Dish Protection Plan.... is my thinking wrong

[The Brown Hound]

I am trying to get my Dish bill down, and have even considered switching to directtv (i have compared and by going to wireless Genie, I can remove a joey, so perm costs are within a few dollars)...

I am out of contract, so if anything breaks, and Dish wont fix it, (like they used to before I had a protection plan), i will just cancel the service and switch to D-tv.

Just seems silly, I have been paying $8 per month and havent had anyone out to the house in about 2 years... about 200 down the drain.

anyone have thoughts on this?

 

[lparsons21]

While it is nice to have the protection of the plan, you could save yourself some money by cancelling it and then restarting it if you have a problem. I think you have to keep it for 3 months if you get it or pay a penalty to cancel it out earlier.

Many of us do just that.

Over the years I've never had a problem that wasn't the actual unit itself which you can get swapped for about $20 shipping.

 

[KAB]

Drop it!

 

[dwarren2]

Yes, drop it. If you have a problem, you can tell the CSR to restart it when you call in. I've done that several times.

 

[harshness]

Both companies are pretty similar with respect to their protection plans. Thinking that you can get something for nothing by switching (other than promotional pricing) probably isn't good reasoning.

There is a distinct difference with the DIRECTV protection plan in that it doesn't go active until the month after you subscribe to it so adding it in the way that many DISH users do (when needed) doesn't work.

 

[boba]

Smarten up and cancel PP.

 

[Tampa8]

Just as others have said, no need to keep it when you can add it when needed and use it immediately with DISH. Then drop it when you can.

 

[Tampa8]

I assume you would switch for the 1st year's savings. I bet if you call DISH you will get some of that savings by staying.

 

[david_jr]

It is also easy to cancel the plan online at your dish account.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Can you tech support and fix your own system?

If yes, then then only advantage to the plan is free shipping on defective equipment which they will now charge you $15 to ship a replacement receiver.

 

[brad1138]

We coach all of our customer to drop it when they start getting charged for it. You save $80 dollars for a svc call ($15 vs $95), but pay $96/ year for it. Most people don't have more than 1 svc call a year (most have way less), it is a cash cow for Dish. Out of the $8/month we get $2 and we are the ones rolling on the svc calls... Dish takes $6/month and doesn't have to do a thing.

We discount our (warranty) svc calls to $69 for our customers, so they are way better off dropping it.

 

[nelson61]

Protection plans are a major profit center for businesses. This is why best buy, Dish, directv, and the others push them. The actual failure rate is very low so they count on you bleeding cash for little value.

 

[david_jr]

Can you tech support and fix your own system?

If yes, then then only advantage to the plan is free shipping on defective equipment which they will now charge you $15 to ship a replacement receiver.

I do not currently have the PP however when my HWS bit the big one Dish shipped a new (refurb) to me for free and included a label to ship the dead unit back. I see no advantage to keeping the PP. If you need a tech visit you can add it online before ordering. Dish allows this so it is their fault if it gets abused.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Also you can call a local retailer and get them out for less than the $99 dish charges

 

[old corps]

While it is nice to have the protection of the plan, you could save yourself some money by cancelling it and then restarting it if you have a problem. I think you have to keep it for 3 months if you get it or pay a penalty to cancel it out earlier.

Many of us do just that.

Over the years I've never had a problem that wasn't the actual unit itself which you can get swapped for about $20 shipping.

In over 15 years I had one time that required a service call........and they waived the $95 charge!

BTW, shipping a replacement receiver is $15 unless they raised it.

Ed

 

[brad1138]

Also you can call a local retailer and get them out for less than the $99 dish charges

That is not likely at all. Unless you purchased your system from a local retailer and are going back to them for svc, do not expect to get a svc call for less than $99. Our standard rate is $99 (for 1st hr) and if anyone that bought their system from someone else comes to us for service, they are definitely paying the full $99, regardless if it is in wtty or not. Also, if they aren't the "retailer of record" (the retailer who originally sold it), they can not replace the equipment for you under wtty, they could only call Dish and have them ship you the receiver.

 

[DishSubLA]

That is not likely at all. Unless you purchased your system from a local retailer and are going back to them for svc, do not expect to get a svc call for less than $99. Our standard rate is $99 (for 1st hr) and if anyone that bought their system from someone else comes to us for service, they are definitely paying the full $99, regardless if it is in wtty or not. Also, if they aren't the "retailer of record" (the retailer who originally sold it), they can not replace the equipment for you under wtty, they could only call Dish and have them ship you the receiver.

+1. This is the case in our area, as well. ALL of them want $99 just to show up! After that IF they do some work, they may discount the charge for the work, but usually NOT! Maybe in friendlier parts of the country it is cheaper, but in high cost of living and everyone out for themselves, and having been burned by being nice big metro areas, it aint the case.

 

[JSheridan]

Our service calls start at $49, depending on how far from the shop.

 

[david_jr]

It cost me $450 to have a car towed from an accident 8 miles to the tow yard including storage fees. Then I had to pay for a second tow to the shop where my car was repaired for another $200. $99 for a service call for satellite is a BARGAIN!!

 

[brad1138]

+1. This is the case in our area, as well. ALL of them want $99 just to show up! After that IF they do some work, they may discount the charge for the work, but usually NOT! Maybe in friendlier parts of the country it is cheaper, but in high cost of living and everyone out for themselves, and having been burned by being nice big metro areas, it aint the case.

It has nothing to do with being friendly or not, we are very friendly, it has everything to do with the cost of running the business. The labor rate hasn't changed in over 15 years (set by Dish network) still the same $69/hour it has been since the 90's. About 10 years ago (and things are more expensive now of course) my boss did a cost analysis on what it costs to roll a truck to a job. Just to get to the door, nothing more, is about $35 - $40. That doesn't include wages for the tech or any parts. If you figure about $30 for the tech (which actually costs the business about $40) that leaves very little profit margin to keep the lights on. We lose money when we roll on svc calls for our customers (we charge them $69), we certainly are not going to do that for someone who bought from our competition.

A lot of people think it is all one big happy family all sharing in the profits. That couldn't be farther from the truth. If you didn't come into our office or call our phone number that rings our office, you bought it from our competition and we didn't make a penny. So often people will see some flyer from some telemarketer and order their system from them, then when they need help, the telemarketer won't give them the time of day, so they walk into our shop expecting us to help them for free, because there is a "Dish" sign in our front yard. You can actually see steam come out of my bosses (the owner) ears every time this happens. We do every thing we can to try to get people to buy local and support a local business (and get good local support in the deal), they only find out what we were talking about after it is too late... (sorry, I know that was a bit of a tangent).

Compared to so many other svc industries, $99 is cheap. See if you can get a plumber or electrician (etc.) out for that much. The TV industry is weird, people think because they pay money every month for the programming, every thing else should be free. That is like saying, "I spend $200/month on gas, you should fix my car for free".

Anyway, $99 is not a ridiculous amount charged by companies trying to gouge you, (as a small local business) it is what we have to charge to be here for you.