Hopper Announcements

[Stargazer]

Are you kidding? They are not going to drop the $7 fee for anybody. If anything, they will raise the price even more and/or charge people with the 522/722/22 the fee as well on the first receiver. They would give temporary credits to those that complain instead.

 

[dare2be]

I agree that "dropping" a pre-existing fee is not gonna happen. Instead, think of it as changing their mind on "implementing" a fee before it is released.

 

[butters]

I really was optimistic that the fees would be reasonable. I can foresee the need for 2 Hoppers and 6 Joeys in the near future as we will be gaining a guest room and a kids play room. All these $7 fees add up in a hurry. In fact that setup would cost me as much in fees as the programming!

 

[Scherrman]

I wouldn't say that the fees are unreasonable though. They seam to be on par with current fees. I think everyone was just expecting the fees to be better.

 

[gdarwin]

I can save $12 a month in fees but it will cost me $397 for 2 Hoppers and 5 Joeys.... Kind of steep...

 

[navychop]

I am astounded at how high an opinion some people have - of their own opinion.

How can any of us be absolutely certain that our own opinion is infallible, and the decisions made by people at a billion dollar corporation, built up from the back end of a pickup truck, people highly experienced and with far greater knowledge of the market and product than us, are wrong?

 

[king3pj]

I agree they probably do know that this is the most likely pricing structure to give them the best profit. They pay people a lot of money to figure that out. They probably don't care if us existing customers upgrade or not. They just want a whole home DVR to compete with the other providers for new customers.

That still doesn't mean that we have to agree that it is a good pricing structure for us. Many of us have simply said that that extra Joey fee is keeping us from upgrading because the increase monthly cost is too high. For now I'm holding with what I have. When my contract expires later this year I will compare this setup more closely to whatever whole home DVR system Directv has and make a decision.

 

[TheKrell]

I am astounded at how high an opinion some people have - of their own opinion. How can any of us be absolutely certain that our own opinion is infallible

Nobody thinks that but the [expletive deleted] suits at billion dollar corporations. Of course, just because the suits at the billion dollar corporations just happened to guess right, or else stumble onto a good-enough answer to keep their company afloat, does not actually prove anything about their intelligence or business acumen, or how well they could have grown revenue had you or I been in charge instead.

and the decisions made by people at a billion dollar corporation, built up from the back end of a pickup truck, people highly experienced and with far greater knowledge of the market and product than us, are wrong?

See above. With that dubious argument, we might suppose that billion dollar corporations never go belly up. Of course they do go belly up, and I am sure take down a lot of employees who saw it coming, tried to get management off their insane course, but were completely ignored until it was too late.

 

[butters]

I wouldn't say that the fees are unreasonable though. They seam to be on par with current fees. I think everyone was just expecting the fees to be better.

I don't think they are outrageous by any means but it is hard to justify paying $7 for an Joey especially in rooms that might not get used on a daily basis. I understand the fees and know that Dish is in the business to make money, but it seems that every time a company can find a way to charge a fee they will. A little here and a little there and all of a sudden you are paying over a $100 a month for TV or a cell phone or whatever it may be. I guess when Vivek said the pricing would be very aggressive I was expecting to pay less for a 4 room system, not more.

 

[Stargazer]

I feel like Dish is pushing the envelope to see how far they can push the fees until the subs will not tolerate them anymore. They are a company and its their intentions to make as much profit as possible and there is nothing wrong with that. In say that, there is a fine line though that can be crossed on the fees. How far until the line is crossed where they see a bit more churn? There is a point where a sub realized that enough is enough that they can't tolerate this many fees anymore. This would go for any company, not just Dish. Didn't we see little to no sub growth and/or churn since Dish increased the TV2 fees a few years ago? I am sure there were many subs that were very irate over those fees going up in the middle of their contract. I am sure many felt like they could not trust Dish as they were first told that there were no fees for those additional outlets and felt that as an advantage of getting those dual receivers. If they had known what they would have gotten charged later on then I am sure many would have not selected those duo's or went with Dish. Same thing happened with the DVR fees. This is different in a way though because at least we know upfront what the fees are going to be. They do seem to be in line with other providers. The big advantage Dish has is their technology. If the others improve theirs then their advantages are almost gone and I feel like that is only a matter of time. I feel like they have the best hardware in the business (other than the HR-35 which I have not messed with yet but looks great from what I see so far).

 

[stimpson]

No please remember the retailer chat is for retailers who sell service to new customers. Thats why they worded it the way they did.

Yep. I realize that. My comment was on the wording Dish is using. "Have" instead of "ordering".

 

[GravelChan]

I can save $12 a month in fees but it will cost me $397 for 2 Hoppers and 5 Joeys.... Kind of steep...

Yeah but by the time your new 2 year contract is up that savings of $12 will nearly cover the $397. What concerns me is that they
can/might/will bump the cost of an additional Hopper like they did with the 722. I'm surprised (but not complaining) that the cost of an additional Hopper is only $7 when an additional 722 is $17.

 

[bf3000]

It is pretty clear from these posts that customers opinions of the fees are, for the most part, based on what they currently have with Dish. As an example, if you have two duo DVR's feeding 2 or 3 TV's, your current fees are $20, and your fees for H/J would be either $17 (for 2 TVs) or $24 (for 3 TVs). That customer would look at the new H/J fees as either a slight savings or a slight increase. In my current situation, I have a 722K feeding 1 HDTV and 3 SDTVs (the TV's are HD, but the signal is HD from TV2 output). I have been fortunate to just have a $6 DVR fee and nothing else - I could have gone with extra receivers to get HD at more sets, but I opted to go cheap. I REALLY want a H/J setup, but the fee structure just doesn't give me a way to justify the cost. The fees would be $31 - a $25 increase. So, if I do decide to go with this setup, I will end up cutting back on my programming. I'll either drop from AT250 to AT200, drop the Blockbuster Movie Pass, or both. Dish probably won't be too upset about that, since they get 100% of the money from the fees, but only a portion of the money from programming.

 

[dishfan82]

So did I read that right? existing customers will get a $99.00 instant credit for the Hopper basically making it free to upgrade on packages 200 or higher? I just don't wanna Call Dish on March 14th for an install date of the 15th when it does come out and have them tell me that'll be 99 bucks to upgrade. I have the protection plan so will i be charged a 15.00 install fee?

 

[sparc]

So did I read that right? existing customers will get a $99.00 instant credit for the Hopper basically making it free to upgrade on packages 200 or higher? I just don't wanna Call Dish on March 14th for an install date of the 15th when it does come out and have them tell me that'll be 99 bucks to upgrade. I have the protection plan so will i be charged a 15.00 install fee?

you misread it. the $99 credit is for new customers only. Dish hasn't posted information yet on an install fee or the length of a customer agreement.

 

[Scherrman]

So did I read that right? existing customers will get a $99.00 instant credit for the Hopper basically making it free to upgrade on packages 200 or higher? I just don't wanna Call Dish on March 14th for an install date of the 15th when it does come out and have them tell me that'll be 99 bucks to upgrade. I have the protection plan so will i be charged a 15.00 install fee?

If you upgrade to the Hopper it will most likely cost you $100 and you may have to pay the tech visit fee of $15. There should also be a renewal of a 24 month commitment.

 

[Hall]

If you upgrade to the Hopper it will most likely cost you $100 and you may have to pay the tech visit fee of $15. There should also be a renewal of a 24 month commitment.

I stated that earlier (maybe in a different thread) as well. Anyone who thinks the $99 cost won't also require a new commitment is foolish ! And don't think that just because it's not mentioned in the documents released so far that it's not the case !

Does the protection plan, i.e. $15 for a tech visit (vs $90) apply to whole new installs ? I thought it was only for "service calls".

 

[Laddyboy]

I stated that earlier (maybe in a different thread) as well. Anyone who thinks the $99 cost won't also require a new commitment is foolish ! And don't think that just because it's not mentioned in the documents released so far that it's not the case !

Does the protection plan, i.e. $15 for a tech visit (vs $90) apply to whole new installs ? I thought it was only for "service calls".

In the past it has applied to new installs of EA and WA antennas and any needed cabling. It did for my hybrid to WA install at the FL property a year or so ago.

 

[Hall]

I don't think antenna swap-outs are "optional" though. Dish, generally, has dictated this be done, not a customer choice.

 

[Laddyboy]

I don't think antenna swap-outs are "optional" though. Dish, generally, has dictated this be done, not a customer choice.

They wouldn't do it for me. It was $15 under the service plan and $95 otherwise as I recall. Some got it done for free. We'll have to wait and see for sure. There's the possibility the $100 might be for the installation. I doubt it, but that might be aggressive, if they do include it.