Lease Fee / Receiver Fee on primary receiver - Yes or No?

[jrbdmb]

Does anyone have a definitive word on whether the primary receiver on a Dish account is charged a Lease Fee / Receiver Fee? Dish CS told me a bit ago that the $7/mo. Lease Fee for my primary receiver (722) is legit - but I never paid this fee before when my primary receiver was a 508 / 721 / 522.

Dish's own website contradicts itself on this. Here is what is stated in the offer details for the Classic Packages: DISH Network - 1.888.825.2557

Equipment must be returned to DISH Network upon termination of qualifying service. Limit 4 tuners per account. Monthly package price includes an equipment rental fee of $5.00 or $7.00 for first receiver, based on selected model. A monthly equipment rental fee of $5.00 or $7.00 will be charged for each receiver beyond the first, based on selected model. A $5.00/mo. TV2 receiver connection fee applies for each dual-tuner receiver; fee will be waived monthly for each such receiver continuously connected to Customer’s phone line.

But on the fees and disclosures page no mention is made whether the primary receiver pays this fee: DISH Network - Customer Service - 1.888.825.2557

Monthly Receiver Charges

Solo, Duo, Solo DVR, DuoDVR Receivers (Standard Definition) $5.00 Solo, Duo, Solo DVR, DuoDVR Receivers (High Definition) $7.00 DISH DVR Service $5.98 TV2 Receiver Connection $5.00
Monthly connection charge for Duo receivers will be waived when your Duo receiver is continuously plugged into a phone or internet connection.

Note that I am talking about Classic pricing, not DDA pricing.

 

[Purp1eOne]

You have to pay a fee for the primary and any additional receivers you have unless you own them.

 

[harshness]

You do NOT pay a fee lease or additional receiver fee for the primary receiver as long as you subscribe to a qualifying package. If you do something tricky like subscribing to locals only or some sort of ala carte deal, you may have to pay.

There does seem to be a problem with the website sometimes showing the wrong receiver as primary. My account shows my ViP622 as primary, but I'm being charged for it and not the 508 that I recently swapped to replace my original primary 508.

 

[jrbdmb]

You do NOT pay a fee lease or additional receiver fee for the primary receiver as long as you subscribe to a qualifying package. If you do something tricky like subscribing to locals only or some sort of ala carte deal, you may have to pay.

There does seem to be a problem with the website sometimes showing the wrong receiver as primary. My account shows my ViP622 as primary, but I'm being charged for it and not the 508 that I recently swapped to replace my original primary 508.

Glad to see there is agreement on this subject.

Harsh - Well I'm being charged the fee for both receivers - $7 for the 722 and $5 for the 508. Even though I own the 508 I understand that I have to pay for it one way or another, whether it's called "lease" fee, "extra receiver" fee, or whatever name Dish comes up with next. But I guess I still have a reason to call Dish again about the 722 fee.

BTW Purp, these fees are applied whether the receiver in question is leased or owned. This is why in several threads it has been discussed that there is no value at this point in buying a Dish Network receiver.

 

[Stargazer]

If you do not subscribe to a minimal package then they will want their leased receivers back anyways wont they? Don't you have to subscribe to their qualifying package to even be able to continue leasing the receiver? That was the way I always remembered it unless they changed the rules.

 

[jrbdmb]

Issue solved (in this case at least) - chat CSR said that the lease fee was part of the Dish'N It Up agreement. I can't remember where I put my copy, but I did find a list of Dish'N It Up rules on a Dish reseller website and it does specify a $7 fee for any added HD receiver.

I'm tempted to try switching my 722 and 508 to make the 508 the primary (and save the $5 receiver fee on it), but since I suspect the 508 will be upgraded soon to a dual tuner model I am going to leave well enogh alone for now.

 

[DishSubLA]

Glad to see there is agreement on this subject.

Harsh - Well I'm being charged the fee for both receivers - $7 for the 722 and $5 for the 508. Even though I own the 508 I understand that I have to pay for it one way or another, whether it's called "lease" fee, "extra receiver" fee, or whatever name Dish comes up with next. But I guess I still have a reason to call Dish again about the 722 fee.

BTW Purp, these fees are applied whether the receiver in question is leased or owned. This is why in several threads it has been discussed that there is no value at this point in buying a Dish Network receiver.

Correct. And considering how expensive the DVR's MSRP is and the fact that you do want to trade-up to the latest and greatest as time passes, there is absolutely no value to owning. However, if a sub wants more than the 4 leased tuners that Dish will provide for lease, then owning is your only option in that case. Some people think it is still the 1990's when boxes were simple and state of the art for years. This is no longer the case. I have a great need for the 922 DVR Duo with Sling Loaded, and I will be happy to exchange the 722 for it.

 

[StanUbankit]

Does anyone have a definitive word on whether the primary receiver on a Dish account is charged a Lease Fee / Receiver Fee? Dish CS told me a bit ago that the $7/mo. Lease Fee for my primary receiver (722) is legit - but I never paid this fee before when my primary receiver was a 508 / 721 / 522.

Dish's own website contradicts itself on this. Here is what is stated in the offer details for the Classic Packages: DISH Network - 1.888.825.2557
But on the fees and disclosures page no mention is made whether the primary receiver pays this fee: DISH Network - Customer Service - 1.888.825.2557
Note that I am talking about Classic pricing, not DDA pricing.

I was being charged $7 for a 622, only receiver on the acct; got it July of 2006, figgered I had paid enough. Couldn't get csr's to waive the fee so I sent an email to the ceo address. Dish sent me a replacement 622, I sent the existing one back.
Yeah, if money wasn't so tight I would have upgraded to a 722, for the extra recording capacity, but just couldn't swing the $75 at this time. I thought it was kinda cheesy to have to go thru the trouble of swapping the receivers out (plus costing Dish the shipping charges both ways) but I guess that's the only way they could keep their books straight. Here's my email correspondence with them.
I didn't have to agree to a commitment (am not under contract at this time)


This is the ceo reply:
Subject: RE: 622 lease fee
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 09:02:55 -0700
From: xxxxx@Dishnetwork.com
To: xxxxxxx@hotmail.com

Dear Mr. xxxxxxx



Thank you for your email and bringing your concern to our attention.







You upgraded to your current HD-DVR receiver at a time when all upgraded receivers were assessed a leased receiver fee regardless if they were the only receiver on the account or not. I have requested to have our back office promotion team make an exception to waive the leased receiver fee but that request has been denied. I have been advised that the fee is a valid fee and cannot be waived. The only way for us to have the fee waived permanently would be to have the receiver replaced under our current upgrade procedures. I would be willing to replace the receiver at no cost to you with the same model. We would be able to ship you a replacement receiver that would not be assessed the leased receiver fee. Please let me know if this is an acceptable resolution for you and confirm the shipping address that you would like the replacement receiver shipped to. We thank you for your patience in this matter and DISH Network appreciates your business.



I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you and please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.



Thanks,



Gregory xxxxxx

DISH Network L.L.C.

Executive Communications

Phone:

xxxxxxxl@dishnetwork.com



This was my original email to ceo:

From: xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 10:09 PM
To: CEO
Subject: 622 lease fee



Hello, my acct # is xxxxxxxxx; have a leased 622 receiver, only rec on the acct. I've been paying the lease fee (and also paid the $199 upgrade fee for the 622) since around July 2006, can you help me by not charging the lease fee from now on? I think this is a reasonable request.
Regards, xxxxxx


PS: I asked for this lease fee removal from the live chat the other day, the cs rep wasn't able to help me, said I should call the Dish main #; I've had language/communication issues when talking to the overseas csr's in the past.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I own all of my receivers from DISH and always have ,except for the one time I leased a new 522 to see how the name based recording worked. I then traded it back in and bought my own hd receivers. I trade all of my receivers into dishdepot.com for credit towards the newest receivers. Mark is great to work with and there is no tax on any receiver if you DON'T live in Florida where dishdepot is located. There is no commitment with owned receivers and I can sub to any programming or not .