BestBuy and Costco to stop selling recievers
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we are pulling them do to issues of customers not completely understanding it still a lease even if they buy from bb and costco
Pricing of a product rarely has anything to do with the actual production cost. In most cases, the price of a product is calculated as "what the market will bear" -- basically the maximum price the company thinks they can get away with and still sell (or lease) the product.
They find a price that:
* If they raise the price, sales go down to an unacceptable level,
* If they lower the price, they can't produce them fast enough to meet demand (which creates a shortage and raises the price back to a good range, based on supply and demand), or
* If they lower the price, they can't make a profit or at least break even. In a service industry like this, though, they may intentionally take a loss on the production cost of the device just to get the product in their customers' homes to spend more money on the monthly service offerings.
Only one of those bullet points has anything to do with basing the price off of the cost of production. And that one's flexible, since they would have the option of making up the losses by raising monthly subscription fees or lease fees (like DishNet customers are currently griping about, with their significant changes in equipment lease fees).
So, even as production costs inevitably go down (as usually happens with mass-produced electronics), they can maintain the same sale/lease price because the marketplace in general (if not specific individual customers) is willing to pay that price.
If they can reduce production costs and maintain the same sale/lease pricing, then they make a larger profit and have happier shareholders.
So, as I said, pricing of a product rarely has anything to do with the actual production cost.
Like I said before, I don't think they ever really went to store info in the first place.
Just got off the phone with the local Costco down the street and they have HR22's and H22's in stock....
He has heard no word of them being pulled, thats not to dispute any info hear, they just haven't been informed at the store level yet.
I would imagine they will be available for at least a few week yet.
Didn't bother calling the local BB's they really have no interest in selling them in the first place.
He has heard no word of them being pulled, thats not to dispute any info hear, they just haven't been informed at the store level yet.
I would imagine they will be available for at least a few week yet.
Didn't bother calling the local BB's they really have no interest in selling them in the first place.
I was told they were going to sell them until there was no more stock left but best buy down here ( I have 3 near me ) all said they got orders to pull recievers and they are shipping them back. Which is different then what I heard.
Any chance of posting that memo (deleting internal specific stuff that may not pertain to us here on SG, of course)?
Any chance of posting that memo (deleting internal specific stuff that may not pertain to us here on SG, of course)?
I tried finding it today and it was gone from our reference system, I see if I can find out what happened to it. It might be just bb pulling recievers.
found it.
From: <Censored>
Sent at:
Subject: <Censored>
Attachments:
The following message is for Customer Care.
What:
All consumer electronics (CE) retail partners – Best Buy and Costco – are no longer carrying DIRECTV receivers or upgrade equipment in store and online.
Note: New customers can still sign up for DIRECTV service through these CE retail partners.
When:
Effective immediately
Why:
To improve the overall customer experience for customers, DIRECTV has decided to no longer make upgrade receivers available at CE retail partners such as Best Buy and Costco.
Several years ago, DIRECTV moved to a lease-only business model for all CE retail partners. The reason behind this was to make our receivers more affordable for customers to acquire them. However, this has created several customer service issues and complaints as customers thought that the receivers they had paid for at a retail partner were owned and not leased; and they misunderstood the terms and conditions of the leased equipment, which includes a customer agreeing to a 12- or 24-month service agreement upon leasing a new receiver.
How:
· Customers who want to replace receivers or upgrade the equipment for their system will need to call DIRECTV at 1-800-DIRECTV or order online at directv.com.
· Customers will still be able to purchase non-receiver related equipment from these retailers (e.g., remote controls, multi-switches, cabling, etc.).
· New customers can still sign up for DIRECTV service at Best Buy and Costco.
Where:
<censored> will soon be updated to reflect this change.
From: <Censored>
Sent at:
Subject: <Censored>
Attachments:
The following message is for Customer Care.
What:
All consumer electronics (CE) retail partners – Best Buy and Costco – are no longer carrying DIRECTV receivers or upgrade equipment in store and online.
Note: New customers can still sign up for DIRECTV service through these CE retail partners.
When:
Effective immediately
Why:
To improve the overall customer experience for customers, DIRECTV has decided to no longer make upgrade receivers available at CE retail partners such as Best Buy and Costco.
Several years ago, DIRECTV moved to a lease-only business model for all CE retail partners. The reason behind this was to make our receivers more affordable for customers to acquire them. However, this has created several customer service issues and complaints as customers thought that the receivers they had paid for at a retail partner were owned and not leased; and they misunderstood the terms and conditions of the leased equipment, which includes a customer agreeing to a 12- or 24-month service agreement upon leasing a new receiver.
How:
· Customers who want to replace receivers or upgrade the equipment for their system will need to call DIRECTV at 1-800-DIRECTV or order online at directv.com.
· Customers will still be able to purchase non-receiver related equipment from these retailers (e.g., remote controls, multi-switches, cabling, etc.).
· New customers can still sign up for DIRECTV service at Best Buy and Costco.
Where:
<censored> will soon be updated to reflect this change.
Are there other Retail stores available to sell, lease them ?
SC What about online stores ?
Many of our sponsors handle them.
Is that what you were referring to hdtvtech ?
Does DIRECTV think that offering receivers through inventory clearance and drop-ship operations is a more reliable way of getting the point about leasing across?
You would eliminate the retailer being involved, less hands involved, the better is probably thier thoughts.
To be honest BB and Costco where just being used as examples. DTV retailers ( different from CE retailers ) like Dishstore and weeknees and others will still be allowed to sell the equipment from my understanding .
One of the implied goals of the move was to improve customer awareness and education. I can't imagine how selling HR24s through an operation such as overstock.com (one of the most recent examples) or a "hands-off" drop ship storefront accomplishes this goal. For their part, overstock.com makes no mention either way of the HR24 being an outright purchase or a lease. I use overstock.com as an example as it is the first sales option listed if you google DIRECTV HR24.
Surely there are problems with outlets like BB and Costco, but why force customers to buy something sight unseen and largely without even semi-informed consultation?
With respect to the "examples" that stonecold used:
To be fair, if you look at the Solid Signal listing for the HR24, they mention in the feature overview that it is a lease, but they refer you to the specifications for details and there are none related to leasing.
weakknees.com seems to neglect any discussion of the whether the HR24 that you buy from them is leased or owned. They're all over the fact that it isn't a TiVo though.
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In fact, in a thread on the cheap overstock HR24's, one of the people looking to buy one called overstock and were told quite clearly that they would own the HR24 they bought from Overstock.
DirecTV HR24 *Newest* DVR $155 @ Overstock.com - SlickDeals.net Forums
DirecTV HR24 *Newest* DVR $155 @ Overstock.com - SlickDeals.net Forums
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