With all these recent discussions regarding upgrading/buying/spending $$ on new equipment, I wanted to throw the following for discussion:
The customers in the following list clearly have Dish as their best choice and in my opinion have no choice but invest on hardware:
• If you are in an area where non-satellite TV-Service is not available.
• If you are in search for non-Spanish International programming.
• If your local Cable company has not upgraded wiring and/or not offering much HDTV channels.
• You have checked you local cable picture quality and is not better than Dish.
• If you can’t live without the better features offered by the Dish DVRs.
So now the question that I would like to pose: If you are not part of any of the customer group that I listed above. Why would you be willing to invest any upfront money on any hardware from Dish?
In my case I woke up and decided that I was not going to invest in Dish hardware anymore. I don’t fit in any of the criteria I listed above. This transition to MPEG-4 is what made me start thinking about all this and pushed me to look at my other options (DTV, Cable.)
Before recently switching back to cable (2 weeks ago,) I had been a Dish customer since 1998 (I still have a 5000 model and have sold my 6000 on EBay.) That was the time when Dish was heads and shoulders above cable in everything: Price, picture quality, channel selection, customer service, etc... And that made it very worthwhile at least for me to spend $$ in hardware. Even in the beginning of HDTV that was still the case. I paid about $300 for my 5000 if I remember correctly and then I paid about $450.00 for my 6000 in the early 2000’s. But in my opinion, it is a very different story now. Price advantage is not there anymore (especially when you amortize the hardware $$), channel selection advantage not there, picture quality advantage (depending on your system) is not there anymore, customer service gap not there either. DVR is definitely better. But $700.00 or $300.00 better? I don't think so.
I have left my dishes out in case I want to consider returning to Dish in a year when my current cable deal runs out. But if I come back, it will have to be without having to put upfront money on any hardware. There would have to be a real HUGE technology and channel selection advantage for me to justify putting any $ on dish hardware.
What about you? Why are willing to put $ on Dish equipment?
The customers in the following list clearly have Dish as their best choice and in my opinion have no choice but invest on hardware:
• If you are in an area where non-satellite TV-Service is not available.
• If you are in search for non-Spanish International programming.
• If your local Cable company has not upgraded wiring and/or not offering much HDTV channels.
• You have checked you local cable picture quality and is not better than Dish.
• If you can’t live without the better features offered by the Dish DVRs.
So now the question that I would like to pose: If you are not part of any of the customer group that I listed above. Why would you be willing to invest any upfront money on any hardware from Dish?
In my case I woke up and decided that I was not going to invest in Dish hardware anymore. I don’t fit in any of the criteria I listed above. This transition to MPEG-4 is what made me start thinking about all this and pushed me to look at my other options (DTV, Cable.)
Before recently switching back to cable (2 weeks ago,) I had been a Dish customer since 1998 (I still have a 5000 model and have sold my 6000 on EBay.) That was the time when Dish was heads and shoulders above cable in everything: Price, picture quality, channel selection, customer service, etc... And that made it very worthwhile at least for me to spend $$ in hardware. Even in the beginning of HDTV that was still the case. I paid about $300 for my 5000 if I remember correctly and then I paid about $450.00 for my 6000 in the early 2000’s. But in my opinion, it is a very different story now. Price advantage is not there anymore (especially when you amortize the hardware $$), channel selection advantage not there, picture quality advantage (depending on your system) is not there anymore, customer service gap not there either. DVR is definitely better. But $700.00 or $300.00 better? I don't think so.
I have left my dishes out in case I want to consider returning to Dish in a year when my current cable deal runs out. But if I come back, it will have to be without having to put upfront money on any hardware. There would have to be a real HUGE technology and channel selection advantage for me to justify putting any $ on dish hardware.
What about you? Why are willing to put $ on Dish equipment?
)
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