Tried to Cancel today but could not- lines all full

[bobj2004]

Charlie may not see the real numbers of all the customers He lost for weeks.

There CSR Retension lines are all full.

You cant call and cancel right now.

Tried several times, waited for a long time. Cant get through.


Others may not cancel till there new Direct TV install is all done weeks later.

Its even possible weeks later the Viacoms may come back up, and then they will see the numbers for the damage as customers are still canceling after there Direct Installs are up and working.

 

[FKy.Guy]

Seems as if the web site is quite busy as well,tried to connect there several times today,never did hook up...........

 

[briansanders007]

Charlie may be holding out for better prices from Viacom but what happens when he has no subs left? I'm sure he has lost more subs today and will continue too than he would have lost to an agreement. Maybe we all will luck out and Voom will buy Doosh Network.

 

[NightRyder]

Charlie may be holding out for better prices from Viacom but what happens when he has no subs left? I'm sure he has lost more subs today and will continue too than he would have lost to an agreement. Maybe we all will luck out and Voom will buy Doosh Network.

I doubt the churn is as high as most people think. The subs leaving at this point will be mostly the ones already contemplating a move or the knee jerk reactionaries (who are the most likely to come back when whatever service they switch to also does something they don't like).

I understand the upset but personally I wouldn't pay $.01 for any of Viacom's crap. Go Charlie!!

NightRyder

 

[sprite1741]

By the time some of these cancellers get settled in on their new service, the channels will probably be back up. I really don't see what all the fuss is about, some are worried about a few channels when there are so many to choose from. And these all have commercials all over them. They can leave them off for all I care, ever try to watch a movie on Comedy Central? They cut it up so bad for ads every 10 minutes, that it's really not watchable.

 

[fbruno]

I doubt the churn is as high as most people think. The subs leaving at this point will be mostly the ones already contemplating a move or the knee jerk reactionaries (who are the most likely to come back when whatever service they switch to also does something they don't like).

I understand the upset but personally I wouldn't pay $.01 for any of Viacom's crap. Go Charlie!!

NightRyder

The problem as I see it is a question of ethics. If you buy a product 'A' and 3 months after you get it, the company says, well, here is the new version 'B' that is missing 80% of 'A' (in my case, in your case it might be 10% or less, but please imagine if they took away the channels you, your significant other, or your children like) and then says that you are bound by contract and you can't get out, how would you feel.

A better example is buying a PC with Windows XP. You get used to it and everyone in the family likes it. Your kids really like their new "made for XP" games and they are happy. Then one day you boot your computer and it has a windows 98 splash screen. Your games that require Windows XP stop working. Kids are upset. Your wifes Programs no longer work either since they were XP based. You turn to complain and the company says. We're sorry, here's $2, but you now have to have 98 until we can re-negotiate with Microsoft to get XP back on.

Thats how I feel. My kids watched almost exclusively Nick, Noggin and GAS. My wife likes CBS. My kids aren't babysat by TV. My son simply likes to have around 1 hour of TV time a day. He reads. He plays games, but when he does want to watch TV, he wants Nick GAS or Nick. Personally, I like History and discovery, so I am not personally impacted except for my family which in my mind far outweighs what I want.

In my opinion, it's an ethical question. I left Comcast due to their ethics, changing the meaning of unlimited. Now I have a company that wants to give me $2 for taking away 80% of my use for their product. To me, that is extremely unethical and I will leave dish now if I can or in 9 months if I have to serve the term of my contract. I'm not saying that DirectTV is more ethical, simply it will be the lesser of three evils. And if they screw me over, then, I'll try Voom. I'd actually try Voom first, but they don't seem to have CMT which my wife wants for some uknown reason

-Frank

 

[John Quaglino]

I fail to see how one can characterize this as unethical behavior. Dish sold you a subscription to the AT(whatever). It was always marketed as "prices and programming subject to change." The fact that Dish and Viacomm are in a programming/price dispute has no bearing on Dish's customer ethics.

I'm pretty upset at the loss of Nick and Noggin. I've got a 3 y.o. and a 5 y.o. However, I think it is ridiculous that Viacom is insisting on tying retransmission consent for the O&O CBS channels and the cable channels. All this does is drive up everyone's rates. Point being, Viacom wants to Dish to add NickToons in the carriage agreement. While I probably love the channel, why should I have to pay for it so someone in New York or LA can see their CBS. This forced bundling by programmers has got to stop.

 

[jsanders]

Charlie may be holding out for better prices from Viacom but what happens when he has no subs left? I'm sure he has lost more subs today and will continue too than he would have lost to an agreement. Maybe we all will luck out and Voom will buy Doosh Network.

He won't loose so many subscribers if they can't get through to a CSR to cancel!

 

[dswallow]

While I probably love the channel, why should I have to pay for it so someone in New York or LA can see their CBS. This forced bundling by programmers has got to stop.

You mean like the forced bundling by the satellite and cable providers? This is just a taste of their own medicine right back at them.

 

[Mainstreet]

I talked to several customers who were wanting to switch. (We sell both services)

In most cases, switching meant giving up something that they didn't want to be without, such as closer Distant Networks (Dallas/Denver), Superstations, or they didn't qualify now for Distants, but were grandfathered with DISH.

Another example would be the pricing if the customer has AT180 on DISH and wants to keep the Golf channel, Westerns (&Encore Thematics) and/or Outdoor Channel. They would have to take D*'s Total Choice Plus package along with Starz! and the Sports pack. The total cost per month would be significantly higher on DirecTV just to keep those channels.

Just be sure of exactly what channels you are still going to be getting before jumping ship to D*.

I have a couple of customers who are still going to switch if this is not resolved by the weekend.

 

[John Quaglino]

You mean like the forced bundling by the satellite and cable providers? This is just a taste of their own medicine right back at them.

I'm not really sure what you mean. Echostar offered programming a la carte for the longest time. They even had a package where you could pick from certain channels but programming bundling from the provider eventually forced them to do away with it.

 

[mike123abc]

It would be interesting if they offered you the ability to just buy a providers programming package. For example you could pick up the viacom pack and get all those channels. It would be more interesting to see if people would buy that way or prefer to stay in the AT system:

Viacom Package
Disney Package
GE Package
Discovery Package
etc

 

[normang]

I don't see any ethics issues in Dish's behavior here, this is a business dispute, some of you for the desire to watch a couple channels are seemingly willing to pay anything to have them, no matter what the cost. Viacom is holding Dish hostage, where is the ethics in that??

Forced bundling??.. no one forced you to sign up for a Dish package. you chose your America's Top X channel lineup and you knew what it would cost. There is never any guarantee what would be in that lineup, as programming is always subject to change..

 

[fbruno]

I don't see any ethics issues in Dish's behavior here, this is a business dispute, some of you for the desire to watch a couple channels are seemingly willing to pay anything to have them, no matter what the cost. Viacom is holding Dish hostage, where is the ethics in that??

Forced bundling??.. no one forced you to sign up for a Dish package. you chose your America's Top X channel lineup and you knew what it would cost. There is never any guarantee what would be in that lineup, as programming is always subject to change..

The ethical issue is that for a change of this magnitude (at least as I perceive it) they should give you an out if you don't agree. Thats pretty much it. I have nothing against Charlie trying to save money so Dish looks cheap for new subscribers, however, if they drop the only value I see in having DISH, I want out. If they did REALLY care about their customers, they would offer an out. However, we are just bargaining chips so that the stock price looks good. The dealings between VIACOM and DISH are not unethical. However treating your customers like poker chips is. IMHO.

 

[fslove]

Good Lord people what's with all this over-reaction! It's been one day and people act as if half their programming has been taken from them! All those who are bitching and moaning are the same people who would be bitching and moaning if their rates went up from Dish accepting the rate hikes from Viacom. People are so short-sighted it's rediculous! So you miss a few channels for a week or two big deal! If it keeps rates down it's well worth it.

 

[GaryPen]

bruno - You are making excellent sense. Unfortunately, that sort of rational and logical reasoning doesn't always go over well on internet forums. It ain't too bad here, though. You'd be stoned to death on dbstalk's Dish forum.

 

[DirtyMack]

While it may not be an issue in your households, think about others' taste in programming. My g/f for instance loves watching MTV's reality shows, we both watch VH1 Classics to get our music fix, Comedy Central is the only place you can see The Chapelle Show, South Park and MAD TV reruns.
CBS is home to my favorite primetime drama, CSI.

Those with children will have to explain to them why Spongebob isn't on television. While millions of African American subscribers will be out of the only network station that caters to them.

Regardless of who's at faut in this situation; would you even consider initiating/retaining service from a provider who only offers a portion of television's most popular channels?

I sure in the hell wouldn't, otherwise i would still be with basic cable.

 

[bcwmachine]

This is just a bump in the road of life. Unless you are very lucky there are much bigger bumps ahead.

 

[bubba04]

Ethics from multi-billion dollar corporations? Does anyone REALLY believe Mr. Ergen when he says that he is thinking only about the customers? Probably not. It sounds good. But IMO this protest against Viacom was not planned well. E* has no leverage in the issue. If somehow E* could have gotten cable and D*/VOOM to go along with the protest, and state that they too would not renegotiate when their deals come up again, then Dish would have better footing. But since D* and cable have their deals signed already, they are more than happy to accommodate the mass flight of customers from Dish. I think that Comcast and D* do feel the same way that E* does about this situation. But, since this is a cut-throat business, ethics are not even an issue.
Bubba04

 

[fslove]

Your in dreamland if you think all those cable satellite companies will do anything collectively! And Echostar surely does have leverage! With 1.9 million less CBS network subs and 9 million less cable subs Viacom will have to refund huge amount of advertising dollars to the advertisers who have paid for those 1.9 million CBS network and 9 million cable subs. That is the only type of leverage that works with these greedy corporations.