How much is the Hopper upgrade costing you?

[Neutron]

Odd, as DISH never asked to pull my credit, and I do not see any inquiries from DISH when I had our account checked to see if we could upgrade.

Wouldn't DISH be required to ask anyway before pulling your credit? They did the first time we signed up....

 

[HanoverPretzel]

INstead they do these "credit checks" that divide subs up into A,B or C class. Then they quote ridiculous upgrade amounts to their subs and this causes them to then share this information with this site and everyone they know. This causes subs to feel alienated and then they churn out of anger.

When I initially signed up for Dish, I was prepared to be pleased with them. I wanted to be pleased with them. I said to myself, "Great, a great intro rate for the first year, and then a second year that at least has free HD for about the same price as SD cable..". They did a credit check and decided I'd have to pay them $99 for install, then the first month upfront, and get NO HD EQUIPMENT. Right there, I was being told I was a second-class customer and was bitter about it. Other people had free install and were paying the same monthly fee as me and getting HD, whereas I was for the same monthly price as them stuck with standard definition. It started our relationship out on a bad foot. Imagine how I felt when a month and a half later, they raised rates on me despite their first year price advertising that quoted an exact monthly rate in big bold print.

When a company basically tells some customers that they don't value you the way they do other customers and that you have to pay the same amount and get less (i.e. no HD Free for Life), pays more in fees (i.e. no free installation), or pay more for equipment (i.e. people in this thread), it really ticks people off. And, sure, sometimes they'll stick with it anyway, but you can bet they're going to be just waiting until the day that contract expires or the day something else is available where they live or the day some other provider gets channel parity or whatever is keeping them with Dish-- and make the phone call to switch on that very day or close to it. And they're not going to be spreading good word of mouth about Dish, probably the opposite.

Prices are supposed to be prices for everyone. The same whether you're black or white, good credit or bad credit, the right neighborhood or the wrong neighborhood, etc.. People don't like being discriminated against.

 

[jimdandyvi]

Just called to see if I could upgrade to a 1H/1J system and the answer was no because my account is considered a commercial account and this equipment is not available for commercial accounts.

When my account was set up the local retailer set it up as a commercial account because I live in a town home community. I have my own dish and it is on the roof of my unit and is not shared with anyone. I pay standard residential rates. The commercial account set up has caused nothing but problems over the [past two years. I asked DIRT several times to try and resolve this issue and even they could not make the change.

My account comes off contract soon so I will have to cancel it and wait three months and have my wife open a new account in her name if I want a Joey/Hopper set up.

 

[bbailey72]

I was curious to know how much it would cost me to upgrade so I chatted with a CSR. For 2 hoppers and 2 joeys, it'll cost me $200 and a $15 tech fee. I still plan on waiting, just passing along the info. I have AT 200 and have been on for 1 year.

Edit: During the same chat session, they said sorry for the typo, it'll be $800 for the 2 hoppers and 2 joey's!!!! Ouch

Well, curiosity had me again, so I chatted with dish again today. $200 for 2 hopper/2 joey system and $95 install fee. Would drop the $95 down to $15 if I got the $6 a month protection fee. This sounds a lot better than the $800.

Edit: Also they said the 24 month contract wouldn't start until my current contract is up a year from now. So I'd really be under contract for 36 months.

 

[Hall]

Wouldn't DISH be required to ask anyway before pulling your credit? They did the first time we signed up....

There may be an exception that says if you have an existing business relationship that the company doesn't have to ask (???).

http://www.dish.com/downloads/legal/Residential-Agreement.pdf

E. Credit Checks. You authorize DISH Network to investigate your financial responsibility and creditworthiness, including without limitation, acquiring credit reports and histories, and to report any payment defaults to credit reporting agencies.

Remember, how you or I interpret that can differ from how Dish does.

 

[Scherrman]

Well, curiosity had me again, so I chatted with dish again today. $200 for 2 hopper/2 joey system and $95 install fee. Would drop the $95 down to $15 if I got the $6 a month protection fee. This sounds a lot better than the $800.

The $200 sounds right. $100 for first Hopper, $100 for the second Hopper, both Joeys free and then the tech. visit fee.

 

[Scherrman]

Just called to see if I could upgrade to a 1H/1J system and the answer was no because my account is considered a commercial account and this equipment is not available for commercial accounts.

When my account was set up the local retailer set it up as a commercial account because I live in a town home community. I have my own dish and it is on the roof of my unit and is not shared with anyone. I pay standard residential rates. The commercial account set up has caused nothing but problems over the [past two years. I asked DIRT several times to try and resolve this issue and even they could not make the change.

My account comes off contract soon so I will have to cancel it and wait three months and have my wife open a new account in her name if I want a Joey/Hopper set up.

That's an odd situation. Very strange that you were originally set up as a commercial account. I can see how that would cause a lot of problems.

It's true though. Hopper systems are not available to commercial accounts at this time.

 

[eichenberg]

There may be an exception that says if you have an existing business relationship that the company doesn't have to ask (???).

http://www.dish.com/downloads/legal/Residential-Agreement.pdf

Remember, how you or I interpret that can differ from how Dish does.

That may be true however if you are denied something based in whole or in part credit they hsve to disclose that your credit file was used in determining the decision.

 

[MrGST]

Mine was installed yesterday. 1 Hopper, two Joeys that replaced one 722 and one 612. Had to pay $100 upgrade fee plus about $4 extra per month for "whole home DVR". I ordered on Thursday via a chat window from the Dish website and was able to get them to waive the $15 installation fee. So far, so good.

 

[budda]

When I initially signed up for Dish, I was prepared to be pleased with them. I wanted to be pleased with them. I said to myself, "Great, a great intro rate for the first year, and then a second year that at least has free HD for about the same price as SD cable..". They did a credit check and decided I'd have to pay them $99 for install, then the first month upfront, and get NO HD EQUIPMENT. Right there, I was being told I was a second-class customer and was bitter about it. Other people had free install and were paying the same monthly fee as me and getting HD, whereas I was for the same monthly price as them stuck with standard definition. It started our relationship out on a bad foot. Imagine how I felt when a month and a half later, they raised rates on me despite their first year price advertising that quoted an exact monthly rate in big bold print.



When a company basically tells some customers that they don't value you the way they do other customers and that you have to pay the same amount and get less (i.e. no HD Free for Life), pays more in fees (i.e. no free installation), or pay more for equipment (i.e. people in this thread), it really ticks people off. And, sure, sometimes they'll stick with it anyway, but you can bet they're going to be just waiting until the day that contract expires or the day something else is available where they live or the day some other provider gets channel parity or whatever is keeping them with Dish-- and make the phone call to switch on that very day or close to it. And they're not going to be spreading good word of mouth about Dish, probably the opposite.

Prices are supposed to be prices for everyone. The same whether you're black or white, good credit or bad credit, the right neighborhood or the wrong neighborhood, etc.. People don't like being discriminated against.

In theory yes. Prices should be the same but in the real world they are not. Just like insurance. High crime area costs more, poor credit costs more, bad grades, age. All kinds of lists and yes zip code. It is risk based. Most people say it costs me 200 dollars. Which don't get me wrong if it was less great for me. But to roll that truck out do the install cost of equipment ya da ya da. It takes a bit to be in the black with that costumer. Know if they don't pay there bills they take a hit. The bums affect the good costumers just like insurance and many other industry's, credit cards, car loans, home loans again ya da ya da. Peace

 

[Neutron]

Not having the opportunity to lease the Hopper and be told the only way we can get it is to shell out $700+ actually got us to think about our DISH bill. We may actually cut ours back to cut out some of the fat in our monthly budget.

That is one positive thing that came from this. Thanks DISH!!

 

[GaryPen]

My account comes off contract soon so I will have to cancel it and wait three months and have my wife open a new account in her name if I want a Joey/Hopper set up.

You shouldn't have to wait three months, if you will be using a different name and phone number. You should be able to do it immediately after cancelling your current account.

Also, because the new account will be residential, and your name is currently associated with a commercial account, you MAY even be able to use your name. But, I would recommend checking on that first.

 

[Scherrman]

In theory yes. Prices should be the same but in the real world they are not. Just like insurance. High crime area costs more, poor credit costs more, bad grades, age. All kinds of lists and yes zip code. It is risk based. Most people say it costs me 200 dollars. Which don't get me wrong if it was less great for me. But to roll that truck out do the install cost of equipment ya da ya da. It takes a bit to be in the black with that costumer. Know if they don't pay there bills they take a hit. The bums affect the good costumers just like insurance and many other industry's, credit cards, car loans, home loans again ya da ya da. Peace

This may be the most logical post on here yet. I know it doesn't seem fair to everyone on here but that's life. Stop thinking about it from your own point of view and try seeing it from every angle. People here have the customer's view down pretty good but most fail to think of Dish as a business, or the retailers or the installers. This is the way Dish and DirecTV have decided to handle exising customers and people need to understand that maybe it makes sense to them as a business.

Now, from my view being a retailer and a customer, I think there could be a better way to handle existing subs but since I'm not in charge of how Dish runs I have no idea how to make it work for everyone.

 

[GaryPen]

Non of the crap people are dealing with makes sense.

I could not agree more. It is ridiculous. Their tiered system seems to have no rhyme or reason for tier assignations.

 

[Neutron]

This may be the most logical post on here yet. I know it doesn't seem fair to everyone on here but that's life. Stop thinking about it from your own point of view and try seeing it from every angle. People here have the customer's view down pretty good but most fail to think of Dish as a business, or the retailers or the installers. This is the way Dish and DirecTV have decided to handle exising customers and people need to understand that maybe it makes sense to them as a business.

Now, from my view being a retailer and a customer, I think there could be a better way to handle existing subs but since I'm not in charge of how Dish runs I have no idea how to make it work for everyone.

I agree as well, but as a company I would also look at it from this angle: If a customer has proven that they are a good customer (i.e. they pay their bill on time, don't complain, etc), then the company should be able to take a risk on that customer if and when they want to upgrade to the newest technology.

 

[R0ss]

In theory yes. Prices should be the same but in the real world they are not. Just like insurance. High crime area costs more, poor credit costs more, bad grades, age. All kinds of lists and yes zip code. It is risk based. Most people say it costs me 200 dollars. Which don't get me wrong if it was less great for me. But to roll that truck out do the install cost of equipment ya da ya da. It takes a bit to be in the black with that costumer. Know if they don't pay there bills they take a hit. The bums affect the good costumers just like insurance and many other industry's, credit cards, car loans, home loans again ya da ya da. Peace

I don't see this happening with telephone (land line), cable, electricity, natural gas, or oil. Dish does it cause they can.
Insurance premiums are riskbased true. For homeowners the response time for the fire dept. Is there a full time fire dept. How close are you to a hydrant. Age of the house material used in construction etc. Auto has to do with the drivers age, type of auto, location etc. All that is explained up front.
Dish has this mystical magical system of deciding who will pay what for upgrades to new equipment. I have yet to hear that it has been explained to anyone. All we ever hear is it cost person A x amount and person C y amount for the same thing. If Dish was more transparent and consistent there would be a lot less complainants.

Ross

Sent from my rooted DROIDX (Liberty Gingerbread) using SatelliteGuys

 

[Tampa8]

In theory yes. Prices should be the same but in the real world they are not. Just like insurance. High crime area costs more, poor credit costs more, bad grades, age. All kinds of lists and yes zip code. It is risk based. Most people say it costs me 200 dollars. Which don't get me wrong if it was less great for me. But to roll that truck out do the install cost of equipment ya da ya da. It takes a bit to be in the black with that costumer. Know if they don't pay there bills they take a hit. The bums affect the good costumers just like insurance and many other industry's, credit cards, car loans, home loans again ya da ya da. Peace

100% correct, prices are NOT the same for everyone in many industries. And as you point out for very real reasons. That said, I still do think it appears from what I and looks like other long time posters here feel, some very real situations where it just seems a long time customer is not being treated fairly.

 

[delance7]

I was not Qualified because I have four receivers on my account. Now I will have to buy the Hoppers and Joeys. I need to understand how that having four receivers on my account disqualify me when I returning all of the receivers for 2 Hoppers and 4 joeys.

 

[Scherrman]

I agree as well, but as a company I would also look at it from this angle: If a customer has proven that they are a good customer (i.e. they pay their bill on time, don't complain, etc), then the company should be able to take a risk on that customer if and when they want to upgrade to the newest technology.

I agree, but I am unable to see what Dish can see when it comes to a customer's history. I'm not saying people are lying on here, it's just that I think Dish has some specific reason as to why these people are plan C customers or do not qualify at all. You can tell me that you are the greatest customer in the worl but I don't know that unless I look at your account and credit history. We live in a world today where it is hard to trust what anyone tells you, especially if they are trying to benefit themselves.

 

[delance7]

I guess having more receivers on your account than Dish allows, will disqualify you for the Hoppers/Joeys discounts.