Early termination fee's

[kingsxman]

Because of the dispute with FSN and Dish I'm probably going to cancel my Dish subscription. Unfortunately, because I JUST re-upped (and they told me they were unaware of any FSN disputes on the horizon) I would owe $200 for early termination fee's. I feel I've been screwed.

I've NEVER not paid something I owe in my life. But I'm tempted to make them come get these fee's. Has anyone been able to get them removed before?

 

[navychop]

I believe they can report such a failure to pay to the credit rating entities. Prepare to see your credit rating go down.

Dish paperwork clearly states they do not guarantee any specific channels. You will find similar self protective statements in a wide variety of contracts for a wide variety of goods and services.

So a judge or adjudicator will see you as having signed an agreement and then failed to live up to it.

Any other provider you go to will also have disputes and dropped channels.

OTOH, another provider MIGHT pay that ETF for you, for a strong commitment you make to them.

Keep in mind, it’s not just programming. It’s equipment, too.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys App. For now.

 

[Juan]

Call your local state attorney general and explain the fox sports issue

Because of the dispute with FSN and Dish I'm probably going to cancel my Dish subscription. Unfortunately, because I JUST re-upped (and they told me they were unaware of any FSN disputes on the horizon) I would owe $200 for early termination fee's. I feel I've been screwed.

I've NEVER not paid something I owe in my life. But I'm tempted to make them come get these fee's. Has anyone been able to get them removed before?

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Tampa8]

I wouldn't just not pay, plus if you agreed to auto pay you may end up paying even more if you stop that. If other providers are available it was good advice above to see if you can get a deal with one of them and they pay the ETF. DISH has usually been willing to give a credit for a few months to reduce the cost some.

What prompted you to specifically ask if there was going to be an FSN dispute?

 

[kingsxman]

Yeah, you guys are right. I'm just mad. I have excellent credit and its not worth risking it to prove a point to Dish. I just feel so "taken advantage of" in this situation...

What prompted me to ask about it was that I had been burned before by them over FSN. I was a customer for probably 10 years the last time they had the FSN dispute. My family and I are huge Timberwolves fans. (Season tickets even...) When they had the last dispute we were unaware and were all ready for the beginning of the season. We bought take out and the entire family was camped out at the TV for the first game of the Twolves season. At 7:00 the screen goes blank and says "This programming is not available in your area". WTF! I called DIsh and found out that they were in the dispute. I gave them 2 weeks to fix it and then left them for direct TV. I hated Direct TV but never had any of these "programming" issues. In 2 years I went back to Dish as the FSN thing was taken care of. I've been a loyal Dish customer ever since.

Fast forward to now: My remote broke and I called them to get a replacment. They sent me one but the lady on the phone talked me into re-upping my contract to save a few bucks. I specifically asked her about FSN as its the only thing that would make me leave. She said "we have no idea what could happen but I dont think there are any issues on the horizon. 3 months later its off the air.

 

[raoul5788]

In fairness to the csr you spoke with, she probably had no idea what if any disputes were ongoing or could result in a channel being removed. Front line csrs are typically ignorant.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I believe they can report such a failure to pay to the credit rating entities. Prepare to see your credit rating go down.

Dish paperwork clearly states they do not guarantee any specific channels. You will find similar self protective statements in a wide variety of contracts for a wide variety of goods and services.

So a judge or adjudicator will see you as having signed an agreement and then failed to live up to it.

Any other provider you go to will also have disputes and dropped channels.

OTOH, another provider MIGHT pay that ETF for you, for a strong commitment you make to them.

Keep in mind, it’s not just programming. It’s equipment, too.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys App. For now.

Dish won’t report you, but their collection agencies will.

But like I have said for years, contracts are not worth the paper they are written on, with ANY provider.

Complain enough and to the right people and they will waive it.

The only way you’ll get it reported on your credit is if you don’t pay the cancel fee and don’t fight it.

 

[Juan]

State consumer affairs or AG

Dish won’t report you, but their collection agencies will.

But like I have said for years, contracts are not worth the paper they are written on, with ANY provider.

Complain enough and to the right people and they will waive it.

The only way you’ll get it reported on your credit is if you don’t pay the cancel fee and don’t fight it.

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Tampa8]

Yeah, you guys are right. I'm just mad.

I have a word for that. Normal.

 

[DWS44]

(and they told me they were unaware of any FSN disputes on the horizon)

Front line csrs are typically ignorant.

Mistake #1...Assuming a CSR would actually know about potential disputes in the first place.

Mistake #2...Assuming a CSR would actually tell you about it if they did know, knowing it would likely keep you from renewing.

 

[omeletpants]

This thread sucks

 

[Claude Greiner]

State consumer affairs or AG

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

Yeah that works also.

I didn’t mention it because people hate it when I suggest doing something so low to get out of a contract

 

[HipKat]

I had a customer complain about the Fox Sports Midwest being taken down and I offered to call Dish, tell them go ahead and pay the increase because this customer is willing to take a big rate hike to cover the cost of FSM. She looked at me in a cold way, but then realized what I was saying.

I'm not going to try and tell anyone what to do, and I'm a BIG sports fan. Buffalo Bills and Sabres, specifically, which is tough to follow when you have to move to Central Illinois. Fortunately, I'm blessed to have 2 good sized 4K Monitors on my computer and I know where to find places to stream the games, but before I had fast internet and a cool computer, it was tough. I'd have to stream local radio feeds, which turned out to be OK and I got a lot of other things done a the same time.

My point is, it's sports. Sports don't pay my bills, or keep me informed of world events that have an effect on my day to day life. I like to be entertained as much as anyone else, but good grief, I hope people jumping ship over baseball games realize what's on the other side of the fence and in almost all cases it much, much higher monthly rates for poorer service and equipment. I guess everyone has their priorities, though, right?

 

[hahler2]

You know they say that they're doing it to keep costs down to consumers, but I've never seen it. Our bill continues to go up year after year. I would really like to see Dish provide us with hard numbers. Here's how much they wanted to charge us and how it would have affected your monthly bill, and here's how much we saved you by having this channel dispute. But you don't. You just have to take them at their word that what they're doing is saving us money.

 

[DISH Support]

You know they say that they're doing it to keep costs down to consumers, but I've never seen it. Our bill continues to go up year after year. I would really like to see Dish provide us with hard numbers. Here's how much they wanted to charge us and how it would have affected your monthly bill, and here's how much we saved you by having this channel dispute. But you don't. You just have to take them at their word that what they're doing is saving us money.

Hey there, hahler2! We definitely get how much the channel negotiations impact you and I want to reassure you that we are doing everything we can to work with the channel owners in hopes of reaching a mutually beneficial agreement. While our departments aren't present during the negotiation process, we want to provide you with the most up to date information as we receive it. This is why we created our Dish promise page so you can be aware of changes as they happen! Here is a link for this page: DISH Promise | MyDISH | DISH Customer Support. -- Sam F

 

[Bobby]

You know they say that they're doing it to keep costs down to consumers, but I've never seen it. Our bill continues to go up year after year. I would really like to see Dish provide us with hard numbers. Here's how much they wanted to charge us and how it would have affected your monthly bill, and here's how much we saved you by having this channel dispute. But you don't. You just have to take them at their word that what they're doing is saving us money.

There is more to annual increases than channel negotiations. Employees get raises, benefits cost more, electric bills go up, parts cost more, etc. Annual increases equal about $5 a month. If the channels got what they want which is whatever they can extort from Dish or Direct or Comcast or etc your annual increases would amount to a whole bunch more than what you see.

 

[hahler2]

I understand that. There’s more to it than just what they’re spending on channels. I just would like to see hard numbers on how these negotiations are affecting our bill.

 

[ncted]

Dish won’t report you, but their collection agencies will.

But like I have said for years, contracts are not worth the paper they are written on, with ANY provider.

Complain enough and to the right people and they will waive it.

The only way you’ll get it reported on your credit is if you don’t pay the cancel fee and don’t fight it.

Dish will report you to NCTUE though, which may make it harder to get new service from them or other providers in the future:

NCTUE® - National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange

 

[Cheddar_Head]

I understand that. There’s more to it than just what they’re spending on channels. I just would like to see hard numbers on how these negotiations are affecting our bill.

You won't, for a multiple reasons. Business competition concerns but mostly because the contracts usually have a prohibition against publicly revealing the numbers.

 

[mwdxer1]

I know Spectrum out here used to pay the customers contract fees to get them. I have no idea if they still offer that. But as others have stated, there is no way a provider can guarantee that there will no be disputes. They are all like that. You take that chance in signing a contract. Dish and all providers put out money for receivers, installing your dish, etc. They have to re-coop that money. About the only thing there doesn't seem to be contracts with are streaming services, or if you buy your equipment and install it yourself as I do. But many cannot do that. Of course them you own the equipment and you have that out lay of money. With me, I bought mine in 1999 as I knew what Dish offered at the time, I was going to stay with them for a long time. I have always bought mine and I like Dish. I have lost favorite channels too. We all have, but we also like our pricing staying down. All providers are going to have disputes and there are many more on the way. Sometimes, the provider may never get that channel back, like with HBO/Cinemax. You know if you have streaming as an option, you can pick up those missing channels elsewhere with no extra fees or contracts. I did that with HBO for a time.