Disadvantages to Bundling?

[ThomasTrain]

Here's my situation: I am currently a Dish customer and a Windstream customer on wholly separate accounts.

I keep getting offers from Windsteam to bundle. the obvious benefit is a $5 discount for bundling, but what is of more certain is how will that affect my dish service. From what I understand, Windstream just handles the billing, but all tech support is handled directly through Dish still but there are a few other concerns:

1) Will I lose my current loyalty credits and more important, become eligible for future loyalty credits and/or service inconvenience/interruption credits?
2) Will I still be able to access my account on the Dish site?
3) How will this affect my ability to access Dish Online (sling stuff)?
4) Will I still be eligible to sign up for regular Dish promotions like HD for life or the current HBO/Showtime free for 3 months?
5) Will I still be able to seek high level resolution through the ceo address when needed?

My current account consists of two 722Ks and a 501.

I subscribe to:
AT200 w/ Locals
HD for Life (grandfathered for having the HD + Platinum for $10 package)
HD Platinum

I used to have the Cinemax/penny but lost it last month after two years. I have a few credits right now consisting of a Club dish credit that has about 5 more months, the $5 receiver credit (I think this one dies in August) and a $15 loyalty credit after the last price hike (receiver fees) that shot my bill up.

Windstream claims that I will not lose any existing credits but I want to see what others have experienced.

I'm also curious about other Windstream bundling customers have to say about the bundling and if that has been a god or bad experience. Someone local to me stated they had nothing but issues with the dish billing on their windstream bundle but until I hear more, I'm taking that as a one-off problem at this point.

TIA for any information.

 

[Scherrman]

From my experience with our customers bundeling is a pain in the butt. The only benefit is saving $5 and having one bill. From a retailer's point of view it sucks. When a customer wants to do an upgrade there are a lot of hoops to jump through. We've had times when customers could not set up an online account and couldn't use sling features or remote access. Some customers had troubles getting there ClubDish credits also.

 

[KAB]

When you bundle, you are the Telco's customer, not Dish's. You stand the chance of being out of the loop for special promos, discounts, upgrades, etc. Best to avoid the middle man.

 

[olds403]

I have my dish service bundled with my TDS Metrocom phone/internet service. While I have no problems having my service bundled there are several disadvantages.

You will be considered a new customer with a new account number by dish and any upgrades/loyalty credits will be based on the date which you start bundling. I found this out when I wanted to upgrade to HD, didn't get as good a deal on my 722 based on length of service records.

You will not be able to use any dish online services, not a major deal for me as I have received excellent phone service. I am able to control my DVR through the internet but no longer have a dish online account, not sure how the sling stuff works as i do not use it.

You should be able to take advantage of all dish promotions, I got the platinum + HD for $10, 3 months of HBO/Showtime free, etc...

Hope this information helps you out, bundling has been a positive experience for me other than no longer having an online account for programming changes, etc...

 

[dk21]

Don't do it! I started that way but Windstream continually screwed up the Dish billing and they made a HUGE mess trying to resolve it. The kind folks at Dish spent quite a bit of time fixing the mess that Windstream created and ended up unbundling me. Things have been great ever since.