No Metal for Me

[Foxbat]

Well, it is the 10th anniversary of my Dish service, and I decided to examine my options for the upcoming year. I have a DVR 942 and an 811 with AT120, HD Pack, and the Voom Originals. I pay for a year's worth of the AT120, so I get one month free ($440 vs. $479.88/yr.). My monthly costs have been DVR fee (up to $5.98), 2nd receiver fee ($5.00), HD Pack ($9.99), Voom Originals ($5), and my Extended Warranty ($1.99), or approximately $29.75/mo with taxes.

After calling in and playing CSRoulette (I did much better the second time), I was looking at DishHD Silver and increasing my monthly bill to $75 (lease a 622 and buy a 211) or $82 (lease both 622 & 211). The additional 8 HD channels would be nice, but I have reached the point of looking at my possible monthly bill and wondering why I'm paying this much money for TV (even though it's HD).

I thought about dropping to DishHD Bronze, but that cuts out too many channels I do watch (Speed, mostly, and BBC America). So, the decision has been made to "let it ride" and not upgrade any equipment or programming at this time.

A few factors that also made this seem like the right choice at this time:

• Reports of HDMI failures on ViP Receivers - maybe give them a year to sort things out
• ViP Receivers seem buggy - just an observation looking at the forums. My 942 runs quite nicely
• Seems like a rip to send Dish my $699 DVR 942 to get $99 credit for the ViP622 lease
• No $10/mo for 10 months discount on DishHD Package for existing HD customers
• No annual discount for DishHD packages - One of the main reasons I never considered DirecTV (well, HDLite being the other!)
• 811 has my ATSC Local Channel EPG info without paying Dish and extra $5/mo - another case of feeling nickle-and-dimed to death
• We ju$t put in a new HVAC $y$tem
• Possibility of AT&T LightSpeed at some point in the future

 

[riffjim4069]

I don't like the way E* has set up DishHD pricing. I have DishHD Platinum, but only because it is just a few bucks more after adding up DishHD Silver w/Value Pak (two premiums) and all those stupid fees (DVR). Plus, the pricing is skewed toward customers having to select more programming than they needs: my switching from AEP to DishHD Platinum was only $5 more per month...however, switching from AT60 to DishHD Gold would be $25.

DishHD Platinum is an excellent value. Other DishHD packages are not.

Foxbat, I'm pretty sure existing customers qualify for the $100 credit ($10/mo x 10) for upgrading to DishHD. Check out the Terms and Conditions of this offer: http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/promotion/100back/index.asp

 

[Foxbat]

Yes, existing customers qualify, but only if you're upgrading from SD to DishHD programming. Customers that already have HD (like me) are not eligible.

The sticker shock on my part is from going from $30/mo to $75+/mo because I lose out on the ability to annualize the base programming package. Sending in the big chunk of money once a year is less painful than being reminded of it every month. The real increase broke down to $3.33/mo (loss of annual discount), $5 for the increase from HD Pack + Voom to DishHD, $1 for 2nd receiver ($5 for 2nd receiver dropped in place of the $6 HD receiver lease fee). That is making the assumption that I buy a ViP211 to replace my 811 (trade-in or sell on e-bay), make it the primary receiver, and lease the ViP622 (send in my 942 for $99 or sell on e-bay) to defray the equipment costs.

I figured the cost of the ViP211 minus what I can get for the 811 leads to a break-even in less than two years, so buying makes sense in the long run. The ViP622, on the other hand, takes over four years of ownership before breaking even at current prices. But, this all depends on Dish accepting the 211 as primary and the 622 as the additional box so the lease fee is the 2nd receiver fee. Otherwise, if they're going to charge me $6 to lease a 622 and $6 for additional HD receiver, there is no point to it and it is lease-lease, baby.

And if that happens, I go from my $30/mo to over $80/mo. That's why I decided I like where I'm at today...

 

[riffjim4069]

The DishHD offers seems to indicate that you do indeed qualify for the $100 rebate, "Indicate whether you are a first-time, new DISH Network Customer or a current DISH Network customer who recently added DishHD programming." If you're HD Pak/VOOM HD Pak, you should certainly qualify for the discount IMO.

Regarding pricing....if you're already up to more than $80 a month, why not go with Platinum for $116. That's what I did. Ugh! Like I said, Platinum is a pretty good deal, but Al a Carte would be perfect in our situation. I think the baseline assumption is DishHD folks watch a lot more TV. The fact of the matter is we DishHD folks like better quality TV. Currently, 40% of TV viewing is OTA (hard to beat broadcast network HD), 40% Dish HD, and the other 20% consists of a handful of cable favorites in the Silver and Gold packages (how convenient).

Our barebones choice: (no premium movie channels, no cable favorites...I gotta have FNC, wife has to have her Lifetime channels).

DishHD Bronze: $84.94 ($49.99, $5.00 (locals), $6.00 (additional HD receiver), $6.00 (additional HD receiver), $5.98 (DVR Fee), $5.98 (DVR Fee), $5.99 DHPP.

Our barebones choice with two premium movie packs: (still no cable favorites...I gotta have FNC, wife has to have her Lifetime channels).

DishHD Bronze with Value Pak: $104.94 ($49.99, $5.00 (locals), $6.00 (additional HD receiver), $6.00 (additional HD receiver), $5.98 (DVR Fee), $5.98 (DVR Fee), $5.99 DHPP, $20.00 (Value Pak).

So we pay $116.99 for everything. Personally, I would like to order DishHD stand alone, receive EPG for the over-the-air channels we already receive, and subscribe to one movie pack, and order about 10 channels Al a Carte. I would gladly pay $69.99 for this 50-60 channel package ($49.99 for programming and $20 in fees).

 

[lakebum431]

Yes, existing customers qualify, but only if you're upgrading from SD to DishHD programming. Customers that already have HD (like me) are not eligible.

Not true. If you are going from the old HD package to one of the metal packages you do qualify. I am getting my $10/month now and I did just that.

 

[noremac]

...Possibility of AT&T LightSpeed at some point in the future

This is the real answer!! COMPETITION. Dish is going to have a very hard time competing with the bandwidth of cable and FIOS. Imagine when analog locals goes dark in 2-1/2 years, and most of the mainsteam cable channels (History, A&E, CNN, TLC, etc.) have switched to HD. How the heck does Dish propose to charge us more for all this when cable will just include it all in the basic tier? All this metal package stuff is a short-term raping of early/mid HD adopters. It too shall pass.

 

[RandallA]

No metal package for me either. I dropped it about 2 weeks ago. Just got tired of all the problems (129 and pixelations) and the fact that NGHD was put in the Gold package. I wasn't even watching the HD channels anymore (no time and too many problems with HD locals and StarzHD).

I still get my HD locals with an OTA receiver and I feel a lot better not dealing with the problems.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I had AT120, HBO, Showtime, HD Pack, and VOOM.

Took the 622 upgrade, went to a metal pack, and got the $10/10 month credit.

 

[luckycat]

I completely understand where you're coming from. I went from a leased 942 (for which I paid $250 to "lease"), the Family Pack, Locals & HD Pack recently to a 622 - note that you CAN get the $10/10 month deal - in fact after I was made this offer they upped it to $10/12 months - but actually wound up just giving me a $20 additional credit on my next bill. I sent in the 942, was billed $199 but got a credit of $99. So, after the $10/10 months that is a wash.

What has always held me back from the update is my jump in programming to HD Bronze w/Locals, from Family Pack. I now pay more for DVR fees, and my base programming by I think it was $20-30 / month. On the bright side I have a lot of HD channels now, on the down side I just don't watch it that much. I will be getting a 1000+ installed as a part of the 622 upgrade, when they are available, free..so at least I'll get locals HD as well, allowing me to record OTA and sat HD locals.

The 622 is great so far, but I loved the 942 as well and never had any issues with it.

I wish there was still an option for an HD Pack - if so I'd revert back to that in a nanosecond, along with the Family Pack or AT60. I just don't watch many of the VOOM channels.

When my new 18 mos. comittment is up I will be seriously examining whatever options are available.

 

[Foxbat]

First, thanks to everyone for pointing out the availablity of the $10/mo for 10 months off, even for subscribers that have/had the HD Pack. What I was saying was based on what the CSR told me when I asked for it. However, it's like those Cable ads where they say "and blah-blah-blah package is at its lowest price for only $15/mo*" and you find out in the teeny-tiny print that the rate goes up 400% after the first 6 months. In this case, it's going up 12-14%.

If I didn't have a wife with a CPA and no children, I would go for the Platinum