Dish auto pay changing to paperless billing?

[seminole2001]

Dish auto pay force change to paperless billing?

I just got a VM stating that starting next month that all my bills will be paperless because I am enrolled on Dish credit card auto pay. Did something change? I kinna line having a paper statement for my files. If Dish is going to start nickle and dime me when it comes to my bill I'm gone!

 

[Jim5506]

Dish will post a pdf of your bill that you can access and print from your logon account.

We got a phone call saying they were switching us to paperless because we have CCAP.

With postage going up and the cost of stuffing envelopes it only makes sense. Gotta watch that bottom line.

 

[RTCDude]

Can't they just e-mail out the PDF. I don't care whether it's electronic or paper, it's not being automatically delivered that irritates me.

 

[TNGTony]

The first month I get billed without receiving a bill, I am off CC Auto-pay!

If they want it that way, that is the way I will do it!

And yes, I do look at my bill every month.

See ya
Tony

 

[Claude Greiner]

Unless I get atleast a $.41 cent discount they can send the paper bill!

 

[gbjbany]

Can't they just e-mail out the PDF. I don't care whether it's electronic or paper, it's not being automatically delivered that irritates me.

They send out a monthly email saying your bill is ready and you can login as suggested and load a pdf and print it.

I guess, if .41 cents x 10 million (?) subscribers x 12 times a year is a potential saving of almost 50 million dollars per year and that means they keep the prices steadier than without, im for it.

That doesnt even factor in the cost of the paper and stuffing the envelopes and the landfill costs for all the waste paper.

 

[Buzzdar]

If they want to save that kind of money why dont they make auto pay a must have to have dish

 

[TNGTony]

A couple of items:

1) The savings in postage and mailing is not 100%. There are increased IT costs and lost sales and increased disputes in billing that require manpower to resolve. (they will lose me as a subscriber if I do not get a paper bill and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels the same way. I pay $130 a month!)
2) Even if the savings are $50 million a year, it STILL only translates to 40 cents a month per account. So why the hell should I care?

I am not against paperless billing. But I am against being forced to do it myself!

See ya
Tony

 

[riffjim4069]

I prefer paperless billing, but my wife wants to receive a hardcopy bill each month. She gets her hardcopy in the mail, and I view it and pay it online. The one thing we both insist on is receiving our cancelled checks from the bank each month - very few banks now offer this service.

 

[lakebum431]

The one thing we both insist on is receiving our cancelled checks from the bank each month - very few banks now offer this service.

For what reason? What do you do with these? I honestly don't see the point in getting the copies. I know with Bank of America I can view them online at any time.

 

[riffjim4069]

For what reason? What do you do with these? I honestly don't see the point in getting the copies. I know with Bank of America I can view them online at any time.

The copies downloaded online are inadmissible in court. Copies of the images included in your monthly statement are admissible, but are typically 10 or more per page and of such poor quality that are you required to order larger images...for a fee, of course...and usually takes a 5-10 business days. More importantly, they are our cancelled checks and a bank will need to return them in order to gain or retain our business.

 

[TNGTony]

For what reason? What do you do with these?

It's called record keeping. It's something you do when you want to CYA just in case. On two occations in my life having the canceled check in my hand showing it to the person claiming I didn't pay difused the situation instantly!

In one case I know that without the ORIGINAL check in my hand showing a guy's signature in his own hand and even his grubby finger prints on the check itself (greasy hands -- car mechanic) I would have been battling for months even to the point of court cases to prove that I paid the guy.

A bank that doesn't send me the paper check is a bank I don't do business with.

Again, I am not against on-line transactions. I do them all the time. It's just when I write a check and hand it so some one, I want that canceled check back for recordkeeping.

See ya
Tony

 

[lakebum431]

So do you all keep all of your hard copy checks forever? I have never had an issue where I needed a copy of a check. However, if I really needed it i could get a copy from the bank. I just think it is pointless to get all of these copies. Also I use a credit card for basically all transactions so I have the built in protection there.

 

[SmityWhity]

I agree with ya Tony!

Although available to all of us, not every one on this forum have set up an account with Dish to access their account(s), and they should not be forced to go online to view it. Myself, I have 2 logons since I have 2 accounts. Yes, I download my statements and save them to disk.

However, I now make Dish send me two statements every month, because of their stupidity. And each month they send me the statements, each with a "Dish will plant a Tree' brochure if I go to paperless. What a waste of paper on their part!

And I'll stay this way until I either (completely) cancel my accounts, or Dish changes to Annual Billing for all services! :up

It was nice when they decided to let you subscribe to regular programming, such as Dish Family and/or AT-200, on an annual basis; but it did not eliminate monthly charges that they will not do annual billing for:

- HD Programming: Only month to month basis $20
- Charlie's DVR Tax on owner/operator equipment, aka DVR Fee: Only month to month $5.98
- Charlie's MPEG-4 Tax on owner/operator equipment, aka HD Enabling Fee $6
- Lease Receiver Fee: Only month to month $5 SD and/or $6 HD
- Phoneline Less Fee: Only month to month $5

I have no problem paying an annual subscription, even if on some of the items there is no discount; but am not going to sign up for automatic debit and/or credit card payment.

And although they suggested paying the 12 month fee in advance, and then I will have a credit balance each month, that's not an option on my part either. In response, I started downgrading services.

EDIT:
I had thought about upgrading one account in Louisiana from Dish Family, and include a new MPEG-4 receiver, maybe with DVR, but then every month I would have to pay a HD Enabling Fee since there are no MPEG-4 SD receivers with or without DVR. And then there would be a DVR fee even if I bought the equipment.

He needs two new programs:
(1) AAP - Annual Advantage Program (where you pay annually and get a month discount)
(2) DVR AAP - DVR Annual Advantage Program (where you pay annually and get a DVR Fee waived)

 

[TNGTony]

So do you all keep all of your hard copy checks forever? I have never had an issue where I needed a copy of a check. However, if I really needed it i could get a copy from the bank. I just think it is pointless to get all of these copies. Also I use a credit card for basically all transactions so I have the built in protection there.

I usually use a credit card for transactions. But when I write a check it's for a reason. Good for you that you have never had an issue. In 28 years of banking I have only had two problems both of which were settle instantly when I produced the ORIGINAL check (not a reproduction or reprint) within minutes of the problem being discovered. Had I not had that on hand I would have had to play CSR roulette with the bank. Waited for the check to be found, or more likely reproduced. Then had to deal with the other person disputing the copy of the original. With the original (oily finger print and all) took care of the problem before it became a headache.

How long do I keep records? About 3-5 years depending on when I last cleaned out the file cabinet drawer (one drawer!).

Back to the topic:

Look, chances are there will never be a problem with Dish's billing. But there is absolutely NO guarantee that there will NEVER be a problem. If I have a paper trail for 3 years, I can easily resolve just about any issue and I have hard proof printed by the company I would have to convince. And if you think electronic documents are the same thing, good luck to you if you get ahold of a good one.

So 3 years of dish bills = no more than 72 peices of paper to file. I usually just take the whole envelope and file it standing up. One drawer on one file cabinet is all one needs for everything they do in a few years.

See ya
Tony

 

[Brussam]

For those hard liners on receiving cancelled paper checks from the bank:

A lot of the same rhetoric occurred when cash cards where first offered in the 70's. "I want a check, not a credit card receipt."

Free checking is not free. I was in the computer business that dealt with check processing. The average cost of a out-of-state check was over $4.00 and there was a huge float on money as it was tied to physical check movement. You did not see that fee because it was packaged into the overhead of the bank covered by interest the bank earned on your checking account. Now with people expecting to earn interest on their checking account, there isn't much room for the bank to hide the charges any more.

Now with Check2000, in the normal mode, an out-of-state check stops at the first bank that receives it and an electronic image is passed back to your bank. That is the image that is printed on your statement.

If you want the physical cancelled check from the first bank also called the truncation bank, you can request it. But if you have not been paying attention to bank procedures, as image statements become the norm, eventually the return of physical cancelled checks will become a fee. And if it had cost over $4.00 a check when everything was returned, then you can imagine that the per returned check fee as a specific request will be somewhere in the $10.00 a check.

People used to demand passbooks for savings accounts so they had a hard document of their deposits. That was right up to the point where statement savings accounts got .25% more interest that passbook accounts.

I venture that when, and it is not if but when, you have to pay for checks to be physically returned at the cost of processing them, that will be the end of that. Or you have a lot of money to spend on bank fees.

And for the record for those who write checks, the IRS, who can be about as tough of legalities as anyone, accepts the carbon copy of the check you wrote and the line entry of that check on you bank statement as proof of payment. If it is good enough for the IRS, then is is good enough for anyone else.

 

[daranman]

When I got the vm, I just logged back on to dishnetwork.com and switched it back. I don't mind paperless billing, but I do mind being switched without being asked.