look for a reduced fee?

Thanks, and my appologies if this has been asked before.

Vincent

 

[n0qcu]

The Hopper has a “DVR” service fee of $15 and it’s not optional

 

[dishdude]

A Wally is the only way to avoid fees.

 

[Eku]

Its correct, the charge for the Hopper 3 is effectively paying Tivo for their DVR IPs (among other companies that make the equipment as nice as we like). There is a savings for owning Joeys ($2/mo) and same on the Wally.

 

[tsunami2311]

Few years back 2~3 years? they had contract agreement that if owned h3 they would charge you half it normal price there was even picture of this deal floating around net and I think here from dish ownsite, but that deal was with in year with years time, now only thing you can get discount on is joeys/wally pay 5$ per month vs 7$ if you own