Paying a yearly bill

Sassan

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 1, 2005
283
13
Columbus
I see a couple of people have posted recently about paying their entire year's bill in one shot. Is this a normal option, and if so, do you get a discount?
 
Yes, you can pay by the year...but not for everything. I pay for AT250 (or whatever they call it these days) by the year and I save about the cost of one months service by paying yearly. However, they do not let me pay for locals, superstations, or the $10 HD fee yearly; I have to pay those charges by the month. (You can also pay for AT120 or AT200 by the year).

When I used to subscribe to HBO and Showtime, they let me pay yearly and save one months charges, but I have not had those services for a few years now (netflix instead) so I am not sure if they still allow paying yearly for the premium channels.
 
When there was a discount in place I used to gladly pay them for the entire year upfront. The problem started several years ago when Dish gave us some bull crap excuse that we are already getting a discount by subscribing to Americas Everything Pack so there was no benifit to pay for it yearly.

On top of that, then you had to fight them on locals because there was no annual package, and then no discounts on multiple movie packages...

It was better just go on credit card autopay, and pay them one month at a time. It makes no sense, because Dish used to love annual subscriptions and in the early days alot of customers would do that.
 
Then the other issue was that Dish used to hate it when dealers setup accounts on annual payment and figured out the exact amount the customer had to pay upfront to avoid paying a monthly bill.

The money paid upfront by the customer wasn't for an annual package, but rather sat as a credit ballance on the account.

I think the issue was that annual customers didn't have any payment history, the dealer was able to get the customer past their chargeback period, but then it was up to the customer to write another big check for another year without the dealer holding their hand.

I remember one of the big arguments was over the "I like 9" promotion where Dish sold Top100 for $9 per month for 1 year. Dish wanted the customers to pay monthly, and the dealers and customers wanted to pay for the entire year in advance.

Alot of those customers paid their $81 for a year in advance, and then when the year was up they where looking for another deal to pay a year in advance again and got sticker shock when the package they paid $81 for the year before was now going to cost $360.
 
After the price increase I called E* to redo my bill. From the website information I wanted Top 250 w/ locals for $62.99. I found a screen for a yearly offer of $43.99/month; regular 62.99. I asked about that and was told locals were not included and it was actually $53.xx. Then they told me the show stopper, because I was going to a yearly sub, I could not have my first receiver for free, it was going to be $9/mo for that. So here they are offering a $9/mo discount for yearly subscription, but then start charging me a $9 receiver fee. I would still have to pay the monthly local fee too. I said WTF and pointed out the lunacy of the arrangement to the CSR. My bill would have gone up with a yearly subscription!
 
Ahh the side effects of unintended consquences:( I too quit annual since I was AEP.

Companies try maximizing their profit by doing XY&Z and only later find it causes A MAGNMIOUS PROBLEM.

I suspect E by increasing receiver fees so much will find fewer keep phone and ethernet lines connected, causing more audit calls, ticking off more paying subs, less saleable viewership info, while subs try minimizing the number of receivers tend to shop for other services more like cable. where at least some tvs can watch whatever they want at no extra charge

Often what to a beancounter looks awesome, turns out to badly hurt a business..........
 
You can still pay Dish in advance and have montly billing if you chose to do so. It will show up as a credit on your account. They will not mail you a paper bill until you owe money. So, you can figure out what locals/supers/HD/tax cost and pay up front for a year too to cover what you cannot put on annual billing.

Dish does seem to have removed some of the old packages like the Mega Movie Pack (all the movie channels annual payment). They really want to get people to be montly.

If you want you can also pay cash up front at a check cashing place and have it be a credit on your bill if you do not have a checking account or credit card.
 
Ahh the side effects of unintended consquences:( I too quit annual since I was AEP.

Companies try maximizing their profit by doing XY&Z and only later find it causes A MAGNMIOUS PROBLEM.

I suspect E by increasing receiver fees so much will find fewer keep phone and ethernet lines connected, causing more audit calls, ticking off more paying subs, less saleable viewership info, while subs try minimizing the number of receivers tend to shop for other services more like cable. where at least some tvs can watch whatever they want at no extra charge

Often what to a beancounter looks awesome, turns out to badly hurt a business..........

You left yet bob? :rolleyes:
 
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)