OK thanks Altitudinous . I sent you a message with phone numbers
2021 Dish Prices
- Thread starter zippyfrog
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Do not let them convert that owned Hopper 3 to leased. I suspect that they made that offer just in case your original interpretation was correct, and they actually are required to reduce that fee for the first owned Hopper 3 to $5 per month. As I pointed out earlier, with both discounts (including the $10 monthly you are already getting) Dish would then be paying you to have a DVR on your account. So, if they convert that Hopper 3 to a leased unit, your DVR fee would remain at $15 (minus the $10 credit) regardless of any future rulings on their fees for purchased receivers.
Having said all of that, as soon as I have the money I am still going to purchase a Hopper 3 and all of the equipment I would need to hook it up, and install it myself. I am considering this for precisely the reasons you stated, about the ability to turn the purchased Hopper 3 and Joey(s) on and off. I do have another receiver (ViP222k, or a ViP211k if Dish will not let me use the ViP222k on the same account as the Hopper 3) that I could keep active full-time, in order to keep my account active while the Hopper equipment is turned off. If I am reading your post correctly, it sounds like you are talking about turning off all of your receivers. If that is the case, you may be better off doing a "Pause" for $5 per month, to keep your account active without any active receivers, if you are going to be doing this for any considerable length (months) of time. Since you are still under contract, Dish may not let you turn off your service entirely, or they may charge you the early termination fee if you do. Either way, though (Pause or disconnect) you will lose your monthly credits. So, investing in a purchased Wally that you can keep active full-time may be worth it to you.
I wonder when they will actually get around to fixing that web page. As of the time I posted this link...
MyDISH
I am inclined to do just that, keep it as purchased, despite their very reasonable offer.
It sounds to me as if they are always going to argue that the poor advertisers need to be compensated for us pesky users skipping their commercials, so they'd probably argue that if a customer has a Dish DVR anywhere in their installation, they're going to hit them up for the $15.
Yes, if at some point I did something crazy like travel somewhere for a while, I could turn off all receivers in the house. But I wouldn't want that to kick off an account cancellation process. I see the on/off button for all receivers in MyDish, but I don't want to try turning off the H3 even as an experiment until I know for sure. What would probably be my scenario is that we head out in the camper, I turn off the H3 and the 4kJs, and we turn on the Wally for use in the camper with the Playmaker. But if we traveled without the camper, would turning off ALL receivers (all owned) be possible without kicking off cancellation?
Somewhere I thought that the account "pause" function had a minimum term and the ability to only do it once per calendar year, but I can't find it right now.
OK, interesting. I would not use Pause then.
I think I tried that once. If you set all of your receivers to Off, there will be an error pop-up, stating that you need to keep at least one receiver active. As long as you keep your Wally turned On (whether you are actually using it or not) then it sounds like you are good to go, as far as avoiding equipment fees. In that case, you would still be charged for your programming package, of course.
I guess those who got grandfathered at the $7 DVR rate with older receivers, and those of us who use ViP211 or Wally receivers with external hard drives, must not tend to skip a lot of commercials, then.
The corporate case specialist said that the issue had been referred to the web team...so I take that to mean that they had put in a requisition for chisels and will at some point carefully chisel the new verbiage into the web stone. Then there's the polishing...
OK, thanks.
Here's what Corporate just sent me on this topic:
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"not authorized on the account" is the same as "Turn Receivers On/Off function" in the MyDish log in
The Hopper would not still be authorized, in the "OFF state".
If it were still authorized you would still have the fee(s) tied to it.
Temporarily turn OFF all equipment, while when they are out of town, would cancel an account,
With a Leased receiver of any kind, if is deactivated, the system sees it an no longer needed and sends out a return kit.
All receivers (Hopper, Joeys, and a Wally) are available to turn on and off
regardless of being purchased or leased, so that you can manage your account using the Mydish website or app, without the need to call the customer services center.
The pro of owning any equipment is, that if deactivated / turning off a receiver is to not pay for it while not in use.
The cons of owning any equipment is the upfront cost.
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You had to do it. Now I might have to go talk to them about this.
They would probably argue that the Hopper 3 having 16 tuners gives the user 16 times more commercial-skipping capability than a single-tuner DVR and that has to be paid for, whether you use it or not. I should go argue that using an OTA adapter, I only have 2 tuners available in order to skip local channels' commercials, and I should be paying less than some semi-freeloader skipping all those commercials in his PrimeTime Anytime plethora of recordings.
Only purchased receivers show up to manage (turn on and off) on the mydish site. I called to deactivate my leased Hopper Duo in mid-January. Therefore, it no longer shows up under My Equipment on mydish at all. I am still waiting for the return kit, so I can send it back to Dish.
Dish has posted their updated prices for 2021 - $5 per package. The locals core package goes up $3.
MyDISH
my.dish.com
They are also reducing equipment fees. "In addition to the core package changes, we also will be removing receiver fees on equipment you've purchased and own, if any. If you own your equipment, you will see a new, lower service fee for access on those TVs" Hopper is $10 less....
I received my Dish bill today with the billing. I own one Hopper3 and Joey3 and lease the other Hopper3.
The $7 Joey3 fee was correctly changed to a $5 Additional TV fee. But the Hopper3 receiver fee stayed at $15.
I called Dish and waited 7 minutes for a customer service agent. I was connected to a Dish female agent in Idaho who was easy to talk to. I explained the billing problem. I shared the Dish link listed above. She opened the Dish 2021 pricing page and verified that owned equipment was $5. The computer would not let her make any changes so she conferred with a higher up named Carlos. This took 52 minutes. She finally claimed that the lower price for owned equipment is only for equipment purchased after January 14, 2021. But she could not show me any documentation on that.
For others that have 1 leased Hopper3 and 1 Hopper3 that they purchased prior to January 14, 2021 have any of you received the lower price of $5 rather than the $15 bill.
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I am glad I waited until after January 14, 2021 before even considering purchasing a Hopper 3, then.
Seriously, that has to be the dumbest explanation I have heard. (And that's really saying something.) So now Dish is grandfathering customers who have older purchased equipment with higher fees, and forcing them to purchase yet another Hopper 3 (to replace the existing purchased Hopper 3) if they want the lower rate? It boggles the mind.
Obviously, your Joey 3 was purchased prior to that date, and it shows up on the bill correctly. So, I call BS on that explanation. All of my equipment was also purchased before January 14, 2021. I posted my new rates earlier in the thread. Of course, I do not have a Hopper 3 (yet) much less two of them.
I am glad I waited until after January 14, 2021 before even considering purchasing a Hopper 3, then.
Seriously, that has to be the dumbest explanation I have heard. (And that's really saying something.) So now Dish is grandfathering customers who have older purchased equipment with higher fees, and forcing them to purchase yet another Hopper 3 (to replace the existing purchased Hopper 3) if they want the lower rate? It boggles the mind.
Obviously, your Joey 3 was purchased prior to that date, and it shows up on the bill correctly. So, I call BS on that explanation. All of my equipment was also purchased before January 14, 2021. I posted my new rates earlier in the thread. Of course, I do not have a Hopper 3 (yet) much less two of them.
So today I called the Dish Loyalty Department at 888-496-1260.
After 9 minutes I got to a Dish Specialist in Colorado. He thanked me for being a Dish Preferred Customer for 20 years and one month. He knew that a Hopper3 that is owned should only be charged $5 instead of $15. However the computer would not let him change the cost. He put me on a 3 minute hold while he consulted with higher ups. He submitted an Accounting Query Form to try and resolve the problem. They feel that the problem is that the computer does not work correctly for customers with 2 Hopper3 receivers. He gave me a Ticket # 4578247. He thinks it may take a week or two to resolve. So I will wait and see. Currently my total Dish bill is $153.98 but my 2 year Preferred Customer Offer is up in 2 months. I will then have to renew for another 2 years. But I really like Dish and I don’t plan to leave.
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I would think, if you own your receiver and you buy a package, then there should be no fees. Streaming services include a DVR for free in many cases.
DVR fee and service fee, is two seperate thing, remember Dish made that adjustment with the Hopper, about two years ago, if you removed the DVR fee, from an account with one Hopper, the Hopper would be freeI am glad I waited until after January 14, 2021 before even considering purchasing a Hopper 3, then.
Seriously, that has to be the dumbest explanation I have heard. (And that's really saying something.) So now Dish is grandfathering customers who have older purchased equipment with higher fees, and forcing them to purchase yet another Hopper 3 (to replace the existing purchased Hopper 3) if they want the lower rate? It boggles the mind.
Obviously, your Joey 3 was purchased prior to that date, and it shows up on the bill correctly. So, I call BS on that explanation. All of my equipment was also purchased before January 14, 2021. I posted my new rates earlier in the thread. Of course, I do not have a Hopper 3 (yet) much less two of them.
But ARE the "poor advertisers" getting any of the DVR fees? Wouldn't the retransmission fees (whether OTA or "cable" stations) include that? Or are the contracts so minute that they say "Dish will pay <broadcaster> '$x' for non-DVR subscribers and '$y' for DVR subscribers."? I really don't know.
I really don't know either. But the Corporate Case Management Specialist discussed that with me, that they need to be compensated for the ability to skip commercials.
Great question.
I wonder if they'd suspend the "DVR Service Fee" if we signed an affidavit stating that we do not, have not, and will not fast forward through ads.
Powerful minds are studying the DVR Dilemma. Here's an article that links to a study about it. I didn't read the study because they want me to PAY for it!
How DVR is changing the world of TV advertising | Newswise
New research suggests that DVR is changing the landscape of television advertising. Consumers aren't skipping commercials as much as previously thought, which means advertisers need to consider what types of ads to use based on a TV program’s genre.
www.newswise.com
The other question would be exactly what counts as a "DVR subscriber" to entitle them to the full rate? As I already pointed out, there are so many different rounds of grandfathering, with different subscribers paying different DVR rates, for the exact same receiver model. So, do customers who signed up before a certain date somehow count as less of a DVR user? Even with the current rate structure, certain models (Hopper Duo and ViP922) have a lower $10 DVR rate. Are the features on these models so crippled compared to all other DVR models (Hopper and ViP alike) that they count as less DVR usage? What about subscribers who have a mix of DVR and non-DVR receivers on the same account? Should they have to pay the full DVR rate as if all of their receivers were DVR's, or should they get some sort of price break for the non-DVR receivers? Would the rate they have to pay for a Wally or a ViP211 vary, depending on whether or not they happen to have an external hard drive hooked up at any given moment? If the rate we have to pay for our programming depends on whether or not we have a DVR, then Dish would have to get really granular about charging different rates based on the exact specific mix of receivers that happen to be on each subscriber's account.
I agree you can really go down a rabbit hole. I'm just doubting that the DVR fees go to the "poor advertiser" as Altitudinous was told. I think (and I could easily be wrong), it's what CSR's have been told to tell customers to push the blame off Dish.
It would be very interesting to know if Dish "uses" the money gathered from DVR fees to help pay the retrans fees. IF so (and that's a big IF), wouldn't that mean that the $1.50 (however much) a broadcaster charges Dish ISN'T totally passed along to the customer? Maybe they charge the customer $1.00 and get the other 50 cents from the DVR fee? Yes, huge assumption, and I'm not saying that's the case, just a thought.
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