Equipment owning vs. Leasing?

[racerx-99]

I'm new to Dish, and I've been reading here about some people owning their equipment rather than leasing it. What is the advantage of owning your Dish equipment over leasing? It seems to me that you pay the same monthly fee either way (am I wrong?), and the equipment has no real use outside of Dish service. I realize that if you own them you can sell them afterward, but that doesn't seem to be a winning proposition.

Perhaps this is something from legacy Dish plans and policies?

I'm also unclear about Dish's approach to upgrades if you have leased equipment. It seems like leased equipment should be able to be returned and replaced with upgraded leased equipment at the customers discretion (with perhaps some shipping and handling fees), but that doesn't seem to be the case. Is there a eligibility period or something?

 

[mike123abc]

There are 2 advantages to owning:

1. If you do not have the credit score to get the lease, you can still buy the equipment and set up with Dish

2. If you want to add something but do not want a 2 year contract extention.

There is really no reason to buy if you are going to sign up as a customer and do not mind the 2 year commitment. It will save you a lot of money. As an existing customer and you want to add an inexpensive box, buying might be considered when you consider Dish could charge $100 for it with installation, you can buy some for close to that price, install yourself and not have the commitment (and possibly sell on ebay when done).

The general policy is that you can upgrade 1 box a year through Dish's Dishing it up program. But, you still have to pay upgrade and installation fees.

 

[Bob Haller]

owned you can sell the box off for whats its worth at the end, upgrade / replace hard drives if you want, no need to return stuff at end of lease. and no contract commitments, get unhappy cancel.

E likes lease since they carry leased equiptement on their books as assets

 

[GRG]

Just this week I purchased a new 722K with OTA module on Craigs List for only $200. E* wanted $200 plus $30 for the module and a 24 month commit...no brainer to own on this example...plus they sent me a box for my leased 622 and no $15 charge for the return.

 

[apnk]

I bought my 222k because I would pay more with the $50 one time charge plus the lease fee every month, in the end I would have payed almost $60 more than I would if I just bought the thing.

 

[KAB]

I bought my 222k because I would pay more with the $50 one time charge plus the lease fee every month,

You are still going to pay a receiver fee every month. Leased, owned, you pay it regardless.

 

[riffjim4069]

Dish needs to change their fee policy for owned receivers...IMO. There is no reason a customer should be paying the same fees when they shelled-out $$$ to purchase their receivers.

 

[Bob Haller]

E doesnt want to encourage purchase since leased looks better on the books.

But I AGREE, the 17 bucks per box for extra owned receivers is flat out WRONG

for leased boxes its probably fair, since E had to pay for the box/

This fee issue is why after 13 years I will cancel.

My bill went up 40 bucks on feb 1st. I own all my equiptement.

Its now lower than before i canceled AEP, dropped a receiver.

Soon bill will be zero moving to downloaded shows over net

 

[vaylon]

Soon bill will be zero moving to downloaded shows over net

Now that all the regular season shows are over and that there will be nothing on till the fall season. I have thought the same thing. Even when the shows were on I found myself downloading the episodes off the net because they were better quality than my dvr. Specially the sound.
I wonder if they could put my account on hold till the fall without loosing my hd absolute.

 

[Bob Haller]

If you prefer downlkoading over net why have E at all?

My Tivo arrived today I need to set it up, if show selection is decent, E will be obsolete for me.

And honestly the local RTN channel has lots of shows I like since I always prefered old shows.

Heck one BIG reason for switching to E from TCI was so I could get TV Land, although that was back when it started and had good shows.

I will also buy some favorites on DVDs and may load on a server.

I am really excited about upgrading

I hadnt done anything up till now because honestly I had no idea what I wanted>

 

[racerx-99]

Just this week I purchased a new 722K with OTA module on Craigs List for only $200. E* wanted $200 plus $30 for the module and a 24 month commit...no brainer to own on this example...plus they sent me a box for my leased 622 and no $15 charge for the return.

See, I don't understand that, what is E* supposedly charging you for upfront for a leased box? Isn't the definition of a lease that you are paying a monthly fee in *lieu* of an upfront charge? Other than a small shipping and handling charge, there shouldn't be a charge, what's the point?

And charging a monthly fee (particularly the *same* monthly fee) for owned boxes makes no sense either. It really seems to violate the whole concept of leased vs. owned!

 

[R0ss]

See, I don't understand that, what is E* supposedly charging you for upfront for a leased box? Isn't the definition of a lease that you are paying a monthly fee in *lieu* of an upfront charge? Other than a small shipping and handling charge, there shouldn't be a charge, what's the point?

And charging a monthly fee (particularly the *same* monthly fee) for owned boxes makes no sense either. It really seems to violate the whole concept of leased vs. owned!

It's their business model. Having said that when you lease a car you have to put some cash up, in addition to tax title and license, so while we all bitch and complain about dish's fees it's what they do! I do agree that if you buy your receiver there is no reason to pay the entire lease fee. Again a leased box is an asset for dish and can be used for the profit and loss statement, taxes etc....so it does make sense that they would want to discourage ownership....the other issue with owned boxes is dhpp. I have read that folks that have dhpp and owned boxes that have had their owned box switched out because it malfunctioned no longer own their box.

Ross

 

[Bob Haller]

at 5 bucks or 7 bucks per box few would complain.

now jack it up from 5 to 17 gets people shopping for alternatives.........