Dish vs. Direct question

[thinkerbell]

We have Dish right now--with DVR. We just bought an HDTV so we now need an HD DVR receiver. I called Dish before we bought the tv and they said to get the new receiver, it would cost us $200. When we were looking at TV's at our local Best Buy, they had reps from DirectTV trying to get people to convert. We could actually get a pretty good deal from them(especially taking in to consideration the $200 Dish wants to charge us). We'd just as soon stay with Dish because it is what we are used to. Also, to change over, we would have to pay a penalty of $70 since our contract isn't up with Dish--according to the Directv people, they charge $10 a month penalty. Not a biggie and we would actually save more than that if we went with Directv.

Anyway, my question is... Has anyone had experience with this and convinced Dish to give them the new receiver to keep their business? We want to stay with them but not for $200.

 

[golfgal]

We were going to have Dish come out and hook up our new tv to our existing HDTV box and they were going to charge us $95 to do that, we said no thanks. The picture is just fine without it so not necessary.

If I were you I would call Dish and explain you would really like to stay with them however the $200 charge for a new receiver is just impossible and that you are going to switch to Direct TV. See what they say.

I also think it is ridicules that they need to send someone out to hook up a few wires to a box-for which you have to wait during a 5 hour window to show up, no less. I can EASILY do that on my own, just send out the stupid box.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

we had a similar problem when we wanted to get a DVR with Dish. Our contract was up and we were willing to sign another 2 year contract in order to get a free one but they said that was only for new customers.

Went we said we would switch to DirectTV they didn't care. They said "Go ahead, you'll be back."

Needless to say we didn't want to stay with them after that so we did switch. It has been 3 years since then and we are paying the same amount of money as we did with Dish and haven't noticed any difference in reception between the two companies.

 

[bicker]

To a great extent, we consumers have poisoned our own pool, by essentially turning our attention away from relationships we establish with our service providers and turning our attention so much more so on the price we're being charged. Service providers are responded to this change in consumer behavior, and now operate in full recognition of the fact that mass-market consumers no longer exhibit any real loyalty any longer.

How this translates into reality is that it often is better to charge $200 for a new receiver, rather than give a $200 receiver away free, because while some customers will switch, many will pay the $200, and even if the net-result is negative, the alternative leads to nothing but a price-war, that ends up costing all the competitors profitability.

And with regard to "you'll be back" -- maybe you will maybe you won't. What the CSR probably meant was that for everyone of their customers switching providers because of this, there are an equal number of the competitors' customers switching providers because of this.

However, surely, it cannot hurt to ask.

 

[golfgal]

To a great extent, we consumers have poisoned our own pool, by essentially turning our attention away from relationships we establish with our service providers and turning our attention so much more so on the price we're being charged. Service providers are responded to this change in consumer behavior, and now operate in full recognition of the fact that mass-market consumers no longer exhibit any real loyalty any longer.

How this translates into reality is that it often is better to charge $200 for a new receiver, rather than give a $200 receiver away free, because while some customers will switch, many will pay the $200, and even if the net-result is negative, the alternative leads to nothing but a price-war, that ends up costing all the competitors profitability.

And with regard to "you'll be back" -- maybe you will maybe you won't. What the CSR probably meant was that for everyone of their customers switching providers because of this, there are an equal number of the competitors' customers switching providers because of this.

However, surely, it cannot hurt to ask.

I guess I see the opposite--I see cable/satellite companies for YEARS offering better plans to attract new customers then they offer long time customers in good standing. I was having major, MAJOR issues with our internet service and our cable company was being zero help. At the same time our "introductory rates" were over and we got an almost $100/month hike in our bill. They were unwilling to do anything about EITHER situation and lost us as a customer. We had been with them for about 15 years or so and were never once late on a payment (had automatic withdrawal). They will NEVER get my business back. Now, had they been willing to work with me, things would have been different.

If cable/satellite companies would work a little harder to retain good customers they wouldn't NEED to charge $200 for a new receiver. Good customer loyalty plans would go a LONG way in that industry.

 

[Wishing on a star]

How much longer on your contract????

We changed from DISH to Dtv when we went HD, and wished we could/would have stayed with DISH. (Have never found the DirectTV system to be as user friendly.)

We will consider changing back to DISH when our contract is up soon.

 

[Mommee]

.......
Anyway, my question is... Has anyone had experience with this and convinced Dish to give them the new receiver to keep their business? We want to stay with them but not for $200.

Yes. About a month after we inquired about the upgrade (and declined because they wanted so much) we were magically eligible for a free HD DVR upgrade.

 

[golfgal]

Yes. About a month after we inquired about the upgrade (and declined because they wanted so much) we were magically eligible for a free HD DVR upgrade.

Interesting--we called a couple weeks ago, maybe we will see that at the end of the month .

 

[thinkerbell]

How much longer on your contract????

We changed from DISH to Dtv when we went HD, and wished we could/would have stayed with DISH. (Have never found the DirectTV system to be as user friendly.)

We will consider changing back to DISH when our contract is up soon.

We still have 7 months on our contract. We talked to the rep about all of the things on Dish that we couldn't live without and he said Direct has all of those things. Never thought of the user friendly part. I wish we knew someone who has Direct so we could try it out. We do love our Dish.

I guess we will try what Mommee talked about and hopefully in about a month Dish will come through for us.

 

[TB'sWidow]

I just switched from my cable company to Directtv and now I wonder why I waited so long. I kept trying to give my cable comp. a chance was a long time customer but when they wanted to charge for a mistake they made I had enough. I have never used dish but I would still try and see if they won't change their minds on it. Good Luck Mary

 

[thinkerbell]

I called again yesterday and told Dish that we now have the tv and asked again how much it would cost for the HD box. This time, I was told $115 so it has gone down. They also told me that to cancel, it would be $17.50 per month for 7 months so I guess the Directv guy didn't know what he was talking about. That would be a lot more. He did tell me that when our contract runs out that we won't have to pay for a new box, soooo.... I guess we are just going to wait until September.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Ohhhh, I know how it feels that you don't want to pay for something that these companies should provide... But, is $115.00 the total cost... How much more will your monthly service subscription go up.

I think at $115.00 I might consider it... But, I wouldn't tell them that until I tried to see if they would come up with a better offer!

Have you offered to sign up for a whole new contract period (12 or 24 months....)

 

[mrodgers]

I got married and moved out to the sticks in 1997. There was no cable and no TV reception. I went to the store and paid almost $400 for 2 Dish Network receivers and had to sign up for a year service.

First problem was with their remotes. In the 7 years, I went through 3 replacement remotes for $69 each.

Fast forward to about 2005, after 7 years of being a customer. Satellite service changed drastically with the dish size and how many satellites were in the sky. I was still paying for the services, but my 7 year old system that I paid for no longer picked everything up that I was paying for. I wanted to upgrade my receivers as I never had info on the guides and it took forever to change the channel. I called Dish Network and told them I wanted to upgrade to a DVR and a new 2nd basic receiver. It would have cost me something like $200 for the DVR, $100 for the 2nd receiver, and $75 to swap out the dish itself.

I told them that wasn't good enough for a 7 year customer. All companies were giving away DVR and 4 room service equipment for free. All I wanted was to upgrade to a DVR and a single basic receiver to current specs. They wouldn't do it. I had to dish (no pun intended) out the $375 myself. At this time, new customers do not own their equipment. The lease cost is inside the service cost. I owned my equipment. I purchased it all from a store and called for service after getting home and setting it up. I asked how they can give the units to new customers for "free" yet continue to charge me the same price for service with my old equipment that I don't even get everything I am paying for. They continued to give me the runaround and I hung up.

I called DirectTV. My in-laws were very happy with DirectTV. They were constantly talking about the free movies and concerts as well as how they were always getting free preview weekends of the movie packages. We never got any of that. We had 2 pay-per-view movies to select, never any decent movies even though new Dish customers had 20 pay-per-view channels. We never got free movies and concerts or package previews like my in-laws did on Direct. So, I called DirectTV and they came out on Christmas Eve and installed the satellite dish while I connected up the receivers.

I then called Dish Network to cancel. They asked why and I told them how I wanted to upgrade, but didn't want to pay while everyone else got it for free. I was put on hold and sent to a supervisor or a manager or something. He was practically bending over backwards ready to send me a DVR, receiver, and new dish at no charge. I told him it was too late. All my equipment was swapped out and we are enjoying our DirectTV, please cancel the account.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the Direct system over our old Dish system. At the end of last year, we enjoyed 3 months of free Showtime movie channels preview (has to be the worst of the movie packages.) We are constantly getting free movie package previews for weekend holidays and random weekends throughout the year. We had to sign up for a 2 year contract for the DVR. That was Christmas Eve in 2005. On Christmas day in 2007, 1 day after our 2 year contract was completed, the DVR broke. I called Direct and they said no problem, one is getting shipped right away with a return label for the broken one. We received a remanufactured unit of course and it arrived dead on arrival with the same problem. Called again and customer service again said, no problem, we'll ship another one right away and this time it will be sure to be a new unit rather than reman. Both times the replacement DVR came within 2 days on a DirectTV truck with a service tech to install it.

We've been very happy with DirectTV, much happier than we ever were with Dish Network. I am wondering though what will happen if we ever upgrade from the 1996 27 inch CRT Phillips to a Plasma and want to upgrade to HD. Then again, cable just came out my way last December. Internet, phone, and TV all on one service is tempting, especially if my phone and DSL service continues to deteriorate since we are in the boonies and our phone lines are lousy. We can hear all our neighbors on the phone half the time and the internet gets slower and slower every day.

 

[DenMig]

I am the opposite of many of the posters above. I switched from direct to dish and I prefer dish. If you want the sports subscriptions (NFL,MLB, etc) then direct is better. It was tough for me to give those up, but I think dish's receivers are superior. I bought a 2nd HD tv in december and called dish to upgrade. I was told it would be $95. I said ok.......she came back and said for my loyalty it would be half price. I thanked her and we began to set up the installation. She then said please hold, I am going to ask my supervisor if we can give you this for no charge due to your loyalty. I thanked her again and that was that, no charge. The previous year I upgraded my 1st receiver and did pay the $95. Anyways, just wanted to post to show that at times Dish comes through too.

 

[Minnie]

Does Direct provide your locals??? That is one of the main reasons we stayed with Dish when we bought our new HDTV in Dec

We were lucky that years ago we purchased the equipment so we didn't have a contract. This time I wanted the DVR (love it) and the HD equipment so we went with a contract due to the cost of the equipment. So far love it!

 

[mrodgers]

Does Direct provide your locals??? That is one of the main reasons we stayed with Dish when we bought our new HDTV in Dec

Direct has local channels. They are built into the price. When I was with Dish, I paid extra for the local channels. Actually, I paid extra for the network channels. That was one of the things I didn't have available due to equipment. Local Pittsburgh was on a different satellite that I couldn't get. I had to watch New York local news and weather. It's probably different now with Dish with the networks being included rather than paid seperate.

 

[bicker]

I don't believe either of the satellite services carry everyone's local channels.