I have to rant

[ShadowEKU]

Ok so with the price drop in the 921 i am so mad.

I bought my 811 on September 30 from a local dealer because I didnt qualify for any type of upgrades not being a customer for a year yet. So I had to pay full price with dish (3 CSR's) promise to give me a large (300) credit on my bill for subscribing to a year of the HD pack. When i called 2 weeks ago they say no credit will be given but i am committed to a year of the hd pack. I got the same answer from Kristen at the CEO office.

What really eats me is that i paid 400 for the 811 when the 921 is basicly now 150 more. If only i had waited a month.

Whats worse is that i can only sell the 811 for a max of 200. what the heck can i do... nothing... deal without a HD DVR for a long time.

 

[Sean Mota]

Welcome to the club!

 

[charper1]

First, always get promises in writing.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have a rant to add to this...

Two weeks ago we ran a special group buy on 921's with our friends from DishStore.NET. The price of $839 was the lowest seen anywhere on the Internet, and it was because of Claudes hard work to get a special group buy from his distributers that we were able to get such a low price. (For what its worth and without giving the dealers exact costs away, the dealer cost on the 921's was in the $800+ range.)

Yesterday's announcement took DishStore.NET by surprise (especially since on Tuesday his distributer asked us if we wanted to do the group buy one more time)

When Dishstore.NET had the group buy on the 921's they were only making a few bucks profit on each one. They were doing it to get their name out there.

Now the news comes yesterday of the MSRP on the 921's being dropped to $549. This shocked and angered a lot of dealers who just spent $800+ on 921's for their inventory, and it also angered (rightfully so) some of the people who purchased 921's from DishStore last week at $839.

Now this people who have a right to be upset are getting mad at the wrong people (i.e. DishStore) as they are not the bad guy here. Claude has shared with me some of the emails being sent by folks who are upset, some of them threatening too box up their recently purchased 921's and send them back for $549 ones, others threatening to contact their credit card companies and so on.

DishStore would love to give everyone a refund for the difference but can't since they didn't make $300 in profit on the 921's. (Hell if they made $30 in profit on the group buy I would be surprised)

If people should be mad it should be at Dish, they are the ones who decided to blow these things out for this price.

Dishstore.net has always been about saving people money, and since they are a proud supporter of both SatelliteGuys.US and DBSforums.COM I feel I must stand up and say something on their behalf.

To those who got in on the deal over the past 2 weeks you did get a good deal, and we were proud to have gotten you what at the time was the best price anywhere on 921's, up until yesterday I am sure all of them who got the deal were very happy with the price. The folks at DishStore.NET did not know (nor did anyone else) that Dish would drop a bomb like they did yesterday. I ask all of you who got in on the deal not to take issue with DishStore but instead with Dish Network directly.

Thats my rant, thanks for listening.

 

[ShadowEKU]

now if we could just keep all rants to this thread. and scott... i understand how you feel about the situation.. if i had bought one last week (and i considered it very much) and then the price drop i would have felt pretty crappy. but customers should know that price drops happen on technology. I used to work in retail selling computers and such. sold a 400 video card and the next day it dropped to 200 and you wouldnt believe the email phone calls and threats we got.

 

[dfergie]

I bought my 6000u at the first of last year for over 600$ at the end of last year they were going for less than half that. But I did get to enjoy HD for however long it was until they dropped, thats the price you pay for being on the cutting edge of technology. Look at the first VCR owners I bought one of the first VHS units for 850$ way back when, A much better unit now will cost 29$ maybe...

 

[slacker9876]

Makes me pretty nervous on my decision to buy my HR10-250 from Value Electronics. Had I purchased it through Ultimate Electronics (SoundTrack) I would have had a 60-day low price guarantee! I guess I'll just hope that for the next 6 weeks D* does not follow suit with E* then I wont have to feel bad.

I must follow-up with the fact that Robert at VE was great and I have no worries if my unit fails, and I cannot beat the terms on which he shipped my unit ... I'd never get this from UE ... Only from VE. Thanks again Robert!

I do feel for those of you who have officially been hosed in this situation, including the dealers.

 

[Sean Mota]

dfergie,

same thing happened to me with two 6000u. $1,200 I spent on them and six to eight months later they were selling for nothing (compare to the price I pay). Not only that but they are absolete and dish never fixed the bugs on them. I am still using them today and I will use them until they die and will not replace them.


The moral of the study I learned was that when it comes to DVRs and Dish receivers NEVER BUY and only lease. This is what I did with the two VOOM receivers I have. I leased them. In the industry of P.C.s technology what is new today tomorrow is already old and depreciates faster than a blink of an eye.

 

[BFG]

I could see how it stinks for the folks that shelled out the $999-839 for a 921, but they were gonna drop the price some day ya know? I guess what makes this hard is that it's such a huge drop and it came from out of nowhere. It's just part of the business life... I know this is totally opposite the point of this thread so sorry

 

[dfergie]

My local guy got caught with several 721's when they dropped the price on them...and they wonder why dealers won't keep an inventory....

 

[Claude Greiner]

I have talked to some of the upper management at Dish yesterday about this issue and they are susposed to call me back this afternoon and see if we can come to a resolution and possibly get a partial refund. However with that said I wasn't promised anything.

The problem here is that everyone wants the best possible deal, and last week when we did the group buy on the 921's I thought we had put together the best possible deal. If I had known they would lower the price the following week, I would not have not put together the group buy deal, and would have held off for the new price before I started pushing them. The dealer price was reduced on these units, so the $549 price we are selling them at today is below what I paid for them last week when we where selling them under the group buy for $839.

Needless to say I can't refund the difference in price on these units because we would be loosing money, there isn't even enough profit in the initial sale to cover the reduction in MSRP even if I wanted to give people refunds.

To set the record staright here, DISH Network is 100% to blame for this fiasco. They are the ones who decided to drop the MSRP from $999 to $549 overnight, not me!

There is really nouthing I can do at this point for customers who bought systems at the old price, I think it was a sh!tty decision on DISH Networks part and the whole deal sucks for both the dealers who are stuck with inventory and for the customers who bought at the higher price.

My advice at this point, is to contact DISH Network and let them know how you feel about their decision to drop the price on the 921. Charlie Ergens Email address is ceo@echostar.com or you can call the executive offices by calling 303-723-1000, when you hear the voice prompt press 0 for the operator and ask for the Executive offices. Hopefully if enough people call in and express their concern over this DISH Network will do the right thing!

 

[bbriggs]

Here's my e-mail to echostar. Hope it doesn't just make things worse:

My 2 cents: I've been waiting for an HD DVR (921) for well over a year now. Your new pricing finally got me hooked. However, the 921 is not the machine I originally wished for. Months and months of software problems, OTA problems, and dropping firewire (even as cable added firewire) are cause for significant concern. The 942 looming on the horizon, based presumably on the 811 and 522 boxes which my friends use and have problems with, sounds like it might be yet another problem. Now Echostar has left its dealers holding inventory that cost them more than they can sell it for. Not good PR for sustaining long-term relationships with dealers or customers. I understand 921 units were not moving well at the old MSRP, and I know at least one dealer was working very hard to move 921 units with some creative deals. Yesterday's announcement really crushed that initiative and will leave a horrific scar unless Echostar comes up with a reasonable way to smooth things over a bit. If there is a way to do it, I am encouraging you to make your price reduction retroactive, or offer a rebate of some sort, to the affected dealers as a show of good faith to your dealers and your customers.

About me: AEP subscriber with 508 and 721. Hoping your new birds will be used for new HD, wishing I didn't have to pay big money for useless programming like ESPN, and praying you get your act together without forcing us all to lease receivers.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

That is a good email you sent to Dish, but it could of been done without the ESPN remark. To each there own when it comes to useless programming but the inclusion was not needed in this email.

Paul

 

[bbriggs]

Yes, I know. But ESPN offers absolutely no value to me, and it represents a large percentage of my monthly bill. Don't get on my case too hard for subsidizing you folks who enjoy sports.

 

[charper1]

When you factor in all the feeds that ESPN provides and the cost to get that programming, it's cost portion isn't that much compared to all the other must carry crap and the other BS that's on there. At least they are providing the majority of us with quality live and first run coverage.

 

[leemathre]

I just received an e-mail in response to a complaint I sent to ceo@echostar.com. The response was that he understood that some retailers were dropping their prices on the 921 and that E* has no control over what prices retailers charge. What a load of crap.

 

[bbriggs]

When you factor in all the feeds that ESPN provides and the cost to get that programming, it's cost portion isn't that much compared to all the other must carry crap and the other BS that's on there. At least they are providing the majority of us with quality live and first run coverage.

Whether I factor in 1 feed or 1000 feeds, the cost is the same to me - and still a waste of bandwidth (again, for me). To compare it to 'other must carry crap' is insulting. I may be incorrect, but I'm thinking about 25% of the AT60 cost is in ESPN feeds. I respect that many enjoy that coverage, just as I do the movie channels. Unfortunately, I have to pay for my coverage AND yours. Further, if the 'majority' is fairly large, say 60%, that leaves 4 million customers paying for a segment they don't want. Sure, we all do that to an extent with many of the channels - perhaps HGTV is a waste of bandwidth to some. But we're talking about serious money with ESPN. To be fair, I should get Starz for free. Subsidized across all viewers my guess is it would be cheaper than ESPN. I know it's not likely to happen, but if sports channels were offered as a separate package I'd bet my satellite service it would come out higher than any of the premiums. Many that enjoy it now would probably not ante up. But then at least we'd have a level playing field. Do you somehow expect me to feel much better about paying $72.00 per year because the majority of E* viewers like something I don't?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I just received an e-mail in response to a complaint I sent to ceo@echostar.com. The response was that he understood that some retailers were dropping their prices on the 921 and that E* has no control over what prices retailers charge. What a load of crap.

It IS a load of crap, Dish dropped the MSRP not the dealers.

You may want to try emailing jim.defranco@echostar.com he may be able to help.

 

[Neutron]

I can't believe DISH would do this to the very people that support them. Does anyone smell a class action?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I can't believe DISH would do this to the very people that support them. Does anyone smell a class action?

There are so many things I personally can sue Dish over, stuff like Iinternet access on my 721 that they promised, Firewire on my 921 like they promised, OTA Guide Data and Dish Interactive on my 921 as they promised (and the list goes on and on) however to sue is stupid, because the only ones who get money is the lawyers. All the consumers get who were screwed over a pay per view coupons...

Hey speaking of that did anyone get their PPV coupons from the Dishplayer settlement?