Executive Shake Up at DISH Network

[Scott Greczkowski]

Tg2 you better change your attitude quick or find someplace else to bitch and moan.

You constant off topic bitching is wearing thin.

Consider this your final warning.

Sent from my iPad using The SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Slamminc11]

Tg2 you better change your attitude quick or find someplace else to bitch and moan.

You constant off topic bitching is wearing thin.

Consider this your final warning.

Sent from my iPad using The SatelliteGuys app!

FINALLY! :up

 

[stardust3]

You people take this TV stuff WAY to serious. If it went away forever we would all be better off.

 

[tom231]

TG2
Why so harsh on Dish? They aren't perfect, but who is? Do you think Direct is perfect? or Charter or Time Warner or Cox? I am glad that Dish tries many things like Sling or BBMP. At least they are trying new and innovative things. Sling isn't perfect, but it works pretty well for me. I love it! And, it's only going to get better as the technology evolves.
I don't see any other provider innovating as much as Dish. It may not always be perfect. But, I'm happy to be along for the ride.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok guys please lets get it back to talking about the execs leaving and not each other.

Thank you!

 

[whatchel1]

Ok guys please lets get it back to talking about the execs leaving and not each other.

Thank you!

You're no fun. LOL

 

[MIHotBear]

Scott,

+1

Good job. Nothing I hate more than someone who drinks too much whine.

 

[inazsully]

So now the question we've all been thinking about. Any indication about the future? Are we going to see RSN's in HD 24/7? Can we expect anything on the Disney situation? How about 3D? All of the ESPN's? Realignment of packages ie sports or movie packages? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[whatchel1]

So now the question we've all been thinking about. Any indication about the future? Are we going to see RSN's in HD 24/7? Can we expect anything on the Disney situation? How about 3D? All of the ESPN's? Realignment of packages ie sports or movie packages? Inquiring minds want to know.

That's a rather broad statement. Now I would love to see them put out packages w/o SPORTS. I would be one of the 1st to go to them.

 

[Claude Greiner]

All im going to say is that Dish spent millions in advertising and said this was their biggest campaign ever, and all I can say is that the phones are not ringing.

 

[MikeD-C05]

All im going to say is that Dish spent millions in advertising and said this was their biggest campaign ever, and all I can say is that the phones are not ringing.

Could it be because of ...........................wait for it..................the lack of people with jobs in the economy? Also the satellite market is saturated and matured and people are already in 2 year contracts with Directv ?

 

[KAB]

Maybe an uptick after the Holidays...new HDTVs for Christmas.

 

[Scherrman]

It has been pretty quiet. We had a very busy Sept. and Oct. due to a small cable co. pulling out of some surrounding towns. Since then it's been quiet, mostly just existing customers complaining about why they can't get stuff for free.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here is a Scott Editorial...

What I say might piss off some folks and friend at DISH, this is not my intention but I am just being honest.

DISH needs to face the facts that almost all of the low hanging fruit has been picked. DISH really needs to focus their efforts of keeping the customers they have and making these customers not want to go anywhere else. Sure they gave us the Blockbuster Movie Pass which I think is a great thing, but it was poorly implimented. How many DISH customers know that they get one free DVD out at a time? How many people have tried watching a movie on the Blockbuster VOD service on their DISH DVR's but couldn't find what they wanted to watch because the interface is so bad and so confusing?

Why is it so hard for DISH to use HTML to make an easy to use friendly VOD system? All the DVR's are built based on UNIX so this should not be hard at all to do.

DISH needs to take a good look at how easy and pleasent it is to use DIRECTV's VOD system. Its well laid out and it works.

Another thing they fouled up in the Blockbuster Movie Pass rollout was converting the Platinum VOD offerings and just rename those poor ofers as Blockbuster Offerings. Most of the movies and shows they have in their catalog you wouldn't want to watch no matter how bored you are... its a Blockbuster service, how about some Blockbuster movies?

Another thing DISH needs to understand to keep customers is to give their customers what they want... Gpollock wants Fearnet, make it part of AT250 or ala cart at $2.99 a month. People want sports, again if they want it charge them for it. People will pay if they can get what they want. DISH needs to give people a reason for a customer to remain loyal to the company but over the past few years it seems as though DISH has given people reasons why they should cancel their service. DISH keeps saying that they keep doing all these fights to keep my bill down.... where I am at I lost a few sports channels and its funny I get less service now but my bill is still the same.

DISH has some AMAZING VISION but is poor at implomenting their dreams, take the 922 as example. Great idea but very poorly implemented. This is one box that should really shine yet DISH is so imbararsed by it that they themselves have stopped selling it. How can you sell a receiver that is advertised with a Slingbox built into it that you can't watch with Sling player software? All Slingboxes should work on the same software universally to try watching your 922 (or 722 with Sling Adapter) on the DISHOnline website is like playing the lottery, most of the times you lose but when you can get in and watch you feel like a winner. You should be able to access your Slingbox 24/7 and not rely on their crappy website. DISH Network has done more harm to the Sling brand name then good since they purchased it and as a person who is a huge Sling fan and avid user I get upset to see what the company has done to this amazing product. They have nutered the technology and have poorly marketed what it can do. I feel its one of the Electronics Industries most hidden gem that many do not know about.

Most of what upsets me about DISH is they do have amazing vision, but they always seem to come up with a plan but dont seem to think down the road at how its all going to work. When I go to CES or meet with DISH personal I do realize they do hold back telling me stuff as they don't want it posted on the internet which I can understand, however in asking how things are going to work down the road and you get blank stares or they have no answers it makes me think that they actually have no ultimate game plan going forward. And I got to admit that kind of scares me.

When I go to team summit and they show me a new product and I start asking questions about it the product will do something and they answer back that they haven't really thought about that yet... well that really scres me.

One of the big problems with the company is that different departments in the company don't work with each other for a common goal. Case in point I was asked by Ira Bahr to start DISHsupport.COM which was a tech support website... Going in I couldn't figure out why the marketing department was running a tech support website. Once I got the site up and running I was expected to answer technical questions that users had. On a few I couldn't answer them so went to the proper department which would handle that issue and was basically told they they didn't want to help me because DISHsupport was a marketing project and they wanted nothing to do with it! They then told me to contact the marketing department and have them find the answers instead.

I actually talked to Charlie Ergen about this and he acted like it was nothing and basically said this in fighting between departments is always going on. WHAT?! All departments should be on the same page working together!

If I was in control that crap would be knocked off immediately. Those guys need to understand that they are all playing for the same team with the same goal. Seeing this it is no wonder the company is as screwed up as much as it is. Another issue is divisions of the company are spread apart around the globe. For what would be easy fixes for people in one location now ends up being a major project when you have someone on the other end of the globe who has no way of accessing a real DISH Network satellite signal tries fixing an issue going by clues and guesses.

In closing I think marketing going forward will try no getting new customers, but instead will advertise about what makes DISH different and better then the rest, so that the existing customers wants to stay and possible when others see how satisfied DISH customers are they they will want to be one to. DISH has lots of great ideas but actually making them real is a big issue they need to overcome and unfortunately its not going to get fixed by changing one or two execs, the change needs to start at the top and work its way down.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Since then it's been quiet, mostly just existing customers complaining about why they can't get stuff for free.

Thats another problem in itself, there is no brnad loyality anymore, everyone wants everything for free now... they don't realize that these things cost $... I bet these people who want all these freebies expect to be paid top dollar when they work. Why shouldn't the satellite companies, dealers and employees be paid for their work as well.

I blame the cell phone industry for this "free" mentality as they started it.

Unfortunately nothing in this life is free.

 

[bhawley]

Here is a Scott Editorial...
For what would be easy fixes for people in one location now ends up being a major project when you have someone on the other end of the globe who has no way of accessing a real DISH Network satellite signal tries fixing an issue going by clues and guesses.

I remember when this was a problem with the Dishplayer software team being in Scotland, does something similar still exist?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I remember when this was a problem with the Dishplayer software team being in Scotland, does something similar still exist?

Yup. Don't know if there is any is Scotland, but do know there are teams outside the US in Europe.

 

[Neutron]

I was really surprised when I first saw the BBMP interface on our 722. My first thought was "If Netflix has had this cool interface where you can search for a movie you want, or easily add it to your queue for the DVD mail service, and have had this set up for years, then why didn't DISH do it from the beginning when they first acquired Blockbuster?

Your comment on Charlie's response to your inquiry about how the departments aren't communicating scares me too. But it also makes what people have been seeing make more sense. If the leader of a company says that this kind of thing is going on and just sits there watching it then nothing will be fixed until he or she makes the effort to make that change. Just look at what has happened with Ford over the last decade or so. They brought in a new CEO (William Clay Ford Jr) and he made several changes that brought Ford around. That's just an example but it goes to show how important it is for a company to have a leader who wants to make things happen. If I was a shareholder of DISH or on the board I would be asking a lot of questions of the CEO.

 

[satjay]

Very well said Scott, with the above editorial. I dont have Dish, but as a fan of Satellite tv, I see and read so many of the good ideas that they come up with and say wow, this sounds good maybe Direct would do this as well, but then I see things fizle out. Dish has some great services, but like you mentioned above if they followed through on things, and offer programing with a price I think this could open things up more for them. I could be wrong but if the movement is to beome more of a "premium service" having great technology is a start much some programming options I think would also benefit.

Again, not trying to stir anything up, or "troll" I have posted a few times on here so folks know I dont do that. I was very excited about the Blockbuster movie pass and the potential I thought it had, and I really thought it would be a game changer for folks who have Directv like myself while it has not yet been a game changer, maybe in the new year it will be enhanced.

Though I know Dish is a choice for many becouse they prefer them over cable and Direct which is great as well. Heres to big things for Dish in the new year

 

[goaliebob99]

What scott said is spot on. Charlie has a vision, but its the people whom work for them that kill the vision. IE: Charlies vision is not Dish Networks vision. I know that people here are tired of my posts about what dish needs to do, what keeps me motivated in posting what I think dish needs to do, is because its so easy to see what is going on. I truly believe in Charlie's vision, but when they say one thing and the company does something completely different it makes me think who's really in charge of dish? It's obviously not charlie! To me its a no brainer in running a company like Dish, but when you can't get the departments to work for or with each other, and you have a department like the Audit team killing dish's reputation people don't want to deal with the company. That's another part of the problem, dish needs to get its reputation changed, and when costs are aligned with other providers yet you don't get the same value such as HDRSN's or a channel like SproutHD, its kind of hard to take a look at dish seriously.

If I had the opportunity to work at dish in a position to rebuild the company, I would do it. I honestly see Charlies vision, but you need to have a product that people want to make it work. Yet, dish consistently fails at that across the board. Many on this board don't know that I was offered a position w/ dish recently. This position is a high turnover position. Why? Because they want to pay 45,000 yearly for the position that 65,000 yearly dictated by market conditions of unions, and the fact its a top 3 market. I obviously turned it down because they couldn't even match my current pay and I love where I'm at! What I'm getting at is the fact it is like the people at dish can't predict or see what's currently going on in the market and adjust fire from there. Its easy to see that you refuse to add sports yet you get your ass handed to you by the sports leader in subscriber additions quarter after quarter. What does that tell you, add more sports! People want to see there local teams in HD, and after the game they always tune to the post game show along with the sports night programming. People want to see their local HS games in HD! Yes they are being produced in HD now and have been quite some time. Dish coustomers wouldn't know this because they are stuck in 2009 mode when it comes to HD sports additions. Its things like this is why costumers don't want to deal with dish or even consider them as an option.