Existing 921/942 Subs: Satisfied with Upgrade Path?

[David Dietzel]

I have a 942 and am VERY satisfied with the $99 upgrade fee on April 1st.

Not happy about a possible May installation date and the fact that I therefore will miss out on the new channels for perhaps 3 months or more.

The new HD metallica programming packages are great and very fairly priced compared to what Charter cable offers in my area. My 942 blew the doors off the SA8000HD unit I had from Charter, too, in terms or performance, function and a far more attractive proramming guide. I have high hopes for the vip622.

So, Dish, just let me see the new content in MPEG2 until my 622 is installed and I'd be happier than a clam. Please consider removing the MPEG4 header and let the MPEG2 content through.

 

[jmd102354]

I have a 942 and am VERY satisfied with the $99 upgrade fee on April 1st.

.

Do you own the 942 or lease it ?

 

[jmd102354]

. Dish has screwed more people than George W. has in my Op.

.

Question : Why do some always bring up political statements ? Some places are better off without it !

 

[faster68]

Why do some people think a smoking baby is funny?

/Kidding

 

[jmd102354]

Why do some people think a smoking baby is funny?

/Kidding

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I lease a 942 and am not unhappy at all with the $99 upgrade to 622, D1000, and new switches. I think that is a fair deal.

However I am extremely unhappy that Dish thought it best to screw me out of 7 HD channels for what is probably going to be 3 months. I lease their flagship HD DVR and sub at over $100 a month and they deny me channels?!? When they didn't have to do it!

I think if they had simply announced the changeover was going to be on June 1st, made sure I had an opportunity to make my $99 swap before then, and then allowed those with multiple 9xx DVRs to upgrade two of them by say Sept 1st, allowing for some short supplies, then the plan would have been fine.

Also if they had given something like a $200 credit for trading in a purchased 9xx, offering a 30-day or 60-day window to those subs to purchase a 622 for $499 with the trade-in, would have been good too. Or maybe $200 for a 921, and $300 credit for a 942.

Frankly I don't think these additions are an unreasonable request. Many of us are paying over $1000 annually for programming, some over $1500 annually.

And I think what they are doing now is less reasonable than what I suggest above. Their current plan is forcing people to MPEG4 earlier than Dish is actually able to fulfill demand. If they had 50,000 622s in the warehouse, ready for the rollout, then fine. But rumors suggest they had about 250 of them.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I remember someone on this forum posting a message last November about how they purchased a 942 in late 2004, and other one in 2005, and was convinced that Dish was going to give a substantial credit if an MPEG4 DVR was released in early 2006. Perhaps even a no-cost exchange.

I suggested that at most Dish would give about a $300 credit, to which he said that amount would be unacceptable.

Dish ended offering absolutely nothinig for a purchased 942 against a purchased 622. And only $200 credit toward a leased 622, which means that one would have paid $800 and ended up with a 622 that Dish owns and for which you have to pay lease fees. This is truly a terrible deal for those owners.

(however some have suggested that you will not have to trade in an owned 942 to get the $99 lease. If so, then it isn't a horrible deal as one could attempt to sell it, or use it on a 2nd set. But Dish did damage the resale value when they announced that they would not activate a 921/942 for a new customer for HD, so it would sell as only a SD DVR.)

 

[jmd102354]

I
Dish ended offering absolutely nothinig for a purchased 942 against a purchased 622. And only $200 credit toward a leased 622, which means that one would have paid $800 and ended up with a 622 that Dish owns and for which you have to pay lease fees. This is truly a terrible deal for those owners.

Plus don't forget the $99.00 install fee. Why should I and other 942 owners have to pay the install fee for a switch and a additional dish when I already have it in place ? I do not need the Dish 1000.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I included the $99 install fee ($299-$200 rebate) along with the 942 purchase price of $700 to reach my figure of having paid $800 for a leased 622.

It is hard for me to believe that this is what Dish is offering to owners of 942s. Why would they so blatantly screw these customers? These people must be in shock that Dish is doing this, and must be thinking that Dish must have overlooked this and is about to announce a better deal for them any day now.

Even without the $99 fee, it's still a horrible deal. An even-up swap of a leased 622 for a less than one year old $700 owned 942 is terrible.

Someone who leased the 942 for $250 gets the exact same deal as someone who purchased a 942 for $700. So the purchaser gets ripped off by Dish for $450.

 

[ScottChez]

I ALREADY PAID MY dues to into the lease program. I get even more mad when I hear things like how DIrect TV is doing FREE upgrades for there HD DVR, and Cable also does FREE upgrades.

I paid $250 for the honor to lease the 942 and I paid to get the 2nd Sat so I could get Voom from 129.

Now they tell me I have to pay an other $299/$99 more to upgrade my lease when my one year contract is not even up yet. Then I have to sign an other 1 1/2 year contract making it Two Years since I still have a contract- WOW!

The kicker for me is I plan to get an other HDTV in May, and I cant even lease a 2nd one, I have to buy it at full price.

For Cox Cable there Dual TUner is $15 a month with free upgrades and unlimited leases for those with multiple HDTVs, and the $15 includes the $6 DVR fee that dish wants to charge.

At $15 thats only $180 a year with free model upgrade. With Dish its $299/$99 plus $6 a month DVR plus $6 more for the 2nd box plus $700 if you want a 2nd HDTV in the house with a DVR for it.

Seems like Dish really raised there prices over cable, I plan to keep monitoring this price increase and then make an informed choice in May.

Thanks to Sat Guys, I am sure I will have all the facts to make an informed choice.

 

[B.Goose]

I have read alot of postings and I am sill unsure of a few things. I own my 942. Will I have to pay a lease fee? If so how much. also do I have to give up my 942?

 

[Tom Bombadil]

It isn't known for sure. Nothing states that you have to trade it in, if it is owned. So you may be able to keep it or sell it.

But you will have to pay a $99 lease fee for the 622. With, supposedly, a $6/month lease payment. And if you don't have platinum or AEP and keep the 942, you'll have to pay a $6 DVR fee for it, and perhaps another $5 additional receiver fee.

 

[mike123abc]

They should consider a $350 programming credit on existing 921/942 when you get a 622. If you want to lease you would get it free with a $51 credit, if you want to buy you end up with a $350 credit towards programming on your bill.

This is about 1/2 the original price of the unit for most people (I realize the early 921s were more than $700).

It should only be limited by the number of 921/942s that you own. If you have 3 active you should be able to either lease or buy 3 with 3 programming credits.

 

[Hoxxx]

Please only respond to this poll if you presently own or lease one or more 921 or 942 HD DVR receivers and either are a current subscriber to Dish or were a subscriber who left recently because of the announced MPEG4 upgrade path.

Dish is offering to upgrade one of your 921/942 receivers per year to a leased 622 for $299. Or you may wait until April to be eligible for a $200 rebate, bringing the upgrade cost down to $99. This upgrade will include an upgrade to your satellite dish and switches to a D1000 dish if it is deemed necessary, for no extra cost.

There is no trade-in or discount program for an owned 9xx receiver for a non-leased 622. The upgrade path for multiple 9xx receivers is that you are eligible for one $299/$99 lease upgrade, but you would have to purchase addition 622's for $699 each.

In the meantime, you will be unable to view any of the 7 new HD channels, and your existing 921/942 receivers cannot be sold to anyone else and activated by them to receive present HD programming.

How do you feel about this upgrade path?

Have only owned my 921 for 2 years now and paying 949.00 for it divided by 24 equals 39.54 it will have cost me to use it per month for this period of time. not to mention an additional fee when and if I upgrade. this is not acceptable to me. I am really getting tired of all the fees.

 

[B.Goose]

I think I will wait until April and see what my retail friends tell me. If there is alot of new fees, I will either pass on the new stuff or bail on dish. I'm also feeling that not being treated fairly.

 

[jmd102354]

I have read alot of postings and I am sill unsure of a few things. I own my 942. Will I have to pay a lease fee? If so how much. also do I have to give up my 942?

My local retailer said I would have to swap my owned 942 for the $99.00...I find it hard to say deal, so lets say rip off.

 

[waltinvt]

The results of this poll are a perfect example of why Dish can get away with what it does. How long has it been up, at least a week? Anyway, even though it shows overwelmingly "dissatisfied", only 140 voted.

So if Dish reads these threads a poll like this would probably grab their attention. The see a grand total of only a little over 100 subs disatisfied and they probably laugh.

Too bad, but when people act like sheep, they get treated like sheep.

 

[long_time_DNC]

As a long time customer who has been re-upping for $1000 (or more) a year for the past 9 years, paid to lease an 811 and then paid again to lease a 942 (which I'm very happy with), I'm in no hurry to pay yet again for a 622.

After I hear how the 622 compares with the 942, after the beginning of April, when the "promotion" kicks in, after I get over being ticked with E* for treating existing big-dollar subs like we have bottomless pockets, then I'll think about paying for a 622, but not before then.

I like my 942. It's solid, reliable, I've not had to reboot since it was installed back in October of '05. The only receiver I had that was this stable was my old 5000 that I actually owned.

Would I like to see the new HD channels, sure! But I will wait until at least sometime in April. More 622s should be in-stock by then. A lot more info and user reviews/reports will be on this site to read to get a better idea of how it matches up with the 942 and what the new channels are like. Oh, and maybe the Seattle DMA will be in HD by Q2...

So, I'm ticked about the "upgrade path" and the fact that E* added Pittsburg to the Superbowl HD city list, but "oops", just couldn't give the same consideration to Seattle.

So, I'll just be patient. I'd rather know what the 622 is like via reviews than actual frustratation and how MPEG4 looks via info from this site than being a paying "beta tester" for E*. Went that route once with the 811 and the PQ issues and didn't have much fun....

 

[jmd102354]

The results of this poll are a perfect example of why Dish can get away with what it does. How long has it been up, at least a week? Anyway, even though it shows overwelmingly "dissatisfied", only 140 voted.

So if Dish reads these threads a poll like this would probably grab their attention. The see a grand total of only a little over 100 subs disatisfied and they probably laugh.

Too bad, but when people act like sheep, they get treated like sheep.

I just about passed by this poll because I was so disgusted with Dish, but I came back and voted . Possibly others feel the same disgust and made up their minds to go elsewhere. I know I am looking !

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Very few polls posted here get more than 200 or so votes.

I didn't expect to see this many, seeing as how only those with 921 or 942 receivers were supposed to vote.

While 140 isn't an overwhelming number, the level of dissatisfaction expressed from this many high-paying subs, should be something that Dish is concerned about.

If someone showed me a survey of 140 of my highest paying customers, and it indicated that over 75% of them were dissatisfied with my services, I would be concerned. Any company having no concern about such a number, is a company that is running a risk of losing touch with their customers, which can turn on you badly should a serious competitor come after those customers.

If D* suddenly offered a very solid HD lineup, with high quality HD, and free HD DVRs for switching, Dish is probably more vulnerable right now to losing a lot of customers. But E* is lucky in that D* doesn't have their act together right now.