Programming Decisions

[Marv B]

I have some discounts that are expiring, and need to decide what to do next. I've been getting the Top 120+ for the last several years in order to watch baseball on the Regional Sports Channel. With those possibly being gone for good, I've got to go down to the bare minimum I can afford for the few channels I still watch. Those channels being ESPN, TNT (NBA), and A&E. What I find regarding the Flex package is now $54.99, and it says "including local channels." Below that, it lists among add-ons a locals package for $12. Confusing. I probably haven't looked at the flex options in two years, but when I did I remember it being $40, and you could have one add-on free. Looks like now I would have to pay $12 to add the National Action Pack in order to watch ESPN. Any advice on what to do, since I hardly ever watch any other channels? I do want to stay with Dish, since I love my DVR, and almost never watch anything in real-time.

 

[HipKat]

When your discounts expire, call Dish, ask for the Loyalty Dept and offer to sign a new 2 yr agreement if they lower the price to what you currently pay

 

[DISH Support]

I have some discounts that are expiring, and need to decide what to do next. I've been getting the Top 120+ for the last several years in order to watch baseball on the Regional Sports Channel. With those possibly being gone for good, I've got to go down to the bare minimum I can afford for the few channels I still watch. Those channels being ESPN, TNT (NBA), and A&E. What I find regarding the Flex package is now $54.99, and it says "including local channels." Below that, it lists among add-ons a locals package for $12. Confusing. I probably haven't looked at the flex options in two years, but when I did I remember it being $40, and you could have one add-on free. Looks like now I would have to pay $12 to add the National Action Pack in order to watch ESPN. Any advice on what to do, since I hardly ever watch any other channels? I do want to stay with Dish, since I love my DVR, and almost never watch anything in real-time.

We definitely don't want to see you leave our DISH family. We're not able to collect account information, but, if you will reach out to our Chat department here: Request Rejected they would love to review your account to see what options are available to help get the programming you enjoy, at a rate you're comfortable with.

 

[Marv B]

When your discounts expire, call Dish, ask for the Loyalty Dept and offer to sign a new 2 yr agreement if they lower the price to what you currently pay

Thanks for the reply! Looks like I will end up going the 24-month route and just the Top 120 (no +)

 

[Jim5506]

I spoke to Dish yesterday about using Dish Mover and was told that as a Preferred Customer my 2 year price lock and discounts would automatically renew when the current agreement expires in May with the only change being my basic service would be at the current rate ($5.00 increase).

 

[pattykay]

...
What I find regarding the Flex package is now $54.99, and it says "including local channels." Below that, it lists among add-ons a locals package for $12. Confusing. I probably haven't looked at the flex options in two years, but when I did I remember it being $40, and you could have one add-on free. Looks like now I would have to pay $12 to add the National Action Pack in order to watch ESPN.
...

I answered this in our conversation the other day, but I will also post here just to clarify the Flex Pack pricing and options for anyone else who is reading this thread.

Flex Pack was originally advertised at $39.99 per month, and that price included one add-on (usually advertised by default as the local channels, which were $10 per month at the time) and also included an autopay discount of $5 per month. The catch is that some of the qualifying add-ons are cheaper than $10 (some of them are only $6 per month) so the value you actually got from that "free" add-on actually varied, depending on which add-on you chose. (In other words, if the bundle price was still the same, then you were actually being charged the full $10 for that $6 add-on.) There was also no requirement to take the bundle including the add-on, so Flex Pack with no add-ons was actually available for only $29.99 per month.

Now, skip forward to the present day, and you can see the effect of several price increases resulting in the new advertised price of $54.99 per month. First, they eliminated the $5 discount for autopay, which raised the price of the package by $5 for those who previously had this discount. Meanwhile, the price of the locals (and the sports add-ons, which had also previously been $10) increased by $2 to the current rate of $12 per month. Then, after a $3 increase to the core Flex package last year, and another $5 increase to that price this year, that gives us the total of $15 in increases to the advertised price, going from $39.99 to $54.99 per month.

That advertised price still includes a bundle with a $12 add-on. Flex Pack is still available without any add-ons for only $42.99 per month. So, for the same advertised price that "includes local channels" you could choose to get the National Action Pack (instead of locals) with Flex Pack for a total of $54.99 per month.

The best part is that with many of these add-ons (but not all of them) you can add and remove them as often as you like without any penalty for making a programming change. This means that you can add a pack for only the days when you want to watch or record a program on a channel in that pack, and then drop the pack the rest of the time to save money.

 

[pattykay]

I spoke to Dish yesterday about using Dish Mover and was told that as a Preferred Customer my 2 year price lock and discounts would automatically renew when the current agreement expires in May with the only change being my basic service would be at the current rate ($5.00 increase).

I would be very suspicious of that, if they automatically lock you into another 2-year contract when your old contract expires, without you specifically authorizing the new contract. That does not sound right to me.

 

[joewhite57]

Locked in till next January at $34.99 for flex. I should feel bad about that, won’t stop me from calling in December for another price lock.

 

[dare2be]

Locked in till next January at $34.99 for flex. I should feel bad about that, won’t stop me from calling in December for another price lock.

Which would most likely be at 42.99. Mine expires in September.

 

[pattykay]

Locked in till next January at $34.99 for flex. I should feel bad about that, won’t stop me from calling in December for another price lock.

Which would most likely be at 42.99. Mine expires in September.

Please keep us updated how it goes when you call to renew the price lock. I would be very curious to know if Dish is still offering price locks for Flex Pack. If Dish had let me renew my price lock in 2018 (before the price increases I mentioned in my earlier post) then I would probably still have Flex Pack today.

 

[joewhite57]

Please keep us updated how it goes when you call to renew the price lock. I would be very curious to know if Dish is still offering price locks for Flex Pack. If Dish had let me renew my price lock in 2018 (before the price increases I mentioned in my earlier post) then I would probably still have Flex Pack today.

Will do. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some kind of discount but probably not a price lock. At least for now looks like the profuse bleed of customers has slowed to a miner seepage.

 

[pattykay]

Will do. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some kind of discount but probably not a price lock. At least for now looks like the profuse bleed of customers has slowed to a miner seepage.

For what it's worth, at the time my price lock expired, Dish offered me $10 off per month for 12 months, but no price lock. That was enough to keep me with Flex Pack for awhile. Then, with the combination of the price increase and the games that Dish started to play with the price of Welcome Pack (grandfathered vs. non-grandfathered) that was enough to get me to downgrade to Welcome Pack before the grandfathering deadline. Skip forward one year, when a $5 price increase was announced for everyone with Welcome Pack (along with all of the other basic packages) and that was enough to make me say that even Welcome Pack was no longer worth it. So, I started playing games with my Dish programming package. I dropped down to International Basic with a cheap International add-on (required in order to be eligible for International Basic) for a total of only $24.99 per month. Then, I simply add and remove the locals on the days when I need them, for no additional cost.