Don't raise your rates, raise my fees!

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Claude Greiner

SatelliteGuys Master
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Sep 8, 2003
13,213
3,776
Detroit - The Paris of the Midwest
As you know I deal with all the providers except for Dish, but figured this would be the best place to post this.

I'm noticing a new trend among providers where they are raising the fees on services instead of the base packages.

Examples...

Fees for first tv (charter, Directv)
Regional sports fee (all providers)
Broadcast tv fees (Comcast)
Hd access fees (Comcast, maybe Dish)
DVR Fees
Additional receiver fees (mini genie and joey)

It's literally at the point where these providers need to just roll these fees into the base package.

The first receiver fee, broadcast tv fee, HD access can all be rolled into the base price.

The first Tv fee is a bunch of crap. How are you supposed to use the package without a receiver?

The other thing is the additional outlet fees. We should be able to buy the equipment and not have to pay rental fees. Comcast allows this with a TiVo, both Dish and Directv should allow the same. At the very least, allow customers to buy genies or joeys at full retail to avoid the lease fees.

You sign up with a hopper or genie, what difference does it make if you have 1 joey, or 4 genie minis.

Give consumers the ability to cut the fees to save the money and since there is an investment people may stick around longer.

I really wish TiVo would make a DVR that had 2 smart card slots in addition to the cable card slot, and you could use it with any provider. Hell I would pay for a box I could run multiple providers on with at the same time.

I'm really surprised Comcast has not come up with a box with a built in modem. You will be surprised how many customers do wireless only and do not hardwire anything these days
 
Dish doesn't charge extra for HD. I pay as I go no contract and no HD fees. Directv, on the other hand, did charge excessive HD fees $10.
 
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Claude you know my opinion about FEES. DISH is the King of made up, charge it because we can, FEES. They use those fees to go towards their bottom line in the way of profits. I posted in another thread that the fees for the hopper and the joeys are what keeps many subs from ever upgrading to the hopper. It is ridiculous to charge for joeys anyway. They don't work without a hopper , so why not let people buy the joeys and then pay nothing for additional receiver fees or outlet fees. DISH seems to not care anymore about keeping and retaining subs. They are supposedly doing away with the FLEX pack , that I and many others here like. This pack did what I have always wanted to do and not pay for Sports, kiddie programming and women's programming that I don't watch anyway. DISH continues to lose subs for their satellite business- 318,000 in last quarter alone. They look to me, like they have decided to just make as much as they can while they can ,on the remaining subs that stay with DISH. At this rate they will drop below 13 million subs this year. Younger generations are not using pay tv and they are going online for all their shows. Older generations that have paid for tv are literally dying out with each passing day. The future doesn't look bright for DISH. After my commitment is up , if I can't get discounts from DISH , I will probably look elsewhere for my entertainment , because the price is out of wack for programming and their ever increasing DISH fees. Especially if they really do away with the Flex pack. It is the only thing that has kept me with DISH this last year.
 
I've been an advocated for a long time of no additional outlet fees if the consumer bought the equipment outright. This was one of the points that led me to leave Dish after 17 years. With my move to TiVo and cable, I have Minis in rooms I didn't before because of the fees. Yes I had to pay upfront to get them but they have paid for themselves now and I'm not wasting money for the convenience of access in all rooms.

I prefer that costs for locals and rsns be broken out, but with that, they should be an optional package that can be added or dropped when one wants and not a required purchase.
 
You want to see a fees list, look at our local Cox Cable!

I'm still on a Cox bundle promo, but I currently have line items and credits for local broadcast fee ($4.00) and rsn fee ($3.50). I also have a cable card fee ($1.99) for the tivo. If not for the tivo, I would also have a first receiver fee ($8.50), a dvr fee ($10-15.00 depending if you have 2 or 6 tuners), outlet fee for each dvr client ($8.50) and non dvr mini client fee ($2.99).
 
After decades of progress, we're backsliding into the old IBM mainframe days when the consumer couldn't own the hardware or the software. Look at Windows 10 and how the consumer can't control updates or telemetry. Look how many PCs come bundled with Office 365 that you can't use without paying. At least with a PC you still have a hardware choice. But I say that we should have a choice with TV as well. The program providers should have to let anyone who wants to pay subscribe with any device they want to use.
 
Claude you know my opinion about FEES. DISH is the King of made up, charge it because we can, FEES. They use those fees to go towards their bottom line in the way of profits. I posted in another thread that the fees for the hopper and the joeys are what keeps many subs from ever upgrading to the hopper. It is ridiculous to charge for joeys anyway. They don't work without a hopper , so why not let people buy the joeys and then pay nothing for additional receiver fees or outlet fees. DISH seems to not care anymore about keeping and retaining subs. They are supposedly doing away with the FLEX pack , that I and many others here like. This pack did what I have always wanted to do and not pay for Sports, kiddie programming and women's programming that I don't watch anyway. DISH continues to lose subs for their satellite business- 318,000 in last quarter alone. They look to me, like they have decided to just make as much as they can while they can ,on the remaining subs that stay with DISH. At this rate they will drop below 13 million subs this year. Younger generations are not using pay tv and they are going online for all their shows. Older generations that have paid for tv are literally dying out with each passing day. The future doesn't look bright for DISH. After my commitment is up , if I can't get discounts from DISH , I will probably look elsewhere for my entertainment , because the price is out of wack for programming and their ever increasing DISH fees. Especially if they really do away with the Flex pack. It is the only thing that has kept me with DISH this last year.
Are you sure they are doing away with the Flex Pak, that's a very popular package
 
The government should make the pay tv providers all use the same encryption system, so any receiver that we purchase would be compatible.
 
I just got on the dish website to check out all the fees but there is a fee to see them. . I agree the total cost for the service should be advertised not 89.00 for a bundle .Oh and the fee to actually use the service is another 89.00 plus taxes and local franchise fees plus sports and other fees . And you need a modem for another 10.00 . Just please give me the bottom price .
 
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I don't want Claude to go away. Dish is doing this fee-jacking as well, and his comments and wishes apply.
Me either. I don't understand why the people that don't like him won't ignore him. Why go into a thread you don't like?? A guy here got so angry with my post a while back he had the nerve to try to call me out for not contributing to this site. I used to do that but stopped because of people like him.

I went to PS Vue because of the Joey fees. I own them. Why charge a "mirroring" fee? Oh yea more money?
 

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