Well, let's see.
I've been with Dish network since March of 2003.
Dish has upgraded my owned 510 DVR to a 211k for a $50 upgrade charge a couple of years ago, upgraded my service to HD with a new Dish and ViP622 in 2006 for $200, Upgraded my ViP622 to a ViP722 in 2010 for no upgrade charge and I ordered 2 Hopper 2000's and 3 Joeys last week - no upgrade charge.
They were installed Friday and Dish upgraded one of the Hoppers to a Hopper w/Sling - still no upgrade charge.
Of course I have had to buy the MT2 adapter for the 722k to get 2 OTA channels and I have also ordered two Hopper OTA tuners.
So, my upgrades over the last 10 years have put me out about $350 and for that I have been upgraded from SD 301 receivers to ViP receivers and now to the Hopper system with six shared tuners and all that for about $35 per year in up grade fees.
My last 2 upgrades cost me next to nothing and the upgrade from the 622 to the 722k was not even my idea, Dish sent me an offer that I could not refuse.
Same with the Hoppers, I could not refuse the replacement of my leased 722k and a leased 211 (I also own a 211k and a 211) with 2 Hoppers and 3 Joeys - plus I can still sell my 2 211's and recoup some of my investment (anybody want to buy either a 211k or a 211 or both).
Dish may get me in a couple of years with the fees, but I'll deal with that when it happens.
I am not a high dollar customer (AT120). I pay less than $100/month for my Dish service and before I was unceremoniously kicked off of HD Absolute, my Dish bill was a little more than half of that $100.
I have been on paperless auto pay for longer than I can remember, that is the only thing that I know makes me apparrently an attractive customer.
I looked at the Genie system, but it had $300 up front costs to cover 5 HDTVs and the monthly bill was only only about $5/month lower with the super discounts DirecTV offers, after 1 year I started digging a money hole, so I am still with Dish with ALL new state of the art hardware. They even replaced my old D1000 dish plus the DPP44 with a nice black D1000.2, I hope it performs as well as the 6 year old D1000 did.