DVR fee
- Thread starter tbanks204
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The DVR Service fee is a $6 account-level fee. In order to enjoy DVR functionality, which includes the ability to watch Video on Demand as well as to watch and record two separate programs at the same time, an account must have both a DVR Service fee and a higher cost receiver that has DVR capability.
They charge it to cover the cost of providing the enhanced DVR guide from TV Guide. You pay the fee whether you lease or own your receiver. It is in no way illegal. Did you mean the receiver lease fee?
Dish DVR Service Fee
So Mary please tell me, I have subscribed to the Everything Pak since 1998 when I became a Dish cusotmer and have never paid a DVR service fee because it was waived with that level of subscription. With my August bill I noticed that I am now being charged $6 for the DVR service fee. WHY?
If things have changed I have never received any communication from Dish telling me this and I spent half the day searching the Dish website for that information.
So Mary please tell me, I have subscribed to the Everything Pak since 1998 when I became a Dish cusotmer and have never paid a DVR service fee because it was waived with that level of subscription. With my August bill I noticed that I am now being charged $6 for the DVR service fee. WHY?
If things have changed I have never received any communication from Dish telling me this and I spent half the day searching the Dish website for that information.
The DVR fee was added to AEP in February, 2010. If this is really the first time you have been charged, you've dodged the bullet for the last 17 months.
KAB said:
And you must have only one receiver/dvr because you would have seen increases for each additional one you have!
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Hi Jeff, as the other posters have stated the unbundling of the DVR service fee from the America's Everything Pack did occur in Feb. 2010. If the $6.00 fee was a recent addition to your billing, then you were effected by the 8-11 DVR fee change on account with 501/508 receiver. These accounts were grandfathered in under a NO DVR Service Fee due to limitations on the Hard Drive. These receivers are being made obsolete and DISH Network has started to charge the $6.00 monthly DVR Service Fee and we are also issuing a credit to match the increase for the next 24 months. If you would like me to assist you in outlining options for your specific account, please PM me your account/phone#. I can check the account and give you some options. Thank you!
When I got my dish installed, I actually had the option of getting a DVR receiver without any additional equipment fees or installation fees, but I turned it down because I didn't want to be locked into paying $6 extra every month. It sounds like peanuts, but some months, that $6 really would matter, and, because actual equipment is involved and there is no local office, it's probably not all that simple to go back and forth between having it and not, unlike the way you can switch normal programming packages around online.
Dish's charge for DVR is actually pretty cheap relative to cable DVR, but I didn't want to get locked into another thing I have to pay for. I guess I'm afraid I'd actually like it and have trouble going without it later.
I'd have done it if it didn't cost any extra, though, for sure.
I get why they don't offer it for no additional fee, and it's hard for me to argue that they should, but I can say if they did it would be a big "value added" type thing that would probably keep a lot of people from switching to cable and be an attraction to get people to switch from cable. If you can get more for less money, you tend not to switch.
The Free HD for Life promotion actually would be a similar incentive to stay put-- if they made it available to everyone without charging for extra equipment for some customers. Knowing that other people get HD for no additional charge and I don't is actually an incentive to leave, in a way. All else aside, when I know I'm getting less than the standard deal, it makes me antsy to consider other options.
Dish's charge for DVR is actually pretty cheap relative to cable DVR, but I didn't want to get locked into another thing I have to pay for. I guess I'm afraid I'd actually like it and have trouble going without it later.
I'd have done it if it didn't cost any extra, though, for sure.I get why they don't offer it for no additional fee, and it's hard for me to argue that they should, but I can say if they did it would be a big "value added" type thing that would probably keep a lot of people from switching to cable and be an attraction to get people to switch from cable. If you can get more for less money, you tend not to switch.
The Free HD for Life promotion actually would be a similar incentive to stay put-- if they made it available to everyone without charging for extra equipment for some customers. Knowing that other people get HD for no additional charge and I don't is actually an incentive to leave, in a way. All else aside, when I know I'm getting less than the standard deal, it makes me antsy to consider other options.
You are probably right. When I bought our first DVR (a 501) nobody but me liked it. One of my girls actually hated the button layout on the remote compared to our 301, and nobody but me would use the trick play features at first. After a week or two, it became indispensable, and I was on the slippery slope to getting a DVR for everybody.I guess I'm afraid I'd actually like it and have trouble going without it later.
in our house ... its so bad that when we're out driving and hear something on the radio.. that we weren't sure we heard, or wanted to hear again.. we hold up our hands as if with remote and start doing a ghost "skip-back" button press..
neither of us knew that the OTHER would do that.. until one day I'm driving and just out of habbit I do it.. and she looks at me like.. "OMG you do that too?" DVR Fee's ripoff
Hi,
I've been with dish network since 1998. Now I'm going to dump them for full video and movies off the internet. Why. Well for one thing I can view Netflix any where I want. Can't lug DVR and Dish around. I do this in my rig with my laptop with free WiFi at truck stop's. I've had basic down to 5.99 then up to 9.99 for just local. Then out of the blue they bump me $14.99. Called and was told tough luck. Well.. now here come's the DVR fee of $6.00 per month. I own, yes own all the equipment. 501 with dish. This extortion makes no sense at all. It would be like if the cable company or T.V. station would charge you for your own VHS, Computer or other method to record t.v.'s show's for one's own use. This fee is just another rip off of the customer. Way to go Dish Network. Your practice will drive more and more people to install HTPC's and get their entertainment off the web. Soon to be ex-customer. After 13yrs of being a loyal customer. I/we continue to get screwed by them. HD T.V. is another scam to get into your pockets and that's another story.
Hi,
I've been with dish network since 1998. Now I'm going to dump them for full video and movies off the internet. Why. Well for one thing I can view Netflix any where I want. Can't lug DVR and Dish around. I do this in my rig with my laptop with free WiFi at truck stop's. I've had basic down to 5.99 then up to 9.99 for just local. Then out of the blue they bump me $14.99. Called and was told tough luck. Well.. now here come's the DVR fee of $6.00 per month. I own, yes own all the equipment. 501 with dish. This extortion makes no sense at all. It would be like if the cable company or T.V. station would charge you for your own VHS, Computer or other method to record t.v.'s show's for one's own use. This fee is just another rip off of the customer. Way to go Dish Network. Your practice will drive more and more people to install HTPC's and get their entertainment off the web. Soon to be ex-customer. After 13yrs of being a loyal customer. I/we continue to get screwed by them. HD T.V. is another scam to get into your pockets and that's another story.
We're sorry to see that you're cancelling your service. If there is anything that I can review for you on your account, please send me a PM.
TheWaterman, you should not be paying the $6/mo DVR fee for another 2 years IIRC. If I were you, I'd wait this out, let Dish replace your owned 501 with an owned 512 with a $6/mo credit for 2 years, and then when the fee is no longer compensated, decide what you want to do at that time. At the very least you could cancel and sell your 512 for it's residual value. Your 501 is about to become a boat anchor because it cannot demodulate 8PSK signals. This will soon become the STANDARD eveywhere on Dish Network satellites.
Don't let the door hit ya,
Where the good Lord split ya.
If your needs can be better served elsewhere, and for less - fine, move on. Prices change, packages change. That doesn't make Dish bad, and it certainly isn't a scam. If you don't like the product or service, spend elsewhere. And I'd be careful about throwing around that word "extortion."
In fact, you might consider that your post says a whole lot more negative things about you, than Dish.
Best wishes in your future endeavors.
I first got a DVR when the original Dishplayers came out. 7100. It was a heaping pile of crap that worked most of the time and would occasional be broken by Dish's software updates. But it hooked me on DVRs. I can't live without one now! At the time the DVR fee was $10/mo, but somehow I was part of a promotion that waived that fee. Later Dish dropped the fee all together. When Dish finally broke my 7100 with a software upgrade (just before the unit was obsoleted, I was sent a 501 as a replacement. I missed a couple of the 7100's features and the OSD, but it was functional. Then I moved on to a 721. None of these DVRs had a DVR fee. It wasn't that the fee was waived. The 501/508 and 721 were advertised as NO DVR Fees ever! It wasn't until the introduction of the 510 that the DVR fee was revived at $5 per DVR for any 510 or newer unit.
The fee is lower than the original 7100/7200 units that were $10/mo when they first came out even after the fee structure change to have a DVR fee on an account. ($6 for the first DVR and (effectively) $3 for every additional DVR) Those of us with AEP and DVRs got a gargantuan price increase a few years back. But I guess the price freeze until 2013 (If they honor it for all packages) will even out with the competition that has raised its price a half a dozen times in a year.
The fee is lower than the original 7100/7200 units that were $10/mo when they first came out even after the fee structure change to have a DVR fee on an account. ($6 for the first DVR and (effectively) $3 for every additional DVR) Those of us with AEP and DVRs got a gargantuan price increase a few years back. But I guess the price freeze until 2013 (If they honor it for all packages) will even out with the competition that has raised its price a half a dozen times in a year.
