Insane Dish Hardware Upgrade via Phone Conversation?

[MikeD-C05]

You've got to be kidding. How many people do you really expect would sign-up and how many subs do you expect would stay with Dish under those conditions??

You don't get rid of the Audit Team by bankrupting the company.

You got to be kidding Right? The way they are doing it right now are causing subs to leave at record numbers , 3 quarters in a row . The way I propose is to be up front about it and let the sub know that this will happen if the receiver isn't plugged into a phone/ethernet line. Also to make sure that if the subs ignore the agreement , a receiver feature would make sure that the box is disabled in two weeks after an on screen message flashes for the sub to see every day when they turn it on. I think this is a reasonable approach verses the random way they hit subs up now with the DISH NAZI audit team. I can imagine quite a lot of subs do churn based on the unfair , rude treatment that they suffer from these people.

I have suffered this myself when I went with just a cell phone a few years back. I was driving into town around 5:00pm to eat dinner with my wife. I got a call on my cell telling me not to hang up and I had to exactly what they said or they would cut me off. I said : WHo the hell is this ? I can't look at any screens till I get home after dinner and the movie we were going to see. They said that's fine and hung up in my ear. When I got home later that night all of my 3 extra receivers were cut off except the main one. I had to call DISH and get the audit number to call . They made me wait on the line for 20 minutes before they came back to me. Then I had to suffer through their snide accusing remarks and threatening tones. In the end I got all three back up and went back to a standard land line just for this purpose to avoid the nazis in the future. I own all of my DISH receivers and because of that I couldn't see churning to DIRECTV just to get even. Imagine how many of the subs that DON'T own their receivers right now, would react to this kind of treatment. More subs lease than own right now and I can see quite a few just saying the hell with it and cutting off their accounts, after this kind of harrasement .

I think that it is better to be up front with the customers and tell them of the consequences vs the hit and run way the Nazi audit team goes after them . Wouldn't you rather have somebody be upfront with you ? If you are serious about stopping stacking and causing needless churn that can be avoided, my approach would accomplish this, without a negative AUDIT team that operates like the CIA. DISH has always depended on word of mouth to grow their business. I can promise you that right now that DISH is suffering from the NEGATIVE word of mouth that is causing them to lose subs out the butt. The Nazi AUdit team is just one of the negatives that DISH can actually control or eliminate.

 

[Awohar]

You got to be kidding Right? The way they are doing it right now are causing subs to leave at record numbers , 3 quarters in a row . The way I propose is to be up front about it and let the sub know that this will happen if the receiver isn't plugged into a phone/ethernet line. Also to make sure that if the subs ignore the agreement , a receiver feature would make sure that the box is disabled in two weeks after an on screen message flashes for the sub to see every day when they turn it on. I think this is a reasonable approach verses the random way they hit subs up now with the DISH NAZI audit team. I can imagine quite a lot of subs do churn based on the unfair , rude treatment that they suffer from these people.

I have suffered this myself when I went with just a cell phone a few years back. I was driving into town around 5:00pm to eat dinner with my wife. I got a call on my cell telling me not to hang up and I had to exactly what they said or they would cut me off. I said : WHo the hell is this ? I can't look at any screens till I get home after dinner and the movie we were going to see. They said that's fine and hung up in my ear. When I got home later that night off all of my 3 extra receivers were cut off except the main one. I had to call DISH and get the audit number to call . They made me wait on the line for 20 minutes before they came back to me. Then I had to suffer through their snide accusing remarks and threatening tones. In the end I got all three back up and went back to a standard land line just for this purpose to avoid the nazis in the future.

I think that it is better to be up front with the customers and tell them of the consequences vs the hit and run way the Nazi audit team goes after them . Wouldn't you rather have somebody be upfront with you ? If you are serious about stopping stacking and causing needless churn that can be avoided, my approach would accomplish this, without a negative AUDIT team that operates like the CIA. DISH has always depended on word of mouth to grow their business. I can promise you that right now that DISH is suffering from the NEGATIVE word of mouth that is causing them to lose subs out the butt.

You seem to think it is because of the audit team that dish is losing so many customers. without knowing the actual numbers you are at best making a very poor guess.

also, it isn't random that these audits occur. many are for good cause. if you call in because you lose satellite signal and when the csr ask if losing signal on both boxes you say the other box is in another building so you can't check, he has to make note of that. such thing can trigger an audit. there are enough people volunteering information such as "the other box is at my brother's, etc..." that auditors are plenty busy just on those.

 

[Tyralak]

The new receivers have DishCOMM which allows receivers not connected to a phone line to link via power lines to the receiver that is connected to make the call to the mother ship.

This feature came out just in time for customers to start dropping landline service altogether.

Yeah, but DishCOMM doesn't work worth a crap. I've only been able to get it running a couple of times on customer's systems. Hell, it doesn't even work on mine, and my receivers are on the other side of the wall from each other.

 

[MikeD-C05]

You seem to think it is because of the audit team that dish is losing so many customers. without knowing the actual numbers you are at best making a very poor guess.

also, it isn't random that these audits occur. many are for good cause. if you call in because you lose satellite signal and when the csr ask if losing signal on both boxes you say the other box is in another building so you can't check, he has to make note of that. such thing can trigger an audit. there are enough people volunteering information such as "the other box is at my brother's, etc..." that auditors are plenty busy just on those.

I think that you underestimate the amount of subs that would churn and do churn because of negative customer service contacts. Charlie did say that is one of the things that DISH has done wrong last year. The dish Audit team are the worst to deal with -even more than the foreign call centers. People of my parents generation cancel a contract or a company deal at the drop of the hat if they are treated rudely or have their bill screwed up . I know of many of my friends that have done so because of poor customer service. And guess what? A person that has been treated negatively by a company talks to his friends and family , coworkers etc in person or even on the internet. And that person spreads that same negative word of mouth and so on and so on and so on. THis prevents DISH from gaining new subs as well as churning old subs . THere is a lot of tv competition out there these days with cable , directv, and also internet tv, netflix , vudu etc.


As I said before there are many things that a company can control and my approach accomplishes the company goal of stopping stacking while being upfront with their customers and telling them of the consequences of not having their receivers hooked up to a phone /ethernet line. Also prevents negative word of mouth being spread by every customer you cut off , my not complying with the rules you set at the time of the installation, since the rules would be clearly posted upfront . DISH can control many things to help themselves compete with the competition and raise their customer service score with the public. Eliminating the DISH AUDIT team and their negative ways would be a first step in helping to accomplish that, along with the upfront contract and software download I propose. Of course they could keep on doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different outcome. That is the very definition of insanity. And here is what I have got to say: How is that working out for you Charlie? How many subs did you lose again last quarter?

 

[Awohar]

I think that you underestimate the amount of subs that would churn and do churn because of negative customer service contacts. Charlie did say that is one of the things that DISH has done wrong last year. The dish Audit team are the worst to deal with -even more than the foreign call centers. People of my parents generation cancel a contract or a company deal at the drop of the hat if they are treated rudely or have their bill screwed up . I know of many of my friends that have done so because of poor customer service. And guess what? A person that has been treated negatively by a company talks to his friends and family , coworkers etc in person or even on the internet. And that person spreads that same negative word of mouth and so on and so on and so on. THis prevents DISH from gaining new subs as well as churning old subs . THere is a lot of tv competition out there these days with cable , directv, and also internet tv, netflix , vudu etc.


As I said before there are many things that a company can control and my approach accomplishes the company goal of stopping stacking while being upfront with their customers and telling them of the consequences of not having their receivers hooked up to a phone /ethernet line. Also prevents negative word of mouth being spread by every customer you cut off , my not complying with the rules you set at the time of the installation, since the rules would be clearly posted upfront . DISH can control many things to help themselves compete with the competition and raise their customer service score with the public. Eliminating the DISH AUDIT team and their negative ways would be a first step in helping to accomplish that, along with the upfront contract and software download I propose. Of course they could keep on doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different outcome. That is the very definition of insanity. And here is what I have got to say: How is that working out for you Charlie? How many subs did you lose again last quarter?

ok armchair ceo.

your method also won't add many if any new customers. so unless churn is 0%, you will lose customers every year.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Okay I've tried logic and common sense & reason , so now I will just say to you :


WHAT EVER DUDE!

 

[Awohar]

Okay I've tried logic and common sense & reason , so now I will just say to you :


WHAT EVER DUDE!

easy way out for you. not easy would be admitting that a large nationwide company like DISH could never make it if they limited themselves to one tv when all competitors offering more than one tv. i guess that why you not ceo.

 

[MikeD-C05]

easy way out for you. not easy would be admitting that a large nationwide company like DISH could never make it if they limited themselves to one tv when all competitors offering more than one tv. i guess that why you not ceo.

You are missing why there is a dish audit department in the first place. To make sure that subs are not stacking their accounts or sharing with friends ,relatives and splitting the bill. That is why people are getting harrasing phone calls about reading off the details of each receiver on the screen. Now since DISH has committed themselves to preventing piracy -all the retailers that they recently cutt off, and preventing stacking -the very reason the dish audit department exists, I have come up with a way that accomplishes this without the negative customer reaction. Whether they do what I propose is not the point. The point is that DISH will continue to use the audit department to check on people that don't use phone /ethernet lines connected to their extra receivers. My way still accomplishes this without the surprise gotcha tactics that the audit team now deploys. How many new subs are going to say: NO I don't want a phone line connected if it means no more extra receivers? If they are told up front that they will be limited to one if they don't , they will most likely say ;Okay hook them up to a phone/ethernet line.

IF the audit team calls an existing sub right now and they can't confirm the info for each receiver , guess what? The audit team will cut the extra receivers off permanently . Guess what happens to that sub then? He will churn to the competition. Right now there is a message that flashes on your receivers if you don't keep them plugged into a phone line on dual tuner receivers. The only thing that happens if they don't, is that DISH will charge you an extra 5.00 per dual tuner receiver on your bill , until the audit team calls and then what I said above will still happen. Audit team still cuts the extra receivers off.

I am proposing that in order to prevent needless churn and still prevent stacking :

1. Tell all subs up front what will happen if they don't stay connected to a phone or ethernet line, or tell them up front they will be limited to one dual tuner receiver or single receiver. This is the adult way to handle things in the business world, be honest and tell them of the consequences of not complying with the company rule.

2. Add software that will cut off extra receivers after the first, until they do connect them , after a two week of flashing messaging warning them of the impending result if they don't comply. They can have them reactivated once they plug them in and pay a fee to reconnect them by DISH.

If these two things are done there won't be a need for the audit team to call and screw with existing subs ,causing extra churn and negative word of mouth from customers. Cause the way they are doing it right now is causing the above to happen every day. My approach is to warn subs up front of the consequences and a way for DISH to still prevent stacking via software that cuts off the offending receivers and a fee to be paid to DISH to reconnect them. THis cuts out the audit team completely from the process. It becomes automatic and is handled by the csrs or tech department.

There I just proposed a way to cut out a department that is causing negative customer word of mouth and needless churn by being upfront and treating customers like adults and warning them what happens if they don't. I just saved money for DISH and prevented needless churn. WHat is YOUR Proposal to combat stacking and preventing churn and negative word of mouth by subs ?

 

[technoguy]

Yeah, but DishCOMM doesn't work worth a crap. I've only been able to get it running a couple of times on customer's systems. Hell, it doesn't even work on mine, and my receivers are on the other side of the wall from each other.

I Agree with you,since last month or so none of the receivers I'd connected via dishcomm worked, Even worst ,past connections had reported dishcomm is not working on theirs anymmore,including mine.

 

[OoTLink]

Powerline ethernet is really iffy, especially depending on how your house was wired (and thus DishComm may be useless)....

I've never dealt with the audit team myself, somehow having 2 receivers connected to a phoneline never bugged me, but I KNEW THIS. Big F-ing deal, they're still cheaper than anyone else.

It's a terrible business practice, unfortunately I can't pay $15 more (or more) a month to have the same service from other companies, lol.

 

[tempVAdish]

I Agree with you,since last month or so none of the receivers I'd connected via dishcomm worked, Even worst ,past connections had reported dishcomm is not working on theirs anymmore,including mine.

I'm not sure that the 311 has Dishcomm does it? That's what the OP said he had anyways.

 

[Tyralak]

I'm not sure that the 311 has Dishcomm does it? That's what the OP said he had anyways.

Nope. Only ViP receivers. But the discussion of DishCOMM was kind of a side topic, not really related to his situation.

 

[Tyralak]

Powerline ethernet is really iffy, especially depending on how your house was wired (and thus DishComm may be useless)....

The SlinkLink boxes we've been installing for the ViP receivers have all worked flawlessly. I've not had a single problem, and I've installed a lot of them. Same with Phonexes. Only a few times I've not had a Phonex work right. However, DishCOMM must have some serious issues, because it hardly ever works.

 

[Alighieri]

I have more to say later particularly concerning Awohar's egregious and deeply disturbing remarks; his failure to understand Risk, and his attempt to shutdown discussion that he cannot handle or understand are breathtakingly puerile.

Right now, I have a quick question. DirecTV installed 1 HDTV and 1 Standard Definition Receiver this morning. Ignoring the HDTV receiver, all of us (wife, son, and me) immediately noticed that the Standard Definition Receiver provides a vastly better picture to the Standard Definition TV. The picture is more detailed and there are more brightness levels. The Standard Definition receiver is just the default, plain DirecTV receiver.

Were my 2 Dish Network receivers just old and incapable of providing a comparably good picture? Or, is this improvement to be expected when switching from Dish to DirecTV?

 

[TheWGP]

Sorry to hear the Audit Nazis bothered you - personally, if I ever get a call from them, I'll just tell them to cancel us right then and there, since I won't be paying an ETF.

Of course, like anyone else with half a brain, I'll immediately turn right around and sign up with a new name just to get the new subscriber bonuses. Classic example of Dish cutting off their nose to spite their face - I might as well get a bonus for my time wasted with them. TRUE account stackers are another problem - but I'm not sure how those can be stopped with current methods.

Hope you get your DirecTV questions answered, OP - try the DirecTV forum!

 

[srenker]

D* subscriber here, as of November. The thread title caught my eye when I was logging on. Man did I make the right choice! (And no I'm not a stacker, I only have 1 receiver on my account.)

 

[MikeD-C05]

I have more to say later particularly concerning Awohar's egregious and deeply disturbing remarks; his failure to understand Risk, and his attempt to shutdown discussion that he cannot handle or understand are breathtakingly puerile.

Right now, I have a quick question. DirecTV installed 1 HDTV and 1 Standard Definition Receiver this morning. Ignoring the HDTV receiver, all of us (wife, son, and me) immediately noticed that the Standard Definition Receiver provides a vastly better picture to the Standard Definition TV. The picture is more detailed and there are more brightness levels. The Standard Definition receiver is just the default, plain DirecTV receiver.

Were my 2 Dish Network receivers just old and incapable of providing a comparably good picture? Or, is this improvement to be expected when switching from Dish to DirecTV?

Often times when you switch from DISH to DIRECTV you will notice that the pq is sharper on sd picture compared to DISH. The problem for me is that yes the people in the front looked sharper, but the backgrounds of the picture were full of artifacts and pixelation from the heavy compression that DIRECTV was using on the sd channels. I can't stand to see that in a picture. DISH has a smoother over all picture for sd , sometimes though there is no sharpness in detail in the faces like DIRECTV does. Both services aren't great for sd picture and it really becomes a question of what you like to see in your picture. I also did notice last year when I had DIRECTV hd was their hd picture was a bit better than DISH's. Not a lot better , but there was a slightly better pq.

 

[iwc5893]

I have more to say later particularly concerning Awohar's egregious and deeply disturbing remarks; his failure to understand Risk, and his attempt to shutdown discussion that he cannot handle or understand are breathtakingly puerile.

Right now, I have a quick question. DirecTV installed 1 HDTV and 1 Standard Definition Receiver this morning. Ignoring the HDTV receiver, all of us (wife, son, and me) immediately noticed that the Standard Definition Receiver provides a vastly better picture to the Standard Definition TV. The picture is more detailed and there are more brightness levels. The Standard Definition receiver is just the default, plain DirecTV receiver.

Were my 2 Dish Network receivers just old and incapable of providing a comparably good picture? Or, is this improvement to be expected when switching from Dish to DirecTV?

Often times when you switch from DISH to DIRECTV you will notice that the pq is sharper on sd picture compared to DISH. The problem for me is that yes the people in the front looked sharper, but the backgrounds of the picture were full of artifacts and pixelation from the heavy compression that DIRECTV was using on the sd channels. I can't stand to see that in a picture. DISH has a smoother over all picture for sd , sometimes though there is no sharpness in detail in the faces like DIRECTV does. Both services aren't great for sd picture and it really becomes a question of what you like to see in your picture. I also did notice last year when I had DIRECTV hd was their hd picture was a bit better than DISH's. Not a lot better , but there was a slightly better pq.

Assuming, of course, that both receivers were hooked up with the same connection type.

 

[Jared Twomey]

My way still accomplishes this without the surprise gotcha tactics that the audit team now deploys. How many new subs are going to say: NO I don't want a phone line connected if it means no more extra receivers? If they are told up front that they will be limited to one if they don't , they will most likely say ;Okay hook them up to a phone/ethernet line.

Your proposed method would loose so many sales.
I would say about half of the installs I do, the customer does not have a land-line phone. And about a quarter doesn't have a broadband connection that could be used.
I did 4 installs today, 3 of which did not have land line phone, and one of those didnt have broadband. And the 2 that did have broadband didn't have it anywhere near the tvs, so those customers would have to get some sort of wireless adapter, powerline networking adapter, or run ethernet cable just to have more than 1 rec in your proposed method.

That would not work at all. Dish would lose so many prospective sales under your rule.

 

[OoTLink]

I suppose if I ever get an audit call I'll go ahead and um.. yell profanities at them