Lost absolute now I have to pay to send their equipment back.

[Bobby]

I bet not..... I recently sent back a package to a web dealer and it cost me $20 for 3 1/2 pounds. That was as cheap as it went. That was from California to Texas.....

 

[tom231]

But, if you were considering Dish again you would probably just factor $15 into the overall cost of the subscription when making comparisons. It is $15 not hundreds of dollars a computer would cost.

I was trying to make the point that if a company leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you don't always forgive and forget. When it come right down to it, money isn't always the deciding factor. In this case it's only $15, I understand that. But if the consumer feels that he's getting screwed by a big, rich, powerful corporation, it's going to leave him with a negative feeling for a long time.

 

[dangue]

or $30 if you have 2 receivers, or $45 if you have 3 and on and on....

I already explained how to avoid this earlier in the thread. If you have multiple leased receivers and are planning on cancelling, BEFORE YOU CALL TO CANCEL have all but one of the receivers deactivated. They will provide the return shipping boxes for them along with labels. As you're still an existing customer, they pick up the cost of shipping those receivers. Once those have been received, call in and cancel the account. You'll have to pay the shipping on that last receiver (however you choose); but there's no reason for anyone to pay $30 or $45 or $60 in returning equipment. All it takes is a little planning and an understanding of how Dish works.

 

[NotMe546]

All it takes is a little planning and an understanding of how Dish works.

To avoid a whole lot of whining.

 

[nick9]

Okay, you have two receivers so they will be sending you two boxes and two labels. What if you box those two receivers in their separate boxes and then firmly tape them together and use only one label. Will that work?
It sucks and I'm trying to save some money, albeit $15.

 

[Zero327]

Actually, the whole notion of it being impossible is ludicrous. I have already mentioned very simple ways how this could be done.
Part of my business is to provide consulting services to streamline operations and logistics to large merchants.

Yes, I am expecting local dealers to take care of a lot of that. If they do then there is no (or little) need to ship equipment back and forth as each installer could be self sufficient, saving the company money. They also wouldnt have to pay someone to do it at the home office, thus saving more money. This is not perfect and I dont have all the answers, but to say it is ludicrous or impossible is just ignorant. Why would the installers do it? Because if they want to keep dish business they will have to.

I dont care for the shipping fee. It doesnt affect me and it wont when i have to return it. I have known it all along. But it doesnt mean is the right way to do it, and it cannot be improved for the customer and the company's sake.

You won't see this happening as anytime you involve local installers and expect them to spend time at no cost (remember, these people go into business with the intent that their time is worth money whether they're putting in equipment or not) they expect someone other than themselves to foot the bill. From their perspective, many don't care if it's the customer or the corporation, as long as it doesn't cut into THEIR profits. In the meantime, the corporation is protecting its profit margin and the customer is protecting their wallet. Everyone in this scenario wants to shift the cost and work, but no one wants to fork out the cash. You make an argument that ultimately winds up in E*'s court, but they already ruled that the customer should be paying.

The public grants these corporations charters and special rights like limited liability. I would suggest that perhaps they have an obligation to the public good, and not just to their shareholders. That idea was implicit in some of the early discussions surrounding the concept of corporations in the western world. The idea that corporations are somehow justified in seeking profits without any regard to anything else is one of the worst and most destructive attitudes of our time -- and is responsible for all sorts of economic injustice. I don't want to get too political here, though. Suffice is to say, I think this practice is wrong.

If you don't agree with me on any of that, and think that businesses should be allowed to do whatever they want, surely at least you would agree that as a customer I have the right to take issue with any practice I want? I don't get the double standard that a nameless faceless corporation should be able to take whatever stances it wants, but that individuals dare not take whatever stances *they* want. Just doesn't make sense to me.

It's interesting that when you call the national Dish number and agree to purchase their service, they can give you a time for installation immediately and the local installer shows up with the equipment, but when you call to cancel the local installer doesn't count as a branch office you can return your equipment to. It seems as though the local installer essentially acts as a branch office when it's convenient for the company, but not when it'd help the consumer out.

Anyhow, I don't want to harp on this too much. There are more important things in life to worry about. It's a small issue in the grand scheme of things. I just hate it when these big companies take advantage of people because they know the average person is too busy to sue or lobby for better consumer protection laws or whatever. People just take it, because it's not worth the hassle, and I understand that, it probably wouldn't be worth the hassle for me either, and unfortunately that's what these companies count on. It's irritating.

You have a few good points and I think a few misguided but well-intentioned ones. First, yes, you can expect if a business can take any stance they wish (or near to it) that you can object to any practice. What you can't expect however, is that your voice is as loud as theirs with inferior resources invested and accessible. Money makes the world go round, and while yes you can object, they can object louder, harder, faster and with much better paid lawyers than you can.

E*'s local installers are setup to put equipment in. Last I heard they didn't have any inventory tracking to take equipment back. It seems that company's entire system is set up to route everything through their warehouses or headquarters, so that's not really surprising. Even if they "could", you'd probably get charged for it (time to send someone out to pull it off the roof).

I have no problem with consumer rights. 50% of the time I'm the business, 50% the consumer. But I take issue on both sides of unjustified entitlement that is a cultural problem in America. Consumers want free free free, or discounted where that's not possible or extra services where cost is incurred. But nothing is free, which most consumers don't care about as long as it's free to THEM, but it ALWAYS costs someone. That's why many consumers want people to stop calling E* and whining about their bills. They chose their programming and as long as E*'s giving it, why should x-million customers foot the bill for the greedy 10% that feel they're better than the rest of the world?

There's always a cost and someone always has to pay it. In both this and the last post, nobody cares, as long as it isn't them.

And to illustrate my point, we have a volunteer: http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/243125-dish-getting-tight-no-resolution-offer.html

 

[Jim5506]

About a year ago I sold a 510 on eBay, the shipping for it was about $18, so $15 is a bit of a bargain.

The cost to ship the piece back must be paid by someone.

If you are leaving Dish I expect they decided to give you one last kick in the butt for leaving, and I apprecialte not having to bear the shared cost of your exit.

 

[HanoverPretzel]

If you are leaving Dish I expect they decided to give you one last kick in the butt for leaving

If there's one thing I really look forward to, it's getting a kick in the butt from a big corporation making money hand over fist. Not only a kick in the butt, but quite possibly a kick in the butt when I am "down" and have to cancel perhaps because I can't afford television at all! They're taking that $15 from people who may not have $15 in their pocket at any given time.

It's all hypothetical for me. I'm not leaving Dish anytime soon (Contract). But I did leave my cable provider a few months ago, and it initially wasn't to come to Dish. Initially it was, "I can't afford this, I'll cancel now and look into whether some other companies have cheaper options next month", and I went a few weeks without any television at all. I can tell you if my cable company had tacked on a $15 fee on my way out at that point, I'd likely never have dealt with them again -- and when I say I'll probably never deal with a company again, I usually don't, there is a popular consumer electronics retailer and a bank who I've had bad experiences with and never returned to, even though both would have "made sense" in some respects to deal with had I not had those experiences. As things stand, though, I may consider my old cable provider if they have a good cheap new customer offer when my Dish contract expires, or a good standalone Internet offer earlier than that. Granted, they'd have to offer me a great price, but that's just par for the course -- I'm poor and can't afford to pay a premium for almost anything.