Interesting Way To Retain Customers....Ask Which Programming They Don't Need

[loubon]

I think I have been with Dish close to 18 years and what others have experienced is finally catching up to me. I was receiving the $40 courtesy credit (two more months to go) because as I am told, that was a better deal than the two year price lock (saving $25 a month). I don't quite recall it being explained that way or maybe I just assumed the spirit of the deal was to keep me as a customer regardless of what the plan was called.

In any event, a $5 price increase hit and I called to question it. Not here to debate price increases or my understanding of what was offered. Just struck by the fact (and it was the case last year as well) that their approach is "let's see if you need everything you have". ????? Why would you want to discourage a customer who has your top package and many add-ons as a way to lower their bill and actually have less skin in the game?

Sorry for the ramble. I know there are lots of other reasons for the decline in customers and dollars but this doesn't seem like a good way to try and offset some of that.

 

[navychop]

Odd form of desperation?

Looks like we will stay with Dish at least thru mid summer, barring any unpleasant surprises, as SWMBO wants to see how Top Chef and Food Truck Race (et al) work out. Also, we read reviews about Discovery+ and they were ugly. Not to mention the uncertainty about who will own who and what will be kept vs dumped.

Nat Geo and Smithsonian are no longer worth watching, same for H&I, so by year’s end we will drop from 250 to 200. Way too much content we enjoy has moved off Dish. Hate to say it. Even YT is getting a bit less viewable with more commercials and less skipping. We aren’t the target audience for most advertised products, and don’t care for the Depends ads as they come across as Coming Attractions as we age.

 

[Bruce]

Odd form of desperation?

Looks like we will stay with Dish at least thru mid summer, barring any unpleasant surprises, as SWMBO wants to see how Top Chef and Food Truck Race (et al) work out. Also, we read reviews about Discovery+ and they were ugly.

We had Discovery+ for my wife, she loved the Food Network, I found the app worked great, easy to find, programming was also under their own banner inside the app, all Animal Planet was together, Food Network, etc

I will say this, while I hate the programing and cancelled it when my wife passed, the picture quality was amazing, since most of that content is filmed with digital cameras , it looked almost like real 4K, not the up-converted stuff.

and don’t care for the Depends ads as they come across as Coming Attractions as we age.

Are you getting to the point of yelling at kids to stay out of your Garden?

 

[HipKat]

Odd form of desperation?

Looks like we will stay with Dish at least thru mid summer, barring any unpleasant surprises, as SWMBO wants to see how Top Chef and Food Truck Race (et al) work out. Also, we read reviews about Discovery+ and they were ugly. Not to mention the uncertainty about who will own who and what will be kept vs dumped.

Nat Geo and Smithsonian are no longer worth watching, same for H&I, so by year’s end we will drop from 250 to 200. Way too much content we enjoy has moved off Dish. Hate to say it. Even YT is getting a bit less viewable with more commercials and less skipping. We aren’t the target audience for most advertised products, and don’t care for the Depends ads as they come across as Coming Attractions as we age.

Commercials on YT? You don't pay to NOT see commercials on YT? Or do you mean YT TV?

 

[ClarkGable]

My month for renewing a one year discount is December. The account specialist last year asked about what we watch, encouraging us to downgrade from Top 250 and Movie Pack in exchange for new equipment. We still have the 722K. Stayed with the same $40 discount as in the past.

This year, we might take them up on a Hopper and Joey since we inherited a second HDTV to replace the old CRT in the living room. We will see what happens next month - if anything.

 

[Foxbat]

We downshifted to the Flex Plan, figuring that we live without ESPN, BigTen Network, Fox Sports, etc. during the summer months. We live in the shadows of our DMA‘s broadcast antennas so Locals aren’t needed, plus as we subscribe to Paramount+, Peacock, and Disney+, programming during the writers and actors strikes was slim. Even with all that, because we have a Hopper 3 and 4K Joey, our Dish bill is around $80/mo. We haven’t turned on ESPN, and no need for BTN as the Boilermakers’ football season is best experienced by looking away from the carnage…

 

[telstar_1]

I do know that at one point (and probably for much of its history) they were going for raising average billings as much as they could. Obviously with "could" being the operative word, they've always been aware that rates go into satisfaction and retention. So I guess it just goes to show the depth of current dissatisfaction and DiSH's evident calculus in this subscriber die-off, that it's better, with any expressions of rate dissatisfaction, to go all-out for retention, including offering discounting and looking at programming adjustment.

 

[Radioguy41]

Looks to me as if Dish is sounding out it's customer with perhaps an eye towards cutting down on the number of bloat channels that almost no one watches in order to cut down on costs. The days of padding the channel count for bragging rights is over and the pendulum is swinging, finally, the other way. I would expect some significant channel chopping in the year ahead. I have the Flex Pack and I could easily list 30 or more channels I wouldn't miss so if removing them would help Dish survive I say buh-bye.

 

[Peter Parker]

Commercials on YT? You don't pay to NOT see commercials on YT? Or do you mean YT TV?

Thete are commercials on some You Tube videos

 

[Bruce]

Looks to me as if Dish is sounding out it's customer with perhaps an eye towards cutting down on the number of bloat channels that almost no one watches in order to cut down on costs. The days of padding the channel count for bragging rights is over and the pendulum is swinging, finally, the other way. I would expect some significant channel chopping in the year ahead. I have the Flex Pack and I could easily list 30 or more channels I wouldn't miss so if removing them would help Dish survive I say buh-bye.

The problem with getting rid of channels is the expectation of lower bills.

But that will not happen, Dish (DirecTV, Comcast, everyone else) needs as much $$$$ as they can get , lowering bills will not help to stay profitable.

History has shown us that getting rid of channels does not result in lower bills, when Dish got rid of the RSNs, people here were posting that Dish will lower the bill and/or not have the price increase , bill did not lower, price increase happened as normal.

Charter also, got rid of a bunch of Disney owned channels, did the price go down, nope, they still do two increases every year.

 

[navychop]

Commercials on YT? You don't pay to NOT see commercials on YT? Or do you mean YT TV?

Free YT, not YTTV.

 

[Yespage]

I think I have been with Dish close to 18 years and what others have experienced is finally catching up to me. I was receiving the $40 courtesy credit (two more months to go) because as I am told, that was a better deal than the two year price lock (saving $25 a month). I don't quite recall it being explained that way or maybe I just assumed the spirit of the deal was to keep me as a customer regardless of what the plan was called.

In any event, a $5 price increase hit and I called to question it. Not here to debate price increases or my understanding of what was offered. Just struck by the fact (and it was the case last year as well) that their approach is "let's see if you need everything you have". ????? Why would you want to discourage a customer who has your top package and many add-ons as a way to lower their bill and actually have less skin in the game?

Because you paying 0.8xYour Current Bill verses 0.0xYour Current Bill is much better for them. Dish and sat/cable are bleeding subs, so a sub that is still there, even if a bit less, is still a moral victory for Dish.

If it wasn't for Flex, I likely wouldn't have Dish at this point. Dish have done a great job keeping options open for the "cheap" sub, who is willing to remove something they may want to get something they really want at a lower price. All without begging for a special discount.

 

[telstar_1]

What can you get without ESPN?

Thing is, all these channels supposedly no one watches also come at very minimal cost to the provider, as in pennies/sub or even just free, and the only real cost is simply providing the channel slotting. Then you have certain channels that charge them astronomically that they try to pass along to everyone to spread the cost out because if the pass-through would be any narrower, those channels would charge even more on a per-sub basis and still be astronomical. The only answer is to black them out, but channels like ESPN know they don't dare.

 

[man00]

These companies will spend $1000's of dollars just to get your nickel . Soon there will been commercials played before you can make a phone call or played during your call....Welcome to America kids

 

[telstar_1]

Right, like you pay for cable, and then still there are commercials like on TV you can pick up for free! They even run commercials at the moviehouse now!