What could this mean in regard to my owned H3...

[SandFarmer]

I just stumbled on this article. I wonder if it "could" trickle over to customer owned D¡SH gear? That'd be awesome if I didn't have to pay for my second H3.

Law banning “rental” fees for customer-owned routers takes effect Sunday

New law also targets hidden cable-TV fees and lets users cancel without penalty.

arstechnica.com

 

[NYDutch]

Dish has already announced they're reducing owned equipment fees starting in January. Owned Hoppers and Joeys will have a $5 DVR fee instead of the current $15 and $7 fees.

MyDISH

my.dish.com

 

[Jim5506]

You know, in the past, if your owned equipment died, Dish would replace it as if it were a leased unit.

These restrictions may bring an end to their "generosity" with owned equipment.

Out of warranty owned equipment repairs and replacement may be on the owner now.

AAH - the law of unintended consequences strikes again.

 

[pattykay]

I just stumbled on this article. I wonder if it "could" trickle over to customer owned D¡SH gear? That'd be awesome if I didn't have to pay for my second H3.

Law banning “rental” fees for customer-owned routers takes effect Sunday

New law also targets hidden cable-TV fees and lets users cancel without penalty.

arstechnica.com

Dish is already changing the terminology they use for purchased equipment fees, maybe for precisely this reason. Instead of a receiver fee, they are now calling it a service fee. (In other words, a $5 fee for service on an additional outlet (TV) rather than an equipment fee.)

 

[pattykay]

You know, in the past, if your owned equipment died, Dish would replace it as if it were a leased unit.

These restrictions may bring an end to their "generosity" with owned equipment.

Out of warranty owned equipment repairs and replacement may be on the owner now.

AAH - the law of unintended consequences strikes again.

Just think of how much we have been overcharged over the years, paying these "lease" fees on purchased equipment, though. It is like being forced to purchase the Protection Plan, since it is bundled in with our programming package and equipment fees. Then, Dish charges even more on top of that, for those who actually choose to subscribe to the Protection Plan. With the money we would have saved if we had been charged the lower fees (or no fees) on purchased equipment all along, we all could have bought several replacement Hopper 3's, and then some.

 

[SandFarmer]

I searched for anything that might be a kin to this before posting. Although I did search, I was using the SatGuys app and there were so many ads I couldn't find or read the content. I started the post, of which I wasn't sure I was even posting. In the middle it asked for me to login, no porblem but then I switched over to Tapatalk and saw the "Price Change" thread and thought I'd try to include my intended post of the article in that thread. Without pressing the "Post" button in the SG App where I wrote, I thought it all would have gone away when I quit the app. Then I saw it had posted and I moved on. As I read along I found the "Pricing Increase/Decrease" thread. But as it was pointed out and I found myself, it was severely confusing. Although written for Routers but enacted by the Television Viewer Protection Act (TVPA), I thought I'd just leave this instead of deleting it. Since I didn't see any of the TVPA discussed, I thought maybe I'd leave it for point of information as to a "cause" since it has "TV" in it.

If what is outlined in the article is D¡SHs reason for action, imagine my surprise they found/macgyvered a way around having to fully abide by the new law.

 

[DishSubLA]

You know, in the past, if your owned equipment died, Dish would replace it as if it were a leased unit.

These restrictions may bring an end to their "generosity" with owned equipment.

Out of warranty owned equipment repairs and replacement may be on the owner now.

AAH - the law of unintended consequences strikes again.

But often the subscriber would have to pay shipping costs for the replacement, unless they were on Protection Plan or really fought to get it waived here or there.

Also, I'm sure Dish would direct any concerned to its Protection Plan: ONE monthly fee covering all your Dish equipment and no shipping charges and greatly reduced cost for service calls--although often NOT charged for sending a tech if necessary in many situations.

 

[Stargazer]

I searched for anything that might be a kin to this before posting. Although I did search, I was using the SatGuys app and there were so many ads I couldn't find or read the content. I started the post, of which I wasn't sure I was even posting. In the middle it asked for me to login, no porblem but then I switched over to Tapatalk and saw the "Price Change" thread and thought I'd try to include my intended post of the article in that thread. Without pressing the "Post" button in the SG App where I wrote, I thought it all would have gone away when I quit the app. Then I saw it had posted and I moved on. As I read along I found the "Pricing Increase/Decrease" thread. But as it was pointed out and I found myself, it was severely confusing. Although written for Routers but enacted by the Television Viewer Protection Act (TVPA), I thought I'd just leave this instead of deleting it. Since I didn't see any of the TVPA discussed, I thought maybe I'd leave it for point of information as to a "cause" since it has "TV" in it.

If what is outlined in the article is D¡SHs reason for action, imagine my surprise they found/macgyvered a way around having to fully abide by the new law.

I was wondering if this was the reason as well.

 

[pattykay]

Dish has already announced they're reducing owned equipment fees starting in January. Owned Hoppers and Joeys will have a $5 DVR fee instead of the current $15 and $7 fees.

MyDISH

my.dish.com

Interestingly though, the new price chart that Dish is sending out in subscribers' bills does not mention anything about the equipment fee changes, even if the subscriber has purchased equipment on the account. (Or at least, I did not get any such notice in my Dish bill.) I posted more details in the 2021 Price Changes thread.

 

[NYDutch]

Interestingly though, the new price chart that Dish is sending out in subscribers' bills does not mention anything about the equipment fee changes, even if the subscriber has purchased equipment on the account. (Or at least, I did not get any such notice in my Dish bill.) I posted more details in the 2021 Price Changes thread.

I don't know why it's not mentioned on the bill, but it's easy enough to look up your new owned equipment fees on the MyDish.com/infocenter page using the "Do you own your DISH equipment?" drop-down menu.

 

[pattykay]

I don't know why it's not mentioned on the bill, but it's easy enough to look up your new owned equipment fees on the MyDish.com/infocenter page using the "Do you own your DISH equipment?" drop-down menu.

Yes, my point is that Dish is not putting all of the information in the same, convenient place. They make you go looking for it. Specifically, their message says this:
"Effective January 14, 2021, DISH is changing pricing on select programming, fees and surcharges. Please visit MyDISH.com/infocenter or log-in to mydish.com to see your current bill for more details."

The fact that they present it as an either/or option implies that all of the information should be available in either place. They do not tell you that you have to look in both places.

Also, that drop-down list on the infocenter page does not exactly help you if you have a purchased Hopper Duo, as I do.

 

[SandFarmer]

Yes, my point is that Dish is not putting all of the information in the same, convenient place. . . .

They NEVER do!!!

 

[patmurphey]

This change stems from a change in the law that made it illegal for cable companies to charge rental fees for customer owned modems. Broad interpretation includes cable TV boxes and Satellite boxes.

 

[Foxbat]

Back in 2016, I switched from owning my own equipment to leasing since there was no up-front cost (except for the $50 uplift to the 4K Joey) and the Tech replaced the LNBf with the EA Hybrid LNBf and the Solo Node required for the Hopper 3. If I purchase a Hopper 3 and 4K Joey to replace the equipment leased from Dish, would I also need to send back the Hybrid LNBf and/or the Solo Node as well? I am well past the initial 2-year commitment, as well as the 2-year price-lock guarantee for two years ago. Obviously, purchasing a Hopper 3 and 4K Joey demonstrates a commitment to at least another two years since the delta in Lease vs. Own will probably take that long to break even.

 

[pattykay]

Back in 2016, I switched from owning my own equipment to leasing since there was no up-front cost (except for the $50 uplift to the 4K Joey) and the Tech replaced the LNBf with the EA Hybrid LNBf and the Solo Node required for the Hopper 3. If I purchase a Hopper 3 and 4K Joey to replace the equipment leased from Dish, would I also need to send back the Hybrid LNBf and/or the Solo Node as well? I am well past the initial 2-year commitment, as well as the 2-year price-lock guarantee for two years ago. Obviously, purchasing a Hopper 3 and 4K Joey demonstrates a commitment to at least another two years since the delta in Lease vs. Own will probably take that long to break even.

No, those are yours to keep, even if you cancel your service. Dish may ask for them back, but you can get out of that requirement by saying that they are located in a place that is hard to get to, such as on top of your roof. There are no monthly equipment fees for the LNBF or Hub (I sure hope you meant Solo Hub) so that part would not make any difference on your Dish bill anyway.

 

[Juan]

Back in the day when you could buy or lease a 301 receiver...you either got charged an additional receiver or lease fee on a additional outlet...there was not one penny cost savings on buying your equipment...been that for years with dish

 

[Bobby]

Back in the day when you could buy or lease a 301 receiver...you either got charged an additional receiver or lease fee on a additional outlet...there was not one penny cost savings on buying your equipment...been that for years with dish

It was never a lease fee, it was a service fee. Call it semantics but that is what is was....

 

[Juan]

It was never a lease fee, it was a service fee. Call it semantics but that is what is was....

It was the same price...thats all I really remember

 

[pattykay]

It was never a lease fee, it was a service fee. Call it semantics but that is what is was....

If that is the case, then Dish would not be required to change the fees that apply to purchased equipment now. It looks like going forward, they will be calling the new fees "service fees." That does not change the fact that a lease fee was bundled into the core package for everyone all along. Check the fine print on page 2 of the Dish bill:
"An equipment rental fee of $9 per month for the first receiver may be included in your base package price. This rental fee may be subject to tax in your State."

You may be able to claim that this statement is ambiguous, since it says "may be included..."
It does not change the fact that those of us with purchased receivers are still being charged some kind of fee, since we do not get a price break on our base package by avoiding that "rental fee." (There may be a savings on the sales tax in some states, as others have pointed out before.) The alternative (if no such fee is being charged to those of us with purchased equipment) is that Dish is actively discriminating against those of us with purchased equipment, by charging us more for our actual programming package. Meanwhile, those who lease their receivers get charged a rental fee (as would be expected) but get that offset by a price break on their programming package, since it is bundled together for the same price that we pay for the programming without any rental fee.

 

[AlaJoe]

I don't see this making much difference to very many people. I just check Solid Signals price and it would cost me about $450 to buy a hopper 3 and 2 joeys. I would go from paying $29 a month to $15 a month. It would take me 33 months to break even buying the equipment.