DISH Terminates all Distributers

[Scott Greczkowski]

I am hearing a rumor that this morning DISH canned all of their equipment distributers. All Distributers will remain active until December 31st. Dish Retailers will start getting their equipment directly from DISH moving forward.

Some of these folks have been with DISH since the beginning.

It will be interesting to see where DISH goes from here.

 

[JSheridan]

I am hearing a rumor that this morning DISH canned all of their equipment distributers. All Distributers will remain active until December 31st. Dish Retailers will start getting their equipment directly from DISH moving forward.

Some of these folks have been with DISH since the beginning.

It will be interesting to see where DISH goes from here.

Got the call from the distributor this morning and just got the 'Letter from Amir'. We've been with All Systems and Dish since the very beginning. We got one of the first receivers that Charlie brought back from China when he went to watch Echostar 1 launch in Dec of 1995. This is gonna be an interesting transition.

 

[navychop]

Something about "grab your ankles….."

 

[dishstaller]

Personally, I am NOT happy about this. Have been dealing with Dow from day 1. Know a couple dealers who have been Dish direct. When we compare notes, going through a distributor was the much better deal.
I have a feeling the handwriting is on the wall for being a Dish retailer. When they stopped having TSs that caused me to go hmmm.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Sound like they are wrapping up DISH satellite TV and cutting out all outside people to control costs. With so many customers cutting the cord and ditching satellite I guess it is inevitable.

 

[telstar_1]

Huh, I'd have thought they'd killed off the last of the distribution years ago. With subscribership in reverse and little now to distribute, what's even the point?

 

[dishdude]

I don't know how any of them are still in business.

 

[JSheridan]

I don't know how any of them are still in business.

I heard the only thing keeping them going for quite a while now were smart box commercial installs.

 

[dishstaller]

and little now to distribute, what's even the point?

I'll admit, it WAS getting hard to get someone to answer the phone at Dow from time to time. Used to be they had an office filled with people taking orders from retailers.

 

[navychop]

I just realized I may have misunderstood the title.

Dish TERMINATES all distributors. May be more serious than I thought.

 

[JSheridan]

I'll admit, it WAS getting hard to get someone to answer the phone at Dow from time to time. Used to be they had an office filled with people taking orders from retailers.

The boss at All Systems is a personal friend from way back, so we had a direct line, which I'm really going to miss.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

 

[navychop]

OMG!

Get a REALLY firm grip on them ankles!

 

[dishstaller]

There is absolutely NO reason that they can't transition any unactivated equipment that we still have in stock. This will cost dealers possibly hundreds of dollars.
I noticed they didn't say anything about dhpp residuals.

 

[JSheridan]

There is absolutely NO reason that they can't transition any unactivated equipment that we still have in stock. This will cost dealers possibly hundreds of dollars.
I noticed they didn't say anything about dhpp residuals.

We're gonna use as much of the equipment we have here as we can but inevitably we're gonna get stuck with an expensive bunch of worthless equipment.
I was saying here at the shop earlier today that I think the next step will be no more residuals. The only upside of that is no more free service calls.

 

[telstar_1]

It looks like you'll have until Dec. 23 to activate distributor rx's and get paid, whilst you can start buying through Echo on Nov. 2 if you don't already also get through Echo. If you already get through Echo as well as a dist. (which should likely apply to most), you can drop off of getting from dist. immediately, to minimize dist.-acquired inventory overhang come Dec. For those who are dist.-only, this might be a trickier question- if you can't actually start with Echo until at least Nov. 2, you may have to more carefully calibrate for having enough gear on hand to do business without it being more than you will get activated by Dec. 23.

Compounding that may be the question of dist's continuing to stock deeply enough to get you all you'll need through the end of Oct. Presumably Echo will take back any of their unsold inventory, but who knows? What incentive does a dist now have to make sure you can get what you need?

Time now to remember all of those past dist's. I started with CSS and Skywalker for C-band, then Skywalker for DiSH. They parted ways a long time back.

 

[Almighty1]

Looks like it's to cut costs, increase the profit margin and also have one less point of failure in the foodchain as in cutting out the middleman so the only thing between DISH and the customer is the retailer and the retailer is now directly connected to DISH rather than a distributor.

 

[telstar_1]

So a satellite equipment distributor is a "point of failure"?

Sat distributors are American entrepreneurial icons, just as are/were the sat dealers (not "retailers") they served, who in turn served every station of Americans. Charlie himself was one of them (us), but evidently just a bit more entrepreneurial as well as lacking in scruples, which unironically seems to go together. I mark so many memories by my satellite service; like driving to Skywalker's to cram gear into my T-bird as well as that install I did on election eve 2000, when after I got the signal tuned it said Gore had won Fla....

Satellite dealers, servicers and the numerous independent distributors who served all- thank you. Though likely your memories are all of the thanks you'll ever need.

 

[dishstaller]

Compounding that may be the question of dist's continuing to stock deeply enough to get you all you'll need through the end of Oct.

I believe the dist knew about this way in advance. I ordered some Wireless Joeys from Dow last week and when he finally found them in the system, he kinda mumbled to himself "okay, looks like we've got 3 in Tampa". This was the regular WJs. 3????.

I could really tell over the past 3 months that things had changed at Dow....hard to get someone on the phone. Messages not returned sometime for 24 hrs, etc. NOW I know why. If you know a certain dept is going away.....who cares.

 

[dishstaller]

so the only thing between DISH and the customer is the retailer and the retailer is now directly connected to DISH rather than a distributor.

A distinction without a difference.