Price increase during a RECESSION?

[TonyNC]

I think DirecTV should feel the impact of increasing prices during a recession. To that end, I reduced my service yesterday (2/14/2009). I will not have all the movie channels now, I cancelled HD Accesss, I removed the monthly protection plan and cut my bill in about half. I will add these things back if DirecTV will give a PRICE CUT rather than a PRICE INCREASE.

Now, during a recession is time for a price cut rather than a price increase. If many of their customers will do the same, they should get the message!

 

[Big Dawg 23]

I think DirecTV should feel the impact of increasing prices during a recession. To that end, I reduced my service yesterday (2/14/2009). I will not have all the movie channels now, I cancelled HD Accesss, I removed the monthly protection plan and cut my bill in about half. I will add these things back if DirecTV will give a PRICE CUT rather than a PRICE INCREASE.

Now, during a recession is time for a price cut rather than a price increase. If many of their customers will do the same, they should get the message!

Have you ever taken a financial class in College? No company wants to increase their rates during these times and but overhead costs continue to rise and other costs associated with doing business. However here are the facts they continue to see increases probably twice if not three times what they are handing out. So to counter things they seeing in rising increases so to counter this they lay off people, cut back on marketing and R&D projects. Everyone thinks the company enjoys raising rates. They realize raising rates will lead to attrition but they have little choice.

 

[NutFlush920]

I think DirecTV should feel the impact of increasing prices during a recession. To that end, I reduced my service yesterday (2/14/2009). I will not have all the movie channels now, I cancelled HD Accesss, I removed the monthly protection plan and cut my bill in about half. I will add these things back if DirecTV will give a PRICE CUT rather than a PRICE INCREASE.

Now, during a recession is time for a price cut rather than a price increase. If many of their customers will do the same, they should get the message!

What kind of receivers do you have? I can understand canceling the protection plan but, if you have an HD receiver or HD DVR on your account, you are required by the TOS to keep HD Access active on your account or may face penalty.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Take a look around...

Cable raised their rates
Dish Network raised their rates
DirecTV raised their rates.

What are you going to do? No company has singled you out. And I know that none of the companies wanted to raise their rates, but the cost of programming keeps going up.

When you see in the paper that your favorite professional sports star has just signed a new mega million dollar contract, just think that in the next year your rates are going up.

Funny how it all works.

 

[jessshaun]

Take a look around...

Cable raised their rates
Dish Network raised their rates
DirecTV raised their rates.

What are you going to do? No company has singled you out. And I know that none of the companies wanted to raise their rates, but the cost of programming keeps going up.

When you see in the paper that your favorite professional sports star has just signed a new mega million dollar contract, just think that in the next year your rates are going up.

Funny how it all works.

...and for that matter, cable sometimes raises rates twice a year or more! At least Directv and Dish only raise theirs once a year. We are probably lucky rates didn't go up more than what they did. I got a double whammy right now, my new customer price guarantee dropped off this month, so I got last year's $3 price increase in February, and next month I'll loose my $20 a month new customer credit, AND rates go up $3. Am I complaining? No, cuzz I knew it was coming.

Anyway, I always keep in mind and totally agree with the directv commercial tagline, "friends don't let friends watch cable."

Edit: ...and who says you NEED any company? Hook up a good antenna, and depending on where you live you can get all kinds of programming for free. Then you will never have to worry about rate increases again.

 

[JAG72]

Even with the price increases, it is still one of the lowest priced entertainment options out there. Where else can you get all of this for only a couple dollars a day. Most people spend that much just in a cup of coffee every day.

 

[rodin]

$3 increase per YEAR is way too much, if you ask me. I have the DirecTV Limited Package -- Guess what it includes -- all the infomercial channels, NASA, C-SPAN, Shopping channels. That rate will go up to $15.99/month just for those channels.. Then I also get DNS of the big 4. D* is most definately overcharging for the DirecTV Limited package. D* isn't losing any money, as any of those channels that I am receiving are available FREE to them. Won't be long before I just upgrade to the Family Choice package if they keep going up. I've been on this package for quite a long time, back when it was only $5.99/mo. All these programmers are getting greedy, time for someone to regulate the programers and the companies.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

If you think Directv's prices go up too much, check out cable.

Even McDonalds recently increased their prices.

 

[jeslevine]

I suspect that both dish and direct are increasing there prices because their costs are going up

However, I also believe that some people WILL reduce their level of service to lower their bill, and find that they could get by just fine with that lower level of service, and thus lower costs

Incidently, this is not a typical recession. If you haven't noticed, gas prices have slowly been creeping up, along with other costs.

 

[TonyNC]

Don'e let it happen!

This is going to be a challenging year. The U.S. Congress and the incoming Obama administration are already at work trying to come up with programs that will quickly solve the economic woes of our nation and perhaps the world. Unfortunately every proposal seems to include more government involvement, regulation, and spending. That does not sound like a good prescription to me.

I learned in Economics 101 the basic facts about the relationship between supply and demand. Those facts are simple: In a free market, price will make the supply of goods and services equal the demand for them. If there is an oversupply of something, its price will drop, stimulating additional demand and eliminating the oversupply. If something is in short supply, prices will rise to reduce demand and eliminate the shortage.

The rules of supply and demand are based on human nature, they are as unchanging as the law of gravity, and they are still valid today.

It is often forgotton that consumers have a responsibility in controlling the price of goods and services. They should seek lower price alternatives or reduce consumption (demand) when the price of a good or service continues to rise.

In a recession such as we are in now, companies should focus more on reducing cost rather than just passing higher cost on to the consumer.

We as consumers and companies never learn from the past. That's why we continue on a regular cycle of recessions. We may be on a path now that is going to lead to more than recession this time around; I hope not, but I don't see the right things happening to prevent it. We have and inflation cycle coming up later this year due to the treasury printing of money. If we as consumers do not retard prices from suppliers of goods and services, we are as responsible as they are for the price increases that may lead to hyper-inflation and very possibly a DEPRESSION.

 

[jeslevine]

TonyNC, you are right, a lot of the problem is due to the consumer, and supply and demand, but the undoing of certain regulations in the 80's and 90's, along with an inane fed policy put us into the situation we are in today

CNBC had a pretty good program on this, "House of Cards", which I recommend

 

[TonyNC]

Focus on cutting cost

Have you ever taken a financial class in College? No company wants to increase their rates during these times and but overhead costs continue to rise and other costs associated with doing business. However here are the facts they continue to see increases probably twice if not three times what they are handing out. So to counter things they seeing in rising increases so to counter this they lay off people, cut back on marketing and R&D projects. Everyone thinks the company enjoys raising rates. They realize raising rates will lead to attrition but they have little choice.

D* should focus on cutting cost rather than just raising prices. That is how you break these cycles and get the economy back on track!

 

[TonyNC]

Back to standard receiver

What kind of receivers do you have? I can understand canceling the protection plan but, if you have an HD receiver or HD DVR on your account, you are required by the TOS to keep HD Access active on your account or may face penalty.

I had an old standard receiver that I had purchases before I upgraded to HD Access. I went back to that receiver when I discontinued HD Access. All done legally through D*.

 

[TonyNC]

All must pitch in

Take a look around...

Cable raised their rates
Dish Network raised their rates
DirecTV raised their rates.

What are you going to do? No company has singled you out. And I know that none of the companies wanted to raise their rates, but the cost of programming keeps going up.

When you see in the paper that your favorite professional sports star has just signed a new mega million dollar contract, just think that in the next year your rates are going up.

Funny how it all works.

I never said there we no more abusers in this recession. Just doing my part with a supplier of mine.

 

[bidger`]

Put up an antenna, Tony, or go free-to-air. Problem solved. People b*tch, but don't take action.

 

[satjay]

It would be a good idea to have some other packages, maybe HD only, but then I think of myself as a bit of a hypocrite, saying I want to save money but I cant let go of my HD channels.

Though I think if you were to move to the Family package you should be able to access all HD if you are paying the 9.99. They still charge you 9.99 for any HD channels that are available in that package, why not have access to them all

 

[thomas_d92]

When my contract is up in July I am dropping D and going ota and a Netflix account with the free downloading and maybe a Vudu box . My bill will drop from $80 to $15 for Netflix plus what ever I spend on Vudu that month. During the week I end up watching mostly ota networks anyway. I believe I will be able to down load programs from History and the military channel from Netflix or Amazon. I believe as cable and Satellite keep raising rates more people will switch to Blu-ray and downloading services and only pay for what they want. I f D would offer a pick 20 channel package I would not be thinking of leaving. When C-band was going strong I use to do just that . I f it could be done then there is no reason a pick twenty could not be done now.

 

[Ronnie-]

$3 increase per YEAR is way too much, if you ask me. I have the DirecTV Limited Package -- Guess what it includes -- all the infomercial channels, NASA, C-SPAN, Shopping channels. That rate will go up to $15.99/month just for those channels.. Then I also get DNS of the big 4. D* is most definately overcharging for the DirecTV Limited package. D* isn't losing any money, as any of those channels that I am receiving are available FREE to them. Won't be long before I just upgrade to the Family Choice package if they keep going up. I've been on this package for quite a long time, back when it was only $5.99/mo. All these programmers are getting greedy, time for someone to regulate the programers and the companies.

I have never heard of that package, but take your word that it exists. However, even if they are getting the programming for free, or even if they are paid for it, it still costs them to transmit it to you. It costs them the satellite and the equipment that you are leasing also. There is a good bit of free programming you can get by a simple antenna (depending on your area). Perhaps that is what you should look into?

 

[sonydude1966]

Even with the price increases, it is still one of the lowest priced entertainment options out there. Where else can you get all of this for only a couple dollars a day. Most people spend that much just in a cup of coffee every day.

I spend more than $60 per month. More like $106 ($3.53 per day) So, it's closer to $4 per day for Directv with HD access, choice xtra, protection plan, and 1 premium.

Don't get me wrong, I'm keeping everrthing for now, and I understand about rising prices for the companies, BUT most of us are still going to dislike price increases ESPECIALLY during this hard time for our Country.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Don't complain to Dish, Directv or the cable company when your prices increase, the people you should be complaining to is the broadcasters who keep raising the prices they charge the providers for having them on their service!

Its a catch22, ESPN raises the rates charged to Directv, and the price increase gets passed back to the consumer. Heaven forbid Directv or Dish for that matter should get pist off at ESPN and drop their service, then customers get all worked up over it and threaten to cancel and go with another provider.

The only thing that is going to put an end to these price increases is if congress passes a bill giving Dish and Directv the option to sell individual channels Alacarte.....

If ESPN wants to raise their rates 20% again next year fine! At that point customers can call in and have ESPN removed from their package and avoid having to pay the increase!

The problem is that ESPN and other providers have it written in their contract that they have to be a part of a paticular package, so there really is no choice for the consumer.