Increased billing

talk000

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Dec 11, 2003
87
5
Dish broke out my locals and charged $10 extra. Since locals were previously included in my package, there should have been no change in the overall bill, but it went up $10 anyway because of this so called separation. Thus, a simple lie . They must think their customers are idiots. They then claim to have reduced my bill by $5 when the net really was a $5 increase. Anyone else get this silly explanation for a new charge.
 
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Your bill should have gone up $5. If it did, all is the way it should be. The bill has gone up about $5 a year, for years. All they did this time was to break out the local channels to give you an idea that they are not free to Dish, or you....
 
Your bill should have gone up $5. If it did, all is the way it should be. The bill has gone up about $5 a year, for years. All they did this time was to break out the local channels to give you an idea that they are not free to Dish, or you....
But thay lied and said they had actually decreased the bill by $5 (+10-$5) on their part.. The locals breakout did not cause any increase merely shifted where they showed on the bill - so a $5 increase by Dish not a $5 decrease. Why not just admit they increased the bill by $5. Hate being lied to by people I pay money to.
 
But thay lied and said they had actually decreased the bill by $5 (+10-$5) on their part.. The locals breakout did not cause any increase merely shifted where they showed on the bill - so a $5 increase by Dish not a $5 decrease. Why not just admit they increased the bill by $5. Hate being lied to by people I pay money to.
Local channels have always had a cost associated to them, and this was previously included in the package price total. Starting 01/17/17, we have separated the charges of your local channels out from your core programming package, and this will display as a separate $10.00 charge. We have done this so you can see the impact of the rising charges demanded by your local channel owners. To partially offset this change, we have reduced your core programming package charge by $5.00 per month. The combined impact of these changes does result in a $5.00 increase to your monthly bill. We want to let people know what to expect as the bill will have a different look than previous months with local charges now separated from the rest. We are wanting to let people know why the bills are going to change and where the money goes. -Brian L-
 
Local channels have always had a cost associated to them, and this was previously included in the package price total. Starting 01/17/17, we have separated the charges of your local channels out from your core programming package, and this will display as a separate $10.00 charge. We have done this so you can see the impact of the rising charges demanded by your local channel owners. To partially offset this change, we have reduced your core programming package charge by $5.00 per month. The combined impact of these changes does result in a $5.00 increase to your monthly bill. We want to let people know what to expect as the bill will have a different look than previous months with local charges now separated from the rest. We are wanting to let people know why the bills are going to change and where the money goes. -Brian L-

You must think we are complete imbecils or you are. If all you did was break out the locals, the basic package would have to have gone down by $10 when the locals were seperated out and no longer included in the basic package. You actually used this nonsensial agrument to increase your regular fee by $5 while claiming to decrease it by this amount. I have called everyone I know on dish and they got the same crap. One has aready dropped Dish and another is probably about to. Call an increase what it is.
 
There is always be increases. Dish's price for programming goes up, we pay more. There is no free lunch. So we got a $5 a month increase? That is life. I am glad Dish is separating the cost of locals. In the future, we should be able to opt out of locals and save the $10 a month. If the word gets out to the TV stations that people are dropping locals because of the cost, they may rethink things. Even though, the cost is higher than it was, do do get value. I wish we could buy AT250 without the Sports channels. I would save quite a bit. Flex just does not offer enough for me. There was a $5 increase, because of the cost of locals added in, but if we could drop locals we would save $10 too. Some people do not need locals as they live to metro areas.
 
Dish sent mailers out about this back in the beginning of January and there are other threads on these bulletin boards discussing it. As other have said there was an overall $5 price increase. At the same time Dish separated the costs of the locals out so you can now see your locals cost ($10) and your programming package cost ($ varies depending on programming). The mailer also included a choice of free PPV coupon or some of the other add-on packages free for 1 month.

If you qualify for the Renewal Offer you can save some money each month based on which package you have. Basically you agree to another 24 month commitment and AutoPay to get a 2-year rate lock. If you do a search there are posts on here talking about how to get the Renewal Offer.
 
I'm still holding out for the end game of being able to drop the $10 locals charge.

I agree with the OP that it is disingenuous to try to frame this change as a "decrease".
 
But thay lied and said they had actually decreased the bill by $5 (+10-$5) on their part.. The locals breakout did not cause any increase merely shifted where they showed on the bill - so a $5 increase by Dish not a $5 decrease. Why not just admit they increased the bill by $5. Hate being lied to by people I pay money to.
Did they say your BILL decreased, or your BASE PACKAGE price decreased? There is a difference and a smart consumer would understand the difference. One is a lie, the other is not. The one that is not is "spin" (which ALL businesses do). Heck, even the local breakout is "spin". They want people to believe that's how much they're paying for locals, but we don't know that. It could be the cost in some markets, it may be exaggerated in others.
 
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It could be the cost in some markets, it may be exaggerated in others.
Considering that the Flex pack locals charge is also $10, I'd say that is the going rate for ala carte access to locals programming, with the standard upcharge included.
 
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Considering that the Flex pack locals charge is also $10, I'd say that is the going rate for ala carte access to locals programming, with the standard upcharge included.
Right. My point is it's a made up amount by Dish. They could have said it was $5, $7, or $15. I'm fairly sure I'm on solid ground when I say the folks with few (~5) satellite delivered locals are subsidizing those who have many (10+).
 
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Well, they could have said it was $15, but that would be $15 they wouldn't get from those that choose not to include locals (Flex Pack customers). They had to pick a price that covered their costs, margin, and that the market would bear. There's no reason to think that's what they didn't do.
 
You must think we are complete imbecils or you are. If all you did was break out the locals, the basic package would have to have gone down by $10 when the locals were seperated out and no longer included in the basic package. You actually used this nonsensial agrument to increase your regular fee by $5 while claiming to decrease it by this amount. I have called everyone I know on dish and they got the same crap. One has aready dropped Dish and another is probably about to. Call an increase what it is.

If you don't want to even try to understand no one can make you do that. DISH never said they reduced the bill so your premise is wrong. DISH never said they simply shifted the costs with the breakout so again your premise is wrong. If you are going to stick to those two untruths it will be hard to see what was really done.
The whole reason the locals were broken out was to show WHY there was a $5 increase. It is possible at some point you will see the locals go up some and the package go up some but this year DISH is saying the increase is due (or I suppose mostly do) to the increases in costs to carry the locals, a very well covered topic in the media news. Maybe DISH felt in the present climate they just couldn't go up more even though the package channels did cost them more than last year so mostly went up on locals because their cost has gone up too. It is also possible at some point you will be able to drop the locals and that cost in the regular packages not just in Flex.
Speaking of Flex, if you want another example of DISH doing basically the same thing - look at the Flex Pack. They took out the sports and locals (and a few channels) and made a package of cable channels that has a very high percentage of all to most of the channels most people want not including sports or locals. That package costs less and has more cable channels than the Top 120 or 120+ because of the high cost of sports and the $10 for locals. To get most of the sports back in that package and the locals it will cost $30 in add ons to that package. Most others are handling by adding a surcharge, Directv has a $6 or so RSN surcharge, Charter has an RSN surcharge in some areas and now also a locals surcharge. That is their way to show you why your bill is going up and DISH did it just in a different way and maybe with an eye on letting people choose to get or not get locals.
 
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Considering that the Flex pack locals charge is also $10, I'd say that is the going rate for ala carte access to locals programming, with the standard upcharge included.

And as I have pointed out as best as can be determined by someone like me with no inside info, going by the surcharges of others I'd say $10 is in the ballpark others feel has to be charged.
 
Well, they could have said it was $15, but that would be $15 they wouldn't get from those that choose not to include locals (Flex Pack customers). They had to pick a price that covered their costs, margin, and that the market would bear. There's no reason to think that's what they didn't do.
I think the bolded is the key. They could have deducted $10 from the core package and listed the locals as $15. It's still a $5 increase. That's why I'm saying it's a made up number.
 
Well, don't buy into the whole, "if you sign up for another 24 month contract you can avoid this from happening". I've been fighting for over a month now because mine went up $5 and I was on the 2 year price lock. Nobody seems to care. I guess it's ok to break the contract when it means they make more money.
 
.....mine went up $5 and I was on the 2 year price lock.......

That there is a whole other issue. If your bill increased under the "24 Mo. Price Lock" promo, it shouldn't be to difficult to sort that out. Note that I wrote "shouldn't". A chat with a DIRT member may be in order.
 
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